This is a photo album from one of my freshman classes. The characters 吉大印象 (JiDa YinXiang) mean "JiDa Impressions." JiDa is the local nickname of the university. The curvy design represents the traditional Chinese footbridge over the school lake.
I'm in the home stretch now, with seven days to go before I leave Jishou University as a teacher forever. The last few days have been VERY busy, so all I've had time and energy to do on Steemit is upvote, resteem and drop a few comments here and there. This evening I have some downtime, so here's a rundown of what's been going on.
- Had my last classes today.
- Gave my last final exam yesterday evening, and am now about two-thirds done grading them.
- On Monday, completed calculating the term grades for the sophomore speaking classes.
- Have taken lots of photos with students and friends, and received gifts from my classes (pictured in this blog).
- Have had several meals with former students returning to visit the old school, present students saying goodbye to me, and my Ukrainian music teacher friends who are also leaving permanently.
- Have donated a pile of clothes I don't want to keep any longer to charity.
- Hauled a lot of books to my former office, to leave for colleagues and students to use.
- Packed several boxes and suitcases: most will be shipped to my new location in Henan province this coming weekend.
- Discovered that mailing stuff to the USA is prohibitively expensive and a royal pain in the ass. There are restrictions against mailing CDs and DVDs, and the postal clerk said even books and travel literature might be refused by China Post. Go figure.
- Shut down my Linux box mining Zcash. I'm not taking the computer with me, so I'm going to send it to a friend -- after I switch GRUB to boot first into Windows.
Another class gave me this carved wooden book mark, with a green tassle.
I leave Tuesday morning by car to the high speed rail station in Huaihua to catch a bullet train to Changsha. From the rail station, I can take the new maglev train to the airport, where I will board a plane bound for Shanghai. I'll spend the night there, and next day fly to the USA.
I've been too busy for the enormity of my separation from this place to really sink in. As I've mentioned before, Jishou has been my home away from home from the last nine years, and it's hard to believe that I will not be returning in the fall. Instead, I'll go to a completely new place, which is both exciting and scary at the same time. I'm an adaptable kind of guy, so I'm sure I'll settle in fine, but all my old habitats will be gone. It will be a whole new life.
A sophomore class also gave me a photo album. Each album has a photo and personal message from the students. I noticed this class was writing their notes during our last class.
A pack of blank postcards in the photo, too. The building shown is from the uni's founding in 1958.
Underlying all this hustle and bustle is my resentment that some bureaucracy decided for no special reason to require foreign workers to leave at age 60, regardless of their health or commitment to their local community. It especially burns me that I only found out four weeks before my residence permit expires, necessitating all the last minute packing, sorting and goodbye-ing.
At least I have found another job, so my unemployment will be short-lived. I am not really ready to retire, no matter what Chinese bureaucrats may think.