Sunday, December 23, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
all i want for christmas is a washing machine...
The hand-washing of all of my clothes is getting old and is ridiculously time consuming! But who’s complaining, it’s Christmas season!
After Thanksgiving I was worried that the “holiday season” in China would not be the same as in the states. We thought there’d be no Christmas lights, no Christmas Trees, and no holiday music to be found. Let me inform you all, I think Santa threw up all over China. I have never seen such over-the-top decorations or walked into a store which had Britney’s "All I Want for Christmas" playing on repeat. (I don’t think the Chinese know about her sad and pathetic collapse from pop-princess to embarrassment, but you all know I still love her!)
There are large Santa Claus statues (some even decapitated!) at the store entrances ready to greet you and obnoxious multi-colored garland drenched in strands and strands of Christmas lights.
Now normally this excitement for this holiday would turn me into a psycho-crazed Mrs. Claus…the day after Thanksgiving I rip out my Nsync, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, and the classic Christmas albums and listen to nothing else until New Years. My fervor, some would say, is over-the-top. But I’ve got nothing on China!
My stocking is hung, our tree is decorated, and we have presents under the tree! Cait sprayed our room with Crabtree & Evelyn Noel Home spray, and I open my advent calendar each morning. My Christmas music is on 24/7 and I wrapped WHITE lights around my room…so yes, it does feel like Christmas! But then I open the door of my apartment and remember that I am, what seems to me to be, a world away. Knowing that the Mengel crew has traveled to the tree farm, cut down a REAL tree, and put up my all-time favorite Christmas decoration, the candles in the window, makes it a little hard. (Eric had to rub it in by taking the Skype camera off the computer and pointed it at the candles in the window! They have always been my favorite.)
But I remind myself each day that in order to have an experience like this, I had to sacrifice many things…and as a result, I am having the time of my life. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would ever spend my Christmas holiday in a foreign country, let alone the People’s Republic of China! It’s going to be very different but we have many plans to keep us occupied for next week. I will go into our plans after Christmas and include pictures about what we do! But we are all very excited.
So a little Zhongguo (China) update…we traveled to Shenyang two weekends ago for a quick weekend getaway and an attempt to buy our Christmas presents. Instead, we met an American named Caitlin, and two hilarious Brit’s named Danny and Hannah. They are also foreign teachers living in China for a year. We became quick friends and spent the following two nights with our new friends. This may sound strange, but it is sooooo nice to be able to talk at a normal speed to other people. This has been difficult to explain to friends from home, but I am constantly speaking very slowly to my Chinese friends and my students; always making sure my pronunciation is accurate and clear. So to sit at dinner and speak and attempt to tell stories or make jokes at normal speed is refreshing! (This is a picture of our night out in Shenyang. The BRITS took us to a GERMAN bar in the middle of the CHINESE city where we danced to a band from the PHILIPPINES who sang every AMERICAN pop song you can think of. It truly is a clash of cultures and countries anywhere in the world.)
We all clicked so well, that Hannah and Caitlin have traveled to Tongliao this week for a little visit to our home! And at this very moment, Caitlin is screaming in our shower. She discovered that cold showers are not pleasant, especially when it’s 11 degrees outside. (They have hot showers in Shenyang, lucky bastards!) We will take them out to our pub tonight and introduce them to our western friends!
We have started to make small traditions here in China. For example, we make sure that each and everyone’s birthdays are extremely special! In November we celebrated Cait’s 23rd birthday at the western pub in Tongliao. This past weekend, we threw a Christmas extravaganza for Mike’s 23rd birthday in our apartment. We invited all of our Chinese friends and their children for some pre-Christmas/birthday fun. I think they are beginning to realize that Americans know how to party, especially PC grads! (This is a picture with my best Chinese friend, Marsha, the birthday boy and some of our other Chinese friends).
The kids made Christmas decorations and paper ornaments for our Christmas trees. Each and every student was glued to the television watching The Grinch. (The original cartoon!!) The guys took the kids outside later in the night for a snowball fight (to experience a traditional American game) and they made their first snow angels. We blared Christmas songs all night and dressed in Santa and Elf hats. The Chinese teachers were in awe of the concept of stockings and the advent calendar. We all had so much fun celebrating Mike’s birthday and our favorite holiday!
As they say in China, I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas. Enjoy the white lights, candles in the windows, and all the Britney Christmas songs you can handle!
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” Dr. Seuss
After Thanksgiving I was worried that the “holiday season” in China would not be the same as in the states. We thought there’d be no Christmas lights, no Christmas Trees, and no holiday music to be found. Let me inform you all, I think Santa threw up all over China. I have never seen such over-the-top decorations or walked into a store which had Britney’s "All I Want for Christmas" playing on repeat. (I don’t think the Chinese know about her sad and pathetic collapse from pop-princess to embarrassment, but you all know I still love her!)
There are large Santa Claus statues (some even decapitated!) at the store entrances ready to greet you and obnoxious multi-colored garland drenched in strands and strands of Christmas lights.
Now normally this excitement for this holiday would turn me into a psycho-crazed Mrs. Claus…the day after Thanksgiving I rip out my Nsync, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, and the classic Christmas albums and listen to nothing else until New Years. My fervor, some would say, is over-the-top. But I’ve got nothing on China!
My stocking is hung, our tree is decorated, and we have presents under the tree! Cait sprayed our room with Crabtree & Evelyn Noel Home spray, and I open my advent calendar each morning. My Christmas music is on 24/7 and I wrapped WHITE lights around my room…so yes, it does feel like Christmas! But then I open the door of my apartment and remember that I am, what seems to me to be, a world away. Knowing that the Mengel crew has traveled to the tree farm, cut down a REAL tree, and put up my all-time favorite Christmas decoration, the candles in the window, makes it a little hard. (Eric had to rub it in by taking the Skype camera off the computer and pointed it at the candles in the window! They have always been my favorite.)
But I remind myself each day that in order to have an experience like this, I had to sacrifice many things…and as a result, I am having the time of my life. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would ever spend my Christmas holiday in a foreign country, let alone the People’s Republic of China! It’s going to be very different but we have many plans to keep us occupied for next week. I will go into our plans after Christmas and include pictures about what we do! But we are all very excited.
So a little Zhongguo (China) update…we traveled to Shenyang two weekends ago for a quick weekend getaway and an attempt to buy our Christmas presents. Instead, we met an American named Caitlin, and two hilarious Brit’s named Danny and Hannah. They are also foreign teachers living in China for a year. We became quick friends and spent the following two nights with our new friends. This may sound strange, but it is sooooo nice to be able to talk at a normal speed to other people. This has been difficult to explain to friends from home, but I am constantly speaking very slowly to my Chinese friends and my students; always making sure my pronunciation is accurate and clear. So to sit at dinner and speak and attempt to tell stories or make jokes at normal speed is refreshing! (This is a picture of our night out in Shenyang. The BRITS took us to a GERMAN bar in the middle of the CHINESE city where we danced to a band from the PHILIPPINES who sang every AMERICAN pop song you can think of. It truly is a clash of cultures and countries anywhere in the world.)
We all clicked so well, that Hannah and Caitlin have traveled to Tongliao this week for a little visit to our home! And at this very moment, Caitlin is screaming in our shower. She discovered that cold showers are not pleasant, especially when it’s 11 degrees outside. (They have hot showers in Shenyang, lucky bastards!) We will take them out to our pub tonight and introduce them to our western friends!
We have started to make small traditions here in China. For example, we make sure that each and everyone’s birthdays are extremely special! In November we celebrated Cait’s 23rd birthday at the western pub in Tongliao. This past weekend, we threw a Christmas extravaganza for Mike’s 23rd birthday in our apartment. We invited all of our Chinese friends and their children for some pre-Christmas/birthday fun. I think they are beginning to realize that Americans know how to party, especially PC grads! (This is a picture with my best Chinese friend, Marsha, the birthday boy and some of our other Chinese friends).
The kids made Christmas decorations and paper ornaments for our Christmas trees. Each and every student was glued to the television watching The Grinch. (The original cartoon!!) The guys took the kids outside later in the night for a snowball fight (to experience a traditional American game) and they made their first snow angels. We blared Christmas songs all night and dressed in Santa and Elf hats. The Chinese teachers were in awe of the concept of stockings and the advent calendar. We all had so much fun celebrating Mike’s birthday and our favorite holiday!
As they say in China, I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas. Enjoy the white lights, candles in the windows, and all the Britney Christmas songs you can handle!
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” Dr. Seuss
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