The Leonard Chronicles: Adventures of Eric and Crystal: The end is near...

Well folks, the China chapter of our adventures will soon be coming to an end. Yes, it's true, we're moving back to America! Our original plans were to be here for 2 years, but some changes in Harman opened up a new opportunity for Eric. He will be accepting a management position in the Sandy division of his company, which means we'll be coming back to Utah. We've enjoyed our time in China but I'm very excited to return to the land of dairy products and chocolate! Even now, I'm drooling while thinking about milkshakes and lasagna (hello cottage cheese).

It's surprising news, we know. When we told our families, you could hear the crickets chirping over the phone, nobody knew what to say. Honestly though, we had all been physically and emotionally gearing up for 2 years in the land of rice and bad drivers. When rumors started flying in early spring about his boss relocating to Utah, Eric and I didn't really know what to think. We were open to the possibility of moving elsewhere in the world, but didn't want to get our hopes up about moving home to Salt Lake. Once things started solidifying, we were still very hesitant to tell people, even our families. It's very easy to start daydreaming about your future life in America: what your first meal will be, where you will live, what car you'll drive, the fun things you can do with friends and family. It's an intoxicating slippery slope of death and once you start down the path, it's near impossible to save yourself. We were so afraid that once we started talking about it, we wouldn't be able to focus on our responsibilities here. Neither of us could afford to get trunky (my new word for the month).

But that was several months ago, and now we're getting ready to leave. I think we've now figured out the game plan. We're going to Europe on a fabulous Mediterranean cruise next week. The movers will pack up our house at the end of July and I'll fly home immediately after. Eric's going to stay a couple more weeks to hand over his responsibilities and fly home mid August. It's so weird to be counting down my time left here in days, not weeks. It's getting real now that my school semester finished up and we've started boxing up the house.

When the end is near, you realize that you didn't take near enough pictures. So I brought my camera to school. Surprisingly, my kids were EXTREMELY reluctant to get their pictures taken. It's especially weird because they are very social and easy going. But bring out the camera and everyone sprints for the nearest door. I had to bribe them with tootsie rolls (very effective, by the way). This is my only group class, they are a riot. Most days we have a lot of fun together, but other days I'm ready to strangle each and every one of them. They love to talk and talk and talk...in Chinese. Most of my time is spent waiting for them to be quiet. But they're all very smart and excited about learning.

This is my group class, the kids were 9-12 years old.

So imagine a group of Chinese people vying for space on a subway or trying to get off an elevator. This mental picture should involve a lot of elbows, pushing and shoving, and vulturing. The attitude of "fend for yourself or die" is ingrained into their pyche since birth. Here's a hilarious example of the Chinese in their prime: playing musical chairs. It was so hilarious to watch them hover around "their chair". Don't you worry, they totally know and understand how this game should be played. But no matter how many times I reminded them, they wouldn't just walk around the chairs. I finally gave up and just filmed them instead.

My little artists, they are experts at the big-eyed, anime-style drawing

One of the few times they're being quiet

The kids, my boss, and I.

This is Jim, one of my private students. We were talking about rooms in the house.

This was also drawn by Jim, notice the very Chinese-looking "arm chair" and "sofa".
Neither are things I'd ever want to sit on ;)

Harry and Tony, my oldest students.

This is Tony, he told me I looked like a witch the other day, specifically my nose.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to my highly contoured face (compared to a chinese person's).
I told him it was a good thing I liked him, or else he'd get in trouble with a comment like that ;)

Tony was trying to give a "Mona Lisa" smile. His idea, not mine.

In addition to school, we've also had to start saying goodbye to our dear friends. During the summer, there's a mass exodus to the US by the American expats. Everyone leaves in June to visit friends and family, it's their vacation for the year. Because many of my friends aren't coming back to China until after I leave, I had to say goodbye early. We expats have had this discussion many times, but it's incredible that you can form such strong friendships in such a short amount of time. It's even more sad that you may never live in the same state as these friends, possibly not even the same country. Our friends have really become part of our family and we're going to miss them so much.