It’s official. Both mine and Phil’s obligation to the next generation of Fuyang has come to an end. Today was Phil’s last day, but I was lucky, and was able to stop teaching a week ago. Today I ran down and picked up my last chunk of change from my school and said my final farewells. Phil will get his tomorrow.

We’ve pretty much finished everything that needs to be done in order to move. We just need to pick up our passports and new visa from the PSB office in Hangzhou and possibly send one more package up north so that we don’t have to carry so much with us. We sent one today to our new school. It weighed about 44 lbs and only cost 110 RMB. That is about $14. If only that is how much it cost to ship things back to America. Going from Fuyang to Shenyang would be like going from Columbia to California. There is no way a 44 lbs package would cost 14 bucks to send in a million years. A few days ago, we sent two packages back home filled with some odds and ends that we have purchased in our travels. The biggest box weighed about 20 lbs and cost $204. We did send this the fast way, but still . . . that’s a lot of money and hurt our wallets. Mine is still crying about it. I just hope that it gets home. Apparently, they did not know where to send it even though they had all of the information on the box. They said that the zip code was wrong, and we had to repeatedly tell them that we lived there and knew our post code like we know our names. Of course, this was all said to people who really couldn’t understand us. Thankfully, there was a random man there who spoke a little English, and without him I don’t think we would have figured out what in the world was going on.

I don’t really know what else to say. My mind has felt tired and uninspired for awhile now. Everything I type seems so forced. Maybe it is that I can’t really put into words what I feel or express what it is that I am experiencing here. That is frustrating. Hopefully, it will pass, and I can resume my normal writing of this blog for the few people who do frequent it. The Internet is slowly getting repaired but it isn’t perfect yet. I am going to give it a while longer before I attempt to post pictures. I really, really hate posting pictures and not having it work after spending a lot of time on them.

Well, I’m signing off. I’m going to play Fable until I turn blue in the face. Tomorrow we finish or rather start packing. I can see Beijing on the horizon. It won’t be long now.

Goodbye Fuyang. Nice knowing you.

Well, it seems we’re moving and leaving that which is wonderful Fuyang. I didn’t mean that to come off so negative, but I’ve just been frustrated lately with the school, its administration, the students, and the whole kitten caboodle. Even though I have voiced my opinions about how wrong some things are – ie – no heat in my room, even though it is 40 degrees in it, mice living in the heaps of trash the students constantly leave behind, even though I threaten to eat their souls, and the student’s never ending assault of “I forgota to-a bringa” paper, pencil, and attentive minds to class, nothing has changed and I now know 8 weeks before I have to leave this place that it never will. To think that I could have made it any different makes me such a donkey’s ass. As our Aussie roommate would say, “Have you noticed that all the wheels have been falling off lately?” Oh, yes. I started taking notice about our second week here. So as much as I will miss the small things of Fuyang – ie – the view from our balcony(it’s quiet picturesque), the surrounding mountains(we’re cradled by them), the quaint town of only 600,000 people(compared to where we’re going, that is a very itty bitty number), and the mild weather in both summer and winter(once again, where we are going things will much different) – it will be nice to go else where in this wonderful, sprawling country that is China. I mean, after this is all said and done with – who is to say when and if I will ever come back. It’s best to see as much as China as I can before I have to leave and say goodbye.

We are leaving Fuyang because our American company and our Chinese company had a little falling out of sorts. One said one thing and the other said another. What it all boiled down to was that our Chinese company was not going to pay for our return ticket home even though the contract said they were supposed to. Contracts don’t mean diddly here. Since Phil and I are poor individuals. our American company decided to cut ties with the Chinese company and send us to a place where someone would pay for our return plane ticket. And that place(drum roll please) is no other than . . . Shenyang, China.

Where in the lollipop is Shenyang you ask? It is about 27 train hours north from where we are now. If you look at the provincial map that you saw at the beginning of this post you’ll see the word Zhejiang. That is where we are currently living. Shenyang is the capital of the Liaoning province and is located about 8 or so hours from Beijing. The only thing I really know about the place is that is currently really cold, there are about 7 million people camped out there, and it’s pretty darn cold. If you want to get the full scoop on it you can go here.

Above is the map of Liaoning. You can see how close we are to North Korea and that makes me a bit nervous. Not only are we going to freeze our butts off this winter, but it seems we run the risk of being blown to bits as well. At least there will never be a dull day. : ) There is a city called Dandong where I can go and look over the border and into N. Korea. I’ll have to make a visit there just so I can say that I did it. How many people can say that they’ve seen N. Korea? I’m not sure when we have be at our school – which presently I know nothing about. All I know is that is an English Training School, but that could mean anything. The only thing I do know is that my last full day of teaching is on January 19th. After that Phil and I will have a 3 week long Spring Festival holiday. On Thursday, we are supposed to get a call from Richard Guo, a man who will be able to answer all of our questions.

The only thing I want in my new school and city is an actual feeling that I matter and that I’ve done something meaningful for my new students. It is a lot to ask – I know, but one can hope – right?