School year coming to a close...

OK I know I said this post wouldn't be colorful, but I did
snap a few shots on my phone, so I'll include these images.
We toured the Hape Toy Factory, learning about how the
bamboo toys and inventions are created!

So it's 2:36am and I can't sleep. So. Much. Going. On.  (After a dinner and fun times with friends, gathering together for a good friend's birthday at Beilun's finest foreign hotel--the HoJo--I now just finished baking 4 dozen cookies, a loaf of banana bread, and a couple banana cakes, passing the baking time writing farewell notes!)

SUCH a happy camper, our Jetterz is!  :)

I have been meaning to blog little things here and there, but haven't had the time, because, as many of you know and understand well, you get caught up in the here-and-now and just want to enjoy every minute and every drop of joy found in the good company of those who surround you during these times of transition-- I mean, it's more important to do so than to sit at a computer blogging! Therefore, I have no less than 1,500 photos that I've been taking, as snapshots of these precious times. I will go through them when during the long travels in the air, or waiting in airports on layovers, perhaps. So this will be a somewhat dull and colorless blog without photos, for the sake of time. (I probably should force myself to sleep more than three hours tonight before the last day of school tomorrow!)

Bamboo-bench sitters, Kari and I are!

As a brief catch up, yesterday was observed as a National Holiday, the legal day that the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated (Wednesday, since I'm still considering this night "Thursday," even though I'm two and a half hours into Friday, China time). This holiday is traditionally celebrated by making sticky rice dumplings that are wrapped in bamboo leaves and steam-cooked (called zongzi). Some of our moms and kids made some at school last week in celebration. Anyway, we had to take Wednesday off in observance of the holiday (which seemed oh-so-silly to have off a day in the middle of the last week of school, but, alas, our school board didn't want to pay us triple for "overtime" salary, which Chinese government requires businesses to do for working on national holidays).

Hauling the decorated bamboo posts up to the forest area

So, on Wednesday, we went back out to the Bamboo Forest to have a day of rainy recreation. The purpose this time, as a family and kid-friendly day trip, was to place some paint-decorated bamboo posts, as guiding poles along the path through the forest, over the hill, and leading to the reservoir. Other members of the troupe made a bridge. Still others worked on fashioning a firepit, bamboo benches, and a makeshift "tables" out of bamboo, for a 'campsite' of sorts that can be utilized in the future by others as well! Though wet and colder (maybe the mid-to-low 70s?), a good time was had as we made Hobo Stews in tinfoil packets, and then enjoyed a muddy game of bocce ball out in the bumpy bamboo forest floor.

The bridge that was built

That afternoon/evening, I led the last ICFC youth group with a few of the students from AIAN, sharing a good time of reflection and music, as the rainy, foggy day drizzled to a close. I concluded my holiday by watching So You Think You Can Dance with my buddy Kate. (Which we will resume doing when we're reunited in the Evergreen State in just a few short weeks, after Dad comes to visit and tour with me here in China! June 22-July 2!)

Busy, busy, busy! End-of-the-school year festivities are dragging out (as is customary in international schools, I take it). More details to come on that later, with photos, of course!

Now to sleep!