The malls, restaurants, and radios have playlists of annoyingly repetitious Christmas music queued up for our holiday enjoyment, which is strange for the Chinese. Not necessarily because the carols have lyrics steeped in Christian dogma, in English beyond the understanding of all but the most fluent local English speakers, but because the idea of "seasonal" music is a foreign concept in this culture. At any time of the year, in any venue that plays music over a p.a. system you will occasionally hear an out-of-place Christmas song shoehorned in between tracks of Maroon 5 or Taylor Swift.
And of course, I expected the local ex-pat establishments like the Bookworm to cater to the seasonal tenants of Western culture here on the other side of the world. But to hear Christmas music non-stop as you would anywhere in the States is a little surprising. Especially since other Western holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving are not widely practiced outside of the ex-pat areas. Time will tell if Easter is practiced as well.
Anyways, the school had a day of Christmas activities lined up for the Small Star level children much the same as out Halloween celebration, but I don't have any pictures to show you all because unfortunately I was sick and could not participate. I felt fine on Tuesday and felt a little off on Wednesday, but on Thursday I barely left the warmth of my room in the apartment. Not only was it the coldest day of the year since my arrival, but I was weak, light-headed, congested, achy, and just miserable overall. Lack of sleep and appetite did nothing to improve my condition by the time Friday rolled around. So I was very grateful when Nick and Echo consented to letting me return to the apartment to rest, especially since I had a full schedule for both Saturday and Sunday. We all felt it was better for me to miss out on six hours of decorating and an hour-and-a-half of Small Stars activities than to be forced to miss teaching eight classes over the weekend.
Saturday was a little rough. I had regained most of my strength but did not have my usual reserves of energy or patience to draw upon, so I powered through my classes with little fanfare. Sunday was much easier to deal with, especially given the ready-and-willing nature of my two extended Trailblazers classes.
After class ended last night, I learned from James and Anna that Liz was having a Christmas party at her apartment back in Tongzilin, and after a a short debate and pizza dinner with Matt, I decided to catch the bus to my old stomping grounds and join the festivities.
I may be disenfranchised in regards to the religious aspects of the holiday, and outright disgusted by the mass consumerism, but getting together with friends for holiday merry-making is truly the spirit of the season and the party was very enjoyable, especially since I was unable to participate in much of anything else this week.
I arrived at the old apartment a little before 8:30 and picked up a bottle of wine for the party's lovely hostesses, Liz and Eve, who met me at the door with a spirited "Happy Christmas!" Since moving over to the Yopindo area, I've missed spending time with the extended EF family, and I was glad for the chance to visit with everyone from the other centers, including Andrew and Etta, Lee, Dan and Stacy, and the rest of their friends outside of EF.
I caught up with Brett, who was dressed very festively as a tall and lanky elf, and introduced to his friend Paul, another media designer who is very interested in my computer work and wants to offer me some freelance opportunities as well. Paul is doing well here in the city as a Western designer and was very encouraging when I related the upcoming business opportunity that Nick and I have been offered. He's running a company here in the city as well, and my network of video and media designers continues to grow here in Chengdu. We each pitched in 5 RMB and grouped together for the traditional party quiz, and ended up sharing the pot when our team "The Elven Ring-piece" took first place. Brett of course was dressed as an elf and we had been discussing Lord of the Rings, so the name felt very fitting. Among the other teams were such euphemistic names as "Santa's Jolly Jingle Balls" and the "South Pole Desperados".
We shared warm, spiced wine, beer, and pieces of the ginger bread house that Liz had made, exchanging randomly selected gifts and recounting tales of Christmases long long ago. All in all it was a really fantastic party. Here are the pics.
To all my friends and family back home, know that I miss you and am thinking of you all when I wish you the happiest of holidays from Chengdu, China!