Day 18 - Farewell

I didn't go to the school this morning as I know it is going to be a gloomy day for the kids. I bet there's going to be a huge crying farewell. I don't want to witness that.

I spent a good part of the morning packing. My original 3 pieces of luggage swelled to 5. I didn't shop for clothes nor food. I had an entire luggage of Chinese books and the coal sculpture that an acquaintance gave.

It started raining at 9am, the Fushun sky seemed to be crying at our departure.

Mr Yao called me at 12.10 pm to vacate my room. He came up to help me move my luggage to Mr Tan's room. I told him about the tremor last night. He laughed & said it might be haunted because Mr Tan & he didn't feel anything.

(Later Jaymes told me his Chinese classmates told him there was an earthquake on that night. They felt their houses shook too.)

He & Mrs Er then went to school to check on the dance costumes.

I played with Mrs Er's daughter & chatted with Mr Tan while waiting for the kids to return. The rain became heavier. Funny, that was the time ( around 1pm) the kids were bading their Chinese friends good-bye.

I was later told by a Chinese teacher that it was an emotional scene. Mr Guan, the music teacher played his guitar & sang 'Song & Smile' as he came down the stairs. Some children were bawling their eyes out. Those who didn't cry were called 'cold-blooded animals'. ha ha ha......

The kids came back slightly after 2pm. Most of them with red puffy eyes. They started packing their luggage.

Chinese teachers Mr Zhang, Mr Guan, Ms Tang..... & VP Xuan came to help. They helped to bring down the heavy luggage. They even accompanied us to Shenyang airport.

The children & I waited in the bus for about half an hour while our teachers settled the hotel bills. Later when the teachers returned, Mr Yao announced that the delay was due to their differences in settling the damages of property with the hotel. The school compensated the hotel 411 rmb (S$82.20) for the damage of cups, hangers & electric jug.

We arrived at Shenyang Taoxian Airport at 5pm. Our flight is at 5.50pm. We quickly checked in.

I was asked to open my checked-in luggage because of the knife. I was told it was a controlled item & it would be confiscated. If I had any objection, I would be detained for 5 days & the knife would still be confiscated. Obviously, I had no choice. I let him have the knife. Mr Guan was indignant & attempted to call his friend in order to help me. I told him to let it go. Even if I could have the knife back, I might have it confiscated in Beijing or Singapore.

Mr Guan still made the call & we managed to have the knife back. Mr Guan will return it to Tong Ling. She might be disappointed but Jaymes would let her know it is a beautiful knife & her gift was greatly appreciated.

It was time to say good-bye to the teachers & VP Xuan. Jaymes & I gave them hugs before we went through immigration counters. Once everyone was inside the departure lounge, the Chinese teachers waved a final good-bye & left.

We hurried to gate 2 to board our plane. We waited & waited & our flight wasn't called yet. Then Mr Tan found out we had to go to another gate. Our flight was delayed. The plane from Beijing had just arrived in Shenyang at 5.50pm. At 6pm, we queued up in front of the boarding gate. We waited for 20 minutes. At 6.20pm, the ground staff announced that there was an oil leak & they were fixing it.

While waiting for the call to board, Jaymes and I were seated at a row of seats with Simon. I placed my charcoal statue in front of Jaymes' seat. When Jaymes got up to throw some rubbish, Vivienne came over to chat with Simon. She stepped on my precious box. I told her to be careful because my statue is fragile. She glared at me, rolled her eyes and continued to chat with Simon. This time digging her right knee into the box. I was so mad, I pushed her leg away and scolded her. She just glared at me and walked off. Bloody undisciplined bitch.

At 6.30pm, the passengers were called to board the plane. When all the pasengers were all seated, the plane took off immediately.

So cartoon! The plane flew for one & a quarter hour from Beijing & even before it had sufficient time to cool off, it has to head back to Beijing again. They spent only 10 minutes to fix an oil leak! Oh my God! Our lives are so worthless. I was worried during the entire flight. Only when the plane landed in Beijing did I heave a sigh of relief.

We had to do a transfer at Beijing airport. While Mrs Er & Mr Tan were busy checking in the luggage, the kids started zooming around the huge hall with the trolleys, pushing one another on them. Screaming & yelling. They pushed Mrs Er's daughter around the hall too. Mrs Er just watched on and did nothing to stop them. The Chinese airport staff watched these boisterous Singapore kids with disdain.

We were to buy dinner on our own. Jaymes & I went down to the basement floor for some Chinese restaurant food. The restaurants were closed. They closed at 9pm. We met Ying Zhi & Lan Keam. We decided to go to KFC where most of the kids went.

I spotted a Japanese restaurant next to KFC, so Jaymes & I went in for dinner. Jaymes ordered a Unagi set (46 rmb, S$9.20) & a iced lemon tea (20 rmb, S$4). I ordered a Roasted Pork Ramen set (36rmb, S$7.20) & a Jasmine Tea (28 rmb, S$5.60). Jaymes went to asked Ying Zhi if she wanted to have Japanese food. She came over with Lan Keam. She also ordered a Unagi set but Lan Keam didn't want to eat.

After our dinner, we went up to the departure hall to wait for the teachers. We checked in at 10.40pm. Our flight back to Singapore was 11.3opm. We went to gate 9 but before I could reach there, there was an announcement for us to go to gate 21. It was a mad rush as it was from one end of the terminal to the other end.

Finally, we were going home! As the plane took off from Beijing airport, I bade my 18 days in China good-bye. I might be heading back to a storm..........