the end.

Savored every word of this:

[pic]

and now it feels like my China life really is over. Peter Hessler has written three books on China: River Town, about his two years teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer; Oracle Bones; and this one. Meegs and I read River Town in our first weeks in Huai'an and would process certain experiences with help from the book: "Well Pete says his students did that too..." or "Peter refused the medical exam's x-ray so we can too," and it was quite the moral support. Reading his other book while in China and some of his many articles, I acted like he was my personal friend, wandering through Beijing's hutongs and thinking, "Oh, Pete must have lived around here..."

You can always use an imaginary friend.