This week. Wow.
It’s difficult to write about this week.
It was my last week in the classroom teaching at the University of South China.
2 years – 4 semesters – 16 classes – more than 400 students.
It was joyful, it was bittersweet, it was a perfect ending to my time here.
We had an English talent show, where the students performed songs or dramas or movie dubs.
I prepared a video for them with some memories from our class time and some advice for them. You can also see the video on my Weibo (Chinese twitter): http://t.cn/RSdvCpX
I played a song on the ukulele for some classes.
We also took pictures (so many pictures!!!) Of course with filters on them, because Chinese students love being little cats and rabbits.
Some of my students wrote me notes, gave me gifts, and made me personal videos and basically tugged my heart into a billion pieces with their thoughtfulness.
One of my students Rita noticed I always wear a hair clip and bought me cute little clips. “You can wear them everyday and remember me and your students and how much we love you.” *crying in corner to myself*
This is from awhile ago, but my students made me this video for my birthday.
A lot of my students also wanted to meet with my outside of class. I went to lunch and to see Wonder Woman with a group of my English major boys.
A group of girls from Translation Class 3 wanted to go to dinner with me and Lauren.
I’m excited for my next step in China, and though it takes me far from these people, I feel thankful. I’m thankful for the two years I spent in Hengyang. I’m thankful to have such wonderful friends and students to miss. I’m thankful that this is not goodbye for long, just a see you later.
I’m not who I was before I came to Hengyang, China and I’m forever grateful for these bright and beautiful people who welcomed me here and made this place like home for me.
