Being that both Christmas and New Year's Day are rather significant American holidays, I figured I should post something about how we celebrated these days thousands of miles from home, family, of friends.
Part I: Christmas
It certainly has been a new experience in so many ways...although I must say the McDonald's store in Changsha has still been blasting that not-so-classic "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart...." song. Ahh! I thought I"d escaped, but no! However, the real beautiful Christmas carols we had to rely on a CD we brought from home. The Chinese here do decorate for Christmas in many shops- with colored lights, Christmas trees, etc. (Although I haven't seen any manger scenes to be sure). You can see from a previous blog some of the decorations. I myself purchased a little tree from Walmart, and decorated the second week in December...so late in my opinion. My students, however, were shocked. "So early!!" They said. They didn't seem to grasp, despite my explanation, that Christmas is indeed a month long holiday. Our school and this city put on several Christms parties the week of Christmas. We volunteered at a children's library (hopefully we can post some photos) and helped the children practice English while giving small gifts. We also attended/participated our department's (the Department of International Studies)Christmas party. It was well done but interesting...not exactly Christmasy. They had some Avril Lavine singing, some rap songs and dancing, even a magician. For my part, I sang "O Holy Night' (always my favorite Christmas song) and a teacher from English sang "Deck the Halls." We also got several wonderful gifts from our students, including a chocolate heart with our names on it- from the foreign chocolate store!! (my favorite), two cakes, some traditional chinese figurines, candy, a beautiful silk cloth, and a LOT of apples. I think I'll go take a picture in fact of what remains after a week of trying to eat as many apples as possible. The work for apple in Chinese "ping guo" sounds like the word for peace (i don't know that one) so its a traditional Christmas gift in China.
Christmas morning, Shane and I first read the Christmas story, the opened most of our gifts for each other. The highlight was opening the packages that my parents and his parents sent from America. One could hardly believe the rejoicing over a bag of cheese girls, nacho cheese, or Dove chocolates. Even now we are working our way through very slowly, as to savor each precious food item. One could never imagine how a bottle of Advil or a box of bandaids brings a thrill to your heart until you are without them. Right before class (yes I had to teach still) I was baking some Chocolate Chip cookies (thanks for the ingredients from said parents) to give as special gifts to our foreign advisor, when our electricity went off. Well, went off is far too gentle of a term...our electricity wires overcharged and burst into a dangerous and odorous smoke. By afternoon, there was still no one to fix it, so we weren't sure what we were going to do for Christmas dinner and for the 15 students that planned to join us in the evening for a Christmas movie. Fortunately our dear friend Suekoilya lent us her house, and we just ate in a little street restaurant. My husband's positive and humble attitude helped me get through the evening without too much resentment over the constant problems our apartment has, continuing even on Christmas day. How thankful I am for him! Late that night after the movie/party, Suekoilya came back to our cold, dark apartment to exchange gifts with us. We lit many candles and it had kind of an adventuresome, romantic feel to it. And, we are also provided for (even if not in the way we ask), another package arrived that evening from my mother and jay full of warm long underwear, fleece shirts, and warm wooly socks. (In fact, we've been wearing them for a week straight!). So all in all, we had a beautiful Christmas Day!
Part II: New Years
For New Years we have planned a big kareoke party with foreigners and native Chinese alike. We have rented a rather expensive room for kareoke (here you rent private rooms, you don't do it in a restaurant full of people you don't know) and will stay from 9:30 to 12:30 or later. (We're getting old, can't stay up like we used to, lol). Yesterday, Shane, Suek, and I went to the English corner which each week we volunteer, and we discussed New Year's Resolutions. Mine I think is to have a grateful heart. Because this year we have gone through unbearably hot & humid weather the early fall (with no ac anywhere but our house), a dirty apartment upon arrival, our hot water breaking at least 3 times- once for a week!, a glass light fixture in our living room shattering on me, a fuse that for 2 months refused to stay on longer than 1 hours ( a fuse that ran all the appliances in the house except two), lack of heat during the "broken fuse" days, total loss of electricity at least twice, loss of all water 3 times, lights that go out that we don't know how to fix (we've been using flashlights and candles now for 4 days in our bathroom), broken wash machine, leaking kitchen sink subject to partially flood the kitchen at any time, broken stove, a computer constantly loaded with viruses that has several times erased all data including lesson plans on our zip drives, not to mention culture shock, adjusting your stomach to new foods, learning a difficult new language, and the overall inconvenience of living and working in a culture that simply has different ideas about life than you do, (sorry I know thats a long list), I have found it difficult to stay positive both in my heart and my words. However, I truly am grateful to have been given this opportunity to come over here with my husband that I adore and do the work that we are doing. My desire is to learn that these troubles are "momentary and light" in the long run, and to be thankful for the many things that I have been given besides the obvious: A wonderful and supportive husband whom I have the priviledge to watch grow more and more into who he was made to be, for the time being a functional portable heater (and it really helps) plus a lot of blankets, parents that love us and the packages of special food and gifts they have just sent, the foreign friends esp. Suekoilya and Elic, that we have met here, an income that, while small in Us dollars, is entirely adequate to support us while living here and even with careful planing can afford us a vacation, those friends at home that keep us in their thoughts each day, our dear Chinese students and friends, and most of all the work we are doing here. I don't know how to save a blog and rebring it up, so I will post this now and edit it once we have finish the party and can add the pictures.
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