Saturday, August 11, 2007

Leaving Nanjing

This morning we are packing up our things to take a group tour with the other teachers for a few days, ending in Shanghai. We don't want to leave. I came expecting that we would all be sick all the time, probably with ghastly illnesses that would give us liver damage. I thought the food would be toxic, the air poisonous, and my children snatched and sold as slaves.

Okay, I was wrong.

We are leaving a world where teachers are viewed as valuable, really valuable members of society. Where people take a couple of hours in the middle of the day to eat with their friends and families and rest before returning to work. Where people gather in squares in the evenings to socialize and dance.

One night, ballroom dancers were out in Times Square, dancing to Chinese music. James and I went out and danced with them, and I hope I always remember the strange tones of the Chinese music, the dancers box-stepping, and James and I dancing in the dark.

Two of my students burst in on us the night before last, while I was typing in my pajamas. I made them wait in the hall while I got dressed. They had come to bring us more presents and to give lengthy advice about what to see in Shanghai. I didn't expect to make friends here, or that young people would be so polite to a middle aged woman, so open with an unknown teenager, or so truly kind to a little boy.

The food is fabulous, rich and varied. As my Chinese is about as competent as my Urdu, we often think we are ordering one thing and get another. This is because of the tonal nature of Chinese. When you say the syllable "ma", depending on which of the four tones you use, it means mother, horse, numb or scold. For adults with non-tonal languages, this means you are misunderstood. A lot.

The food is always good, even when we don't recognize what it is. I must tell you that the Chinese food you get in Chinese restaurants is not what I am eating here. It seems unfair that France gets all the credit for great food, eaten happily with friends.

So I had trepidations for nothing. I am leaving with a satchel of unused drugs, the kids and I having taken nothing more than pepto-bismal since we left home. Sarah wants to come back and teach herself. James wants to live here.

I came, but I never expected to be so happy here.

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