Holidays and semester ends

Dear faithful readers, we have been very busy the past month, but things are slowing down a little, so here goes:

Early in December, we put together a library improvement proposal. In the lab, I got some experience knowing how much to say and what to focus on, so I thought I would give it a shot. Turns out it was a good idea, since the department is trying to get funding for our ideas. They include: new bookshelves, DVD and magazine racks, chair covers, curtains, and DVD organization system. Mostly boring stuff, but if we can spruce the library up to the point where it looks cool, has cool books, and can be run by students, then we'll have done our jobs.

The middle of December was peppered with Christmas songs taught in class and lectures at a neighboring teachers' college. Apparently there is a Chinese version of Jingle Bells, which shares the lines "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way." Then right when you think the students already know it, you hear "mmm ah huumm ah mmmm hummm." So we went through the rest of the song slowly, and even figured out what a "one-horse open sleigh" is. It was great at the end of class, singing along with the music, wondering if the other teachers were going crazy on the other side of the cinderblock walls. The Christmas lights in the library helped immensely to make it really feel like Christmas.

Our lectures at the Tianshui No. 2 Teachers' College were interesting (pictures here). Nick went and did an hour on U.S. History and Civil Rights, then got questions such as "What do you think about Iraq?" I did a disjointed hour on the U.S. Education System and Christmas Traditions. I got various questions including one about the effect on me and my home from the hurricanes that regularly crash into Florida. The students there were great, and had really prepared for us. Nick had maybe 200 students attend, and I had closer to 100. We may go back next semester. One awesome thing we saw there was a map installed by some British volunteers where they had put titles and authors on the various countries from where the English books in their library had come. The administrator, Andrew, who invited us, is a great guy. His wife is 4 hours away getting a Master's and he cares for his 7-year old daughter. After my lecture we walked 15 minutes in freezing weather to a great little restaurant with sizzling lamb. His daughter made cute faces and tried to speak Chinese to us the whole time, at the same time putting away 2 bowls of rice. Then she hopped on the back of Andrew's bike and they took off back to the school, and we walked 5 minutes home.

We had a loud and cozy party at our apartment, where we gathered all the available desserts in Tianshui - and ate them all (pictures here).

Christmas has been interesting, to say the least. We knew that we would have a writing final exam some time after classes ended (on Dec. 21st), but we weren't sure when. Our counterpart teachers took the trouble to make sure we had the first possible exam time so that we'd get finished grading early. However, that happened to be Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve we were invited to dine at the Tianshui Hotel, Western food buffet. We did have roast beef, turkey, and ham, along with noodles and Chinese desserts. It was nice - I was interviewed by the local paper, Robbie played the piano, and Bridget sang a Jamaican Christmas song. All that hurrah was a little dampened for me by all the little old ladies selling hand-made orthotics for a living on the street outside, but the dinner was nice. After dinner we walked back to the main square. When we were approaching the Catholic church, we started to hear the fireworks and see the crowds. We saw the crowd in front of the church, so we decided to take a tour inside. Inside it was like an art exhibition, or cell phone promotion. People were staring at the walls, taking pictures, and walking through slowly as though they were giving something out. They weren't - Ron told us that it was the same last year; people were there waiting for a miracle. After seeing it for myself, I don't think they were waiting for a miracle. They may have been curious about religion, and the story of Jesus, and the lights and robes, but there was no truth conveyed. I think the lights and robes won out. It was while standing in the foyer of the church that I was most warned about pickpockets. Nick considered stopping to genuflect, but there was a policeman sitting on the font, as well as before the altar.

We continued walking through firecrackers (and Nick kicking them back toward the kids from whence they came) to KFC, where we shared coffee with Alex and reflected on the plethora of Western foods available for sale in Xi'an (think big city, Terracotta Warriors). See some pictures here.

Christmas morning was great. We drowned in thankfulness for the gifts and thoughts of our friends and families. Then at 9:30 we put on work clothes and went to the Writing I final exam. At 11:45 we had the exams in hand and went for lunch. We relaxed in the afternoon, and then went out for dinner with my counterpart teacher and her husband. It was nice.

The coming week looks like paper-grading and relaxing, and on Friday going up to Lanzhou for the New Years' Party dinner for all of the foreign experts in our province. And since we've been watching quite a bit of "The Office" on the internet, I'll leave you with this fun thought: our students and Michael Scott are both learning how to use PowerPoint. Oh, I wish the writer's strike would end!