Baking with friends

Baking with friends

I taught my friends from Indonesia how to make cookies and bread. They were so excited. One of them take a bite of the cookie and said, "This is like heaven."

Christmas with team

Yesterday, our team of four girls celebrated Christmas together. We met at noon and had a meal of scones, and a potato sausage dish. It was pretty tasty. From one of my team-mates, I got a pair of super cool shorts that my team-mate had made here in China by a tailor. She had snuck into my room and borrowed a pair of my shorts to take to the tailor so the tailor would know the size and style. So sneaky and creative. The shorts turned out great! I'm excited for slightly warmer weather to wear them. Here's a picture of three of us with our goodness from our stockings. My fourth team-mate is the one taking the picture.

Grandpa Strasser

My Grandpa passed away about 2 days ago, December 23, 2008. I wish I could remember more funny things he said, because he was quite witty, . . . in a way.

"He will keep you from all harm --- he will watch over your life; He will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore!"

Christmas wishes from a friend

I have received a lot of Holiday wishes from former students. They have sent me text messages and emails wishing me a Merry Christmas. They have also shared their excitement about the season. I just received the following from a former student. She explains my previous post quite well:)

"Although it is very cold ,we all are very happy and exciting.Because tomorrow is Christmas Day !You can hear JingleBell everywhere.The air is full filled with christmas atmosphere,I mean christmas tree ,christmas clothes and christmas gifts.When we go downtown, many people wear as Santa Claus giving small gifts and sending ad reports to attract customers.They are very funny,especially their long white beard.I hope you would see the picture,really interesting....If you were here I would like to give you an apple(this is a superstition.An apple means you will enjoy a healthy life, a great career and a happy family.) I hope your house is filled with apples and happiness.God bless you!"

I am thankful that students remember me on this Christmas, and I want to extend the same Christmas wish as my student to you...This season, may your house be filled with apples and happiness.

Christmas in China...and apples

In China, most young people are starting to celebrate Christmas in a very interesting way. In fact, they are more interested in celebrating Christmas Eve Day which they call “Ping An Ye” which translates as “peaceful night.” Students and young people get together with their friends, eat at a restaurant, sing at a karaoke bar, and give apples away to their friends. Some students think that this tradition of giving away apples is a tradition from western cultures. But, it’s actually a new trend that China started within the last five years, and the reason is because the word “Ping” that they use for Christmas Eve Night “Ping An Ye” is the same character in their word for apple “Ping guo,” thus a tradition is born. I also just recently discovered that another way to celebrate this night is to light fireworks at 12:00 in the middle of the night. Merry Christmas!

As foreign students, our department gave us two days of vacation from school. Originally, they were only going to give us one day off, and that day was Christmas Eve, not Christmas. But, enough foreign students complained and explained that Christmas day was the big celebration and Christmas Eve day was not so important since most people only celebrated that day in the evening. So about one week ago, our school officially told us that we had 2 days off from school. . .Christmas day and Friday. I couldn’t be more pleased, and having no school for 2 days definitely contributes to the Christmas atmosphere.

The weather has also been very Christmasy. It’s cold, and there are few places one can go to feel fully warmed. I have done a good job of scouting these “warm” places out and staying there for long periods of time until the my outer appendages are ready to go again. When I’m sitting at our apartment studying, I perpetually hold a little hot water bag. You just plug it in and then it gets nice and hot, and it stays that way for about 30 minutes. Oh yeah, and it’s red so it’s also Christmasy.

Cookies

The other night, we were baking cookies with some of our Chinese tutors. One of them, we’ll call her Xiao, was so excited to see the shapeless dough being transformed by her own hands into little reindeers, stars, and gingerpeople. She was even happier to help decorate the cookies. Our tutors were quite original in their designs. Instead of decorating with buttons and clothes, they tried to write Chinese characters in the middle of the cookies, and one person added crowns to the reindeer (which I thought was very original.) Later that night at the Christmas party, after we had eaten about one third of the cookies, Xiao was very concerned that there were still a lot of cookies left. She felt like it was an insult to us American hosts that our Chinese friends hadn’t eaten all the cookies yet. She said, “Bu hao yi si” which means, “How embarrassing.” And judging by the way she kept rubbing her belly and groaning, I could tell that she had already tried to eat more cookies than she could stomach.

So, I explained to her that cookies are not the same as Chinese dishes. In Chinese culture, it’s not common for the host to have leftovers. Usually, the guests should try their best to finish eating all the dishes. On the contrary, the expectation hosts have for cookies are not the same. And conveniently, cookies last a long time. I assured Xiao that we could eat these cookies tomorrow or even the next day, and if I had felt more ambitious in my Chinese, I would have explained that sometimes we even freeze cookies for up to 2 or 3 months. After I explained the cookie eating customs, Xiao seemed to be a little more at ease, and didn’t feel pressure to continue eating the cookies.

Letter from a friend....

I recently received an email from one of the first friends I ever made in China. Nearly 3 summers ago, I was her teacher. For a five week program, I was teaching her and her colleagues, a group of Chinese teachers from a Northernmost province. It was incredibly intimidating to teach teachers, but in the end, I felt extremely fulfilled, and it was at that point, that I knew China had a special place in my heart. Apparently, my friend has had a lot of changes since we last saw each other (3 years ago). I think you will enjoy reading her recent email...

Dear Portia:Please forgive me because I can't reply to your email on time.You know in China,if you have a baby of months old,you can have two hours every day to feed it.So I can't find enough time to write to you.
In school,I am so busy giving lessons,checking homework,preparing the exam papers and so on.What busy days I am having!But it makes me happy,just like you.You are also busy and happy.Let's enjoy the pleasant life together.The winter holiday is coming,what's your plan?Are you going to come here? We are looking forward to seeing you.Maybe we(I mean the whole class in Beijing) will have another party.I will send you some information about it next time.
Oh,I forgot to tell you that Tracy is on her way to become a mother,too.She got married last year in December,2007.Congratulations to her.And David's son went to a military university this September,what a proud father he is!There are more surprises for you.Next time,after I meet them,I can tell you. When can you give us your surprises?
I am interested in your everyday life.Would you mind telling me some?
That's all for this.Wish you happy every moment!