Zai Jian!

this may come as a surprise, but i've never been too good with goodbyes.
ordeals of tears and strained embraces never really suited my taste.
so if some ends go untied, it's just a few letters off from 'united,'
and when you're using slant rhyme, a few letters off works just fine.

Since I made my last appearance I've been busy taking care of the China essentials, enjoying my last bit of time in Charlottesville, and organizing goodbyes. The China essentials included getting my shots and my visa. I was a little concerned about the visa, for a few reasons. Even though I'm going to work, I've been instructed to get a tourist visa because they get processed more quickly, and my employers will get my work visa for me once I get there. This sounded fine initially, but I started to wonder just how sketchy that was. I was also a little incredulous about how easy it seemed to get a visa to China from the United States. Leaving from Canada, Laura kept mentioning all of these things she needed in order to secure her visa such as a recent physical and flight itineraries for both the arrival and departure flights. I don't have health insurance nor a physician from whom to get a physical (there's a free health clinic in Charlottesville, I know, I know), and I obviously don't have a departure flight from China yet, so I was a little worried. However, nowhere on the embassy's list of necessities for Americans did it mention these things, so I just took a deep breath and my metro card and set out for DC. Ultimately I prevailed.

Though no physical was required for the visa, I obviously still needed shots. $106.95 later, I am now safe from Typhoid, Hepatitis A, and Polio. I'm considering getting quinine pills for malaria just in case, but I heard they're vicious and give you terrible nightmares. Strangely, I'm a little curious about these nightmares, and kind of want to see what all the talk's about.

As for enjoying my last bit of time in Charlottesville, there were a few final things that needed doing, namely tubing on the James. Somehow I'd made it through nearly three summers in Charlottesville without participating in this summer standard activity because it never worked out in my schedule. Last Tuesday Emilie, Christin, Chas, Nate and I suited up and made it happen. Wednesday we decorated T-shirts and created makeshift gold chains a la "1980" to commemorate a favorite party tune at our final trivia, where we won neither the halftime teamname pitcher nor the entire event, but had a good time nevertheless. On Friday "Good-bye Day" we had a girls' dinner at Mono Loco (where I added to my collection of going away present T-shirts! I got one from the Box, Boylan Heights, Mono Loco, the Virginian, and my work shirt from Three, so I will be representing appropriately in China) and had one last round of our favorite game: "Trapped in the Closet"-- R. Kelly's hip-hopera masterpiece.

with a spatula in my hand... (spatulaaaaa)

Organizing goodbyes is never a fun activity, nor did it prove easy for those involved in my surprise barbeque lunch on Saturday. I knew my old roommate Kathy was coming down from New York City Friday night, but when all flights out of JFK were canceled due to the storm, I did not understand why it was imperative for her to take a bus that night and then drive from DC (arriving in Charlottesville at 4:30 am) rather than waiting until the next morning. I needed to sell my coffee table that was in Emilie and Christin's living room, but didn't understand why Emilie appeared so stressed and agitated by my presence there. Or why there was a mysterious bowl filled with hardboiled eggs on the counter. I knew we'd made plans to go winetasting, but didn't understand why people were so insistent in spite of the rain. I knew we needed to pick up Julia, but didn't understand why we all needed to go up to her apartment to do so. Or why their little grill was set up outside the door, in the rain.

Ohhhhh! A surprise barbeque! And Tyler and Arden Spencer had come to town! And there were delicious tomatoes and deviled eggs and avocado salad and corn and broiled peaches! And Emilie gave me a whistle necklace in case things go awry in China (we call it my "kidney saving necklace.") It was a wonderful gesture on the part of my wonderful friends, who I will all miss dearly, and who were able to make it a success in spite of...

The plans I'd made on the side to go to DC for the evening to see Meghan, my roommate from Rome who was in town from San Francisco for the weekend. They had to last-minute change the party from a dinner affair to a lunch one, but it all came together beautifully. Hitched a ride with Caleb and Bonnie up to DC, and came up at the Smithsonian metro station in time to catch one of the most stunning sunsets I've ever seen. It was a very fitting parting glance at the capital of the country I'll be leaving for a year.

this is with no color enhancement... amazing.

Had an impromptu Cash Cab session where we got all the answers wrong and not only didn't get kicked out, but actually got a free few blocks when he stopped the meter early on the way to a Thai restaurant where we had a good but slightly rushed dinner as I had to be back on my way to Charlottesville for Christin's last night in town. Bye Christin! I'll see you for birthday dinner in Arlington on Wednesday!

Yesterday was my last full day in town. My boss, George, invited me to join he and his friends at the Sunday Opera Brunch we're now doing at Siips that was quite impressive. We were given programs that had the non-English songs translated, and the final lines from "Obeissons quand leur voix appelle" from the Massenet opera "Manon" struck me as appropriate to this time in my/our lives:

enjoy the benefits of youth.
alas, spring is very short.
love, sing, laugh without ceasing.
we will not always be twenty years old.

Said goodbye to Kathy and Christin, then Julia and I grabbed dinner at Himalayan Fusion. Met the Siips crew at 9 as they were closing down. They made me this great little farewell book and we went across the way to Zocalo then Miller's for a few farewell drinks. Thank you so much, Siips friends, for all of the great times both in and out of the workplace we've had this past year and a half. You will all be missed and probably receive postcards!

Finally, a couple of us made out way to the corner for one last corner hurrah. Boylan to Three, until "Wagon Wheel" came on and made Julia and me cry in public and we decided it was time to call it a night. Had one last Bodo's breakfast, going to have one last Christian's lunch with my brother in an hour, and then it's au revoir to dear Charlottesville. Or, as I just learned and should be practicing:

goodbye

Perhaps more appropriately...:

see you again

And I know, I know how insanely long this has already become, but I really have to close with just one more quote, from Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, that sums up my sentiments concerning my departure quite nicely. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone here who has made an impact on my life. If any of you have even half as many amazing memories as I've accumulated in the past four years, consider yourself lucky. I know I do.

you know my dislike for saying 'Good-bye'... to say i was sorry to leave you all is to put it only one half as strongly as i feel.
-charles mckim

[quick edit:] Pictures from last night register only as "corrupted data" on my memory card for some reason :(. So just imagine the really cute roomie pic I was going to post of Perry, Kate, and myself.