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Published: December 29th 2007
So....today is our last official day of work. Hooray Hooray Hooray. We are usually super excited for Saturday nights, because it means that for the next 2 days we don't have to teach. This Saturday night will be especially special, since it means we may not have to teach ever again (maybe we will do another gig sometime in the future, but who knows).
Christmas was pretty strange. It is usually accompanied with flurries, family, and oven-cooked meals. Unfortunately, we had none of these essentials. On the bright side, we had each other. Ely decided to decorate our apartment for the holiday. She spent upwards of 20 hours creating intricate snow flakes from scratch. Just look at the pictures (which I will try to post later). Our house was a Chinese winter wonderland. More like China-mas.
Dad, mom, and g-ma sent over some presents to put under the tree. It was a bit ironic because 85% of the things they shipped were from China. They were sent to the US, marked up 500%, and shipped back. OH well, its the thought that counts, right?
We had our good friends Rick and Miki over for Christmas dinner. The main
course was a soy sauce marinated garlic pepper steak, cooked on the skillet of course. Grandma sent over some instant mashed potatoes, which I added chopped garlic and chives to. The vegetable course was cheesy broccoli, with the cheese provided by mom. And to top it off, Ely made a fantastic 7 layer jello desert. Not exactly the meal we would have had back home, but we tried our best. It seemed that our Chinese friends liked it well enough.
Rick and Miki decided to stay in the spare bedroom, so we simulated Christmas morning activities. Santa (me) woke up early in the morning and put gifts for them around our puny little tree. Then, we cooked a big breakfast of omelets and pancakes, American style. Maybe now they understand a little better why a Chinese XXXXL is an American Medium.
Christmas didn't feel the same. Without family in hands reach or a church in sight, we still tried our best to enjoy the holiday. It really makes us appreciate family. No matter how hard you try to enjoy a 4th of July, Thanksgiving, or X-mas, its still difficult to fill in the gap of your irreplaceable family.
On the bright side, we leave tomorrow, the 30th, for Yunnan Province. If all works out, we will enjoy our New Year's not with appetizers, shrimp cocktail, and champagne, but with a remote ethnic hill tribe, homemade rice wine, and rat skewers (who knows!). After Yunnan province, we plan on going overland into Vietnam.
I think I probably said this last time, but its difficult to relay how excited we are. We have thought of this day basically since the day we got here. We both have hot feet and are ready to use them. So...to infinity and beyond, or to eventually arriving to Bangkok safely with all our extremities in tact.
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Nathan French
non-member comment
Merry (Chinamas) Christmas and Happy New Year
Aaron and Ely, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs! I hope this has truly been more than an adventure and touching something of orchestrated wonder... or maybe just life in another culture, which I'm sure can have the same feel and response. I'm excited for the plethora of posts under the heading 'Infinity and Beyond.' I'll look forward to those. Have a great New Year and I hope the remainder of your travels are safe and, of course, full of surprises. Nathan