It snowed in Guiyang this morning! For the first time in years! Of course, I thought it was raining because it was so light, but my students rushed to my apartment, eager to inform me of this exciting event. I made them hot chocolate (a first for them) and together we stood in my warm apartment, listening to a gentle acoustic CD, looking out my windows that were adorned in bright Christmas lights, and enjoyed the moment together. It was really a special morning. :)
Lots of exciting things have happened in this past week! First of all, though, I hope to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year! :) Christmas in China was, naturally, eventful! You already know about the fun parties I had with students, so I won't get into that again, but what I didn't talk about was how CRAZY Christmas Eve is in China! Haha, I sort of had an idea about this last year, but didn't quite grasp just how intensely . . . misguided . . . the Chinese are about this holiday. In China, Christmas Eve is seen as a party . . . kind of like Saint Patrick's Day . . . with strange "Chinese characteristics." The day started out nice. The English department had a big party, Dave came out to visit and join my colleagues and me for a large banquet, and then Kari, Dave and I ventured into the city for dinner at the newly opened Papa John's (exciting, right?!). Papa John's was exquisite, expensive, and worth every bite! It's located in the center of the city, however, and what we didn't realize while we were consuming our delectable dinner was that outside, a storm of people was brewing. The moment we stepped outside, we were bombarded with thousands (literally, remember, this is a city roughly the size of Dubuque with 3 million people) of people in the street, on the sidewalks, etc. Vendors everywhere sold silly string and fake snow cans, light-up devil horns to wear on your head (seriously!), scary (VERY scary) Santa masks, Santa hats (with silver stars and moons on them), noise makers, purple and pink heart balloons, amongst other Christmas monstrosities. Within seconds, someone spotted my blond hair (curse it) and shouted "lao wai!" Immediately, a large crowd of people turned to me and my two innocent friends and attacked. Silly string—the new bane of our existence—covered us from head to foot, inner mouths included. We screamed in dissent. We pointed. We shouted (in Chinese and English). We growled obscenities, but the spraying didn't stop. Officers were everywhere, but they didn't seem to think this was a violent act, as Chinese think this is how Christmas Eve is supposed to be celebrated; why wouldn't the foreigners want to spend "their" holiday having fun and being the center of atrocious attention? Finally, at our wits end, we ran. We didn't know where to go, but our Chinese friend, "Andy," owns a bar near the city center so it seemed like our closest, safest harbor in order to get away from the madness. And so that's where we, unexpectedly, went and spent our Christmas Eve: a smokey dive bar in China, hiding from the chaos outside, covered in assorted colors, hair drenched from artificial snow, waiting for the pandemonium to subside long enough for us to get home.
Christmas Day was a little more "traditional," or at least as much as a Christian holiday can be in Guizhou. I spent Christmas Eve night with Kari (we had a slumber party in her apartment so that we could wake up early together on Christmas morning), and the two of us woke up way too early, exchanged gifts, showered, dressed, and then went to the People's Republic of China Catholic Church (I've never been there before), where we met up with Julian (our Swedish-Hong Kongese-Irish friend), Collette (Irish), and our Chinese friend. It was definitely an interesting mass! The alter had the traditional CPC red emblems, the Bible and prayer service mentioned much about patriotism and a united China, yet the routines were almost identical to any other Catholic mass I've ever attended; we even sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" in Chinese. Instead of shaking hands when saying "peace be with you," here, people put their hands together and bow when offering peace. My Chinese friend told me that bowing in that manner is an ancient tradition in China as a way to show respect to the "immortals." I'm not sure if that's why they do it in this church or not, but it is a good explanation and an interesting portrayal of culture's effect on religion.
After church, my friends and I had a relaxing lunch at an American-owned coffee shop, and then that night all the Guiyang city Peace Corps volunteers went to Jonny's for our annual Peace Corps Christmas Potluck. It was a really nice day. :)
As mentioned before, this past weekend was dedicated to yet another Christmas party with all Guizhou province volunteers in Zunyi, a city about 4 hours away by train. Saturday afternoon, I boarded the train with Jess, Todd, Sara and Lulu, all adorned with copious amounts of luggage filled with food, presents, sleeping bags and weekend toiletries. After finding our seats, we began chatting and enjoying the homemade Bailey's Irish Cream that Todd made, and before we knew it, we realized we had been sitting there for an hour without moving. We asked the train crew what was going on and they told us there had been a train accident and we had to wait a little longer. We all started getting bad vibes and thinking maybe we should get off the train, but were kindly told that it wasn't allowed; we were stuck. We waited. And waited. And finally, after lots of protests by other passengers, the train began to move. Twenty minutes later, just outside of Guiyang in the middle of nowhere, the train stopped and again we waited for more than an hour. No one seemed to have any idea what time we'd be able to move again, and by this time we all were certain that we were in the wrong place and needed to get out of this situation immediately. So, we did what any foreigners in China with the benefit of playing dumb did: we jumped. Bags in tow, I in heals and a skirt, all of us jumped from the train onto the train tracks, stranded in the middle of nowhere but certain that this was the right thing to do, and then we walked home, along the train tracks, laughing all the way. We never made it to Zunyi, but we had a great make-shift Christmas party with the five of us. Again, we went to Papa John's (definitely an expensive holiday…) for dinner, then we had a slumber party at Todd and Jessica's house. We played Scramble and drank Bailey's all night, then turned their entire living room floor into a giant bed and all curled up together with a movie. It was an unexpected, special holiday. :)
Tomorrow, New Year's Eve, marks the last day of my final exams, which I'm incredibly thankful for. Exams have been surprisingly pleasant, though, in spite of how busy I've been. I've learned so much from my students (for Oral English, I give them each a five minute 1:1 interview); many of them are the first person in their entire hometown to attend university (and we Americans think it's exciting to be a first generation family member to go to college…), many have lost parents, and one of my students even shared her experience working in a sweatshop as a child! I absolutely love this group of students so much; they've definitely become way more than students to me. :)
Sunday, God willing, I'll go back to ChengDu for our Peace Corps In-Service Training, where I'm giving 2 sessions, one on cultural expectations and the other on starting secondary volunteering projects. I'm really excited to see my old host family again, as I just found out that my host mom is pregnant (and due next month!)! In China, it's not legal for the doctor to tell parents if they're having a boy or girl (in order to reduce the number of aborted girls), so of course the sex of the child is unknown. I'm not sure what to give a Chinese family as a baby-expecting gift, so this will be a cool cultural "first." :)
Anyways, that's that! It looks like 2008 is coming to a close already within 25ish hours, although the western calendar isn't really observed here, so it doesn't really feel like New Year's is here yet . . . we still have a few more weeks left before we celebrate Chinese New Year/Spring Festival here. :) Regardless, I wish you all the greatest of holidays! May your New Year celebration be joyous, filled with abundant blessings and fortunes, and safe! I hope 2009, the year of the Ox, is a blessed year for you! Xin nian kuai le! :)
Peace and love!
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