FRIDAY, 6/12/15

And the career is over. Judy finishes everything up, and gets out the door at a decent hour. She joined Shannon and several others for dinner and some celebrating at a Korean/Mexican food restaurant.

I joined several faculty members from my school at Swagat, an Indian restaurant where I’ve eaten several times. Thomas, the art teacher from Dallas/San Antonio is getting married this summer to Mona (a teacher at another school in Beijing). Mona is from Ireland, and is a red-head. Tommy has red hair himself, so there’s going to be some red hair somewhere down the road for the family.

L-R: Meg, Marilyn, Tommy, Josie, LaShawna, Gordon, Maria, Lisa, Mona, Rena, Steve

We had a great time trading stories about the last two years. I had a chance to hear about Mona’s life in Ireland during the turmoil of the IRA. We also heard some about the wedding plans, and how a wedding in Ireland would be arranged and managed. As we go our separate ways at the end of the evening, it’s difficult to face the reality that we won’t have any more chances to get together like this. Everyone will begin to go their separate ways around the world.

SATURDAY, 6/13/15

We took advantage of our new “retired” status, and didn’t bother to set an alarm. The morning was relaxed as we discussed our last two years, and began to look ahead to the “moving” week, and what had to be done. We didn’t get too bogged down in seriousness. Judy made a visit to Lily Nails with Shannon.

Lara picked the two of them up in a taxi after they finished, and Dom and I grabbed our own taxi. We all met at Mr. Shi’s Dumplings near the Drum & Bell Tower. It was a tiny “hole in the wall” restaurant down a narrow alley. The streets were teeming with people on a Saturday night. The food was great. Dumplings are probably at the top of Judy’s list of favorite Beijing foods. These dumplings were so good, both boiled and fried. There were many flavors and adding cheese to them was a new touch we hadn’t experienced in dumplings. We sat and talked/ate for two hours. It was a fun Saturday night in Beijing.