Last day at EF...
Last class at EF...
Last service at COGS...
Last gathering with friends...
Several "Last Things" have occurred over the past several days. I have been tempted to write about each of them but thought I would wait and gather my thoughts into one entry.
Early Wednesday evening, my coworker Lloyd came by my apartment to pick up my chair and mattress that I bought over the year. It made the apartment look empty, especially since everything else was packed in my bags. Then I was left at the mercy of the mattress that the landlord provided- I had forgotten how bad this thing was. After a restless night the landlord appeared to do the walkthrough and discoverd that the mattress was actually broken which had led to its discomfort. It was the way it always had been though; i thought it was supposed to be like that! After some bargaining, my realtor got her down to a charge of 200 kuai, leaving me a good refund of 3800. It was time to leave.
On Saturday, it was my last day at EF. EF has its problems and I am sure I have contributed my share of complaints over the year, but truth be told, EF is a fun place to work and one I will miss greatly. My coworkers and students have more than made up for any of the company shortfalls; I can't believe how many cool gifts I have gotten from students. (How will I get them all home? hee hee) I only had three classes that day: 2 face to face, and one game club- here is a view from the 2nd floor of my final class:
Games club is just what it says it is- we play games. This week we played Taboo, the game where you have to describe a word without using the five common words listed on the card. It is really fun but you have to modify the rules somewhat. Since they are not native speakers of English, you gave to get rid of the rule that requires losing a point for every word you have to pass on. How many Chinese people do you think know who George Burns is (or American kids today for that matter) or what a pressure washer does?
With My Last Class
Sunday morning was one of the moments I was dreading the most- my last church service at Congregation of the Good Shepherd (COGS). After spending almost three years searching for a church in Corinth, I finally found one. Then the opportunity to go to China arose! Would I find a church anywhere near what I had here? Do they even have churches there?
Several searches of the internet proved that churches do indeed exist here. There are house churches which meet in secret (which I knew about but for obvious reasons never got to attend (they are secret and hidden well in addition to being illegal),government approved churches that have complied with all laws and meet openly, and churches led by foreigners for foreigners. I perused the websites of 2 of the foreign churches and finally decided to email Pastor Dan Sandifer-Stech at COGS. It was a smaller congregation and their worship description sounded like my Corinth church. This church has been a real blessing. It is so different to worship with people from all corners of the world each week. Christianity should have a global focus but often does not except for sending money to missions overseas. Here we are involved in service projects to help the local Chinese and we are a "house of prayer for all peoples" Racism does not exist in this church. Neither do we argue or focus on the divisive issues of the western Church- we are about worshipping Jesus Christ and representing him in our daily world.
I was given the departing gift of a peace candle holder- every other Sunday we pray for peace specifically and light a candle to symoblize God's light of peace. This will be a great reminder to me in the future to stay globally focused.
I am very thankful for the friendship of my fellow COGS parishoners and Pastor Dan and his family. Pastor Dan had me over his house for Christmas dinner- he will probably never know how much that simple act of kindness meant to me to have a family to spend that special day with here in Beijing.
One special friend at COGS has been Sue from the U.K. Sue also works for EF in another school and each Sunday before the service we have attempted to solve all the company's problems:
At 7:30 lastnight I headed out with a group of teachers and students for my going away party. We started out near the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium where they have opened a carnival. At first we rode this swinging pirate ship thing that went completely upside down. My former student Aaron lost his phone with it falling out of his pocket. He found it later, in working condition but with a broken screen. Sorry Aaron! I am sure that new salary you are making at the bank will get you a new one though! After that it was time for the big ferris wheel, unfortunately it was too dark so my pics of the spectacular views of the Beijing cityscape didn't turn out. Ending up this part of the evening, my friends Karen, Nadine, and Aaron joined me for a ride through Demon Castle, a haunted dark ride with spring loaded monsters popping out of coffins and mannequins being tortured. It was very cheesy, which is the point of dark rides, but still fun.
Karen and Fred Waiting In Line
Closing the evening out, we headed to Jin Ding Xuan Cantonese restaurant for dim sum. We ordered so much food but somehow managed to eat it all. We had a lot of fun playing games led by our Chinese students (okay let's go around the table and share one adjective that describes Tim- charming, cute, chubby, teacherly, and on and on) Later one of my students, Cooper, the former singer of a punk rock band and whose English name is based on Alice Cooper serenaded me with a going away song. After all the students left, the teachers stayed around until around 1 in the morning (the restaurant is one of the few in Beijing open 24 hours) talking and enjoying just being around each other.
And while I don't enjoy beer, it is customary at a Chinese banquet to consume large quantities of the libation. While I stuck to Kekou Kele (Coca Cola) I am glad to say we kept with tradition as well:
100 bottles of Yanjing on the wall, 100 bottles of Yanjing...
Today is my last day in Beijing so I am gonna get up from the computer and go out to enjoy the city one last time!
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