A “Leavers” Weekend, 6/14-15/14

SATURDAY, 6/14/14

Judy heads off to school for what turns out to be a half-day of meetings, and final check-out.  She and Shannon start off for Lily Nails after the teachers are dismissed, but they get detoured to “The Local”, a popular watering hole for many of BISS faculty.  It specializes in sports TV for Australian/New Zealand expats.  Judy has a slight gaffe when she describes the game playing on all the televisions as part of the World Cup (innocent enough) to one of the Chinese teachers who’s hanging out, and knows nothing about soccer.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the World Cup.  In fact, it wasn’t even soccer.  It was a rugby game.  An understandable mistake, since it was a bunch of guys running around in shorts, chasing a ball.

Judy and Shannon eventually made it to Lily Nails.  Afterwards, Dom, Shannon’s husband, and I meet them at Homeplate BBQ in the Sanlitun area.  We enjoyed a fun evening of food and conversation.  As we were leaving, around 9:00, in walked a big group of faculty from BISS.  They had just left “The Local”, around the corner.  They are definitely making a night of it.  It’s a mix of “leavers” and “stayers”, and most of the group is leaving town tomorrow, for very scattered destinations.

SUNDAY, 6/15/14

Judy suffers today from post-school year-syndrome.  She can’t get motivated to do anything but read.  We have a very relaxing morning and afternoon, discussing our summer plans.  Judy’s heard it all before, but she hasn’t had time to digest everything that’s about to happen, and it begins Tuesday.

We manage to make ourselves presentable in time to walk over to the neighborhood “Duck Restaurant” (I don’t know the real name).  We meet a group of 14 BISS faculty for a big dinner.  Again, there’s a mix of “leavers” and “stayers”.  We eat and talk and eat some more, for about three hours.  The cost for the two of us was $22 USD.  I still can’t get used to how cheap it can be here.

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The chef is working on one of the Peking Ducks ordered for the group. They do the trimming near the table. It’s part of the tradition and experience!

  

There are several tearful goodbyes.  Everyone knows it will take a trip to an exotic (by my standards) destination to ever see each other again.  We’ve spent quite a bit time with these people, outside of school, enjoying their company, and absorbing their stories and culture.  There will be new faces next year, but we’re definitely going to miss the old faces.

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