12.14 - the end

At the airport now, where the music overhead switches between Western and Chinese classical and Kenny G. I stopped at the kids' play section where a Chinese version of Legocity was showing, and the sunglasses/leather-jacket character was teaching English to a crowd. Lego Batman appeared at the end.

I didn't say any goodbyes. I finished packing when we got back late last night and fell asleep while I still could. I checked out quietly before the sun had risen.

But these last two days have been the perfect end to an epic trip. I wore my suit to the graduation ceremony where we sang "Beijing Welcomes You" and the other class sang "朋友们" a cappella, which was beautiful. The Beida students put on a magic show with the most cartoony leader who had only learned the trick that afternoon. We said our thank-yous, and understood the speeches in Chinese, and felt like adults.

Afterwards, we went to a classy-ass French restaurant where they would come intermittently to sweep crumbs off our tables at each person's seat. I had snail soup and got full on bread. I sat at the most antisocial table with a couple talkers who only talk to "blow water." But I bore it like an adult.

Then we went out and drank, still in our suits. Alex and I went to the Westin hotel bar where businessmen relaxed quietly to live jazz (and one great rendition of "O Holy Night"). I had my first martini, smoked my last cigarette, and let the night roll like all time does.

And yesterday, our last full day, we found that the big campus lake had frozen over and we rented skates from old men by the shore for 10 kuai each. We played with puppies on the ice. Together with the water, we froze a little, and we are younger for it.

The kid next to me just saw me writing and just told her mother that I'm a "英语人." I guess.

Wendy's leaving Hong Kong today for a week's break from her new job. Carrie is still there after all, working in the same area. The office has all the same teachers since I've left.

I'll see the ones I'm willing to see, and let my family drag me around for too much money for a few more days. But I make no final judgments about my six months in China and this is my final entry in this journal. I'm not leaving from the country the way I arrived in it; and I can't make claims other than family, which is neither beginning nor end but just continuation. It's a promise of persistence and survival despite all this.