Last Blog entry in China! :(

Well, We had the Christmas party and I dressed up as Santa - it was pretty humiliating, but also alot of fun! As it was snowing I didn't have to climb through the windows in the end - thank God!! My buddy Mr Young has made a video for me so you can all see it when I get home! Unfortunatly I have been ill - AGAIN! My friends Amanda and Miranda came to visit from Beijing, but not long after they arrived I had to go home to bed. I had a throat infection and lost my voice which was a real shame, bit I will see them this weekend as I am staying in Beijing for one night. It also meant I missed out on the Christmas celebrations with my friends, it's a good job it doesnt feel like christmas, otherwise it would have been pretty depressing! I did manage to pick up by Christmas Day and made it to the City to my friends appartment for a Christmas Party! I told everyone how to play the animal game and we ended up doing that for nearly 2 hours! We had quite a few Chinese friends there... so it was alot of fun!!
School is over and saying goodbye was harder than I thought. I am really going to miss all the kids and all of the teachers, but most of all my Buddy - Mr Young! Young insisted that he come and see me off at the train station on Friday evening, so I arranged to meet him at 9pm. I was finally happy that everything was going according to plan and enjoyed my last night in Shenyang with a few beers with my friends. Feeling a little worse for wear on Friday morning I was not best pleased when I recieved a phone call from Rice telling me that my bus had been cancelled due to a heavy snow storm! (The highway had been closed!) Fuck!! I had to trapse all the way to the train station in the snow in a mad panic thatI was going to be stuck in Shenyang forever and miss my flight to Borneo! After a couple of hours queing I managed to get my hands on 2 of only 4 tickets left to Beijing!! (Gemma was coming to beijing with me!) I only had a couple of hours to meet my friends for one last farewell before I had to go to the train station. I said my goodbyes to everyone except Lea, Alex and Gemma who were all coming to the train station with me. I met Mr Young at the staton and he had some surprise visitors for me! No 2 House and Jo Pang Jui! (I may not have mentioned these previously, but I went to her Birthday party and they are friends of Mr Young!) They had come up from Dalian especially to wish me farewell and invite me to their wedding next year! I was really touched. No 2 House is a sailor and considered quite an important person, he managed to get us all VIP passes to the train station to wait for my train in Comfort and the passes also allow everyone down to the tracks to see me onto the train. I was really moved and as you can imagine pretty emotional. When the time came for me to go Young and No 2 house got my suitcase and backpack onto the train for me (Both incredibly heavy!) and then returned back to the trackside for a final goodbye! I'm really glad I had Gemma with me otherwise I may have changed my mind about going. Everyone was in tears and I was waving like mad out of the window. As the train pulls off Mr Young runs after it so I can see him through the window, doing a silly dance!
I arrive in Beijing and leave my suitcase at UIBE before heading across the city to meet my friends. As I have a pretty early start we opted for a night in and it was really nice to unwind and try and forget about all the emotion of leaving my friends behind.But then morning comes and it's time to do it again! Only this time it isnt too bad. I will see Amanda and Miranda again in Beijing before I fly home , and Gemma lives in Manchester so it wont be long before I meet up with her once I'm back in old blighty! Still another teary farewell and the start of my long journey to Borneo!

Last Blog entry in China! :(

Shenyang, China