| | SO today is Wednesday, and I leave Beijing on Friday  sad times indeed. How has my last week been? Pretty good 
Friday Shirley from BJTU took Ellen (RUC CEEDer from The Netherlands), Chris and I shopping at a market near the zoo. Man, I wish I'd been there earlier! Heaps of nice clothes, really cheap, not too busy. The most shopping fun I've had the whole time I've been here!  Thanks Shirley!
Farewell Party for me and Chris was at Black Sun Bar 2 at Chaoyang Park Friday night. Incidentally, the same place as I Pearl and I had our surprise birthday party in June last year. Couches, good music thats not so loud you can't speak, pool tables and cheap drinks! Heaps of people came so we were really happy, and we even got presents!  Just a lovely, relaxing evening.
Saturday Adam, Ellen, Chris, Delfy, Sonja (Delfy's girlfriend who's visiting at the mo) and I went to the Minority Park. It's a huge outdoor place with different areas for each Chinese minority. Parts of it were under construction (but looked abandoned), some parts looked fine but still abandoned, and some performers were too lazy to perform for us! BUT some areas were cool, with interesting dances, songs, costumes and stories about their cultures. It was nice to spend an afternoon outdoors in the sun (I didn't get brown at ALL! ) and to learn a bit more about China outside of Han culture! Afterwards we went to Leon's family's place, as they live nearby. His parents cooked a huge feast for all of us, they're so lovely! It was interesting to have the usual kind of questions too... "Did you have to get approval from your parents to come to China?". 
Sunday Chris and I were treated to lunch by a few of the UIBE guys. As always it was smiles and laughs all around, plus great food  . Sad to say goodbye as I've spent a lot of time with them this year, especially the outgoing and also incoming EBs.
This week has mostly been a mixture of sorting through all the stuff I've accumulated this year (my desk alone was a minor nightmare  ), packing, tying up stuff for transition, and having all of those final Beijing experiences! These included shopping at Wangfujing (thanks again Shirley!), DVD at Nick's, an afternoon spent randomly catching buses around the city, taking and printing more photos, Peking Duck, and today.... going with Chris to get our nails done! We both had our toe nails treated and painted, and I had my finger nails done too. I feel like a princess 
Tomorrow is team day, and Friday is D-Day, so stay tuned for the next update direct from somewhere a LOT further South from here!
Luv and hugs, flic 
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