Advertisement
Published: December 25th 2007
Edit Blog Post
So, even though Christmas morning is just starting in Canada, Christmas Day is almost over for us here in China. It has been an eventful, yet relaxing past few days here in Nanjing. The bell just rang for the end of the day for the school kids here at No. 13 High School (and yes, it is now 10pm on Christmas Day!). Although we had Christmas Day off, our students, unfortunately, did not. So we had to leave work for them to do while we were away.
On Friday, I had probably the most frustrating day that I have had since arriving in Nanjing. The morning started out with us finding out that we had to prepare work for our students to do on Christmas Day and the rest of the day was followed with many little (and some big) cultural clashes between Chinese schooling and Canadian schooling. Part of the day included the Senior 1 headmaster yelling at 4 of my students for about an hour in the teachers' office, after we have been fighting for the office to be a teachers-only area. Anyway, the result of the frustrating day was me purchasing a case of beer and a
bike. Yep, I have purchased a brand new Chinese bike. It comes complete with a basket on the front, a bell, and an area on the back that can be loaded up with all kind of things with the appropriate bungee cords. And it's orange! Tim and I both bought bikes on Friday and rode them home from the store. It was a lot of fun and not near as scary as I imagined riding a bike in China would be. Liz bought a bike on the weekend as well so now we all have bikes.
On Friday night, when we had returned with our bikes, we made gingerbread houses. They turned out really good! And not only that, but for dinner we had Kraft Dinner! Yep, mac and cheese. Courtesy of my awesome aunt on the east coast of Canada! I never realized how much of a luxury KD really is.
Monday afternoon (Christmas Eve) I was so ready to be done teaching. It's tough teaching on Christmas Eve. But, we got through it and then we headed off to spend the night at the Sofitel Galaxy Hotel. The hotel that had originally been booked for us
forgot to inform us that we would not be able to use any of the restaurants there or the pool because of Christmas parties they had going on. So our reservation got switched to the downtown location of the same hotel. The hotel turned out to be the most luxurious hotel that I have ever and probably will ever stay in. (Pictures to come...)
We went for dinner on Monday night to an awesome restaurant called Henry's Home and then returned to the hotel to play the China version of monopoly. All of the money amounts are multiplied by 10 (ie: you get 2000 Chinese dollars for passing go) and the street names are all famous streets in China. It was fun, although Mike, Debbie and Liz said that Tim and I were a little bit too competitive. I disagree. I definitely could have still turned the competitiveness up a few more notches.
Christmas morning, we had an amazing buffet breakfast and enjoyed a leisurely swim in the pool. There was no one else in the pool except us. In the afternoon, we went back to Mike and Debbie's apartment and enjoyed an awesome turkey dinner, complete with
Check out the sign...
Notice the spelling mistake? mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, carrots and Dutch apple pie.
Mike and Debbie's generosity has been amazing. On Christmas Day, they had several gifts for each of us to open under the tree at their apartment. I also got several gifts from some of my students, from the principal of the Chinese school and from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Province of Nanjing (this is who we had lunch with on Christmas Day at the hotel...arranged by the director of our school).
I want to wish everyone a Merry (and possibly snowy) Christmas and I hope you enjoy your day! Here in Nanjing, it now feels like early fall again, as it was a balmy 14 degrees today. I would love to hear any stories or news of things going on back in North America, so email me anytime.
Miss you all!
Christine
Pictures of Christmas in China:
Pictures
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0446s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Conny
non-member comment
Merry Christmas!
Good to hear about your Christmas in China! Know that you are missed here. I am glad you were able to celebrate, even if was different than our traditional celebrations here. We had our own family here, the 5 of us. We unloaded the tree, cooked a big breakfast, all complained of being too full. Then played a new board game, with cards, of SEQUENCE. It was fun. Then Harv's Mom came over, we opened more presents. We are going to watch Ratatouille and other videos. It is nice to have every one home. This year there are no boyfriends or girlfriends in the picture. Different! we are looking forward to celebrating with the rest of the family on Sunday. Today is hard for Auntie Jean. Mom said she was crying on the phone this morning. Tim is going to see her today and take her out for lunch. Nicki and I will go down this week. all for now, love you Conny