Today will be a busy day. Unlike my mother (who is probably BEGINNING her Christmas shopping as I write this entry), I've completed all of my Christmas shopping save a few small gifts. I've got them wrapped and ready to be opened, sitting nicely under my small little tree. Tomorrow, the team will be having breakfast together, opening presents afterwards, having a break for lunch, then returning again for supper, followed by the Christmas story, singing and deserts. So I've got some potatoes to peel and other delicious goodies to make.

Last night, the foreign language department had their annual Christmas performance. The usual occurred: dancing numbers, modeling and a lot of singing. The team reenacted the Christmas story with the Clems as Mary & Joseph; the shepherds were Wu, Jude, and me; the wise men were Anthony & Vance; Sarah was the angel; Rach was the star; and Mark was the narrator. [Kat skipped out to pick up some friends in Beijing.] A great time was had by all!

Yesterday, I also ended my classes for the term. I calculated that I will not teaching again for 68 days! Rock on! I now have quite a lot of grading for final exams but that's cool. I haven't finished Season 3 of Prison Break, so I'll probably be watching that as I grade.

Yesterday, I turned 36. I had previously learned from a highly esteemed colleague that it was a "square" birthday. That is to say that 6 x 6 = 36. Therefore, birthdays 1 (1 x 1 =1), 4 (2 x 2 = 4), 9 (3 x 3 = 9), 16 (4 x 4 = 16), 25 (5 x 5 = 25), and so on are "square" birthdays. It's great to know that my next one is at the age of 49 (wow, just one away from the big "5" "0").

In other news, I have one more week of classes to teach. As of 10 o'clock a week from now, I'll be officially done with my teaching schedule this term. <Insert screaming and clapping here.> Granted, I'll have to grade all my Finals, but this will be on the downhill slide.

Last night, Anthony, Vance & I shared a meal of hamburgers. Ant is a good cook, especially with burgers. I should rope him in more often into cooking! I felt it was a small birthday celebration since, technically, my birthday will not be celebrated until the 18th along with Rachel's. We're having a Wii bowling party.

I did receive some interesting gifts from students: a glass bear cup, a potato chip holder, a multi-use knife, and some candy. The best gift was from the office of the Foreign Affairs officer, Steve. He gave me a sweet pen for writing Chinese characters.

Public must be allowed to 'air grievances' (November 26, 2008, Xinhua) More channels should be set up for the public to air their grievances, and local governments must exercise restraint when dealing with social order issues, a senior official said on Monday. Speaking at a conference in Zhejiang province, Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and former public security minister, said it is essential that potential social order problems are "nipped in the bud". Also, people should be provided with proper outlets to air their views and grievances, he said. "More channels should be opened to solicit public opinion and local governments should spare no effort to solve people's problems," Zhou said. Commentators have said Zhou's and Meng's statements are indicative of the central government's growing concern that the financial crisis could spark further social unrest.

China central bank cust interest rates (November 26. 2008, Xinhua)China's central bank slashes the lending and deposit rates by 1.08 percentage points as of Thursday in the latest strong effort to stimulate economy. The People's Bank of China (POBC) said on Wednesday it will cut the benchmark one-year yuan lending rate to 5.58 percent from 6.66 percent and the one-year yuan deposit rate to 2.52 percent from 3.60 percent. The cut was substantially larger than earlier three cuts, 0.27 percentage points each, since mid September. It was the largest cut since October 1997 when the PBOC cut the one-year borrowing cost by 1.44 percentage points to support growth to withstand the Asian Financial Crisis. It was the third time the PBOC cut the deposit rate since early October and the largest cut since June 1999.

China to hire more college grads as rural teachers amid weak job market (December 1, 2008, Xinhua) The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Monday it would recruit 30,000 college students as rural teachers next year, a move intended to ease employment pressure in China amid the global financial downturn. The 2009 figure would be nearly equal to the total quotas for 2006 and 2007, which were 16,000 and 17,000, respectively, the ministry said. The move is part of a larger drive by the MOE that aims to channel next year's estimated 6.11 million college graduates into jobs that need filling in the country's remote, less-developed west.

Retirement age to rise for women (December 4, 2008, Xinhua) The retirement age for women officials at county level and above is set to be raised from 55 to 60 next year, as part of a series of legal revisions to ensure sexual equality at work, the Beijing municipal government said on Wednesday. The city's legislation office began collecting public opinion on Tuesday on the planned revisions to Beijing's implementation of the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. Under current regulations, women officials at the municipal level and under have to retire at 55, five years before their male counterparts. If the revisions are approved, Beijing will become the first city to raise the retirement age for women. The revisions are expected to come into force sometime next year.