Last Day of Class

Today was my last day of teaching. James helped me haul a gallon of water, an electric tea kettle, instant coffee, milk, cups, a spoon and cookies to school so that I could give my class an American coffee break today.

One of the other teachers loaned me some menus, and we played restaurant today, too. In China, tax is included in prices, and there is no tipping, so they find calculating how much they owe in an American restaurant very confusing. I went over and over it with them. They also found restaurant ordering counter-intuitive. In this region of China, several dishes are ordered and shared with the table. They know in the United States people order food only for themselves, but they find it peculiar. Only two people in my class have ever used a knife and fork to eat.

I told them that if all else failed, to bring their own chop sticks, since they would not be available at most restaurants in the U.S., but that many American foods have to be cut up before eating because they come in big slabs. I told them that the rice is the same as in China at Chinese restaurants, but it is not free (it is generally a free side dish in Chinese restaurants). I told them it is very cheap, though.

I felt like I did not have enough time to tell them everything they needed to know, that I didn't have enough time so that they would have an easy time if they spent time overseas. I did tell them over these three weeks that if they ever spent any amount of time overseas that they should learn to cook, since food that I have had here is not readily available in the U.S., and eating strange foreign food day after day, week after week, is hard on body and soul.

Two of the girls had embroidered a picture of a baby sleeping on the moon for me, another girl gave me two basket-woven fish in lucky colors (the lucky colors look remarkably like the garnet and gold of FSU), one of the boys brought some little Snoopy statues. One of the girls brought Sarah a trinket. They were all very kind and Sarah and I left them our e-mail addresses and told them to write.

I wish I had been a better teacher for them, brought them further, faster. I did the best I could, and they were extremely kind to me, and also very good to my children. We had a quick lunch with my class monitor before she left to catch the bus to her home town. James cried all the way through lunch and would not eat. He does not want to leave China, and he did not want my students to leave. I find that funny, because he spent the months before we came saying that he did not want to go to China.