Good Bye, Beijing

Now that I am leaving Beijing, I am very sad. I am leaving in less than one week...on Friday I fly to Hanoi to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with Matt in Vietnam. I am extremely excited about going to Vietnam. I love the food, and I cannot wait to get out of the bitterly cold windy weather in Beijing. But, I now that I am leaving I keep thinking about everything I wanted to do but didn't do while I was here. I never went to the Antique Market, I never went to the Summer Palace, and I didn't really get out of the University District that much. Oh well, I guess this always happens when you are about to leave some place. I am pretty sure Matt and I will be back here next year, so I don't feel that bad. After I go to Vietnam, I will go back to Hong Kong with Matt and continue studying Mandarin at the City University of Hong Kong. I am really excited about Mandarin right now, because I feel like I am on the verge of a break through! When I think back to ho little I used to know, and how difficult it was for me to communicate, and compare it to how I am now, I feel very excited! In May, Matt and I will come back to the US for a while and then travel a little bit, maybe to India. Then, we are not sure what we are going to do.

I am very sad about my laptop crashing. Matt says it is really messed up and we may not be able to recover the data. That computer has all of my pictures of every place I have been for the past year! And, it has all of Dad's pictures! I am so sad. I would pay a lot to get that data back...Matt told me that it would teach me to back up things that are important to me. That is not very nice to say, cause I already feel very sad and stupid. I will definitely back things up next time. Luckily, I have at least some pictures on my blog, and some on MyYahoo photos. Unfortunately I never posted my Germany pictures, and they were so good!


My Class Mates at a Good Bye lunch



These are some of the students in my Sunday morning English class. I loved teaching English! Chinese kids are so nice and innocent! One of my students gave me a Christmas card and it said:
"Dear Meagan,
It is such a warm and beautiful world. Let's listen to the wishes from the
Earth and stretch our arms to welcome a hopeful year together.
Sincerely,
Laura"
How great is that? I am sad that I won't be teaching English any more...Maybe if Matt and I come back to China I will start teaching again. Also, notice how serious all of the students are in the picture. Chinese people don't seem to think that you should smile or look happy in pictures. All the kids were happy and smiling, and then as soon as I got out the camera, they turned into very serious, grim looking people.