Well, the time has come for us to end our Chinese adventure and head for home!  This is our last posting from Beijing as today (December 1st) we leave (with our 12 pieces of luggage!) for Tokyo and then, on the 6th, will return home to the good ol' US of A.  This has been a wonderful family adventure, but it's time to go.  We miss our family and friends -- and just about everything else about home.  There are, however, many things we will miss about China.  There are also a lot of things we WON'T miss about China.  Below is the list we have compiled about all of our favorite things and not-so-favorite things about this country -- as well as some photos of these "things" so you can have some visuals.  We have also included a few tidbits about the interesting (or strange) things we have seen while here.  Thanks for keeping up with us while we have been away -- and look for one last posting about our time in Tokyo.  Then we're off for home where we will hopefully see all of you soon!

The Things We Will Miss (in no particular order):

1.  Sophia (Chinese name Juan Juan), our wonderful tutor and friend who has helped us so much during our time in China.  We honestly don't know what we would have done without her.  2. Our friends Shino and Shaheen.  I met Shino (who is from Japan) at the university and she has become a great friend.  And Shaheen we actually know from Norman and unbelievably ran into him here in Beijing, which was a real treat.  We look forward to seeing him back at home when he returns sometime in the spring.  3. Starbucks at Wu Dao Kou has been like a home/office for us as we worked there regularly (thanks to the free wireless internet access).  The coffee tastes like home.  4. The Kro's Nest, our favorite pizza place in Beijing, and its manager Megan and waiter Adam (check out Adam's king-sized mohawk in the slide show).  5. Our favorite dumpling restaurant.  Thanks to Shino's restaurant wisdom, we enjoyed regular visits to this yummy dumpling palace.  6. Hannah will miss her friend Xia Yu He (pronounced Shya You Huh) at school.  Xia Yu He helped Hannah understand what was going on during class and was really sweet.  7. Schindler's German restaurant.  I know this may be hard to believe, but we have eaten some of the BEST German food we have ever had (even in Germany!) at Schindler's here in Beijing.  Their brautwurst, sour kraut, and mashed potatos were absolutely fantastic!  Oh yes, and the German beer was pretty darn good too!  8. And our favorite part about going to Schindler's (in addition to the brautwurst and beer) was Cheeto, our favorite Chinese James Taylor.  This guy (you can see him in the slide show) is REALLY good.  9. Fried potato balls and yummy sweet and sour chicken at our favorite Yunnan restaurant.  10. My students at Beida.  They were absolutely wonderful to get to know and I will miss them!  11. The Chinese restaurant on our campus.  We were regular visitors there and loved their yummy (and incredibly cheap) food.  12. Cool sites like the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and Great Wall.  And finally, 13. The cheap prices of Chinese food and various other goods (like DVDs, Gucci bags and Polo shirts).

The Things We Won't Miss (again in no particular order -- they are all equally annoying):

1. The traffic and general street chaos, which leads to the general danger of walking and riding bikes in this crazy city.  2. People walking in the bike lanes.  3. People driving in the bike lanes.  4. People parking in the bike lanes.  5. People riding bikes or any kind of vehicle the wrong way in the bike lanes.  6. Nasty eastern toilets.  If you have never seen one, you don't want to (but you can in the slide show below -- and that's a clean one).  7. General nasty and toxic smells related to construction, sewers, food, or whatever happens to produce something gross.  We can't photograph the smells, but rest assured they are very present and forever imprinted on our brains.  8. Hacking and spitting.  Okay, Chinese people of all sizes, ages, and genders not only spit everywhere, they hack and spit everywhere.  I used to be annoyed by all the spitting in the Balkans, but here it is 1000 times worse and involves hacking.  Again, I can't photograph the sound, but just know that every few minutes there is someone somewhere hacking and spitting in China.  It's disgusting!  9. General inconsiderate behavior.  We don't know if this comes from living around so many people or what, but the people in Beijing are just generally rude.  And I don't mean a little rude.  They are incredibly insensitve to others, which is exhausting to be around.  10. Staring.  The Chinese are expert starers, and we got stared at a lot.  We won't miss that.  11. Smog.  Photos can't really demonstrate how dirty the air is in Beijing.  Our lungs have certainly suffered.  We really miss the clean air of home!  12. Sleepy taxi drivers.  We don't know if they work long hours or what, but we seemed to get these taxi drivers that had a very difficult time staying awake -- even a couple who had to drive with their heads sticking out the window in freezing temperatures.  Weird (and scary).  13. The sheer volume of people.  You know, we come from a town of less than 1,000,000 people, so living with 17,000,000 was certainly strange -- and annoying.  There are just too many people in China!  14. Dark streets and crumbly sidewalks.  Walking at night is just plain hazardous (but still not as bad as Albania -- I can vouch for that).  15. Our terrible beds in our apartment.  Nothing like sleeping on a box spring without a mattress.  The Chinese like extra-firm (so-called) mattresses, but we don’t.  Can’t wait to get home to our comfy beds!  And finally, 16. The noise!  24/7 there is construction or something going on in Beijing.  It is a VERY noisy city.  We won’t miss the guy who comes through the parking lot every day screaming something at the top of his lungs (he is either selling or collecting something, we aren’t sure which); or the guy upstairs who decides to remodel in the middle of the night; or the construction site next door that produces constant banging noises around the clock.  We are ready to return to some peace and quiet!

Some Interesting (Strange) Things About China:

We saw some pretty strange things while in China -- most of which we didn't photograph.  We watched as people fought in the street and the police drove right on by.  We watched a guy drag his computer monitor down the street while carrying the CPU under his arm (I do have a photo of this below).  We watched people nap all over this city.  Public napping is very common here and, well, we just saw people sleeping all the time.  We saw 3-wheeled bicycle-type vehicles carrying loads of plants, furniture, and all kinds of things stacked way high.  We saw the worst traffic tie-ups as a result of a cop directing traffic (which I think was meant to make traffic flow more smoothly, but instead made it worst).  We saw tons of vendors selling everything from food to baby chicks line up outside the school and sell their wares to the kids (this would so not happen at home).  And we watched as restaurants all along our busy street had their daily “line-up” outside on the street before dinner.  All the uniformed wait staff and cooks would stand at attention while the boss, I guess, went over the evening’s game plan.  We are really not sure what happens during these meetings, but it is strange to see.  In the slide show below you can see one particular group that does the Macarena outside before the evening shift.  Weird.

Well, that’s about it.  We have seen so much and learned so much more.  China is an interesting place, without a doubt!  Thanks for sticking with us for this four months as we shared our experiences.  Now, it’s off to Tokyo and then “hello home”!!

With love....Pat, Suzette, and Hannah