Pictures from Narnia

Everyone knows that I went to China for a year and taught the cutest second graders in the world. 

It was hard, and I loved the people there a lot. 

A LOT. 

Then I came home and didn't talk to them anymore. It was over. Ka-put. 

Most people in China don't use facebook. They use something called QQ (which is more like myspace), and in order to find people on it you have to have their number. 

When I got back to America I made a QQ account but I didn't have any of my friends' numbers. 

No numbers, no friends.

I felt cut off. 

VERY cut off, in fact. 

For the last few months I've been wrestling with feeling alone in my experiences. I did so much in China, knew and loved so many people, and spent a year trying to adjust to the smog and smells.

 But nobody in my daily life now was there with me.

In some ways it's like trying to tell my friends about Narnia.

Really, sometimes you couldn't see the sky AT ALL.

To say 'thank you' you say 'xie xie'...no, not like that.

Chinese food is like stir fry...but better, and not with frozen vegetables, and actually not at all like stir fry. And they have this thing that they make with sweet potatoes and melted sugar that's like...well, nevermind. But it's really good. I promise.

Even if I don't think about China during the daytime, I sometimes have vivid dreams about going back to visit and seeing my students--who in the dreams have gotten taller and forgotten me. 

Yikes.

In one last attempt to reach back into my school in Taiyuan, I emailed Fabio's aunt in September to ask for his mailing address. I sent him a letter and I was scared to death that it wouldn't get there. Of course, there wasn't really a way for me to know unless his aunt sent me a message to tell me.

Then I had an idea. 

I decided to ask a foreign teacher who is at the school this year to pass on my QQ number to my old co-teachers. 

Two days ago, this happened:

Jane, Ann, and Angel. 

Some of my funny, sweet, wonderful co-teachers used my number to find me and I got to talk to them--really talk.

I got to see them and hear the funny ways they phrase things and feel the joy and life that they bring to conversations. 

Then--JOY OF JOYS--two of my old students, Josie and Celia, came into the office where my co-teachers were, rushed to the screen, and exclaimed, "Mees Love!!!"

I nearly wet myself with excitement. 

Last night we talked again. They told me about how Ann is getting married tomorrow and Evelyn is getting married next month. Candy and Sunny had babies. Angel wants a boyfriend more than I want chocolate cake. They sent me pictures of my students, whom they are teaching again for 3rd grade English. And Ann was excited to let me know that she is helping Fabio write me a return letter.

I can't even put words to how these few pictures made me feel.

I believe it was the way the Pevensie children would have felt if Mr. Tumnus had texted them pictures of Narnia after they tumbled back out of the wardrobe. 

As if to say, "It was real...and these people still love you."