Goodbye My Friend

My friend Jodie, my lifesaver, my lunch buddy, my pedicure friend, my shopping partner, my support system here in Huizhou is moving.  This is part of being an ex-pat but it doesn’t make it any easier.  She was my first friend in Huizhou and she is the first person that I have gotten close to that is leaving.
Before we moved here I was given Jodie’s e-mail address because she was a friend of a friend of a coworker of Adam’s and she lived in Huizhou.  She is one of 6 ladies I know that are ex-pat wives in Huizhou and 5 of them moved here after I did…so basically it was Jodie and I for a while (her best friend here left right before we moved here).  I e-mailed Jodie as soon as we were settled into the first hotel and made plans with her for 2 full days within that week.  I took a Taxi to her apartment complex (now mine) and she told me I would know her because she was the blonde Australian woman standing in front of the KFC. 
Since Adam started working Jodie has been the one that told me what stores were the best for produce, which brands were the best, what price was acceptable when bargaining and other useful facts.  I say that Adam and I live in two different China’s, well Jodie lives in my China…the one where people stare at you and take your picture, the one where people rip you off because of the color of your skin, the one where things break in your apartment all the time, the one where people usually don’t understand what you are talking about, but also the one where you learn by becoming a local.  Jodie and I both love our little city of Huizhou but it is time for her to move on.
This day has been a long time coming because Jodie’s move has been postponed from June to July to September to October and now November.  I have tried not to think about it and I have secretly prayed that things keep happening to make her have to stay (sorry Jodie).  Her husband has been working in their new hometown for a few months now, Jodie has been waiting for everything to be settled (his contract, their apartment, etc…) before she and her two boys move.  Well now everything is settled and she is leaving me.  I am glad for her because she no longer has to be a single parent, and she no longer has everything up in the air, and she gets to see her husband again.
On the plus side she isn’t moving far (a cheap 1.5 hour plane ride) and it is to the “Hawaii” of China, where her husband works for a 5 star resort hotel.  I guess that means I may need to take a trip or 2.  Another plus side is that the Island doesn’t have much so she will still have to come to Shenzhen or Hong Kong to do some shopping…and I will happily meet her.  She has already said she would come keep me company for a few days while I am in Hong Kong waiting to have the baby. 
So I guess it isn’t really goodbye.