Christmas in China

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Zhangjiagang. That may come as a surprise to some--that China does Christmas--but in fact, it does. A Christmas with no relation to Christ. Just Santa Claus, lights, and trees. And, for a few Western-wannabe-families, gifts. All of the department stores are decorated. It’s kind of like Cinco de Mayo for college students. It’s an excuse for us (or rather, them….ahhh that’s still weird) to drink tequila and eat queso dip. Except in China’s case its decorate fake plastic trees and put strangely ubiquitous and thin Santas-playing-saxophones out front.


Last week I was making myself some dinner before I biked to my tutee’s house and my coworker, Candice, walks into the kitchen and tells me to cancel my tutoring because of a mandatory Christmas banquet with the mayor of Zhangjiagang that all three of us teachers had to go to in twenty minutes. Oh and there was a crate of apples for me in the front office. So I canceled, lugged my crate back to my apartment, and hopped in a teacher’s car with Candice and Mary Beth to head to the Guo Mao hotel, the same hotel where the Korean service is held, for the banquet. The teacher drops us off and heads home and the three of us sit alone at a big table in a room full of big tables. All of the most prominent businessmen in town were there. After every fifteen-person table in the room was occupied, the organizers of the event finally came and sat down with us. There was lobster! And performers. Jugglers, singers, dancers, Chinese opera--this man danced and somehow changed his mask over and over without actually holding any masks. His hand would slide over his face and there would be a new one. And a Chinese man in sunglasses came out and played “Careless Whisper” on sax. It was so awesome I had to text myself a reminder so I could laugh about it again in the morning. (create message. send to: me. careless whisper.) It would have been better if he’d been in a santa suit.

There was also a raffle and when they asked for volunteers to read off the numbers, of course I volunteered. I didn’t win anything though, but the prize at the door was an electric ceramic teapot. And a little stuffed cow. I gave my cow away though. So crate of apples+teapot=successful day of freebies! And I found a 100 quai bill in my camera case while photographing the events at the banquet! Still not really sure why it was mandatory that we went. I guess they wanted some white faces there.

Look at the ridiculous lobster display. One on every table and there were probably 40 tables.

Then this weekend I got really horrible food poisoning and didn’t leave my room for 48 hours. On Monday I did nothing, Tuesday I went to the bar, last night I went to an EF house party. Not much else to report. It’s still cold. They leave all of the windows open in the classrooms and there is no heat so that’s getting kind of old. Also, now when I bike I have to wear gloves so when a good song comes on my ipod I have to turn up the music by rubbing my nose around the little circle. The other day I was running late for tutoring so I had to substitute some wool socks for gloves because I couldn’t find the gloves in time. So I gave something for everyone to be staring out besides the color of my skin when I was making my way down the street with my floppy sock-hands rubbing a square of shiny metal on my face with my tongue sticking out because its really hard to coordinate biking and rubbing an ipod on your face just the right way.

Rachel