Goodbye Chenzhou

5:08am
It is with mixed emotions that I write what will more than likely be my final blog entry in China. At about 2:30pm Beijing Standard time, I will leave Chenzhou for the last time in my career as a teacher here and head to Guangzhou for my last night in China. At about 830 tommorow morning, I will board Northwest Airlines to Tokyo and then to Seattle, arriving 15 minutes later at 8:45am. It will be the longest 15 minutes of my life.
The last week has been quite bittersweet as the days ticked by at an alarming rate. I watched the time pass before me as I sat and attempted to grade papers and spend time with Lili while she was here. We attempted to plot a course for the future, but only time will tell where we end up.
For now, my eye is focused on getting everything packed up that I have aquired in my year here in China and trying to get it back to America as cheaply as possible. I have not made a lot of money while I have been here, but I have tried to transfer the funds that I did make into things that will help me in remembering the parts of this trip that I really enjoyed.
The Chinese experience is a mixed bag of emotions and I find that any journey is always much more worthwhile if you live close to the edge. My time here has been both the best and the worst of times, but as I come to the end of this road, the most fond memories are what shines.

The part that is unfortunate is that most of the people who I really care for I will never see them again and they will probably never see this blog or any of the stories that I write about them because above it all, China is a closed society that appears to be opening up to the world, but its a seemingly long ways away from the freedoms that we Americans enjoy each and every day.

I have all but accepted another position as a teacher just outside of Seoul, so if everything goes according to plan, I will be in Seattle for about two or three weeks and then it will be off to Korea for another year of teaching. Teaching for the next year is more of a ways to meet an end before coming back to the states and considering what the next move is going to be. When it came down to looking for a position, the Korean transaction was simple. Its amazing how tiresome it gets to send out resume and cover letter after cover letter and not get any response whatsoever. In Korea, there will be good money and a neutral, new ground for Lili and I to explore together. So, hopefully it will all work out.

But for now, the next 24 hours are going to be about completing the final journey in one of the few places on earth that something as simple as catching a flight can somehow become an adventure. The journey itself will be long--4 hours to Guangzhou, 3 hours to check in before the flight and then 24 hours of travel before arriving back in latteland.
And man am I excited to come home. Real coffee, real beer, real food. Salmon, halibut, burgers, steaks, friends, new kids, etc...

Goodbye Chenzhou, I'm leaving today....