Catch-up and Christmas

12/29/09

Before coming here, Hallie and I planned to stay an extra week to travel (before returning back to the states). We’ve talked a lot about where we wanted to go and finally made plans. The weekend of January 14-16, we are going to Harbin. Harbin is a city in Northeastern China, which essentially makes it a part of Russia. There is a big ice festival during the winter and we are going to see it…that is if we’re wearing 10 layers of clothes. After we finish teaching at the end of the month, we are going to Hong Kong. In addition, we’re taking a day trip to Macau, the Chinese Las Vegas. Flights and hostels have been booked, which is a relief for now.

The holidays have been pretty unworthy of mentioning here. I’ve said this before, but Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now New Years don’t feel like the real thing. And I think it’s best this way. However, we did celebrate and enjoyed ourselves. On Christmas Eve I worked and came home to get ready for 7 PM church. A few teachers were going to this expat church in the French Concession. About 30 minutes before leaving, Ashley (a teacher-friend), calls to tell me that the service is in Chinese. Whoops…we beefed it on that one. So what does one do when placed in this predicament? We go get a hot toddy. Hallie and I met up with Josh and Becky at a bar/lounge called Cotton’s. It was laidback, besides the Chinese family who let their kids take control of a microphone, and we got to just hang out.

Christmas morning Hallie and I got up and made some coffee. We bought some pancake mix at City Shop (Western supermarket), and planned on having an American breakfast. I brought a touch of home to the pancake-making extravaganza, by doing an old Joe Golias tradition. I made Hallie a personalized pancake in the shape of an ‘H’ and made a ‘B’ for myself. After, we opened our stockings that Hallie’s sister, Mariann, sent us. She got us some great stuff! Thanks Mariann!!

I got to call in to the Christmas Eve party going on back in Big B and found that everyone was trucking on without me. Lee came to realization that I wasn’t going to be there while I was talking to him on the phone. “Oh, wow. So, you’re not going to be doing this with me this year…” –Lee. I know it was probably a feat to juggle our happy guests without me, but it sounds like everyone managed. I got to talk to Devon, Mike, M&P, and my Mom. So nice, but made me miss everyone!

The morning continued with a movie: Meet Me in St. Louis. Hallie loves old movies and I made every attempt to soldier through, but I failed. It’s inevitable. No matter how good the movie is I’m bound to fall asleep. I think she’s probably tired of telling me what happens at the end of movies. After our mid-morning movie, we ate at Element Fresh. It was amazing as usual. We came back to the apartment and asked each other what we should do next? Hmm..answer was easy: Mad Men. I have watched more TV and read more books here than ever in my life. It’s crazy and makes me feel like I’m in dire need of a social life. When you get so attached to TV characters that you think about the show all day, cough Dexter, you may need to spend some time out of the house. Anywho, we ended Christmas night at Liz’s apartment (teacher-friend). We ate cookies and stuffed in one room with a space heater to keep warm. However, we didn’t think of one particular problem we may run into. We had the heater, Christmas lights, regular lights, the TV, and DVD player all running at the same time. Recipe for blowing a fuse. And yes, it happened. Thank goodness for my ghetto cell phone that has a flashlight feature and an old Cosmo. We took turns reading the embarrassing stories that guys turn in with my cell phone. Merry Christmas?

The day after Christmas (for me, Christmas Day back home), I got to Skype into the Golias Christmas get-together. Gammy informed me that everyone was too full from eating all day so they were having pizza and opening presents. Although not traditional, I still missed getting to see the fam. Hearing everyone’s voices will hopefully pull me through January!

It snowed all day on Sunday. I thought that was worth mentioning….

Snow: Xue