Merry Christmas!

I think that this year I’ve been more grateful for the existence of Christmas than any other year that’s passed. This year has really got me thinking about the importance of having such a holiday…in any culture that has to deal with an extended period of harsh and depressing weather conditions (weather that means monsoons, harsh winters, etc.).

Winter is dark and cold, and it makes people want to shut down. Winter brings to a lot of people seasonal depression (which is what I’d say I had). At times like this, having a holiday that is celebrated together by a mass amount of people, filled with traditions and ways to make far more merry than one ever does during the rest of the year, gives people something to look forward to. It’s a time when people are pretty much forced to take a break, even if they choose to refrain from celebrating.

And here’s a theory I have about winter holidays: I think one of the reasons why there are so many winter holidays (there seem to be more holidays specifically made for the winter than any other holiday) is because the winter is the season that NEEDS holidays the most. It would be extremely depressing without them. Way back thousands of years ago when some of the earliest forms of these holidays and others existed, people needed a way to emotionally get through these hard times. They gathered up much of the food they harvested to throw together a huge feast to celebrate and boost morale. There were traditions to be done that represented good luck, to give people the hope of happiness and keep them remembering that things will get better in the spring. In my opinion, these winter holidays were like a big pep rally for the community, saying “Whoo! Winter’s here! And we’re gonna survive it like we always do! We can do it! Be happy!”

So for me, particularly this year I was feeling the need for such a boost of happiness. And though it wasn’t like the Christmases I’ve celebrated at home with the family, it was what I needed to keep me going just a little longer.

CHRISTMAS PEP RALLY!! WHOOP WHOOP!!

As Christmas was starting to get closer and the plans for what we’d do to celebrate began to be made, I found an extra boost of energy to go out and be a part of all of it. I love Christmas, it’s my favorite holiday of the year. It’s a lot of people’s favorite holiday, and honestly it makes a ton of sense why…it’s the biggest holiday of the year in America, and I’m not just saying that because I like it a ton. It’s true. Not any other holiday has as many companies and businesses shut down for the day (or at least half of it) than Christmas does. Not to mention, for those that celebrate Christmas, it’s often the holiday that involves the most activities of any other holiday celebrated…there’s buying and decorating the tree, making the big dinner and desserts, making a stronger effort than you do at any other time of the year to be home with your family, Christmas movies, games to play, and specific Christmas music (which has a countless amount of songs…many of which a mass amount of people know). Anyway, it’s my opinion, but all of this is why it’s my favorite holiday; not these specific things I’ve listed, but what all of these together create: they create a kind of attitude, a mood that is exclusive only to this specific time…I guess a lot of people call it Christmas cheer. It’s a feeling that things were never as good as they are right now (even if you aren’t the richest of the rich), a feeling that makes you want to help other people and each other, a feeling that makes everyone want to be nice to each other for particular reason but that it’s a great moment to be alive.

Okay I can rant all day about all of that, but the ultimate point is the coming of Christmas gave me a boost of energy that helped me get through this time. We (all of us teachers, along with some of our Chinese friends) all decided we would do a Secret Santa (as I mentioned before) and we’d pool together our resources to put together a potluck. It was something really nice to look forward to, and though it may not be what we all were used to…the biggest difference was not being with our families…it was still FAR FAR  better than nothing.

Those few days leading up to Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas party with our American boss, where there were all sorts of great Christmasy things: gingerbread cookies, mulled wine, hot apple cider, popcorn (Chinese style though, so it was sweet), togetherness and conversation, and watching Christmasy movies and tv episodes.

And then the day of the potluck/Secret Santa came. And we celebrated from 5 pm to late at night. We had all kinds of food, as Western as we could make ourselves with the ingredients in China, along with Chinese food brought by our Chinese friends. And we had it at the coffee shop that I talked about in an earlier post. There were homemade bagels, melted cheese sauce, roast duck, baked chicken, spicy fish stew, chips, muffins, crackers, jam, pickled cucumber salad, fruit ambrosia, different wines, tea, coffee, and a few other things I can’t think of at the moment. I unfortunately couldn't take any pictures of this time because my camera also got seasonal depression and was crying, and so the lens fogged up and couldn't focus right. :(

I had never appreciated the concept of a potluck as much as I did that night. When each person brings something, just a little something, and we all put it together it becomes a feast. It was a great time and afterwards we had our Secret Santa. Everyone received lovely gifts that corresponded very well with each person’s personality while at the same time kind of matching the personality of the person who gave it. I received a hat from Fuli, the owner of the coffee shop, which I have to agree with what one of the teachers said: it was kind of steampunk-ish…and I love steampunk, yet it was classy like Fuli is. And Melissa loved my stamp, I just loved seeing her reaction. I had gotten her name carved on to it as part of the stamp so it stamped her name and the Chinese cognate of her name in characters. She really liked it, I think especially because she spoke no Chinese…I thought it would be a nice connection to China for her, and in the future a reminder of the time she spent here.

After the Secret Santa and a little more conversation, someone turned on some music and some people even began to dance. So that was quite fun too.

After that me and a few of the other teachers went back to our American boss’s apartment and watched another Christmas movie and then we went to bed. It was Christmas Eve that night, not Christmas. This was to be our Christmas celebration because a few of the other teachers had to teach class the next day, on Christmas…because in China Christmas is not really celebrated. Their equivalent of Christmas is Chinese New Year, and their school terms end accordingly. Ours in America ends a week or two before Christmas, theirs goes through Christmas and ends a week or two before Chinese New Year. They also get a very long time off for Chinese New Year, about a month and sometimes longer.

So did I do anything for Christmas?? I’ll tell you what I did.

Usually I turn on my heat maybe two or three times a day and only for an hour TOPS. The heat really uses up the units I’m given for electricity in my house, and so I use it sparingly…I never turn it on all day or all night. But what I did today was turn it on for MOST  of the day.

HEEEATTTT

And today, I feasted on fresh bread and authentic sharp cheddar cheese which I was able to buy from a Western supermarket called Metro that just opened at the end of November. There’s no direct route by public bus to where it’s located, and most of the taxi drivers don’t know the location so you have to explain how to get there to them, but for some of the things they sell there it’s TOTALLY worth it. No where else in Xiangyang do they have as good and fresh bread as they do, nor as much variety of cheese (I’ve only seen American in other places, if they have any), nor meats, spices, or Western snacky-snacks (they have popcorn that ISN’T sweet! They don’t have that anywhere else). So once more, it’s worth it. And so I feasted all day on yummy bread (even though it was getting stale, just a quick half a minute in the microwave and it softened right up…but I had to eat it quickly or else it would get hard again…but even that tasted so much better than no bread at all…I’m just glad it wasn't moldy) and yummy cheese and watched Christmas movies.

FOOODDDD

Then later that evening, when it was just beginning to be morning in the Eastern coast of the US, I called the family back home. I had a routine going on for the holidays that I would still be present there, it would be as if I was never gone…I had done this for Thanksgiving as well. I stayed on Skype THE ENTIRE DAY. Yes, it was like a big movie marathon of LIFE. In the morning, we began by opening the presents and I got to watch all of that and make comments as I saw fit. And then when everyone went their separate ways until dinner, everyone took turns handing me off to different people, sometimes my dad, sometimes my little sisters, sometimes my older sister, but most of the time I was with my mom watching her cook the dinner. As she cooked, I told her my thoughts about Christmas and how my Christmas in China went.

SKYPE MARATHONNNNN

Finally, when dinner was finished being made and it was all set up on the table, they moved me to the dining room where I was placed on the table in front of the seat I would’ve sat at…so I was once more at my place at the table and I ate popcorn and soda in my room as everyone else feasted on Christmas dinner. Of course, I had to be part of the whole dinner so I made random interjections of “please pass the gravy” or “mmm, this sweet potato casserole is really really good, what do you put in it?” And honestly, it was really nice because even though I wasn’t there, I didn’t miss a single thing, and they weren’t missing me…because I was there. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it really past their 8 pm, when they were cleaning up the table, because it was 8 am my time and I had stayed up almost the whole day before (I took a quick nap to prepare for the Skype marathon). So  8 am the next day, I went to bed.

Merry Christmas everyone.