Goodbye, my Chinese maid.

This morning the maid decided to come in at nine o' clock. 

Usually she comes in around lunchtime, and most of the time I happen to be randomly there. 

She always comes to the door, knocks twice, and, no matter what I do, opens the door of her own accord. She then grins widely and says, "Ni hao blablablaChinesesomethingaboutcleaning."And I just nod, bewildered.

Then she moves around all my junk, makes my unusual bed, and probably inwardly thinks terrible thoughts about this messy blond America. 

Sometimes I'm in the bathroom.

Sometimes I'm not dressed. 

Sometimes I'm sleeping. 

AND YET she always comes. 

I guess it's good to have a clean room....even if I occasionally find a stranger's toenail on my comforter.

Don't laugh. It's happened twice.

(yeah, that's my bed. It's really hard.)

Tomorrow will be the last day I see the maid, as tomorrow is my last day. On Wednesday we had practice teaching, yesterday we finished our classes, today we get commissioned, and tomorrow I climb on a train to Taiyuan with my team. 

Beijing has had its good days and its bad days, mostly depending on my stomach and how much smog is in the sky. It will be nice to get out of a hotel, but not so nice to say goodbye to the people I've made friendships with this month who all are going to different cities far away. They've made life a little more normal and secure in this unfamiliar place, and this weekend I'll have to begin that process all over again. 

Two good things: 

Yesterday was the first time I went outside and walked to a restaurant with a group of people and didn't start daydreaming about somewhere I'd rather be. It was kind of weird.

Practice teaching on Wednesday reminded me of how much I love teaching. Yeah, the kids pretty much stared at me the whole time and didn't get everything I was saying, but I felt alive. This year will be hard and there will be a lot of days I don't feel great, but interacting with kids is something I'm passionate about. 

I think I forgot.