The slow unravelling

In which I begin to say goodbye

Last week, I went into the kitchen to feed my sourdough starter. I opened the jar and saw the surface writhing. Gosh, it’s active today, I thought. The weather’s warmed up now, so my fermentations (sourdough and kombucha) have been going a lot faster than during the winter. A split second later, I saw that the activity in the sourdough was not happy bubbles from yeast and bacteria, but an infestation of fruit fly larvae, the tiny pale maggots swimming in the starter like a soup of aliens from a low-budget sci-fi horror. I hastily shut the jar again. And decided that at this stage in the game, with just two months left before leaving the country, there’s no point starting another one. The slow unravelling of life in Canal Town has begun.

I won’t properly say goodbye to this city and this country until later in the summer, but the farewells have already begun. Classes have finished, and I’ve said goodbye to most of my students. My freshman engineering classes, who I’ve been with all year, seemed the most affected. Some came to thank me for teaching them, one lad gave me an unexpected hug, and my class of livewires from Guangdong gave me a characteristically spunky response. Before telling them I was leaving, I had been encouraging them to do their best in their final presentations, assessed by my colleagues. “Will you make me proud of you?” I asked. Then, after giving them my little farewell speech, “William” raised his hand.

“When you go back, can you teach Chinese to students in Scotland?” he asked.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Well,” he said, “will you make us proud?”

“I’ll try!” I replied. It was bittersweet.

I’ll still see students around campus the next couple of weeks, and will be interacting with some of them as I answer questions about their final writing project and so on, but that’s the last time I’ll likely have meaningful interaction with many of them. One of many milestones on the road to departure.

Meanwhile, I’ve started slowly sorting my belongings, deciding what things to ship home and what things to give away. When friends come over, I encourage them to leave with photo frames or candle holders. I’m trying to use up the random ingredients that lurk in the backs of cupboards. I’m no longer restocking with bulk buys of cheese or imported UHT milk from Taobao.

I hope someone will cherish my plants. The rose is doing well, and the first of the chillies are bearing fruit. The radishes bolted (perhaps it’s too warm for them at this time of year), so I didn’t get much of a crop from them. At least the flowers look pretty, I thought. Then a horde of green caterpillars appeared and ate all the flowers. (Oddly, they didn’t seem as interested in the leaves). Never mind. After they finished the radish flowers, the caterpillars vanished again, then I found two pupae in different spots on the balcony. I don’t know how long they take to emerge as butterflies, or whether I’ll see them before I go, but at least I’ve contributed something other than fruit flies to the insect life of Canal Town!

Hello, unknown caterpillars! Goodbye, radish flowers.

I’ve also been more conscious of the things I can see and taste and smell here that I won’t have in Scotland. I’m eating a lot of fresh mangoes and lychees and dragonfruit, knowing they’re hard to find (and super expensive) back home. I walk through the old centre of Canal Town on my way home and stop for a bubble tea, made with local Longjing green tea and deliciously refreshing on a hot day. I eat a bowl of noodles with fish slices and pig kidney with its offaly tang, a combo I’m pretty sure I won’t find in Wagamama’s in Edinburgh.

I’m trying to make the most of it. I am eagerly anticipating being home again, and all the good things that entails. That doesn’t mean I won’t also miss the good things about life here, and it won’t make the farewells with my friends here any easier.

So, for the next month, I’ll continue to make the most of life in Canal Town. I hope to pack up here by the end of June, then have time to travel elsewhere in China and visit old friends in other cities before leaving properly at the end of July. These newsletters might become more sporadic as routines change, but I’ll try to keep them coming!

Time to go. I have a custard tart in the oven, trying to use up some of those back-of-the-cupboard ingredients, and dinner guests on the way. Thankfully, it’s not goodbye to them just yet.

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