Goodbye Nanjing

So pretty much nothing about our time in Nanjing went according to plan. But all's well that ends well, and we Bowens are nothing if not flexible.

So stop number one was Zhongshan Ling, the mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (remember, the George Washington of China? I told you about him here). This was our favorite Flagship field trip, and we knew that Spencer's family would love it too.

Disappointment. Turns out the major stairs and actual mausoleum are closed on Mondays. Boo.

So we turned back around and instead headed to Fuzimiao, the Confucius temple and shopping area. As per usual, we spent a lot of money and enjoyed looking for the perfect souvenirs.

Fun dumplings

The temple

The sales lady pointed to Krystal, then looked at me
and said "Hen hao!" as she waved her hands in front
of her-making a woman's curves. She thought Krystal
was beautiful and had an amazing body. She was right.
But it sure made me laugh.

Hand carved chops (stamps). In China you stamp your
signature instead of hand-signing.

After another session of shop-til-you-drop, we rounded up our new purchases and then headed home. But first we made a quick stop at another one of our favorite restaurants for a late lunch (note for future self: Taiwan Style Rice right next to campus) and picked up sandwiches for dinner at another favorite, Skyways (note for future self: AMAZING chicken salad sandwiches).

Sweet and sour and kung-pao chicken fried rice. So yummy!

We finished packing up, took all the luggage downstairs, and that was it. We were officially moved out. And I was sad. Our apartment was little. It was foreign. It had very few things in it. But it was home. And oh, how much we loved our home.

Spencer and I hung back to say goodbye and to remember how happy we were there. A few tears may have been shed. But we had to leave, and my heart broke a little as we closed the door for the last time.

Our friends from the branch were nice enough to let us borrow their driver to get to the train station so we all piled in for the short drive. We bought our tickets, took one last look at the Nanjing skyline (and maybe shed another tear or two), and we were off to Shanghai.

Goodbye Nanjing

Stingy with the cheez-its

Birthday Fireworks

So remember that big roll of fireworks that we got for Krystal?

She was just a little excited about it.

And even more excited to light them off.

Want to know what it's like to set off 10,000 firecrackers?

You're welcome.

Saying Goodbye

Our second day in Nanjing was the hardest. I hate goodbyes.

We loved our friends in China. We loved our church branch. I loved my Primary kids. And we hated leaving them.

My rambunctious 7 year old

Oh how I miss this kid...

 Our last Sunday, and our last dinner group. Bah, I'm tearing up just looking at these pictures.

Sadness

Yay for British friends!

It wasn't all serious, though. We really enjoyed showing the family how we got to and from church and introducing them to the people who had become family. And we had to finish packing up our apartment and things got a little silly.

But really, you never realize how much you have come to love people until you have to say goodbye to them. Even now, when I think about our time in China the first thing to come to mind is people. I see faces, and that is what I miss the most.

Alrighty, there must be something in the air, my eyes are all watery. Sheesh.

Home Sweet Home

I don't know why, but I was almost surprised by how excited I was to go back to Nanjing. I was tired, and I wanted to go home.

Home.

It's nice to take the time to remember that China was home. We loved our life there.

Anyways, we got back LATE (or early, however you want to look at it) and we were very excited to crash and go to sleep.

We had reserved a hotel room for the parents at the hotel right next door so we wouldn't have to all crowd in our little studio apartment and we had set up bed spaces for everyone else at our place before we left so we could just get in and go straight to bed. Spencer took Mom and Dad to check in while the girls and I went up to our apartment and just a few minutes later Spencer walked into the apartment...with the parents...and all of their luggage. Turns out the hotel NO LONGER TAKES FOREIGNERS. My jaw literally dropped as Spencer tells me this. So here's what happened: the Chinese government requires everyone to register wherever you go within the country. So, for instance, if you live in Nanjing and go to Beijing for a week then you are supposed to register with the police in Beijing so they know that you're there. To facilitate this process, the government has it set up so that hotels can register for you (which is why you have to present your passport at every hotel in China). Apparently the law had just recently changed as to how hotels do that, and the hotel next door "was not equipped" to handle the new system.

So it's 2:30 am, we're all EXHAUSTED, and we have to completely rearrange our entire apartment to make sleeping space for everyone.

Let's just say I was less than pleased.

And in retrospect, I realize that we never took a picture of our crazy sleeping arrangements. Shame on me.

So with our late night, we decided to throw all our preconceived plans out the window for our first day in Nanjing. We had a mountain of laundry to do, we were all tired, and we just needed to recover from a week of going nonstop. So we stayed home instead. We did laundry, played games, and Spencer and I gave out presents.

Fireworks, baby!

I miss this view...

That night for dinner we went to Spicy Joint, one of our favorite restaurants in Nanjing, with the remaining Flagship couples (most of them had gone back to the States by then). We ended up waiting for FOREVER to get a table because there were so many of us, but it was a very fun night and we really enjoyed introducing Spencer's family to our friends and to some of our favorite Chinese foods.

Low-key, but very productive. And that was day one in Nanjing.