a quick summary of Christmas 2006

...but first, a quick glance at Thanksgiving 2006...

**This is a picture from our In-China Thanksgiving dinner. I have to say, it was my first American style Thanksgiving with gravy, stuffing, etc. - all the good stuff. The turkey, unfortunately, had to be store bought...mostly because Chinese apartments don't really come equipped with an oven...so no baking. Seems a bit overdue to be writing about our adventures during Christmas, but I really haven't had all that time until now. So...let's begin.

To begin with, our Chinese class had a Christmas party. Everyone brought a dish from their home country (well, of their home country) to share with the rest of us. We also did an attempted Secret Santa gift exchange. It was a bit more difficult than the other exchanges I have ever done...mostly because the person you are given may not be someone you really interact with much. But, I guess that only made you talk to everyone else who was their friend so that you can find out what gift would be best. I was the secret Santa of Luo Lana (Chinese name) from Peru. The only thing I had noticed was that she recently got an i-pod. So for Christmas, I got her those squishy feeling i-pod covers as well as some of those round, gold foiled chocolates. Tabitha (to my surprise and absolute happiness) was my secret santa and she got me exactly what I wanted. I know this may sound OCD...but I got a planner!!! After four months without one, my life finally felt complete. I am definitely one of those people who likes to write down everything she needs to do in her planner and then cross it off the list when it was done. I don't know...life's simple pleasures. I ended up bringing chili - of course, made by the one and only Joel. :) Finding the necessary ingredients was tough - but, I think it turned out pretty good. It was quite the scene though...making good old American chili in a Chinese wok. I think we were only one of a few classes that actually threw a party for Christmas. Oh, this picture is hilarious. That's our tingli teacher, Wang laoshi and Sergio (Chinese name shi jiu as in the number 19) from Spain. He's teaching her how to play pinata. See, we had to improvise what we were doing because we didn't think to bring string. So, at first the football shaped pinata was just taped on the wall. However, the tape couldn't keep it up, so in the end, we just had to leave it on the ground and have her (half dizzy from all the spinning) beat that poor pinata on the floor. The whole class was in laughter and our teacher swinging and beating. Oh...and of course, we didn't bring any sort of blindfold, so that's just Sergio's ski cap over Wang laoshi's face. Poor teacher! We ended leaving early to pack up for our next adventure. One of Andrea's friend's friend has a cabin up in the mountains not too far away from Chengdu. We were going to visit a hot spring and then spend two nights at the cabin. A few of us spent the trip to the mountain watching Firefly...a show that was supposedly on Fox but then was pulled off air for who knows what reason. It's a pretty good series - just imagine wild west plus space adventure and there you have it! The main characters are like space cowboys...ok...you have to see the series to understand. The hot spring was absolutely amazing. This was another first for Deborah...never really been to a natural hot springs before. There was a heavy sulfur smell, but the surrounding area was so peaceful and quiet. We took dips in the various springs they had set up - some really (almost excuriating) hot ones, and some of the cooler ones. By the time we left, we were all pretty hungry and ready to drink and play some. :) We hit the cabins about an hour later. We were to be the only guests at these cabins for the entire duration of our stay. Usually they are closed for the season, but since we had connections (guanxi!) we were able to find sanctity up in the mountains during Christmas. What was even cooler was the decorations that the owners put up for us. Knowing that we would probably all be a bit down during the holidays not being able to by with family back home, they set up the area quite nicely with tree and ornaments, and a nice, warm fire. Oh, and of course, there was karoke. It wouldnt be a Chinese Christmas without karoke. Here are the boys singing their hearts out. We all took turns finding songs - but alot of them were only oldies and motown. What would karoke be without drinking? Well, we actually didn't sing and drink...but we did play a drinking game that now all of us love to drink to whenever we do drink. King's cup? Yeah...I'm pretty sure most everyone has played this game besides me...but we had a blast! :) I believe this was the first time we had ever drank together. We played until about 1 or 2 and then we all headed off to bed.
The next morning, Andrea, her friend and her friend's son got up early to do some morning Taoist styled exercises. After breakfast, we climbed a mountain...well, probably more of a large hill. Either way, it wasnt that easy of a climb because the path was slippery from the morning dew. We came upon this bee looking insect...actually, even now we aren't too sure what it was. The view was spectacular...even when the clouds started settling in. We didn't spend too much time up on the hill only because we feared the weather was going to turn on us. We headed back down for dinner. To be continued...