Published April 2nd, 2008 by Mliesie
What a feeling….
I’ve been back for what…..? About 5 weeks now, but it seems a lot longer already. So much has happened in those past few weeks. Frank and Maaike visited in the 2nd week I was back in Yulin and it was great having them around. I learned to look at Yulin through visitors’ eyes again and they were able to get a taste of everyday life in China. There are still loads of pictures from their visit I need to share with you. Please be patient. Next to that, my VSO colleague, unfortunately, was unable to teach due to health problems. My other foreign colleague and I decided to take over her writing lessons for the time being. A full timetable, bit it’s great teaching writing again. Even though it’s only for a limited period of time, it’s a nice change to just teaching English communication. Also, there is the orphanage we still visit twice a week. The children are so used to us now and a lot less shy than before. I was actually amazed about how much they had grown and developed in many ways during my absence. Not only do we visit the orphanage, we visit fosterparents to gather information, we keep in touch through e-mail with various people and we try to get as much information as possible from the YWI itself. Sometimes it’s and easy job, sometimes a little harder. Overall we still very much enjoy it.
Since last weekend we are now also working on our physical health….. Every Saturday we plan to do some work-out. Be it basketball, running (jogging 
, push-ups or Tai Chi, anything that can make us feel healthier, stronger and help us loose weight (the latter especially for the women involved..). Sunday we now either go hiking or biking for at least 2-3 hours. Last weekend it was a bikeride to the new airport (more information about that elsewhere). You can imagine that by Sunday evening most of us were suffering.. muscles that ached, stiff knees and legs, butts that felt numb and more of that which I won’t tell you in detail. But everybody is already looking forward to the next weekend to come. More Saturday excercise, more Sunday hiking or biking and this weekend’s extra will be how to cook ZongZi (traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival in June). ZhangDan’s mum will teach us. Probably a big mess but lots of laughter!!
I have a full life here in Yulin and I love everything I do. Ofcourse some things still frustrate me or frustrate me more than before. Especially things concerning the College and education in China in general. With that in mind I feel it’s good I’ll be leaving this College at the end of August. I don’t know how much longer I can keep myself from commenting in the ‘Dutch’ way…. Very straightforward, very much to the point, very much not Chinese. With all other aspects of my life here in mind, leaving Yulin is something I definitely do NOT want to do. Some of my colleagues have become very dear to me. They tell me things I would have never expected to hear from them, but they trust me, they consider me their friend. The children at the Institute are very dear to me, some of them are more than that and I will miss them soooo much. Then there is Miao, my Chinese guardian angel and roommate. What would I have done without her, what will I do without her? She is so much part of my life now, as are Zhang Dan, ShiChao, YuWenhai and some other students. The thought of leaving them behind in about 6 months brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart ache. I so much wish I didn’t have to, but when I accepted a job at VSO I should have known this would be part of it… I did. I just never realised how much I would enjoy all of this and how many people would become so important to me.
So here I am, in Yulin, with mixed feelings. I am happy to be going home because that is where my ‘love’ is, where my family is, where my friends are. I am sad to leave because this is where my heart is, my new ‘family’, my friends. It’s like living in 2 worlds. I’ve done it before, but never has it had the same impact it has now.
But….. as I am an optimist, I know I’ll be back. One way or the other, working or visiting……..