The End!

Welp, here I am at the Beijing airport, waiting to board. We said our
almost-teary and amply-behugged farewells with Sally's hilarious
Buddhist aunt and uncle watching. They gave us bracelets, as did her
Nanjing aunt, which is sweet. Whereas I ran out of gifts-from-America
by the time I got to them (I brought three little dishes of
chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe's, two of which
were intended for them but got distributed early, including one for
the uncle who painted my scrolls. He purportedly didn't recognize them
as food? Like he's one to talk? Chicken feet? Also, while I'm on the
topic, we couldn't figure out how I could get my scrolls back
undamaged so he's having them bound! Like with the two handles, I
think? And Sally's dad will bring them back to the US for me. I'll
just have to drive to Aurora to get them at some point.)

Whew! What a ramble. So it's over! I have one more post in me, I
suspect, to tell ya'll about the rest of Nanjing and our last couple
days in Beijing. Highlights: Nothing else happened in Nanjing except
that we got the worst massages ever - massages should not be painful -
and Sally's aunt flirted her way past a security guard so we could see
Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum for free. Beijing was great, very relaxed - we
saw the Temple of Heaven, definitely a temple!, the Summer Palace, and
the 798 art district, which I totally loved and where we most notably
met a 35ish Austrian artist who was squatting in an unused space that
served as studio, bedroom and post-artsy-rave inflatable-pool-centered
hangout. His main work consists of performance pieces where he
constructs motorized pedicabs and rides them around the city. It's
subversive, explain later.

And maybe reflections? On how meaningful it all was?

Okay! Time to board. Love!
Beike