Christmas Hiatus

Hello all!


Don't worry, I know how painfully I've been lagging on the posts lately.  It's been busy here!  The school term is almost over, but since Christmas isn't a holiday here we don't get any time off at all.  So planning parties, buying gifts, decorating cookies and seeing friends all has had to overlap with making lessons, figuring out how to control 50 excitable 9 year olds at a time, and remembering the strange rules of English grammar.


It's all happened though, and I write to you now on Christmas night in between planning more lessons for tomorrow morning.


Christmas is not the same here without family and friends and traditions from back home.  They kind of know what it is, and Christmas trees and Santa hats are everything, but it's not at all the same.  It's a strange bastardized version of gaudy trees for the sake of taking pictures near them.  I guess it's good that it doesn't feel like the holidays usually do because I can avoid some of the homesickness that would be there if it were painfully obvious.


My school was very kind yet again and lots of people unexpectedly brought me Christmas gifts!  My headmaster brought me a fancy tea set, my neighbors a snow globe, one colleague a beautiful scarf, another some chocolate...  I didn't have anything to reciprocate with because since it's not a holiday here I only got some things for my contact teacher and neighbor family! I'll have to do something for New Years maybe.


The foreign teachers have celebrated in our own ways though.  We had a small Christmas white elephant party with some friends last week.  And today CTLC and the education bureau had a big event for us in the form of a banquet and a booked hotel so we could all stay together and celebrate.  It was a lot of fun and most of us, myself painfully included, overindulged a bit.


We got dim sum in the morning today.  I hadn't had it before (think Chinese tapas or afternoon tea) so it was exciting and of course China did what China does best -- food -- and it was delicious.  I failed to take pictures of this food because the previously stated overindulgence was taking its toll...


Afterwards I tagged along with Thomas to his church and saw my first Catholic mass.  It was really interesting to watch, and we got to sing some Christmas songs which was my favorite part. I can't compare the service to what it would be like in the states, because like I said it was my first experience!  It wasn't very similar to the services I have been to in past years though so it was fun to drill Thomas for explanations of what was happening.


And lastly we met up with a couple friends, Christiane and Carrie, and got dinner at a Malaysian restaurant and had delicious curry.


If it sounds like I'm describing everything in terms of foods we ate, that's because I've been living in China!  Sinification is occurring (^.^)


It was a lovely time and I am so glad I got to spend it with friends here.  But I miss my home and family!  A tragedy struck when I woke up to an email from my parents saying I missed a skype meeting.  Apparently some miscommunication happened and they were expecting me a day earlier than I was able to talk with them, so I missed being able to see everyone.  I am very sad about that, but hopefully we'll be able to catch each other soon.


Love and miss you all.  I hope the holidays are bringing you joy and togetherness, feel blessed to be with the friends and family you are spending it with!

Decorating cookies at our party

The banquet

Thomas and me 

Merry Christmas :)

Eat Slowly -- Hot Pot

I've been diligently taking photos of the food I eat, so I bring to you one of my favorite forms of cook-your-own-meal dining here:  Hot pot.
There are variations as you will see in the picture, but the premise is the same.  You have a bowl of boiling stock, you order pieces of meat and veggies, put them in the stock, let them cook and eat at your leisure.  There is a set seasoning to it, I think, because a lot of them taste very similar ( = delicious ).
I've had hot pot in it's birthplace (don't quote me on that, but it's at least the most famous) in Chengdu, where the pandas are.  There is the spicy capital of China, and it was much to hot to eat and enjoy.  China spicy doesn't mean Mexican delicious flavor spicy, it means your mouth will literally go numb.  Luckily there is almost no spicy in Shenzhen.
The pictures I have include: a super awesome hot pot place where the pots look like wizard hats and are also very dangerous because you have to navigate the large burning structure to retrieve food; the lovely miss Christiane modeling a standard hot pot table; and a close up view of a potato retrieval out of a hot pot where one side is spicy stock and one is standard soup.

Super awesome "wizard hat" hot pot place. 

The lovely Miss Christiane modeling a hot pot table with plates of meat slices, lettuce, and tree ear mushrooms.

Up close and personal with a spicy potato.

So there you have it.  Let your mouth water and be jealous, this stuff is delicious.

A Night at the Opera

(found from the internet, not my camera)

I got to check something off my need-to-do-in-my-life-but-only-once-list yesterday.

Thomas and I went to a Kunqu opera at the Grand Theater downtown.

Sounds cool, yes?  And it was.  I feel more cultured than ever before because Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest forms of opera in China.  As you know, China is pretty old.  UNESCO has even proclaimed this form of opera to be " a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of humanity".  

::whistles::

Unfortunately, it is also renowned amongst everyone not a 80 year old Chinese person to be one of the most tedious experiences of your life.

The shows for over two hours, and as Thomas and I discovered whilst struggling with trying to read the program, there is no intermission.  The conversation went something like this:

"Oh, oh, this is in English -- 135.  What's after that?  135 minutes?  Is this 135 minutes long?"

"Yeah, that's what is says.  But look, this character means rest!"

"The one before it says no.  No rest.  135 minutes, no rest."

"... you're joking."

We had forseen this kind of thing happening.  What we had not anticipated was that the more than two hour opera would almost solely consist of two people singing, with no set but a chair and a table, with no plot cues, or plot summary (assuming there was a plot, going out on a limb there) in English anywhere.  The theater was kind enough to provide Chinese subtitles, but to us that was the equivalent of being fed Italian subtitles at a Western opera.  Not much use.

The text I could figure out led me to believe that the entire 40 min first act consisted of the young lady's maid convincing her to go on a walk in the park, them going on a walk in the park, and them commenting on how they were walking in the park.  I mostly stopped trying after that.

It was beautiful, the singers were clearly talented, and the costumes were amazing.

But not gonna lie, it was a bit hard to stay awake.

Please, watch a ten minute sample of the kind of opera here.  (<- click on the word "here", you non-computer-savvy darlings)

The stage setup here is twice as elaborate than the rest of the opera.

Curtain call, you can see some of the costumes.

So again, happy I went and conquered, not likely to repeat!

Surprise, Monsoon! video

A video from about a month ago during what I like to call "flash monsoon season", when intense rains would come and go as quickly as you please.  As a Coloradan, I was a bit taken aback and had some trouble guessing when these anomalies would strike.  Here, I am again thwarted during an attempt to dry laundry.

TYNKWD -- Competitive Pricing

In this edition of Things You Never Knew Were Dangerous, cheap vegetables!

It has been an ongoing news story here that a company, apparently government sponsored, called Shenzhen Central Kitchen Logistics, has been setting up mobile vans selling super cheap produce around the city.  The idea is to feed people for less money, which seems pretty good.
However, stores already selling produce for pretty cheap are unable to match the vans' prices.  They have become less than pleased as punch.  How would this be handled in the US?  I'm guessing some sort of legal battle, but I'm pretty sure the government wouldn't be allowed to pull this anyways.
How is it handled in China?  Read on.

Paraphrased Shenzhen Daily report from 10.17:


Two employees of Shenzhen Central Kitchen Logistics were beaten by employees of a nearby shopping center and forced to leave the area for selling cheaper vegetables.  Chairman of the shopping center the attackers work at later states in an interview, "It is illegal but reasonable to slap the van employees because the vans have taken our business.  He is lucky he didn't die."

!!  Lucky he didn't die?!  Yep.  These beatings have been going on with fair frequency, and from what I've read since this October article there are only about half the vans there were supposed to be by this time.  Well, I guess the "reasonable" beatings are working.

Read an article from the end of October here.  I can't find a link to a more recent article at the moment, but things haven't gotten any better for the poor van workers!  I'll keep following the story and let you know what happens.

In the meantime, remember that Competitive Pricing is a Thing-You-Never-Knew-Was-Dangerous!

New hat

Thanks to wonderful Thomas, I have crochet hooks and was able to forsake my sad knitting for a while.  So I've been back at work with my hobby just in time for the cool season in Shenzhen. I present to you my latest project:

My School Again

Some more pictures of my school and "village" (It's called Meilin Village, but don't let that fool you, it's a city!), so you guys can get a better idea of where I am!

View of my area from the fourth floor of my school

One of my classes during "protect eyesight exercise"

MeiShan Road, down the hill from my school