The Christmas Wrap-up Post

We love you all and hope you had a great Christmas day! Click on the album to see some pics from our Christmas celebration here:

A Chinese Christmas

Two Down, Four to Go

We hosted our first two Christmas parties on Friday and Saturday nights. Both parties were a lot of fun for us and the students. Since each party had 40 students, we had planned to party in a classroom. However, on Saturday, the teaching building was closed for an exam, so all 40 people squeezed into our house! We have some pictures at an online Web album. Click on the picture to see more photos.

2008 Christmas Parties (part 1)

Christmas is Upon Us...

We can hardly believe that Christmas is next week! We've managed to significantly cut the number of Christmas parties we will be hosting this year. We are down to six... a huge improvement over last year's marathon run of 13 parties! The first party will be tomorrow afternoon, so I've been busy getting ready... baking cookies, wrapping gifts for games and trying to pull together a game plan. Keep us in mind as we party away!

Speaking of Christmas, imagine our surprise earlier this week when we walked outside to find the streets of our university lined with Christmas trees! It feels quite festive, and this week, we've been talking about Christmas in my classes, and I even taught my freshmen students some songs. Pretty impressive singing if you ask me!


By the way, thanks to the family for sending the sprinkles. They made our Christmas cookies look especially seasonal! Our students will love it!

Tis the Season

Yesterday, we attended a Seasonal variety show that some of our good friends organized and performed in. It was a really great time, even if we couldn't understand the huge majority of songs or skits! Here are a couple of video clips from some of the performances... Sorry, no sound.

Bad Manners

Last night as we ate dinner in a restaurant on campus, Matt hunched over and actually sucked some noodles directly off the side of his bowl. And it occurred to me... We've picked up some pretty bad habits over here.

It's not that these things are rude in China--they're completely normal; but in America, I'm pretty sure our mothers would be appalled. For example...

- We not only suck noodles off the side of bowls; we also slurp our soup.
- There are even times when we don't use spoons with our soup at all; we just pick up the bowl and drink away.
- When we eat fish or chicken with bones in it, we just spit the bones out onto the table.
- While waiting in line, we have no problem crowding the person in front of us so that no one else can get in.
- We also have no problem elbowing those overly persistent people who still try to cut in front of us.
- And a favorite pastime is arguing with a shop owner that her products are not only way over-priced, but also not great quality. (This is not rude here... It's just how people shop.)

We've had a good weekend but a busy one! It definitely feels like December, as it is getting busier and busier around here. On Saturday, Matt hung out with some guys in the morning and another guy in the afternoon. And on Saturday evening, I had some girls over to teach me how to knit. We even managed to make it to the post office in all the craziness to send off Christmas gifts to our families. (The post office is, of course, always an ordeal; this trip, we had to finish wrapping our gifts in the post office line after the workers had approved all our gifts! To say the least, we caused a bit of a scene.) And this afternoon, we have a group of my students coming over at 4pm to hang out, as well. It's been a fun couple of days. We've been reminded again how great it is to live on the same campus as our students! Looking back at last year, we could never have had so many opportunities for students just to drop in. We are very thankful.

Food Fest!

Last week, our school hosted a snack food festival, where vendors from across China came to sell snack foods from their province. Those three days amounted to some great, cheap dinners! Here are some pics of some of the treats.

We didn't actually try the grilled squid, but all the other foods are things we ate. The photo directly below is sticky rice cooked in bamboo; I liked it... Matt says it is the worst thing he has ever eaten in China.

Last Saturday, I invited some girls over from my old school to help decorate the Christmas tree. We had a lot of fun, along with some great talks.


After the tree, we made Christmas cookies!

Thanksgiving

We had a two-day celebration this year, as Thursdays are a little tough to do the whole Thanksgiving spread after a full-day of work... especially when you don't have the 4-day weekend. So, on Thursday, I did some shopping and cooking, but for dinner Matt and I headed over to the Korean restaurant. I know, I know... It sounds terrible, but it was actually a great time for the two of us just to enjoy some low-key time with each other. Then, on Friday, we had a more traditional meal (aside from the KFC, which Matt believes could overtake the traditional turkey long-term) with sweet potato casserole, stuffing, pies, and lots more.

We are reminded at this time of all that we have to be thankful. On Friday, some of our good Chinese friends came over for a visit before the big dinner, and we really just enjoyed the time together talking, laughing, and introducing them to cranberries! Also, on Friday, we got a package from some friends (who provided the cranberries, by the way), and were reminded of the people back home who never forget us. And, of course, our families who always do so much by just being themselves. We love you all and wish a (belated) Happy Thanksgiving!

Click on the photo below to see more pictures at our Thanksgiving photo album:

Thanksgiving