Christmas in China

Merry Christmas y'all...Sheng dan kuai le.
    Hope you all had a safe and warm Christmas with your families. Christmas here in China was just another work day for most people. Not much in the way of decorations were around town. Some shopping malls had a Christmas tree, and the supermarket was playing Christmas songs, but that's about it. The university let us cancel our classes on Christmas, which was nice. We mixed some Christmas stuff into our classes during December though. They were very interested to learn about how Americans celebrate Christmas. We had a couple of parties for the students, and we attended a party at the church. They asked us to perform something, so we performed a song. It didn't drive them away, so that was a plus.
   On Christmas day we went to mass. It was freezing cold. There is no heat in the church, so everyone is bundled up, steam rising from their breath. The mass started with a marching band.

Two big base drums and a few horns and trombones. I'm going to suggest to Fr Mark that we start doing this at St. Francis...uniforms and all. It wakes you up on a cold winter's morning. It was so cold, but it didn't keep anyone from coming to church and celebrating. The place was packed. This community is very strong and vibrant. It is an honor to worship with them each Sunday.
Christ's Peace to you and your loved ones.
  
 

Christmas Spirit

I play this almost everyday. My students love this video. Hope you do too.

Merry Christmas from Marianne and Paul

Sadness and Joy

 This was a very sad week for us and for our dear friends and family in Raleigh. We lost a beautiful friend this week, Rosalina Rodriguez. She had a great zest for life, and she always made you feel important to her. We celebrate her life, but she is missed.

We ask you to join in our prayers for her and her dear family. God welcomes her with open arms.



 We hope you all are doing well. Baoding has been very cold these past few weeks, and this week we've had some snow. We have been battling colds, but we are doing ok. We have a few weeks to go until the end of the semester. Christmas season is a little different around here. There are occasional Christmas trees decorated in front of some stores, but not very much. We have been playing Christmas songs in our classes this month. They are very curious about how we celebrate. Some of them exchange presents on Christmas, but that's about all they do. The American teachers do our best to share some Christmas spirit with them. There are some Christmas parties next week for our students. I'm playing Santa, and at the church we've been attending has asked us to do a performance of some kind for them. We'll come up with something.

   Last week, the students had some talent shows and we were invited to attend. Gangum Style is a popular dance here in China.

Here are four of my students reciting a poem. Their English name are Abby, Aida, Aggie, and Syval.

Marianne's students are performing a skit. Their English names are Daniel, Olivia, and Drew.

Here is some of my students doing what looked like a Robert Plante song. Logan played the part very well. 

And here is one of my classes doing a group song. I know we've said it on eariler posts, but our students are really nice kids. They are a joy to teach.

There is a student club called English Corner that meets each Tuesday evening. The foreign English teachers, that's us, usually attend. We have activities that give them more practice with listening and speaking English. Last Saturday they wanted to make traditional Chinese food for us. So they rented a kitchen, bought the ingredients and made all kinds of food. We all helped too.

Marianne and Michelle and making dumplings. They were pork and cabbage and they were very good.

Amber, Michelle, and Marianne.

After a hour of cooking, it was time to starting tasting. Amber and Raphael are enjoying the the food.

They made a very delicious oyster dish. I'm not a big oyster fan, but this was very good. It was very spicy...I mean three-alarm spicy.

   We made a couple of American things too. We made some omlettes, Amber made some cooked apples, and Michele made some french bread pizza. It was an interesting mix of foods. We all had fun cooking, eating, and talking. And the best part was that we didn't have to clean up. We survived the meal...didn't get sick on anything.

    Doing activities with the students is really enjoyable. There is not much to do here in Baoding. With the cold and sometimes wet weather and the often bad air, there is not much incentive to venture outside. But it's good when we're with the students or our colleagues. 

   We hope all your Christmas parties are fun. Christ's peace to you, friends this Christmas season.

Road Warriors

Hey!!!
    Well, Thanksgiving is over. It was a very tough time for us. Not having family close by was very difficult. We really miss you all. We did the best we could for the Thanksgiving meal. On Thanksgiving Day we went to an Italian restaurant that we found. It is owned by a real Italian. It was not just a pizza place. They had a very nice menu that even included tiramisu. The food was great.
   On Saturday we had a meal with the other Americans. Everyone made part of the meal. We didn't have turkey so we had to be satisfied with chicken. Marianne made home-made rolls and stuffing. We even had three pies. Everything turned out very well.

   We didn't get to jump in a pile of leaves, or play football in the yard, but we had a nice meal with our colleagues.
   On the plus side, I didn't have to rake any leaves this fall. Leaf raking is done daily here in Baoding by an army of people. The gutters are swept clean each night.
   Another thing we've noticed is that there are lots of little dogs in Baoding. I have not seen many big dogs, like the size of Irish setter. During the day, the dogs seem to gather for some kind of community meeting, then they go out to check on things. The amazing thing is that they never get hit by the traffic. I watched a group of four little dogs cross a busy intersection at rush hour, and they made it across the street without a scratch. No problem. They acted like they owned the place. There has been many a night when I thought it was a miracle we made it back the apartment in one piece. Its not a big deal deal for dogs. I could probably learn a lot from them.

   Here we are, ready for whatever the Baoding streets throw at us. Marianne has her 'game face' on. Somehow, people still know we're foreigners. Thanks to Brian for sending the reflector vests. They are very helpful at night.

   

We ride our bikes just about every day. To class, to the grocery store, to make copies...it's how we get around. Electric bikes are very popular here. We call them 'Silent Killers'. They don't make any noise, so you can't hear them coming up on you, so if you make a sudden turn...whammo!! You're on the ground wondering what hit you. When you finally get your wits back again, the old lady is already gone.

   We found a new supermarket. They've a a small imported section where we found Campbell's soup and other familiar things. They even have aisle signs in English-something new for us so far.  The reason the photos below are a little blurry is because I was so excited to see what was in the 'Fresh & Alive' aisle. It was right next to the 'Mushy drinks' aisle.

  We have four more weeks until our first semester classes are over. We will cancel classes class on Christmas day, which is nice. We've been invited to a Christmas party at the Catholic church. We might have to perform again. Yikes!
   Y'all have a great December. We wish we could be attending all the Christmas parties in Raleigh and especially being with you We miss you all very much. Save me some pie.