Farewell...Or Maybe Not Then

On Friday the school threw a big farewell lunch for me. All of the English teachers and all the school leaders were there. It promised to be big. It was. We were hit harder with the alcohol than we have been for a long, long time. I didn't want to be pissy about it. I wanted to say thank you to the school, so I drank.
I broke off before I got too bad to take photos with everyone. I will miss them very much. We were never very close, but all the teachers there were always very friendly and welcoming. I got to work very closely with some, and wish I had with others. Although they'll never read this, I want to record my heartfelt thanks to them for all their help and kindness to me this past year. In particular I have appreciated the help of Susan, our foreign affairs officer. She has been our Chinese mother here and I feel that she knows and understands me the most. I've been grateful for that.
Anyway, after the photos it was back to the table for more drinking. We'd finished all the beer at this point, so we moved on to the rice wine. I drank 10 cups with Principal Li (below) and apparently 4 more with the party secretary before we settled back to provide money for the leaders to play cards for us.
I don't really remember what happened after that. Apparently from the photos that were taken we went exploring. I don't know who these people were who I'm sat with but I think the two on the left are dead.
It was an interesting time. I went home to bed. The next I can recall is that it was 7pm. The whole time students were stopping over to say goodbye and I don't remember a thing. I must have just been drunk at them and that is a shame. We were called out for KTV in the evening, which lasted a long long time. Ironically enough we were taken to the very same KTV place that doubles up as a police-protected house of ill-repute that we'd been taken to in our very first week in Lanshan and which kicked off all these messed-up adventures in the first place. We couldn't believe it. That was one entry I couldn't write up but ask me about it when you see me. It's the best. This time was much more decent but we had whole families with us and yet no-one thought that was a problem. It's strange what people can choose not to see.

So Friday was busy. Yesterday was just as busy. We got paid our bonuses. I now have about 15000 yuan sat in my desk drawer, in a wad of 100 yuan notes about 2cm thick. With some of this I bought a new phone - a Motorola Razr, top of the range, which is unusual for me. I've never had a nice phone before and this one is nice. They're cheaper over here, plus you've got the advantage that you can get the price down even further. I got it for 1800 yuan, about 120 quid. Bargain. I then had another dinner invite, more students and one last game of badminton before I had to give my racket away. It was fun, but left me no time whatsoever to pack, which is why I'm now sitting here instead of on the bus to Guangzhou. Any more of these wonderful farewells and I'll never get to leave!