Dec. 15 2006 - Street Side Dentistry & the Safe Store

Here are some new pics from around town.

If you have time, check out Jason's website:

www.jason-ism.com

Not as good as mine (OBVIOUSLY), but good nonetheless.

Dec. 15 2006 - Christmas in China

Because Christmas is not celebrated in China, the 25th is a working day. I had to do some creative rearranging of my class in order to have the day off. It just seems wrong to work on Christmas. The students don't mind - it's another day off for them.

I've attached some pics of the tree in my apartment. Decorations are slim pickings over here - which is why we have a Santa on top of the tree - tightly secured with one of my hair elastics. Shopping for presents is tough over here - mostly because I don't speak Chinese. But that is slowly coming along.

I introduced a few of my classes to the Secret Santa tradition. Next week, they are exchanging gifts with each other in class, so I will take pictures and you can see what they do.

Speaking of pictures, if anyone would like to send me pics of their trees, decorations, wrapped presents, stockings, food, lights, etc I would really appreciate it. I'm trying to put together a Powerpoint for my classes and I think it's nicer to show how people I know celebrate instead of just stealing pics from the internet.

THANK YOU

Dec. 15 2006 - My First International Phone Call and HAPPY RING DAY

Getting called out of the shower to answer the phone to hear "I need help planning my wedding" is not an inconvience!!

A HUGE Congratulations to one of my best friends for getting engaged earlier this week!!!

(PLEASE don't make me wear an ugly dress!!)

Dec. 13 2006 - The "Eat-and-Run" Wedding

Joe & Tina's wedding was beautiful and VERY different from weddings back home. Rather than writing a huge paragraph, here are a few bullet points:

- The bride and groom see each other in their wedding atire before the wedding. They don't believe in the same bad luck superstition as we do. As the three of us walked up to the church, Joe and Tina were outside talking with people - I thought we had missed the ceremony.

- The wedding ceremony (this one was in a church) has few guests. And people don't really dress up - just us foreigners. Their wedding had a choir and during one of the songs, one of the ladies in the choir was on her cell phone!! I guess she was singing at two weddings? (hahaha)

- People answer their (loudly) ringing cell phones during the ceremony.

- The reception was at a big hotel. There wasn't a seating plan, so all 7 foreigners sat at one table. We already stand out enough, but the fact that we were all dressed up didn't help. The reception is a bigger social event - I'm sure there was over 200 people there.

- Dinner is a mix of dishes served for everyone to share. I don't think there is a bar per se, but we were continually asking the wait staff for cold beer - we got warm beers and a bucket of ice.

- During dinner, the couple walk around to each table and have a toast with the guests. The guests will usually have alcohol, while the bride & groom toast with water. However, if the table insists that the couple have a real drink, they must do so. I'm sure you can figure out what happened when Joe & Tina stopped at our table.

- After dinner, everyone leaves. All of a sudden, the room was empty but for the foreigner table and maybe two tables of close family. There weren't any speeches, no dances - just eating and toasting and then leaving.

- Because there are so many weddings in China, people get married everyday of the week. This wedding was on a Tuesday night.

Check out the photo album for Joe & Tina's wedding for all the exciting pics!

Dec. 5 2006 - Richard's Birthday

Last Monday was Richard's Birthday BBQ. More than 40 students went from class (this class is graduating in January and there are 60 students in total). It was a good time. So many of these students are too shy to speak to me during class, but at the BBQ, many of them were really talkative. I gave Richard my camera and she went picture-crazy! Some girls taught me a card game similar to Euchre I guess.

The BBQ was really good. It was at the same place as Charlotte's birthday BBQ in early November. Everyone brings their own food and sit in groups with a small BBQ in a table. Everyone wears plastic gloves when they put the food onto the stick. They will put just about anything on there - hotdogs, veggies, tofu, pork strips, chicken wings, shrimp, octopus. Some is really good and some is....

Anyways, take a look at the pics here and in the photo album for more detail.