My Dad in GW has been imparting on his daughter and in the more recent past his son-in-law that we shouldn't forget that there are twelve days of Christmas. I'm sure there is a good lesson plan idea in there somewhere: counting and ... well that's for me to work on. I digress.
It has been a very wonderful and very cold week here in our little corner of the world. For the last few days we haven't seen positive numbers (C) on the thermometer and it looks like that might continue for a while. At times like these Julie and I are again thankful for our wonderful commute. Julie is quite content that there is very rarely a legitimate reason she has to go outside and while I get a little stir crazy and need to venture out at least once a day, I don't have to be out for very long. This past weekend the farthest we made it was the Wu-Mart, which entails a ten minute walk to the bus stop and a couple minutes from the bus stop into Wu-Mart. For recreation, I get to play basketball on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the school gym, which can be reached in doors, it is a charmed life.
As was shared last week our school gave Julie and I a half day on Christmas Eve and basically an entire day off for Christmas day. I think going into the 12 days of Christmas conversation would have been a bit greedy on our part and there is no way could've communicated that with any success. After lunch on Christmas Eve, Julie and I headed out into the cold to go buy presents for each other. We had aspirations to surprise each other, but quickly came to our senses. Our mutual disdain for excessive unnecessary shopping does wonders for the marriage. After shopping we met up with some fellow teachers and administrators to head our for dinner and then to the KTV (karaoke). Dinner was very good and beyond Christmas the conversation topics included whether they should call one of the dishes pig's head or pig's face. Julie and I decided to abstain from that dish, but we went with calling it pig's head; just in case you were wondering.
After dinner it was off to our first KTV experience. As Julie and I will be performing a Chinese song at the upcoming New Year's party we (Julie and I) concluded that they (teachers and administrators) thought we could use all the practice we could get and they weren't and still aren't wrong. We sang our song at least three times along with several English songs that I am afraid to admit did include a duet by me (Ryan) and one of the Chinese English teachers of a Justin Bieber selection.
The KTV facility was incredible. One of the nicest places we have been in China. Everything was very clean, with nice leather seating and marble topped tables. There is a registration and waiting area as you enter and also a supermarket where snacks and beverages of the alcoholic (from Bud to Chivas) and non-alcoholic variety can be purchased. Purchase whatever you want there and then carry it back to your room or order off the menu to have it delivered. They had a very nice fruit and vegetable plate delivered with an impressive presentation. Each group has their own private room. Most that we saw had about four or five people. The rooms are spread out from the center and there were over 80 of these rooms. Once you get your purchases back to the room then an attendant helps poor any beverage or any set-up that is necessary and would deliver any made to order items when ready. Scrolling through all the songs was a bit difficult as the instructions were all in Chinese but Julie did manage to find the Taylor Swift selection without too much difficulty. The many performances of our group were quite hilarious and in a few cases impressive and I think the bar has been set at the appropriate level for our (Julie and my) upcoming performance.
Our one duty for Christmas day was to do the morning broadcast for the school. At 7:50 AM each school day their is a broadcast to the entire school. Over our four months here everyone has been in Chinese so we can't tell you what is usually delivered but on Christmas day it was all up to Julie and me. We had practiced over the weekend but as with most activities we do in China we kept finding out more of the details over time and made the necessary adjustments. We got into the office about 7:30 on Tuesday morning and the teachers had decorated it for Christmas and someone had bought a Christmas tree to surprise us. (We are quite lucky to work with such wonderful folks.) After about five minutes we were whisked away to the TV studio that we didn't know existed in a remote section of the third floor. We got about ten minutes and did a dry run for the staff and student workers before we went live. The highlight had to be our rendition of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. It was a fun experience and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The only times The only issues were when I started watching myself on the monitor in the studio. One surprise since coming to China is how much time we've spent on camera.
After we finished the broadcast we handed out a few Christmas presents and then made our way out into the cold. A quick two hour trip to the east side of the city and we were within walking distance of Baoyuan Jioazi Wu. It's a dumpling restaurant. Jiaozi (饺子) is Chines for dumplings. Chinese dumplings are right at the top of my favorite local foods and when Julie didn't capitalize on picking where we were going to eat Christmas dinner it was off to the Beijinger's No. 1 dumpling restaurant. This restaurant will dye the dumplings purple, orange, red or green. Don't ask me why but we got purple and orange dumplings. Being the gentleman that I am, I let Julie pick the majority of the dumplings we ordered and only order one type. Can you guess which type she liked best or for that matter liked at all? She is lucky that I have such a diverse palate. While she might not be ready to sign-on to a new tradition I have been thinking up some dumpling recipes for the future. Doesn't a Thanksgiving dumpling sound delicious?
We are back to work and the second day of Christmas is winding down over here in our corner of the world but we will be keeping the Christmas spirit alive and hope you do to.
Merry Christmas,
Ryan
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