Christmas in China!

Snow in Langfang

Back in the USA
The fall semester is now officially over and I'm writing this blog from the USA.  Hooray!  I flew back into BWI at roughly 11:18 pm, on the 18th, whereby my family picked me up and I was home within the hour.  It’s great to be home for Christmas.  I will stay here in the good state of Maryland till the 15th of February.  So that means I get nearly two months of vacation, which is even more vacation time than I got last summer.

Travel wasn't too bad this time.  It took me a total of 22 hours total to get from my apartment in Langfang to my family’s home.  NCIAE was nice enough to lend me a driver who took me directly to the airport and I didn’t have to fight my way through the Beijing subway.  I got to the airport early enough but it didn’t do me any good.  Delta’s computer system was down at Peking International and each of the passengers had to be checked-in by hand with a pen and paper.  It was tedious.  Thankfully there was only one Delta flight leaving that day and they delayed the plane so that everyone could get on.  The delay set us back about two hours but they managed to get everyone on.  I don’t want to complain too much about Delta because the crew worked their hardest to get us all taken care of and the hustle was impressive.  They even gave us free food and drink while we all waited to be check-in.  

The flight from Beijing to Detroit lasted 12 hours and I spent most of the time catching up on the year’s big movies.  I found myself watching the Pacific Rim and thinking that Season 1 of The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers was so much better... Oh, Hollywood, what were you thinking?  I did really enjoy The World’s End with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  I love their movies.  I finally arrived in Detroit and thankfully my connecting flight wasn’t for another two hours.  I grabbed myself something to eat, a brief nap, and then boarded the airbus.  I arrived in Baltimore and was greeted by family and fresh batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies!  It’s great to be home.

Christmas in China
This past month has been the busiest yet.  I was asked by the college to add two extra classes to my schedule.  They wanted me to teach academic writing to the Master’s program students.  This put my total teaching hours up to 22 per week, which is a lot.  Each teaching hour should have at least 2 hours of prep work and that means I was working nearly 66 hours per week.  This included final exams, grading papers, and even a special lecture given to nearly 500 students.  The lecture was a big hit.  The theme was about the nuances of different cultures and I told funny stories about my own personal experiences in China.  The final exam also went well.  I gave the classes an assignment to write, direct, and act in their own English drama.  The theme of each drama needed to come from our textbook but the dialogue was up to them.  They all did a really great job.  One of the dramas had six students acting out a relationship soap opera whereby a girl learned that her boyfriend was already married… how scandalous.  It ended well as the girl was rescued by a geeky classmate whom proved to her his love… so romantic.

The best part of this whole month has been the celebration of Christmas with my students.  Similar to last year, I got to share my culture with the students by turning one of our class meetings into a Christmas party.  I brought in decorations for the students to hang and they did a great job making the classroom look festive.  I also brought my guitar and I taught them some traditional Christmas carols.  We sang Jingle Bells, Rudolf the Red-Noised Reindeer and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.  We played musical chairs, had a gift exchange, as well as other fun games.  The students really loved this time to celebrate.  I lectured a little bit about Christmas traditions but mostly we just had fun.  Subsequently, many of the students have asked to spend more time with me outside of the classroom.  I’m happy to accept their invitations.  Thus our Christmas celebration would continue into dinners together.  Several of my students treated me to a nice traditional Chinese dinner at a local restaurant.  The restaurant is a small hole-in-the-wall but the food is great.  I wish I knew of this place earlier in the semester.  I have a feeling I will be visiting here more often.

Some of my guy students wanted to hang out with me so on the weekend they came over to my apartment and we played computer games together.  My friend, Gideon, helped me by two USB controllers for my laptop and I downloaded The King of Fighters from Steam.  All the guys were having a nostalgic flashback as we played.  They could remember playing earlier versions of the game as kids.  It was a lot of fun.  I also got to play Chinese Chess with Bill.  I didn’t do the best but I didn’t do poorly either.  I still lost.  On my last night in China I had a big group come over and we all watched Megamind on my flat screen TV.  It was great to just get some fun time with the students.  I gave all the girls some small Christmas gifts, bracelets, and the boys got survival bands.  They appreciated the gifts a lot.  It was a joyous time with some wonderful new friends.  I really do enjoy my new students.  I can’t wait to see them all again next term.  

Dinner with the NCIAE faculty

Starbucks Coffee with Sunny

Breakfast with Gideon

Thanksgiving in Langfang

This week I've been busy preparing for the students' final examination, as well as filling out nearly 70 pages worth of documentation for the college.  It's safe to say that I've been busy.  However, I've managed to find a little time for some fun and relaxation.  A little over a week ago was the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The Chinese people don't celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving and very few of my students even know the story.  As an American teacher I get the privilege of sharing my cultural heritage in the classroom and that means sharing my holidays.  I've already shared about Halloween and Christmas will be coming soon.  But, for now it's time for the Thanksgiving lesson.  I got to share the real story of the Pilgrims and the Indians.   If you're a little foggy on the details than I suggest you read the diary of William Bradford and learn for yourself the true survival story of a people and how they were rescued by an act of multicultural kindness.

We now come to back the present day and many of you might be wondering how will I spend this Thanksgiving holiday.  Being away from family is always hard during the holidays.  It was hard being away from my family last year and it's even harder this year.  However, I have a good job an English teacher and I'm happy to live here in China.  I have many great friends and wonderful students.  In fact, it was with my good friends and students that I spent Thanksgiving.  It was during my Friday class that a young male student approached me to ask if I would teach him how to cook.  I accepted the request and expounded on the idea by saying that he should help me prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  He was really excited by the new idea and asked if he could bring some friends.  Somehow the word got out and I had a load of requests from students who wanted to join our Thanksgiving dinner.  In fact, I wasn't sure who all would come.  Little did I know that I would have an apartment full of eighteen students!

Most of my guests had just come for the food, but six of my students came to learn how to cook.  I had had a really busy day that day with three classes in the morning and afternoon, so I didn't have any time to prepare food.  Thankfully, two of the boys arrived at 4:00 pm and we were able to head off to the Walmart Super Center to buy some food.  We got back to the apartment around 5:00 pm and started preparing.  The girls started showing up around 6:00 pm and the first two to come immediately jumped into the kitchen to help.

The menu for the evening was: 1) Ginger Pork, 2) Golden Potatoes, 3) Vegetable Salad, 4) Mini-Pizzas, and 5) Rice.  It might seem like a strange menu but I can't get a lot of items for making the traditional Thanksgiving foods.  However, it was still delicious.  The mini-pizzas were the biggest hit!  I simply took slices of whole-grain bread and covered them with spaghetti sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and imported Italian seasoning.  We could bake six at a time in my little toaster oven.  I had my students form an assembly line and they were popping them out as fast as they could.  The ginger pork was rather easy to cook.  We simply cut up some pork chops into bite-sized pieces and stir-fried them in a ginger salad dressing.  The potatoes took the most amount of work.  They needed to be washed, peeled, diced, and placed in a greased skillet.  Then simply add some minced onions, minced garlic, butter, salt, and pepper to the potatoes.  Then let it all simmer on a low-heat, covered, for nearly 35-minutes.  Make sure to stir the mix every five minutes.  The vegetable salad is another easy one to prepare.  Actually it really isn't a vegetable salad but more like a vegetable tray.  It was simply a dish with cucumber and carrot wedges served with a Caesar salad dressing as a dipping sauce.  I had two of my students constantly restocking the vegetable tray as we cooked the dinner.  We sent the trays out early and I know it must have been restocked at least four times.

Finally the meal was ready and all nineteen of us sat down to dinner.  My kitchen was packed!  Every stool and seat in my house was used.  We gathered around and then each of us shared about something we were thankful for in our lives.  Then we started eating.  Everyone loved the food!  We all ate our fill and nothing was left.  After dinner, the students and I then made our way into my living room and we split into two groups.  One group gather around my television and watched the TV drama "Once Upon a Time" with Chinese subtitles.  The other group gather around me as I taught them how to play UNO.  The party lasted till about 10:00 pm when I finally sent the students back to their dorms.  Everyone thanked me for such a wonderful time and I thanked them for coming.  It truly was a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!