It's been a whirlwind of activity around here!

First of all, we had a Christmas day brunch with presents. The entire present opening activity lasted two hours. With a large team like ours (and with the Seth's family), it took a while. Among my gifts were: a "Free Lincoln Burrows" chef's apron, Olympic Friendlies (a.k.a., "Fuwa") magnetic clips, a Beibei (also an Olympic mascot) photo album, a Beibei phone accessory, a frog Chia pet from Japan (thanks Seth's mom), a SPAM t-shirt from Rachel's dad, and a plastic pig that pooped chocolate poop. There was also a box that arrived from Ruth in Canada. My gifts from her included Tostitos chips, bacon bits and Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese. Thanks Ruth!

The next day included a LARGE activity for the winners of my four Sophomore classes. Each term I split my oral classes into color groups and they compete (via grades and oral skills) for points each week. The team with the highest grade receives 5 points; the team with the second receives 4 points and so on. This term four teams (each of 5 students) were treated to Bowling and Pizza Hut in Changchun. Since Daren and Wu teach some of them for writing, they joined up with us. An amazing time was had by all, and it was cool to introduce them (at least at some level) to American culture. Most of them had never eaten at Pizza Hut (too expensive) and had never gone bowling (not common in China). I enjoyed seeing them enjoy themselves.

Today, we have been preparing for a Christmas performance tonight. We are doing the poem "'Twas the Night before Christmas": Mark is the narrator, Daren, Jennifer, Jude, Will and Samantha are the family, the reindeer are Sarah, Michelle, Wu, Rachel and Kat, and I'm Santa Claus. (Yes, Seth is gone AGAIN!) Ho, ho, ho!

Anyway, you can see some pics of Christmas Day in the photo album entitled "Christmas Day '07" and of the Sophomore outing entitled "Bowling Bonkers". Below is a video of Daren's attempt at making music.

As I write this, I'm a little emotional. Not but 2 minutes ago, my Monday Freshman Oral class just left my front door and went home. All of them (save 4) came to present me with some gifts and to say Merry Christmas. It was the sweetest gesture I've had from a class. Right after they left, I just cried because I could truly feel the love and appreciation that they had for me. I could care less about their "presents" (though the Adidas hat was waaay cool), but it was their "presence" that was such a blessing to me. I am truly blessed in so many ways being in China. So I just wanted to say that I just love it here!

You'd think that being where I am in the world, things would not be so busy during Christmas time - but you'd be wrong. In the past three days, I've done a lot: spent one last shopping weekend in Changchun, began preparing "angeled" eggs and mashed potatoes for our team Christmas dinner, had a Christmas party with the orphans by taking them out to a meal (the team bought the older kids shoes and the younger ones clothes), had a Christmas party and "white elephant" gift exchange with a group of students, began closing up the Fall term (just finished up my first group of Freshman Oral students), preparing for tomorrow's Christmas brunch (which is when we'll open up all of our gifts), and began writing the final Final for my Education majors. With tomorrow being Christmas, there's still some last minute gifts and things I must do. All in all though, it's been quite enjoyable.

To add to this manageable chaos, Seth's entire family has arrived in Siping (mom, dad, bro & sister-in-law), I have to finish my homework for my grad classes, I've thrown myself into organizing a New Year's Eve shindig (i.e., Jason's birthday), and I have to finish the planning stages of an outing that I'm having for my Sophomore classes (a total of 20 students). I have two weeks until I began my vacation, but there's lots to do.

I almost fell out of my chair when I read that "Don't tase me, bro" was chosen as the quote of the year. Hilarious! You may remember this is a quote from the guy who was tased at John Kerry's speech. Click here to see the YouTube video. Also, number two went to South Carolina's pride and joy: Lauren "I-suck-at-basic-questions" Upton. Click here to see this lady at work. Anyway, you can read the whole story, along with the other Top 10 phrases of the year, by going to MSN.

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I think most people know the story of "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen. In this story, the girl tried to sell matches to make a living, but it is the harshness of winter (and the cold-heartedness of the people) that freezes her in the night. Anyway, a student got an idea from this story and decided to bless the orphans in a unique way. He bought matches, made a small markup in price, and began selling them on the streets tonight. I hung out with him (as well as other student helpers and other teammates who came to lend time, faces, guitar-playing skills and singing voices) for the past hour and a half in temperatures resting in the teens. His goal was to sell 600 boxes tonight. At the time of my leaving, he had sold around 2/5 of it all. He definitely had a good idea and I am blessed by his generosity and love for those children.

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Rachel recently returned from Japan. She and Samantha had went to visit Rachel's sister, who is a teacher there, and her mother, who was visiting Rachel's sister for Christmas time from the States. They both returned this morning and we had a small celebration for Rachel. She has 14 years experience at being 18. Congrats to her!

In others news, I fell in my kitchen. Yeah, it was a funny sight to behold - not like you were there or anything! My right slipper caught on the bottom of the cabinet while I was turning to throw something away. I then started falling sideways (on my right side) and caught a metal stool that I use in the kitchen. I had to put all my weight on it to stop my fall, but it didn't hold. It completely slid out to the right of me, ripped some skin off my arm, and then helped me to "gently glide" to the ground. (I completely bent the leg closest to my body when I fell.) At the same time this was happening on the right side of my body, my left hand had tried to grab the countertop, but only landed on a towel which held some metal spoons I had washed. I was, thus, on a loose surface with the towel and completely pulled it (and the spoons) off the countertop and onto the floor. It was all quite a large sound...and not one teammate came to my aid. I swear the whole building heard it but I guess not.

Right now, I'm also in the middle of oral finals: Freshman have conversations with me while Sophomores give speeches. After this week, it will be the Christmas lesson with a small end-of-the-term party. The last week of our classes for this term is next week, then I'll be heading to southern China for a week then ending up in Thailand.

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Well, in China at least, my birthday has ended. But as of this time in America, I have about 6 hours left. So my birthday still has yet to end. I celebrated number 35 (which is like 15 away from 50...Yikes!) In thinking about the past 15 years, I know I've accomplished a lot...with toils and trials to boot. But, as I continue the upward climb, I pray that the next 15 years will be double the last 15.

I'm the kind of person that pre-plans a lot, so I prep-planned my own birthday party with/for the team. I bought beans and Fritos in Beijing last week, so we had Frito chili pie -complete with cheddar cheese, ranch (on Frito chili pie it's awesome), chili (complete with cilantro - Wu's most hated of vegetables) and a cake, courtesy of Team Jennifer & the Jude Squad. Later that night, I busted open my Mountain Dew Code Red that my dad sent me...mmm, mmm good!

Among the gifted booty I received was a clock (from Sarah), homemade cookies and chocolate (from Michelle), character writing stuff (from Jaser), a chess set (from Wu), a coupon, which has an expiration date of July 2008, for 2 free homemade meals (from Kat), some Fuwa children's book (I forget from whom), and other miscellaneous gifts: a tea urn (strange?!), a piece of artwork made from nuts and bolts (strange?!), a purple candle with seashells in the bottom, and a BMW key-chain, which I said will hold the keys to my NEW BMW that I'll have when I go back to the States! :-)

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Sadly, the latest batch of Olympic tickets available is only limited to 2 sessions (i.e., 2 sports events can be requested). So I'm trying to get the Basketball and Taekwondo finals. It was a hard choice because I thought my little bro would want to go to see the Boxing final (if I could get them), but I went for Basketball because it'll probably be more intense.

I was also checking out the status of the Olympic torch relay. The present chart shows that on July 17th, it'll be in Changchun (about 100 miles north of where I am) and in Shenyang (about 125 miles south of where I am) on July 20th. So somewhere between these two dates, it will probably come through Siping. How sad that I won't be here for that! I'll be in the States for my grad classes - my last term, no doubt. Anyway, you can read all about the Olympic torch relay here.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 7305.

Jason and I took a little shopping trip to Beijing. Since Christmas is coming, I went looking for some perfect gifts for teammates. We drew names like 2 weeks ago for the purpose of buying a gift for 2 people each; however, I elected to buy gifts for everyone and I enjoy this. So Jason and I went all around Beijing, from shop to shop, trying to get the best deals. We went to Ikea, the Pearl Market, a culture street, a Friendship store (containing imported goods), and a couple of Western food stores (with stuff like Doritos, Mountain Dew, and cheesecake mixes).

Not to be outdone was the food that we ate. We had the "Greek Mama" pizza at Cro's Nest, a sample platter from TGIFriday's, Ikea's Swedish meatballs, McDonald's, Orange Julius, and a Sizzler buffet. It was awe-some! I like a weekend where I feel like I'm back home in America.

My backpack was "FULL" on my way home on the train, which I boarded at 7:15 AM today. This was the first time I took a "D" train, which are among the fastest in China. Usually, I take a sleeper and enjoy a night's rest from Beijing to Siping. It'll take like 8 hours. However, this trip was in the day and took a little over 5 1/2. It was amazing! I was also seated by a man who was the same age as I and was a city planner in the town of Lishu, not far from Siping. We talked and I completely exhausted the familiar territory of my Chinese: America's weather patterns, my hometown, why I like China, why I'm not married, what do I do for a living, do I like Yao Ming, where did I go in Beijing, and my family. When we branched out into unfamiliar territories, it was rough - like when they started talking about my home state (which luckily I just learned how to say like 2 weeks ago) and Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California (and now I know the word for "governor" in Chinese), dealing with forest fires. But I survived. This man (张先生) , and his co-worker and traveling companion, were nice enough to buy my breakfast as well.

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As I write this entry, I am aware that there only 4 more weeks of classes. I already know that they'll go by in a whirlwind. There will be Oral Finals (for 7 classes no doubt) to give, countless Christmas celebrations, final grades to figure, and, at least for me, grad homework. Oi vay! I also need to figure my flights to and from Thailand, dates of going to and from Siping, and organizing hotel reservation. But I digress..

I really wanted to talk about the  Thanksgiving Weekend that I just had (like a week ago - yeah, I know I'm late in updating). The team had a huge meal on Thanksgiving Day. Jennifer's chicken dressing was really good and, as always, Kat's rolls (pictured at right) were the bomb. I made my "angeled" eggs and "baked potato" mashed potatoes. The centerpiece at bottom left (the crazy pineapple-like turkey) is a tradition that goes back many years in Wu's family life. Apparently, when he was a child, he made something similar to this and so, year after year, his mom puts it out for Thanksgiving as the centerpiece. Somehow, this piece of family "luggage" made it across the ocean (no, it's not the same one but the "Chinese cousin" of the one in America). Good grief!

The next day, the team (save Mark) headed up to Changchun for a local gathering. On Friday night, we all (as in like 80 people or so) attended a CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) game. What was strange was the deafening sound they played every time the visiting team got the ball. Not to be outdone is the fact that I was sitting like 15 feet from the band releasing this horrid music. Dang, was that annoying! The Dongbei Hu (东北虎), the local CBA team, lost; I was rooting for the Visitors anyway. I guess I'm not such a nice foreigner. Anyway, below is a video of the last minute of the game.

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