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Well the time has finally come to say goodbye to Hangzhou, our home for the last 7 months. The girls are ready for home especially since their friends here have been gone since school let out. Kevin has mixed feelings but I am very upset that our stay here is ending. Sure I miss everything about home, but my time here has been so much more than I was expecting. When we arrived I was not confident that our time here would be pleasurable but I am happy to say that it has been filled with adventures, good friends and lots of laughter. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to live here permanently but just 1 more year would have been great.
We decided to try and pack a lot of things into our final days so Friday night we went out for dinner with John and Cheryl. The food wasn’t great in fact at one point we weren’t entirely sure what we were eating. We laughed and chatted so the food didn’t matter! After dinner we were meeting up with Tom and Aaron at a bar called Casablanca but when we left the restaurant we were faced with heavy rain. Not fun when you have one umbrella between 4 of us and it is near impossible to get a cab here in the rain. I wish I had brought my video camera because it would have been quite a comical movie watching us duck and dive in and out of store fronts. In true Chinese style it is impossible to get anything when you want it and its in abundance when you don’t. Could we find more umbrella’s…not a chance.
We eventually made it to the bar and began a night of drinking. We sat down to a huge jug of Vodka and Coke which we went through in no time. As soon as it was gone we mixed a new one from the bottle of Vodka and cans of coke sitting on the table waiting for use!! I’m sure you can imagine how merry we were getting. There was a band playing and at one point we were what can only be described as the worst backing singers around as the 6 of us burst in to song when the band played “Country Road”. I’m sure the Chinese were wondering what the excitement was about!!!
After leaving the bar we decided to go to a club. I have not been clubbing for many many years, but I love to dance (badly!). We once again ordered a jug with a bottle of vodka and cans of coke and I can honestly say that this time I stuck with just coke. I needed hydrating after all the dancing we were doing. I can’t name any of the music but it was fast and that’s all we needed. We certainly got a lot of attention because anytime a westerner got onto the raised dance floor, all eyes were upon them. I don’t know if they were watching our dance moves cause most of them just rock side to side, or if they were amazed that these “old” people were up there! We were happy to entertain whatever the reason!!!
Saturday …. Liz, Fritz and the boys had arrived back in Hangzhou so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to have a party to celebrate the girl’s birthdays and say farewell to our friends. Everyone pitched in with the food and so we had a huge spread of appetizers and entrees to enjoy. We had all our “China” photo’s playing on the TV and it brought back some good memories with all of us. I always had a camera in my bag to try and capture everything that happened during our stay. At times it could be annoying but everyone had to admit as they looked at the 2500 photo’s that it had been a great idea!!! I had to add some more photo’s to my collection so we began posing for lots of different group shots. Once again we laughed all the way through it. Especially when John knelt down on the floor for a phot with Liz and was still nearly as tall as she was!!! Don’t worry Liz, you may be short but you have the personality and heart of a person double your height!!!!
Aaron had shown up with a huge birthday cake so once again we showered the room with sparklers. We ended the night smiling (of course the drinking may have influenced it!).
Sunday was a day of packing but a great evening for Sophie and Kevin. They went to see Manchester United (Kevin’s favorite football/soccer team) play our very own Hangzhou. The score was 8-2 to Manchester but apparently it was an exciting game and a thrill for Kevin because he hasn’t seen them play in a very long time!!!
Monday was quiet and a little sad. The movers came in to pack all of our belongings so that they could ship them back to the US. It’s an odd feeling seeing all your belongings being packed up into boxes and a horrible feeling seeing our apartment get emptier by the minute. I have to say though that the Chinese certainly do work very hard. They came in and were actually custom making boxes in minutes to fit our belongings. Back home the men would have had a couple of drink breaks but these guys just plowed through it. Considering they had to leave Shanghai at 3am(you have to be in Hangzhou before 7am if you have a big truck or they won’t let you in on the highway!!) they were surprisingly alert.
Tuesday was the day I was dreading. Kevin was at work so the girls and I spent the day with Liz and the boys and Cheryl. We have had the most beautiful weather but today it was pouring down with rain. I couldn’t believe it!! Our plans to take a boat out on the lake were quashed as was anything else we could do outside. We kept the kids happy by going to the arcade (ergh!!!!) and the adults happy by going to Starbucks. The rain was not going to stop us enjoying each other’s company. When Kevin got home I had ran downstairs to say goodbye to Xiao Shui. I of course took my camera and was touched that he had also brought his so that he could also have one to keep. He is such a nice guy and we will miss him a lot. I’ll miss him driving me everywhere!!! I am out of practice doing it for myself!!!
In the evening we were taken to a local Chinese restaurant called Grandma’s Kitchen so I could have my final taste of authentic Chinese food. It was a nice night but as usual my emotions got the better of me and I started to cry as we left the restaurant. I knew what was coming…goodbye’s! Indeed I had to say goodbye to Cheryl and John first and so sobbed over both their shoulders. I said goodbye to Liz the following morning with more tears. They have been my lifelines during my stay in Hangzhou and I will treasure their friendship. We will be seeing them again I am sure!
We left for the airport which was a very quiet journey. As I look back at our time here and can list things that I will miss and won’t miss:
Won’t Miss :
Spitting; grunting; driving; staring; women shoving you in the bathrooms; arrogance; the slow or blocked internet connections; unsanitary conditions in some places, squat toilets, seeing the live animals for sale for food, TV choices
Miss: (to name just a few)
My new friends, most of the Chinese people (in general they were caring); Xiao Shui (our driver), West Lake; the food (the ones I would eat), their history, their traditions and faith in them; tea and our adventures.
There were people that told us before we moved here that 7 months was just like an extended vacation and I think they thought we were a little crazy coming over for such a short time. DO I regret our short relocation to China? Certainly not! It was an upheavel for the kids and for Kevin and I and some parts of it have been tough, but the good parts definitely outweigh the bad. This was an adventure of a lifetime and I wouldn't change a thing (except to stay longer if it had been possible). My girls met people from all over the world, learnt a new language and saw things that a lot of people will only ever read about in books. Nothing beats that!!!
Goodbye China we hope to see you again...someday! On to Australia for our much awaited vacation and then back home to the US.
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