back in Nanjing

We're back....exhausted, but back. And we've officially taught our last students in China. Yesterday as we finished the VIP class, I walked out with Jenny, one of the students. I told her "you are officially my last student in China". She asked me how that felt, and I told her "weird". After teaching here for 5 years, it does feel weird.
The week was crazy, just like the name of the camp, but in the end, we both learned a lot. I saw a different way of teaching English (though I don't totally agree with it) and learned more about this country. And, we got a glimpse of what celebrities feel like. No exaggeration at all...there were 1300 students, we probably signed almost every single one's textbooks, tshirts, or both. Every day when you'd go into a new classroom and the Chinese teacher took a break before your lesson, textbooks were literally shoved into your face to have you sign them. Then going to lunch and dinner, you had students interrupting your meal, and walking from dinner took an extra 10 minutes because you got stopped every few feet for someone to either take a photo with you or of you (many times without your knowledge). I saw students waiting for us to come down the stairs in the cafeteria so they could take photos of us. It was a bit nuts and something I think I'm glad to leave behind. I told Annamarie, "remember when we weren't famous? how nice that was?" :)
There were also frustrations at the camp, which pretty much go with anytime you work in this kind of environment overseas...lack of communication, plans changing literally at the last second, and so on. But you learn to deal with it (or go home) and try to get something out of it. I think we did...
So many negative things I could mention, but I just won't. At certain points, things about the camp put a bad taste in my mouth, but I don't want to dwell on it. If you want to know, ask me when I'm stateside. I'll be happy to share. But for now, I want to dwell on the happy things that we have left in China. One month from today we'll be leaving this country, and I really don't want to spend that month being frustrated. All complaining aside, I'm thankful for the opportunity we had this past week, the people we met, and the last chance to teach Enlglish in this country we've called home for 5 years.