平安快乐!

**This was written on December 23, 2012. Due to internet issues here in China, it couldn't be published until now.**

So now that it's been almost six months since my last entry, I reckon it's time to update... finally! 

First of all, Happy Holidays to everyone! The season is in full swing here in China - every storefront is displaying cheesy Christmas decorations and fake snow, and most places are (ruthlessly) playing Christmas m

usic. I thought when I moved across the world, I'd finally escape it... oh, how I was wrong. 

Our gift table!

China does have some cute Christmas traditions, however. Most notably, the Christmas Eve Apple. In China, it's common to give and receive apples (usually red ones) on Christmas Eve. Last year, I got at least six apples; this year, I'm expecting even more since I'll be at school on Christmas Eve. Why apples? Well, it turns out the Chinese word for Christmas Eve is something like "Ping An" and the Chinese word for apple is "Ping Guo"... similar, right? And that's literally the whole story... They sound alike, so it only makes sense to give Ping Guo's on Ping An. Okay, there may be a little more history to it than that, but I haven't bothered to look it up. I'm only going by what I've been told. 

My students decorated the classroom before our party - so cute!

This year, I also decided to share some of my Christmas traditions with my students. And I'm not talking about the basic Santa Claus, stockings and presents ordeal - I wanted to give them something new and fresh. So, I decided to host White Elephant gift exchanges in each of my classes this last week. And it was a huge hit! What I did was I first explained to my students that we were going to have a Christmas Party, and in order to attend, each one had to bring a wrapped gift - the more ridiculous, the better. Then, the following week, I had everyone set their gifts in the middle of the classroom and then draw numbers from a stocking. When they realized what the numbers were for, they all started groaning, "That's not fair - number one gets to choose first... blah blah blah." That is, until I explained to them the part about stealing. And then they all squealed with devilish delight at the possibilities this opened up... thank goodness I set steal limits, otherwise these parties would never have ended. 

Ahh... the anticipation!

So what kind of gifts did they bring? Let me mention some of the ones that stood out to me:

- Empty boxes

- Underwear

- Feminine Products

- Beer (just one can!) 

- A single orange

- Something similar to Vagisil

- Cleaning supplies

- A single button (wrapped in about ten layers of wrapping paper)

- One glove

- A mug shaped like poop (and, yes, I stole this one!)

This is the gift I brought to each class - yes, that is a Santa beard. And yes, I made anyone who opened it wear it. Mwahahaha!

It turned out to be a lot of fun - my students really got into it! Plus, I figured it would be a nice way to relax and enjoy class right before final exams (which start tomorrow!) 

One of the gift tables.

As far as my own Christmas plans go, I've spent all weekend buying Christmas gifts for my friends here and decorating our apartments. I also attempted to make a gingerbread house (thanks for the kit, mom!). Unfortunately, most of the pieces didn't make it across the world very successfully - the roof was beyond repair. But it's alright! I cut out two pieces of cardboard and stuck them on instead... I couldn't give the gingerbread men a house with no roof. That would be wrong. (I suppose it doesn't matter though, since the gingerbread men were broken too and we decided the best way to deal with that was to eat them... oops.) Anyway, I definitely couldn't leave that roof un-decorated, so I chose the worst tasting candy I had and used superglue to attach it to the roof, killing two birds with one stone (bird one being the un-decorated roof, bird two being avoiding eating the nasty candy). I'm not quite done with my ghetto gingerbread house yet, but I'll certainly try to post pictures of it when I am.

This class actually came to the gift exchange prepared - everybody was outfitted with a Santa hat and a ton of yummy snacks. 

I hope everyone else's holiday plans are going well - and I hope the weather has been nice for you all! Hopefully, I'll be back here soon to write to you again...

Until then, Zai Jian!