Last post in China!

Well......
This is weird............

So basically, tomorrow morning (Sunday 16th June) at 8:30am, I'll be leaving Kuitun. It sounds crazy to even say it.... I had times of being so excited to get home and times where I'm sooo sad to leave this place. But today, I have just been very emotionless. I think a big part of me doesn't really believe that I'll actually be going home because it seems like such an alien thing now!

I've practically finished packing. I still need to take down my wall of photos and memories which will take a long time. But apart from that, I'm done.

Goodbye-wise, I had my last day at school yesterday which was, again, very surreal. It was so nice to see the classes for one last time though and get a photo with each of them.

Also, last night my school treated me and Georgina to a farewell banquet! The food was great obviously and all of my favourite teachers were there. But because I was the guest of honour, I had to be the main toast-giver..... The first one was a general thank you to everybody. The second was a specific thank you to the secretary, then the vice-principal, then Mr Xu... I don't really know what exactly Mr Xu does but he is the happiest person I've met here. Every time I pass him in school, my day is just made a whole lot better! He's always smiling so much! Outside the front of the school, there's a board with photos of all of the teachers or heads of somethings on and they all have to look serious and professional, and he's just there grinning away. I just love him. Then I toasted Melanie and Kai because they may not be the big vice-principals or secretaries behind my year here but they have personally helped me a lot more. They've been helpers and taught me Chinese and just generally great friends. I found myself choking up a bit when I made that toast.......
Anyway, as you can guess... After all of these where you often have a full glass of wine per toast, we all got pretty cheerful! So after a few photos, some of us trundled over to Jasper's. Now if you've been reading these blogs since the beginning, you'll remember Jasper owns a bar/restaurant and speaks English and is very good at having a good time. So Kai, Charles, Georgina and I went there and it was just lovely! After quite a bit more alcohol, we decided at 4am that it was probably time to go home - also seeing as Georgina had to teach the next day!
It was very sad to say goodbye to Jasper but Kai especially. We hugged about 5 times and it just wasn't ever enough. When he was walking away it was torture!

I'll be going to Roxy's house very soon to say goodbye to her and her family. If you aren't aware of her, she's basically been my best friend here. She's a student of mine but is practically fluent in English and her and her family have treated me so nicely and basically taken me in while I've been here! So saying goodbye to them is going to be so hard...
Also obviously actually leaving tomorrow is going to be hard and saying goodbye to Georgina who I've lived with for a year. I guess that's a bit better though because the odds we'll be seeing each other again are higher than the Chinese folk!
I'm dreading saying goodbye to Daisy, my little dog. Completely dreading it.

Anyway! Back on track! I should pack away the rest of my things and then trundle off to Roxy's...
Weird.
I'm going home tomorrow.
Weird.

I hope you've all enjoyed reading my blogs through the year! I've had times where I really hated being here but overall, this has been such a good experience. And obviously now I know what I want to do with my future (studying Chinese) which helps a lot!
I don't know if I'll be blogging much after this, but if you want to stay in the loop then watch my videos on PrettyNiceStuff on youtube :) I'll be doing that a lot more than this!

Ok. I think that's that.....
Weird.