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Published: January 9th 2009
Me Hungry!
She wouldn't be so eager if she knew what was coming...After two days in Hong Kong Chelsea (clutching her brand new entry visa) and I made our way to the mainland on Saturday, December 20th. Even though it is relatively close, it takes about two to two and a half hours door to door from our usual hostel in Hong Kong to my school. After arriving at my dorm room, we showered away the Slim Jim smell and I called up my friends to meet for dinner. Sunday Chelsea and I walked the twenty minutes north to the Book City Mall (next to Lianhua Shan Park) to check out the art book store and indulge in some Dairy Queen. After a few months in Italy, Chelsea was dying for some non-gelato ice cream. I was feeling really bad that day, so we stopped at a grocery store on the way home and ate in that night. The next couple of days were a mix of teaching classes, Christmas Pageant rehearsals, tutoring, and taking Chelsea out to see the city and eat at my favorite restaurants. I wish I had had more time, but she knew I'd have to work while she was here. By Tuesday Chelsea had caught the obligatory China
And this is what came
The chicken actually tastes a lot better than it looks. I just wish it didn't stare at me while I was eating. funk (different from the illness I was getting over) and on Wednesday I also came down with it. On Christmas Eve I had to teach in the morning and Chelsea spent most of the day in bed. She was starting to feel a little better and I felt like I was going to die. It must have been a fever because every single square inch of my body hurt. The Education Bureau was throwing the CTLC a non-religious Christmas party that night, so both Chelsea and I stiffened our upper lips, got all dressed up, and my school driver took us over to the Silver Lake Resort, the site of our contract signing back in September.
The party was okay. There was a pretty good turnout. The food was blah, as it had been in September. A young girl played the violin for us, and an even younger girl sang 'Jingle Bells'. After dinner some of the CTLC teachers played music and sang. Chelsea and I left fairly early. We both were not feeling very well, and I'm not a big fan of public intoxication, so there was no real reason to stay. After we got back to my
Merry Christmas!
From Left to Right: Mariam, Kim, and Cara dorm we opened our Christmas Eve presents from my parents. Our family tradition is that we get pajamas on Christmas Eve so we can wake up Christmas morning wearing brand new pj's. My mom didn't want to let a little thing like geography get in the way of that tradition, so she mailed us our pj's (and new hand-knit socks) which we had received just two days before. We donned our new jammies and called home to talk to our parents.
The next morning we slept in. I made wokcakes (as opposed to pancakes) which weren't too bad. After much trial and error we discovered that small wokcakes worked best. We opened our presents to each other (jewelry, of course. I got her a jade necklace, she got me Italian earrings), and we watched the most hilarious Chinese Christmas music videos on MTV. My favorite was 'Holy Hold Me Christmas'. Despite all the decorations I put up, the tree, having my sister here, and opening up presents from home, it just didn't quite feel like Christmas. It wasn't cold outside. There were no cookies to bake, no pies cooling on the counter, no Santa parading through town on the
back of a fire truck, no park lights, no parties at friend's houses, no Christmas cards to hang up, no crazy-at-the-mall shopping, no Salvation army bells ringing, no insane travel traffic, none of the things that I love about Christmas and detest about Christmas time. I wasn't home. In my more than three decades I have never spent a Christmas away from home, and it felt really weird. Yes, Shenzhen 'celebrates' Christmas. There were decorations up everywhere. But China decorated for Christmas is kind of like Penny Marshall wearing a Julia Roberts mask. Just not right.
My day wasn't completely free, even though I was supposed to have the day off. I had to be in the school's Christmas Pageant. But that will require it's own entry...
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