Yep, definitely dropped the ball on the whole one post a week thing. Oh well.
So it's the holidays, even on this side of the planet, so I have a few new experiences to report. The first of which is what it's like to spend Christmas away from home. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't all that dramatic. I certainly missed my family and friends at this point, thinking often of the various traditions that accompany the holiday season. Oh, and the food, God I missed the food. But I didn't fall into a deep depression and stay in my room crying and trying to make homemade eggnog.
The atmosphere around China certainly helped with that. For those of you wondering if your average Chinese citizen celebrates Christmas, the answer is yes, but also no. You see, China has adopted Christmas in its most secular, commercialized form. Christmas trees? Check. Christmas lights? Check. Any mention of Jesus' birth? Conspicuously absent. Christmas in China is basically another excuse to go shopping. I think it's kind of fantastic, in the unadulterated capitalistic sort of way, but it does lack the jovial spirit of an American Christmas. It left me feeling a bit cold to be honest.
Luckily, my Christmas festivities were much more enjoyable. A few friends and I organized a secret Santa gift exchange. Of course two hours after picking names out of a hat, everybody knew who was buying them their present, which kind of defeats the purpose. At least I had a pretty great gift (got my friend a rockin' pair of superman underwear, going to have to go back and get myself some as well). Christmas day we all went out out for dinner. The original plan was to go to KTV as a group, but half our party was way too tired, so in the end it was a ragtag group of four that made it there; me, an Irishman, a Chinese guy and a Polish girl. If that sounds like the set up to a bad joke, I agree.
KTV, perhaps more than any other activity, relies heavily on the attitudes of its participants. If you can find a group of people that really want to have a good time and aren't worried about looking like an ass while they do it, it's going to be amazing. But if you have just one person that sits there and judges everyone, it will be awful, truly awful. Thankfully, this group was here to make this a memorable Christmas. I can't fully describe what transpired in that room, but we sang for at least four hours. We're talking duets, solos, barbershop quartets, everything. You name it, we did it. At some point my Irish friend decided he was very hot, and got into his underwear. This only added to the atmosphere. It was a Christmas I will not soon forget.
It should be noted that we did not enjoy any time off from classes during this break. The Christmas break part of Christmas didn't make it over, I'm sad to say. But we coped, mostly by not actually going to class. I am a studious man, just not on during the holidays.
Unfortunately, New Years did not bring the same level of enjoyment as Christmas. A couple hours of drinking in anticipation of the night out was followed by boring time passed at bars that I barely remember, and not because I drank that much. Of course, I'm old now, or at least my body thinks it is, so I woke up the next day feeling like I had headbutted a train. This lead to much introspection on why I drink alcohol in excess the first place, but that's for another post.
Now I find myself somewhat hungover from the holidays that weren't really holidays. All I can think about now is that I'm less than 21 days from being home. I am a week away from my final exams and I can't say I'm especially excited about it. Here's to hoping that I can bring it all together for a beautiful finish.
