Thursday, January 22, 2009

Christmas and New Year's

Hi everyone,
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Well, I've just gone through my first Christmas and New Year's in China. It was a little sad being away from my friends and family, but it helps to have a good support system here. Both holidays were eventful, so I was pretty busy for a couple weeks. Planning for two big holidays and finals at the same time is not fun! But our dean was really great and unexpectedly gave us three days off for Christmas. I think Jacq and I might be the only volunteers with the privilege, which says something about how great our department is.
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I really wanted to have a little Christmas spirit at home, especially since I was so far away from family and friends, so three of my freshmen students decided to help me out by hiking into the mountains behind the campus and cutting down a tree for me. They also cut one down for their classroom. Surprisingly, Tongren had quite a few decorations for sale, so I was able to buy lights, garland, and ornaments to decorate my tree. The tree, far from plush, was a little pathetic, but I loved it anyways and really appreciated my students' effort in getting for me. You notice that it is being held up by cinder blocks. We have a bunch of them stacked up outside the apartment building, and I have to thank Jacq for her genius in suggesting we use them as a tree holder.
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Christmas Eve day, I was given the day off, but I was busy holding office hours and getting ready for that evening's party with my freshmen. Before the party, however, I made time to join Simon, Greg number two, and several of the sophomores for a Christmas carol circle in front of the English department building. The singing didn't exactly go smoothly, but we had a good time working our way through the music and lyrics. Immediately after, I headed to my freshman class 2 classroom for our Christmas party. The room had previously been decorated to enhance the Christmas spirit, and for the party, I provided Christmas music, snacks, and a Santa hat for each student. The party was a bit like a junior high dance, with everyone sitting along the room's perimeter, so I had to work at getting everyone up to sing the carols I had taught them and to learn the Chicken Dance and to play Hangman. But what Chinese students love to do on their own is take A LOT of pictures on their cell phones. So much of the party was spent posing for pictures. My cheeks hurt by the end of it.
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After the party, I had agreed to do Christmas Jacq's way...by roaming the town, taking pictures, and being a little crazy with a bottle of Christmas vino. We took our camera, found a couple Santas in town, found a little trouble, and documented our night. It was a Christmas Eve I will always remember.
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Christmas day, we had dinner with Simon and Greg number two at Simon's place (AKA Greg number one's place). We had dried fruit, duck, potatoes, etc. I provided baked pears, stuffed with walnuts, raisins, and dates, and the same butternut squash/apple/curry soup I made for Thanksgiving. (It's a great soup if anyone wants the recipe.) After dinner, I invited everyone back to my cold apartment to enjoy my Christmas tree and some apple cider (thanks, mom). After that, it was time for more cooking.
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The next morning, we hopped on a bus and headed to Kaili where we had lunch with Marc and Holly and then traveled together to Jayne and John's place in Duyun. Wow...their house is incredible! I almost forgot I was in China because they have done such an outstanding job decorating it and making it feel like a home. Jayne and John are great; if they had another son, I would marry him just to have this fabulous couple as my in-laws.
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In Duyun, we roamed the minority market street (pictured), traversed their famous bridge, and checked out their amazing market. Finally, we had a truly remarkable Christmas dinner. Jayne made shrimp scampi and barbeque sauce to go with some ribs she bought. She also had chicken wings for us. We had potatoes, and I made honey-orange glazed carrots. For dessert, Jayne made a pumpkin pie without nutmeg to see if I'd like it any better. I didn't, so everyone gave me a hard time for ruining their pumpkin pie. Sorry, guys! So it's been decided, no pumpkin pie for me. Luckily, Jacq made some brownies, and then Holly and Jacq made some caramel to top it, so I got to have a nice dessert anyways. Sunday, we made our way back home in time to get ready for New Year's.
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New Year's Eve, I succeeded at embarrassing myself in front of the entire English Department. Our dean, Han Di, wanted the foreign teachers to perform a song in Chinese for some karaoke competition being held at the Christmas/New Year's party. Neither Jacq nor I wanted to do it, but one of my favorite students Eva coerced me into singing. So I convinced a couple of my sophomore students, Jane and Lina, to sing with me. We only had a few days to prepare, so I was worried about forgetting the words...rightfully so...since I did, in fact, forget them. I was doing pretty well until students starting running up to the stage and handing me flowers and a GIGANTIC teddy bear mid-song. We bombed the rest of the performance. But, like I heard from many students after the humiliation, "it does not matter." I hope I earned some brownie points for trying.
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If that embarassment wasn't enough, we had shown up to the party in Japanese robot masks. Han Di had told me that we should dress up in costumes or masks for the event. Not wanting to put the effort into making or acquiring costumes, we decided on masks (thank God) since no one showed up wearing either! Well, we got some fun pictures out of it, at least. Once the adreneline wore off, I could confess that it was a pretty fun night.
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Love you and miss you all,
Jennifer

3 comments:

Vanity Cosmetics said...

Glad to hear and see your holidays were busy and fun!

Rebecca Foster said...

That jacq, she is quite the engineer. Post more, please! :)

Vanity Cosmetics said...

Wondering if your next blog will be exactly one year from your last...