Zee END!

A bunch of our teachers, all except the left most teacher were my teachers for third year. There are only three male teachers in the whole program (over 30 teachers total). Second year has one and third year has two, but they didn't go out to eat with us.



Well, it is officially over. We graduated yesterday and then all went out to dinner together, for the first 英文桌子/English Table (we have Chinese Table every week, but this was the first time we got to speak English!) of the semester. It was very strange and a little anticlimactic to be allowed to speak English. Most of the teachers can't speak English really well, so we continued to speak Chinese with them. A bunch of them were too shy, but when the few that did try spoke, it was like they were very different people. They didn't seem like themselves and were struggling a lot to get their meaning across. Then I wondered, is that what we sound like to them? One teacher, who in Chinese is especially confident and articulate tried speaking English and it made her seem so much less herself- also she has a Russian accent, because she was taught English by a Russian program, which was a little amusing. After three months of English being so forbidden, it was very different to just have it be completely fine, no threats of being sent home. It almost feels more natural to speak Chinese. Also, since we've all met and gotten to know each other in Chinese, I don't know lots of people's English names or what their "real" personality is; it's really hard to understand people's sense of humor in Chinese. It's almost like we're re-meeting people after spending three months going to school with them. And I must admit though, I am a little sad to have the semester be finished, even though it was painfully hard at times, parts of it we're really great and lots of the teachers and students I will definitely miss.
My parents are flying in tomorrow and then we are spending until Friday in Beijing, then taking the train to Xi'an and staying there for a few days and then flying to Yunnan and eventually flying back to Beijing and home on the 14th of May. I am of course really excited to see them and be able to travel and see the Tomb of the First Emperor in Xi'an and Tiger Leaping Gorge (the deepest gorge in the world!) in Yunnan, among other things. It's a little frightening to be the sole translator for this adventure, because in the past I have always traveled with others who can speak Chinese, but now the task of understanding everything is on me. I think it'll be fine though.
I'm looking forward to seeing all of you back at home!