The Christmas Season in China

For a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas China does a very good job of being festive. Every big mall and store has been decorated for at least a month. You can find large Christmas trees at any large shopping location and English Christmas music is never far from it. Decorations can even be found around the corner at the local grocery store. Our school has been practicing for weeks for our upcoming Christmas concert. Every grade from Kindergarten to grade 12 performs a song. They’re encouraged not to choose a Christmas song, but rather something relating to winter or the season. I have been put in charge of the elementary grade’s drama play called “the giving tree”. Their director left early for Christmas vacation and put me in charge of the Christmas performance….I’m a bit worried. I can’t even remember the kids’ lines nor the dance moves to their song. It should be interesting. I have also been put in charge of the grade 6 homeroom temporarily which means this last week of school is going to BE CRAAAZY! Our school takes this concert very seriously. It’s a much different set up than at home. On Monday each class books a time in the theatre to take their class in and do a quick rehearsal. Then on Tuesday we do a quick run-through of the whole concert so that the tech. guy knows who needs microphones and when to turn on the music. On Wednesday the whole school watches the full concert during morning classes because this time it’s a dress rehearsal. This also happens because during the night of the actual concert, the auditorium is too small and can only hold the parents. So Wednesday morning is the only time the students get to watch the show. Wednesday night is when all the magic happens. As teachers we will be in our classrooms entertaining our students until it’s their time to perform and then for the time afterwards. I’m sure I’ll be pooped by the end of the night. This week also ends with a half day on Friday. I think Friday after school Greg and I am going to open our gifts and have a small fake Christmas. We’ve received four parcels so far and several Christmas cards. Thank to all those who sent us one!!! They definitely make me feel very happy inside and I can not freakin’ WAIT to open them.
Greg and I have also been attending some Christmas parties. We had a 4th floor party last week after we decorated the whole floor in Christmas decorations. Then last Monday we had our International school staff party, complete with Yankee gift exchange (I guess it’s not appropriate to call it a Chinese gift exchange when you’re in the country). The party was held at this delicious all you can eat Western BBQ restaurant close by and went really well. Then this past Sunday night our Canadian staff from both school held a Christmas potluck upstairs in our residence. A turkey, gravy and stuffing were all ordered from a local restaurant. There were mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes casserole, Kimbob (Korean sushi that I am in love with), broccoli salad, taco salad (made by us of course) and many other great dishes. We had cakes, cookies and homemade carrot cake for dessert. By the end of the evening my tummy felt just like it does on a Christmas afternoon in Janeville, except that I probably ate even more than usually because homemade Canadian food is so rare. My belly really hurt afterwards and I felt very much like a zombie. We ended the night singing Christmas carols off a laptop and watching ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’.
Greg and I have also spent the last week running around getting ready for our big trip to Thailand. We’ve bought some swim suits, a large backpack, and a beach volley ball in preparation. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to start packing during the week because we leave on Friday evening THIS WEEK! We hope to bring the laptop with us so that we can update you on our adventure. Or at least journal about it and post it all when we come back so you have a great story to read. I will try and take a lot of photos, but my camera hasn’t been working well (tear :( ) so I’ll see what we can do. If this is for some reason our last post before Christmas, I do wish all our friends, family and random readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!