Back on American soil

It was easier to say goodbye than I thought it would be. The students all left soon after the closing ceremony. I was so proud of them! Last night we had a dinner with our team. It was a nice time to talk and reflect with each other about the great session.
I really am sad to leave. It seems like I have been gone longer than 9 weeks. I really do feel at home here. The concrete floor and board bed, have been my home for a while. I really hope I don’t fall right back into the American way. It will be hard to fight it, I know. At least I have all of these memories, because I went through 3 journals! I hope the change in me will be lasting.
This morning I slept in a little bit. When I woke up and went outside of my room, there was a present there waiting for me. It was a journal from one of the students. June, is not even one of my students, but I talked with her a little bit. It was a journal, a picture of her, and a letter to me. She is so sweet.
I went to the bakery by bus for the last time. It is interesting that I think I will miss the bus. Before, I hated the bus, because it’s so hectic and busy, but now all of those annoying things, I think I will strangely miss.
After the bakery I went to get my hair cut. It was a 2 hour process! First I had to wait for a little while. Then it took the guy a really long time to cut it just perfectly. Then he called another guy to straighten my hair. It’s nice be able to wear straight hair again. I was getting tired of the humidity and curly hair. Then they called another guy to do the final trim. At one point, all three of them were doing something different with my hair. I think they just wanted to touch it because it feels different than their hair. I could tell they were talking about the color of my hair. Then they whipped out this book with a bunch of different color hair samples. They put it up to my hair and chose the one that was closest to my hair. I started to laugh. Then they got embarrassed and said, “Good!” I kept checking my watch, because I was afraid I would miss my taxi. I had to run back to campus, but I caught the taxi!
The taxi ride was only supposed to cost 120 yuan, but the register said 146. Ok, I brought extra just in case. I gave the driver 150. Then he got angry and said that it cost 196 yuan. Shoot, I didn’t think I had this much. I started to panic, thinking, “What am I going to do? I don’t have enough!” I started desperately counting my ones and somehow I had enough. I have 2 yuan extra! Thank goodness, because the driver wasn’t the most gracious.
On the planes today I got to see two sunsets and one sunrise. I am living August 28th over again! So strange. I am home J It’s almost like China is a story now. It’s all in the past and a memory…