June 9 - Surprise Party and Jurgita

We started our finals this week.  It is with mixed feelings that we do this.  Is it really a good way to judge them on a five minutes interview?  It is really the best tool we have, and after three years of doing this, we have gotten to where we feel like we can know their skill level by the questions we ask and their responses.  It may not be perfect, but it is what we have.

Kang Ming informed us Monday morning, that we needed to go over to the Immigration office THAT afternoon in order to get the papers turned in to get our residency permits extended for the extra time that we will be in China past the expiration of our current permits.  Jackson offered his services to help us get a taxi and go over to the office with us and help us. 

We hurried through lunch, quickly giving Jackson some also, and then headed out for the taxi.  We made good time and only had to wait in line for three people ahead of us.  Within a half hour of arriving there, we were headed back to campus in another taxi.

One of David’s former students that is a good photographer, offered to take some pictures of him around campus.  He met her at 4:30 p.m. and with the help of some more of his former students, they took some great photos.

 

David's photo shoot.  His "Journey to the West."

Journey to the East?

Tuesday we had been invited to dinner with Daryl and Jackson that evening.  During the finals that morning, one of David’s students had mentioned that he wouldn’t be able to come to the party that evening.  David was a little confused.  A little while later, David gets a text from Eva asking for the contact information for his class monitors.  This was starting to get a little suspicious. 

After a while another text from Eva, and she wanted the telephone numbers of his class monitors because they needed to come do a special survey and meet at the southeast corner of the little woods on campus to take it.  Now, we were really suspicious.

Daryl and Jackson picked us up from our apartment at the appointed time, and we walked over to the canteen.  We got off on the third floor and started to walk toward some of the special rooms they have.  When they opened the door, there were about 20 people in the room, all of them either my students or David’s students.  Yes, it was a surprise party for us!  Eva told us to contact my monitors and tell them to come.  I did, and within 15 minutes, the number of the people in the room had more than doubled!

Daryl was the master of ceremonies and talked about how he had met us, and that we had invited him and Jackson, his Chinese roommate, to come by anytime when they wanted to talk.  He said that it really touched him, and when we were good to our word, he has had a great time getting to know us. 

 

Daryl Reeve as emcee for the party.

Next was a roast by Eva.  She brought up some of the more silly moments of our first adventures in China.  At the end, she was crying, because she is really going to miss us. 

The floor was then opened up for students to say what they wanted to say about us.  It was very heart-warming to hear their comments.

Someone mentioned that they wanted to hear us sing, so Daryl ran back to our apartment and brought the guitar.  We sang several songs for them, some that the students knew and could sing along with us.  Then we sat and ate with our students, trying to divide our time between the several tables that they were sitting at.  

 

EVERY CAMERA!  

After eating and talking, they had us talk some more and then it was time for pictures.  Lots of tears were shed when the students learned the reasons for us not coming back next year.  It is hard to leave this place that we have loved and felt so much love from!  We had planned on having a little reception on June 11, and we still will for those that couldn’t make it to the surprise party.  

 

A table of David's students.

More of David's students.

Another table.  The students started selecting Chinese farewell songs and singing them to us.

This girls are from one of my classes.  Melody Zhang, Catie, Amber and Diana from Monday 10:00 class.

Jenny had a hard time holding back her tears.  

I don't remember all of their names but the striped shirt is Candice, then Sunny, Anne to my left, Dai, and Jackson.  Monday 8 a.m. class.

These students were from last falls class.  Tracy, in the blue dress was the best actress in the readers theater.  Jasmine is standing next to her.  The boys are Victor and Ace.

After singing, I was mobbed by these former students.  Scarlett audited my class because she already speaks English quite well, but she had heard about my class and wanted to join it.

Jurgita was still having some health problems, so I was able to get her to come to Jinan to meet with the doctors here.  I went to the hospital to meet her at 2 p.m., but the bus from Zouping didn’t make it here until that time, and it took almost another hour to get to the hospital from the bus terminal.  We got in to see the doctor, and it was decided that in order to get the tests and observations made, she would need to stay in the hospital for several days.  After I got her settled in, then I had to head home.  

I wasn’t able to go see her on Thursday, because we were getting ready for our trip.  After our finals that day, we quickly packed our bags, and Jackson helped us get a taxi to take us to the airport.  We flew to Chengdu, arriving at 10:45 p.m.  We had only a few minutes to wait for the BYU teachers that were coming from Tianjin, and we were quickly taken to the hotel, so we could get some sleep and be ready for our adventures tomorrow.  More about the trip to come in tomorrow’s post.