Late afternoon. Golden sunlight scatters the shadows as we scramble over boulders and push through dense bushes. The foliage falls away and the lake stretches out before us, a serene body of water undisturbed with the exception of two floating turtles. The others jump into the sparkling water with reckless abandon, shattering the silence. I sit on a cliff and soak in the sun, but my mind is elsewhere. At times, home feels foreign. Things as simple as forks manage to confuse me, and I find myself wondering what people in Jishou would think of New York.

It’s hard to believe that a week ago I was cramming everything I could into our last 24 hours in Jishou. Harder to believe is that I survived saying goodbye to two summers’ worth of students and- now I can admit this- friends. Together we taught, learned, hiked, sweated, laughed, cried (well, most of us)…
I’ll miss them, but I’m grateful for the time that we shared.

A moment: 
We lounge around the large table at AJB, Dragons and scattered foreign teachers, picking at nearly cleared plates of food. The eggplant and eggs are long gone, the bitter melon waits unclaimed. Phoebe doesn’t believe in wasting food, so she proposes that we play a game: categories, if you lose you either finish a dish or sing. Jerry definitely loses in order to sing Call Me Maybe. Food, animals, movies, colors… John diligently chews through a plate of peppers, and then another. Finally he agrees to sing but says he only knows one English song “for children”.

So we sit and grin as he tentatively sings:
“If you’re happy and you know it,
clap your hands.”

He claps. We clap.

Thank you PiA, thank you Jishou, and thank you to all of the teachers and students.
It doesn’t get much better than this.