Farewell Party in Beijing

Tonight I had a farewell party with my students. I waited till the last day of class on Thursday, after class had finished, and on the way down the elevator before I told everyone that it was my last day of teaching at the Modern English school. The students were shocked.

But some of them quickly organized a farewell party to send me off before I left next week. The dinner was held in a nice Chinese restaurant with a big room and we all sat around a giant round table. There must have been altogether 12 or so people, that was great especially on such short notice.

Dan, one of my students, made a shirt for me with the words "Zhong guo" meaning China, in the middle of the shirt. All the students signed the shirt using their Chinese and English names. We had a big dinner and ended by playing the "Killer" game, which is a really popular game with my students that really tests your detective/deduction skills.

I asked the students about their favorite classes, favorite topics we discussed, and if they had learned anything in my class. It was so good to hear them say they really liked my teaching style and my classes. Many of them said I had a positive impact on their life and inspired them to learn English more. One student told me how she didn't really understand Americans before, but said after being in my class a long time, she believed that Chinese and Americans share many things in common and that she felt closer to Americans than before. That really made me feel good, like I was a bridge between our countries and cultures.

At the end of the party we took lots of pictures, hugged each other and said good bye. I reminded the students to keep in touch with me. I told them that the world is getting smaller and smaller. Now that we can use my website, and MSN, the Internet, etc, we can continue to keep in touch and know how each other is doing in life.

I told my students that I believe I will come back to China again. Hopefully not too far in the future I will come back to do travel and business here. My students were much like my family here in China. They helped me really get to know China, more than if I had just took classes at the university. I know the first day I wake up in the US, I will think about them and miss them.