Good bye Baoding

It has taken me a while to complete this last post. We said 'goodbye' to our friends and colleagues on Jun 16th and headed home. We'll miss them very much.

 Dean was at our apartment early that morning to help in whatever way he could. Never stopped asking questions, taking advantage of every minute he spent with us.

 Zhong (John) helped us in so many ways. He helped us board our first train in China. Making sure we had a place to sit on the train. He was always very concerned about us. He bought us an iron when our other one wasn't working.  He had a funny laugh too.

 Li Fong is a character. He loves foreigners. Never missing a chance to meet a new person and speak English. He helped me go to the hospital when I got sick. He was very assertive, making sure the doctors took care of me and that I knew what the heck was going on. I never would've gotten through that place without his help.







Shen Zhen Zhen (Felice) was our Chinese teacher. She had so much patience with us, and we managed to learn a little Chinese. One of Marianne's students once told her that she could understand our English better than our Chinese. We tried to speak Chinese when we had to, but it was a mess. We had a lot of fun with her. She was in our post about the Peach Blossom Festival. She helped Marianne with shopping a few times.




 Day-to-day living in Baoding was often difficult. Our problems with speaking and understanding the language was always there. Embracing the culture wasn't always easy to do. Many times during the school year, we were down and missing home, family, and friends. But we had our colleagues, Amber and Mickelle, that we shared this experience with. We shared our joys and difficulties with each other. We prayed together and shared meals each week. We're very grateful for their friendship. Two other foreigners we met along the way were Amy and Gino. Amy taught English in another university and she is from England. Gino is from India and we met him at church. He worked in Baoding. He loved coming to American Night for dinner and games. He was a lot of fun.

Emily (Shi Wanyun) was always a big help to all the foreign teachers. She was a great friend. Still is. Many times she rescued us when we locked ourselves out of the apartment, which we did a few times. Whenever we needed something she did everything she could to help us out. Dr. Ho was also a great host.

Through it all, the students made our time in China very special. We developed some very nice relationships with these kids, and we are thankful for the time we had with them. Here are some of them.

Thanks to all who followed our little blog. It was very nice to see the number of hits. We knew our family and friends were staying connected with us during this time away. Nice memories...Bye Baoding.