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Published: December 28th 2009
Where to begin? The holidays here were strange ones...
Beijing has felt oddly empty for the past week or so, as many of my loyal companions have returned to their perspective homes for the holidays. My little apartment has been mourning the absence of my dear roommate, though I admit I have found it quite easy to remain tidy and manage the household with only myself to pick up after. Gearing up for the holidays was tricky as I knew I would alone, and was really at a loss over how to celebrate... until a chance encounter and job offer landed in my lap.
Last weekend I received a call on my mobile in the wee hours of the morning (most agents' favorite time to ring) and what I made out through my sleep fogged brain was an chance to work Christmas Eve at the Glory Mall, dressed up in costume. The typical minimal information was given and after discovering that the pay was decent enough, loving any excuse to dress up and act like an idiot, and desperately wanting to end the call and go back to sleep, I agreed to take part in this Christmas whathaveyou. Normally
I couldn't think of a more hellish experience than being trapped in a mall for a day (as I loath and despise shopping and the like) but I have greatly accepted the fact that life here is not "normal" and truthfully, I had nothing better to do. Thus, Thursday morning found me arriving promptly on time, only then having to wait a good hour for the rest of the group to trickle in. We were then herded into an empty storage space (which was a cross between a dungeon/warehouse/somewhere you might get murdered) and told to don our costumes. Our costumes were a a variety of ridiculousness... we had two girls dressed as golden harem women, three as feathered can-can dancers, three as flowers (whose costumes were a serious safety hazard to those around them), two as southern belles, one angel, and one sugarplum fairy. The boys were decked out as toy soldiers so they at least managed to fit in with the "Christmas theme". I spent the first half of my day dressed as the angel, but then swapped into the sugarplum fairy as that costume was too small for the Russian girl wearing it, and was making her
Prancing About
Photo by Tay Senquite uncomfortable. My one regret is that I completely forgot to bring my camera along, and now must rely on the reliability of the others who have promised to forward pictures my way. (I am trying to be hopeful). Our day was divided into five half hour working sets. Roughly every three hours we had to parade around the mall for a half hour, following a little man wearing a set of speakers on his back. Our music was not a great selection. The three top selections were "Because We Can" (Moulin Rouge version), "We Will Rock You" (Queen), and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (in a variety of versions, my personal favorite was the gerbil sounding one). Now we were not required to dance, merely requested to "walk with spirit"... but I feel far less of an idiot if I make myself into an even larger one, so as I was in the front of the group, I started out the day by busting dance moves, thereby forcing everyone to dance for the sake of continuity. (Muahaha). The best way to describe our experience would be to picture a supremely low-budget Disneyland parade, and put it into a
Waiting For Cue
Photo by Tay Sen mall. The shoppers were quite delighted with our presence and trailed behind our dancing procession, rushing forward to take photographs of and with us, and staring in just general stupefied amazement at the spectacle we were creating. Most young children were terrified of these scary foreigners and hid in fear when they saw us approaching. My personal mission during the day was to win them over, and for the most part (and with arduous effort) I managed to succeed, with very little screaming. (Luckily most little girls have a secret burning passion for pretty princess clothes, and as I had a tiara and flouncy skirt, they were quite shyly enchanted by the vision I presented). After our first big go-around we broke for lunch and we told to meet back in four hours for the next parade. As the thought of remaining in the mall for such a period was so abhorrent to me, I mustered a little group together to find worthy distraction elsewhere. Not far away we happened upon a little bar, and were ushered in enthusiastically by the owner, capped with santa hats and showered with free popcorn. We had the little place all to ourselves and
Posing w/ Public
Photo by Tay Sen even convinced the manager to open up the little stage and turn the microphones on. One-by-one we gave an impromptu performance for the staff of the establishment... singing songs in Spanish, English and Russian and breaking out into little jigs. It was utterly ridiculous, but made us feel very festive to be sharing the holiday. Soon enough it was time to return to the mall and continue making fools of ourselves for the general delight of the spectating public. All this dancing made the entire group quite exhausted, so one of our breaks was spent with us piled on each other, on the dusty floor of our "dressing room", fast asleep. I must say that the mall put on a pretty lavish and spectacular (albeit strange) Christmas celebration. There were tiger dances, Russian bands, burlesque dancers, choirs, African drum dances, and whatever we were. On our last go-around of the day we were told that at 11:50pm we would go down to the main stage and take part in the Christmas countdown with the rest of the performers. It was quite a feeling to board the escalator and descend to the sound of wild clapping and frenzied cheering. I've never
felt so famous in all my life... what with security keeping the perimeters clear and zillions of cameras zooming in on you. When Christmas finally arrived ("3..2..1...") showers of gold confetti flew everywhere and we all broke out into gleeful giddy dancing while the people rushed forwards to get their pictures taken, and thrust their adorable babies into your arms. Truly, this was an unforgettable Christmas.
My Christmas feast was Peking Duck with a great group of Finns. We had a glorious lunch and stuffed ourselves silly with many delicious dishes. For those of you who have seen A Christmas Story... the duck was indeed smiling at us. That night we shared some glögg and chocolate. I was happy to spend a quiet day after my Christmas chaos of the night before. I returned to my home at around 8:15pm, ready to shower and enjoy a good sleep, however apparently the electric company deemed it appropriate to surprise me by shutting off my power (we are in a large dispute over some incorrect billing) and my little home was dark, cold, and generally unwelcoming. Consequently, I had to rely on the good graces of friends to put me up
for the night, and then spend most of the following day in heated battle with the property company in order to restore my power. This lack of connection prevented me from keeping my skyping date with my family for Christmas, which was a real shame. (SORRY!!!!) The good news is that I have regained my heat and power, and am still stubbornly refusing to pay their trumped up charges. Fight to the death!
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and know that during the holidays I think of you especially and miss you all awfully.
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Josevich
Josevich
LOL!
the funniest christmas experience ever. looks like they have no idea what christmas means. maybe they just think its a day for lots of colors that silly white people celebrate