In China, people will tell you to always expect the unexpected, and when things change, just go with the flow. Usually, something will change unexpectedly, forcing you to adapt your lesson plans or dinner arrangements. These days, the change didn’t happen around me, it was upon me! Fortunately, going with the flow is growing on me (little by little)…

First, Rachael announced that she would be leaving. It turns out, teaching at the kindergarten, or, teaching at all for that matter, just is not right for her. After she showed up at the high school suddenly, it soon became obvious. Learning from experience, as merely a week ago Helen turned up unexpectedly announcing she was going back to Scotland, we put in all effort to convince Rachael to stay (if not at CHES, at least in China). Unfortunately, unlike Helen, whom we managed to persuade, Rachael had firmly made up her mind. She would be going home as soon as possible. She will be missed, or…! The evening she came up to the high school, we (Rachael, Christine, Sven, and me) had dinner at a nearby hotel (and a lovely foot massage, where after I learned from Rachael that her mom is a librarian at a school in Oklahoma.

My readers don’t know this yet, as I haven’t mentioned it in my blogs, but, CHES has a library! However, it is in need of some attention, and, being a bit of a bookworm, I couldn’t keep my nose out of it, and am currently in the process of jolting it back to life (slowly). With the help of Bob, an American teacher at CHES high, the last week or so has been spend on showing the students around the library and exploring what needs to be done to get the old girl into shape. We have received many positive reactions from the students! So far, so good.

Now, when Rachael appeared at CHES high, I thought a distraction from talking about going home might be in order, so I took her for a little tour of the library. Later that evening, we spoke to her mother (on Skype) who was very attentive in answering all my newbie-questions about managing a library for a school. Rachael was also very enthusiastic about the whole thing, so, who knows? Perhaps, even from distant Oklahoma, Rachael might still make an appearance in this blog.

Another surprising event that occurred that very evening during dinner was that Sven announced that… we were as of now illegal in China! Our visas having expired this day (actually, mine was still valid for two days) we could have been kicked out of the country. Christine, after recovering from the initial shock, immediately arranged for me and Sven to have our visas renewed in… Hong Kong! She managed to arrange for everything that very evening, and, bright and early the next morning, put us on the ferry to the peninsula.

So, Tuesday morning, instead of starting the speaking test in my 5c class and giving vocabulary homework to my 4s, I found myself on the ferry to Hong Kong, my head buzzing with directions and my purse full of money (both arranged for by Christine) on my way to the immigration office. (Thanks to all the teachers for taking over my classes!!!)

The typhoon currently circling over Hong Kong had its way with the ferry, making the ride quite bumpy and causing massive rainfall which my scrawny umbrella could hardly cope with. Since, after our visit to the visa office, we had nothing to do (besides have breakfast at Starbucks) we decided to explore the city (finding approx. 12 Starbucks’, 16 McDonalds’, one very special Café, and a Bookstore). All of these proved blessings, as, although the rain could be coped with, we got quite tired of having to dodge umbrellas all the time (the Hong Kong people being of a smaller statue). Being indoors was definitely preferable to being outdoors, even though this was much more costly (especially the bookstore).

Around seven in the evening, we went back to the ferry to pick up Rachael, who had booked a ticket for a plane from Hong Kong the following morning. Making our way to the CHES-owned apartment took about an hour, after which we spend the remainder of the evening finding a restaurant and walking through town some more. Around midnight, Rachael and I lured Sven into a McDonalds, bought some ice-cream and, at the top of our lungs, sang ‘happy birthday’ to him (it being his birthday the 22nd of September).

He was not amused. Fortunately, we had the ice-cream to protect us from his wrath… ; )

Rachael left early the next morning, and Sven and I went to collect our visas. Then, back onto the ferry, and home. Fortunately, no shocking or astonishing things happened. We’d had enough of that for a while…