Sunday, January 11, 2009 ;
3:24 PM
5th Jan
Mon
We had someone from afar come to visit.
Xizzy was an ex-student. I didn't teach her class, but gave lectures and S paper and Olympiad trainings to them as a cohort. She was from the 03 batch. An excellent Bio student and Vice-President of the Students Council for the college.
However, she became my ex-colleague when she was waiting for her A level results.
She taught Bio as a relief tr. She also taught Physics and Chem at different times too, cos she was an all-rounder.
She got a scholarship and is in Germany now for her studies. She travelled all over Europe and the area during her vacations and this time she said she was coming over to China. Turns out her good Uni mate in Germany has relatives in China and invited her to visit China and stay with her. She was in Beijing for a few days and took the high speed train to Tianjin to visit me on the 5th.
I was buying groceries at e-mart when she arrived in Tianjin and called me, so she took the cab to e-mart to meet me and H, then we proceeded to the wet market.
After that we were at my humble abode the whole day. We cooked lunch together, walked out to pick ds2 up from the bus stop, she played with the kids... She brought a chocolate Santa, and 2 pkts of Haribo gummies for the kids. They loved all of it. They would've finished up the gummies at one sitting if they could!
She also sang the Haribo song in German for ds2, quite cute. And read Chinese stories to him. Then when ds2 was napping, she babysat him while I went out to pick ds1 up.
When ds1 got back, she played Battleship on paper with him. They had a lot of fun.
I kept asking her, you sure you don't want to do the touristy thing? She said she just wanted to visit me and play with the kids. I think that's really sweet. That seriously doesn't sound fun to me, but she was content to remain in my apt and just catch up.
The next day, my ayi even asked me, "你那位朋友这么年轻啊！我看你们这么多话说，想必是老朋友，但她又这么年轻啊！” (You and your friend sure have lots to catch up on, like you haven't seen each other for ages! But, erm, your friend looks really young eh?)
I had to explain, yes, xiz was my student, and yes, huh, the age difference shows right? Good for xiz and not so good for me.
We were having too much fun, I forgot to take pics totally.
Here's a pic of the lunch we had, only taken after she left, cos the left overs were for my neighbor H (curry chicken), and for Dh's dinner. Xiz paid for the fruits at the wet market. We tried out the small mandarin oranges and cherries. The kids loved the small mandies so much, I'll buy more this week.
Xizzy can eat a lot. Very healthy appetite. It's nice when you cook a meal and have the guest eat sooo much and go back to get a second helping of rice and tuck in some more.
Finally, she had to leave at 5+pm cos it was getting darker by the min and she needed abt 1.5hrs at least to get home to her friend in Beijing.
This was taken on her cam as I walked her out. She emailed it to me upon reaching Germany. It's nice to have friends visit us from overseas. What a wonderful day.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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