Christmas in Santai, 2007

Have had some pretty obscure Christmases over the years, some of the more notable ones include learning how to belly-dance in Turkey, and having an underwater Christmas party while scuba diving in the Red Sea ( that one was a wee bit traumatic, as I distinctly recall, since I was working as chef on the diving boat at the time, and had to prepare a 4 course meal, never having cooked a turkey myself before!) However, that challenge, as do all challenges, did pass, and I lived to tell the tale. As did all the guests who ate what I cooked, fortunately!
For those of you who have been following these tales of mine, the most recent challenge that had been causing me sleepless nights, the teachers’ training conference that I had to lead, was a success. I spent far too much time in preparation, I suspect, as I pretty much had the whole 5 hour presentation memorized by the time I had to give it. With my extremely limited computer knowledge, I nevertheless did manage to put together a powerpoint presentation, with a great deal of help from one of the teachers in our school.
I was most worried that I’d run out of things to say, as 5 hours is a really long time to talk, so had all sorts of “just in case” topics to ad lib with if the need should arise. Ad-libbed so well in fact, that I actually had more than enough information, and didn’t quite finish all my subjects. However, it seemed to go pretty well, they laughed in the right places, and stayed awake for the whole 5 hours, which I figure is a good sign! I consider it also a fortunate thing that there was a large desk to stand behind so they couldn’t see my knees knocking, and reckon I fooled them into thinking I was supremely confident!
It never ceases to amaze me, though, that for someone who always tried desperately to be sick on the days we had to give speeches in school, that I have spent so much of the past years public speaking! And it still terrifies me….wonder if you ever get over that horrible feeling of one’s stomach being hollow and hands shaking so much, I forever bless the wonderful soul who invented the clip-on microphone, so no one knows by watching the mike grasped in sweaty palms quake!
Anyway. It’s over, it went well, and I hope I never have to do it again. With my luck, next time it’ll be a national assembly I have to address.
So, Christmas. It lasted for about 2 weeks this year, as I taught a “Christmas” class to my students, and since I’ve so many classes, I didn’t start or finish til well before and after the actual holiday. The kids seemed to like the class though. Started off by telling them a bit about the traditions, stories behind Christmas, complete with tales of Sinterklaas and Zwaart Piet, no less! Then showed them two 5 minute video clips of Mr Bean’s Christmas. They went over well, slapstick humour is perfect for adolescents, and of course there’s no real dialogue, it’s all body language, so there was no stress factor for the slower students to try to understand what was happening. Then put together a slide-show of Christmas pictures from home : lots of snow, pictures of family, that sort of thing, mixed in with pictures from the internet of Christmas symbols: hololy, mistletoe, stockings, Santa Claus, interspersed with shots of Christmas around the world, St Lucia with candles on her head, Christmas crackers, etc. Went over well, so much so, that the classes I missed during my two day Christmas holiday asked to have the classes rescheduled so they could see it too. The school was nice to give me both the 24th and 25th off, so I went down to Chengdu. Earlier in the day, I spent some time wandering around the Wenshuo Street area doing some bits and pieces of Christmas shopping, and then met up with a few friends for lunch and gossip before meeting again to have Christmas dinner with friends there, an American friend of mine, who is teaching in a primary school there, her 4 year old daughter, and her mother who’d come over to visit for the holiday. A fun couple of days, then back to school to continue my Christmas class lectures on Boxing Day! The students and teachers have all been great. My table at home was loaded with cards, letters and gifts from students and teachers…have a look at the pictures! The teachers of Senior 1, the level in which I teach the majority of my classes, had gotten together to buy me a beautiful silver and jade necklace. The kids gave me all sorts of things: two hand-knitted scarves from some of my girl students, a wooden music box, various sizes of the red Auspicious Knot for good luck, a lime-green feathery wind chime, fluffy pink socks,
A stuffed panda that came complete with batteries (and sings an extremely loud pop song!), a packet of REAL (!) ground coffee beans, a carved wooden frog with a stick which when rubbed down the corrugations on its back, sounds like it’s croaking…and all sorts of hand folded origami flowers, animals and stars. One class, bless ‘em, got together to make a necklace of 74 little origami stars, one for each student. You can see Marco in the photo wearing it! Was invited out for multiple Christmas dinners, and on the Friday following Christmas, went out for Christmas/ New Year dinner with all the school English teachers! Loads of fun, we so rarely have time, as all the teachers are so busy here, especially now with the exams coming up. Dinner was a hot-pot style Chicken soup, a bubbling broth full of Chunks of chicken and vegetables, that kept being refilled. Have a look at the photos, to see some of the teachers that I work with!
After dinner, most of us went to a karaoke club, with soundproof rooms lined with couches and a large TV set hooked up to a computer, so we could sing our hearts out, a glorious mixture of English and Chinese songs. Again, you all know what my voice is like, the mixture of Endhoven/Ouwehand genes not being overly conducive to melody, however, it was fun just to hang out and laugh together. The teachers in our school are really very friendly, and it was nice to have time away from work to talk together.
Then back to Chengdu the next day, to help a few friends with some translation they are doing for a book, and to sort out my train ticket for Xining. Not long now before the Spring festival holiday begins – early for me, as I can leave once the kids start exams – and off I go to travel and visit friends in Qinghai. Looking forward to a bit of travelling again….So that is it for the 2007 blogs…unless something wildly exciting happens before I go, the next blog will be a travel story! So have a Happy New Year everyone,
Best wishes and prayers for peace and happiness in 2008.