This post was nearly called ‘Make Friends-Friends Move’ or even ‘The Nature of the Beast’ but at 1 am in the morning I decided on the title ‘Au Revoir Peng you’ which translated from French and Chinese into English is something like ‘so long friend’ right? At this stage of year in an international school it is all about endings, the joy of ending another year with report writing coupled with the sadness over saying goodbye to students, teachers and friends.
Now you have to realize this is a first for me. I LOVE MY SLEEP. I do not get up in the middle of the night to do anything let alone blog. BUT something just happened and I started writing this post in my sleep and I got thinking and thinking and thinking and bang! I just had to get up and get started.My vision is to have a super cute shot of Hannah and Syd and Mimi and Sojo on here within the next couple of days, (well hey, that is what this post is about isn’t it? I only have a couple of days, well, four to be exact to catch these little peng you’s on film) and my vision includes having them wearing matching clothes! Sick I know but I can’t help myself, I started thinking about Mimi and Sojo in their little turqoise spotties and then before you know it I also had Han and Syd in their pink or even their stripey H & M’s. We will see if I can pull off the photo, I have no control of that in the middle of the night but I can at least work on the post…
Sydney and Hannah…a special friendship.
So we are going out on a high with our friends the Munno’s (aka Jen, Tim and Sydney Munnerlyn. We have been getting friendlier by the day for the last three years, brought together by a couple of 4 year old girls, we have formed and sustained our own grown-up friendship that will be the one that carries us into the future. We fly to Melbourne on Friday for a summer/winter break and we return to Shanghai in August…the Munno’s fly to the States on Saturday and will start school again in August…but in Abu Dhabi!
It has caused us to think about friendship and transience and beginnings, endings and in betweens. It has made us happy at the thought of seeing them again under different circumstances and sad at the farewell to all that we know and the routineness of our time together here; the things we have come to expect and take for granted. Most of our friendship has been pre-Mimi and we think of those days as the golden days of parenting an only child. Golden only in that it was like having all the benefits of two children but without the extra responsibility, Sydney was the daughter we got to have over but never discipline, she brightened our days without ever darkening our mood. She and Hannah have clocked up many hours together on weekends and weeknights, on school buses and in school playgrounds, and even in Phuket and Koh Samui! Believe me, it hasn’t always been perfect, there have been tantrums, traumas and tears but mostly Sydney and Hannah being friends meant that Jen and Tim and Simon and I were able to claim back some of those pre-children days as we could trade off time on weekends and take turns looking after the two of them while we went out and about exploring Shanghai, spending time together knowing that they were happy and we could be guilt-free in our explorations.
But on top of their friendship, the bonus of a grown up friendship slowly developed which saw us booking flights in advance to Thailand and just hoping we would all still get on…and get on we did…for two trips; one to Koh Samui- a five night test run and later with more confidence-7 nights in Phuket.
So knowing we will see them again, but not knowing what is around the corner in the future, makes a melancholy soul like me reflect on the past a little and lament the loss of what was.
the barefoot librarian 
Nice post,Mrs.Power! I will miss you soooooooooo much!You’re my best teacher I ever had! You’re always beside me and helped me every time! You also encouraged me every time! Keep touch,forever with you and Love you forever!
Jes, forever with you, keep touch!
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Kimbra!!! You are making me silly sad… and I’m not like that. No tears on leaving ever. I’ve told you that though. I just can’t be sad when I leave because I’m too excited about the next- thing, place, friends.
However, what I didn’t tell you about was the after-arriving-tears. Those come when you least expect it. I’ll be driving Sydney to her first equestrian lesson in 50 degree heat next year and it will hit me- “I wonder what the Powers are doing right now?” Then I’ll be sad, lost and lonely.
The good news- I’ll sum it up in one ever important word: Skype.
Be on. Always be on.
We love you guys and can’t wait for you to visit us in the next place. (And how exciting when we can visit you in your next…)
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Hey Mrs.Power!
Great post! I know what you mean about friends leaving and all that stuff…. A LOT of my closest friends are leaving SAS PD and transferring to SAS PX or they’re definitely leaving Shanghai. It’s rly sad but you know, there’s a LOT of ways for us to communicate except for some time problems. Those pictured of MIMI and SOJO are soooo cute! Too bad Mimi wasn’t there for the last 2 days… 😦 😀 Anyways, enjoy the summer with Mr. P, Hannah and Mimi Mrs. Power! Keep in touch! I’ll miss you!
~ @ndy 😉
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Hey, I’m going to posting alot on my blog to keep in touch.
I’m really going to miss people this year.
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Hey Mrs. Power
Mimi is soooo cute in all the pictures!
I’m still sick and I’ve been taking lots of shots!! I’m so sad I wasn’t there during the last few days of school. I miss you!
Elaine
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HELLO Mrs. Power,
I have good news, I’m almost fully recovered! YAY! 🙂 Your family’s friendship with the Munno’s reminds me of my family’s friendship with a family back in America. Bonnie(the friend from the family) was obsessed with turtles, she’d act like one too, she’s good at acting like one! I miss her and I miss you too! She has a baby sister named Jodi. Mimi looks soooooooooooooooooooo cute in that picture! The shirt really, pops!!!!! I know that your friendship with the Munno’s will last for as long as you want it to last, but you can’t make a mistake. You have to keep your temper, you have to help them and be there for them through hard times and that’s how I keep a healthy relationship with Bonnie, I advise you to do the same thing and remember: YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT FRIENDS AND FRIENDS CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! Oh and, I taught myself that friendship is just like a TV show, the ups and downs will have to happen sometimes! By the way, I can give you a lot of tips about friendship, because I’ve had the most evil friends, and friends that are the ones that are always watching my back and comforting me and keeping me happy! I’m really big on friendship and it’s a topic I bring up oftenly. So, that’s all I have to say! I miss you lots and lots and lots!
~You are the best teacher anybody can have and that’s a fact,
~Chloe:-) 😀 😛
P.S:Friends leaving you just makes you feel like they’re more special, and it makes you feel heart broken(well, it might. It really depends on wher they are moving to). When I moved to China, my friends kept in touch, but only one of them-which is Bonnie of course-sent me a birthday present. It just tells you how much friends care for you. I’ve left lots of good friends, but lots of good friends LEFT me, but that’s life, people have to go sometimes. The thing I learned with friendship was that, friends are hard to make, good and loyal friends are harder to find, and leaving them is the hardest. If I had the power to heal, I would jump of the Jin Mao Tower and not get a scratch, I would fall from fourty floors and not get a scratch, I would make lots of friends, but leaving the friends hurts the most. That’s all! Have a fantabulous summer!!!
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Keaton’s blog search reasults are here . . .
1 – Mrs. Power’s first entry in the blog was January 23rd, 2007.
2 – The 5 girls that did the hat dance were Kate, Cristina, Paige, Letitia and Elley.
3 – I have absulutily no idea how in the world that the people on that vidio did that clothes changing so fast it was so fast and so amazing. Now the whole day i will be wondering how they did that.
4 – I belive that olive was 108 years old when she past away.
5 – The very best bloggers of October 2007 were Min Ji Lee and Isabella Wang.
Those are my answers for Blog hunt on Mrs. Power’s blog.
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Keaton, you need to copy and paste this response and put as a reply in the post ‘How well do you know my blog’
Mrs P
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