A Chinese Christmas

Here are some of my journal entries to get you up-to-date with our activities during the past week:


Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Crazy day involving a student crying because she hates “comic” (or Mr. Bean), sweater blocking, a hotpot dinner (so far I haven’t barfed it up yet), an amazing gift from Amanda (a wooden comb set that cost 480 RMB), and helping Amanda come up with some ideas about how to write a college essay (she’s incredibly smart and will thrive in the US). 


Thursday, December 23, 2010
Jean-Jacques and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary today. I made Jean-Jacques a card on my computer (it was a collage of a bunch of pictures of us) and he made me an extremely sweet KeyNote presentation about all the reasons he loves me.

Classes went fairly smoothly. The students enjoyed Mr. Bean (of course, I’d be worried if they didn’t) and there was a considerable amount of desk slapping and raucous laughter.

We celebrated tonight by eating melted cheese sandwiches and watching three episodes of Dr. Who. The fifth season has been incredible; unfortunately, after the finale, I feel like I have more questions than answers. I guess I simply have to continue watching the series so I can get the answers I so desperately need to find.

Saturday, December 25, 2010
What an excellent Christmas. We awoke to a blanket of white and a few flurries dancing in the air. We spoke with some  NCUSCR program participants and Jean-Jacques’ family. We met some friends for lunch at the Korea BBQ restaurant where I attended the girls’ night out. The meal was extremely entertaining because we were able to play with our food without getting in trouble; in fact, we had to play with it.
 
After the lunch, Jean-Jacques and I returned to the apartment to play a round of Pictureka. My tummy was feeling a little putt-putt, but recovered quickly during a nap. When I awoke, we bundled up to make the trip to Pala, where we procured some chicken sandwiches, french fries, chicken nuggets, and milk tea. It was a teeny bit challenging to hail a taxi back home, but after a few minutes of waiting, we caught one. Once we arrived at the apartment, we ate dinner while watching the A Claymation Christmas Celebration. It was fabulous!

I also casted on a hat that I’m making out of the left-over yarn from my green sweater. I feel that I will never run out of the stuff; I’ve already made a sweater, a pair of mittens for Jean-Jacques, and I’m currently working on a hat. It’s certainly comfortable wool, so I’m happy I can make a number of projects from it.

Speaking of knitting, I realized that I’ve completed six fiberlicious projects during my stay in China thus far -- a sweater, a pair of socks, a crocheted purse, a crocheted iPad case, a pair of convertible mittens, and a scarf. Yes, I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time with needles in hand, but I have become a more competent knitter as a result. I am learning how garments are constructed and how I can create things by myself. It’s quite freeing, actually. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention since I’m restricted by yarn and pattern selection. As a result, I’m learning how to be a more independent knitter and I’m extremely grateful for the experience.

Sunday, December 26, 2010
And now the Christmas season is over. In many ways, it’s a freeing feeling because now we don’t have to focus on missing our families and the United States. Instead, we can place all our energy on enjoying our experience here in China and learning all we can during our stay. It’s hard to believe, but next month, we’ll be half way through our ten months; about a week after we return from the Spring Festival holiday, we’ll only have four months remaining. That seems like a considerable amount of time, but I imagine that it will pass extremely quickly.

Today was wonderful. Jean-Jacques and I didn’t really sleep in too late this morning (even though we stayed up late “opening” Christmas presents on Skype and chatting with family through the gmail phone program). Jean-Jacques was sweet and made the trek to procure pancakes. I briefly Skyped my  grandparents (and saw Harold, Jeff, Becky, and Ellie), but they seemed exhausted, so I didn’t keep them on terribly long. 


After eating, completing the finishing touches to the up-coming lesson, reading, and spending some time knitting, we left for the supermarket to purchase a fancy tea cup for me and a jade necklace for Jean-Jacques. They were our “Christmas” presents (even though they were a day late) and we had fun shopping for them. Strangely enough, many of the festive Christmas decorations were still up and holiday music was playing. You simply can’t escape Christmas.

This evening we watched the terrible, but hilarious 2 Fast 2 Furious and ate Beijing chicken with rice. 

I finished knitting a hat for myself from the green sweater yarn. At first I wasn’t thrilled by how it turned how, but it’s been growing on me and I think I’m becoming quite attached to it. I essentially made up the pattern myself and it turned out slightly differently than I had planned; however, I’m pleased by the results and it’s quite adorable, if a bit unconventional. I even added a tassel. 

That’s about all the news from my end at this point. I’m searching for books on Amazon because the Têtus generously gave me a gift certificate there and I’m excited about buying some Kindle books with the money.