David's Big Adventure in China

December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from China! I went to a Christmas party hosted by the school on Saturday night for all the foreign students and foreign teachers. In all there were about 10 countries represented including Viet Nam, Laos, China, Thailand, France, Canada, USA, Australia, and Switzerland. There was singing and performances in English, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laos and maybe one or two more that I missed. Some of the performances would have had Simon from Idol rolling his eyes and lofting zingers but there were a couple that were quite good. There was a Vietnamese kid that could dance like Michael Jackson and some of the Vietnamese girls did an Indian dance (yes, India, the neighboring country to China). On Sunday night I went to a Christmas party hosted by some of my students and they also had some performances but only Chinese and English were used. One of my students gave me a can of beer shortly after I arrived and of course we toasted with the words “gan bei” which means bottoms up. There is no minimum drinking age here so the kids can drink whenever and wherever they want. They even sell beer in one of the school cafeterias.

Tonight is Christmas Eve here and I had my normal classes today (see the pic – click on “pictures” under “my links” on the right side). For my class this evening I treated them to some typical American food and sang them a couple Christmas songs (White Christmas and Rudolph). We had PB&J sandwiches (creamy Skippy), Pringles, peanut M&M’s, chocolate chip cookies, Cheerios, Coke and Sprite. They seemed to really enjoy it. I don’t have any classes on Tuesdays so I won’t have to go to class on Christmas day but I’ll be busy preparing a final lesson and preparing a final exam. Last week in my classes I read the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and explained all the parts that were difficult for them.

Well that’s it for this abbreviated Christmas edition. “Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 11:33 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.