Shanghai Times

While it's definitly been strange not being around friends and family for Christmas, I'd say that our first Christmas in Shanghai has been a good one. We spent Christmas Eve at our home with friends. Erik and I threw our first party in our apartment. It was definitly a little cramped, but we had a good time. A lot of our friends came. We have a Christmas tree and other decorations, so it felt pretty Christmasy. I made egg nog from scratch, which to my surprise turned out delicious and attempted to make puppy chow which Erik subsequently had to salvage but turned out all right in the end. Additionally, we lost our electricity about one hour before the party, so that caused a little panic. But thankfully someone came and fixed it so everything was fine. So we had a good time. There was a lot of food and Erik ordered pizza for all our guests, so it was fun.

Christmas day was fun too. Erik went to Chinese class in the morning (can you believe him? I wouldn't have gone) and then in the afternoon we made Christmas cookies with some friends at our friend's restuarant. He let us use his oven, so nice. Later we went to a Christmas party that one of our friends threw. So the day was good.

Besides the surprise party Erik threw me, I had 2 other small get togethers. My friend Iris's birthday is also in December, so we went out together with the other teachers at work to celebrate. In Chinese tradition, Iris and I paid for everyone's dinner. Instead of friends taking the birthday person out for dinner, the birthday person takes everyone else out on their birthday. Interesting.

Of course, we went out for dinner on my birthday too. Indian food, my favorite. They were doing dancing up on stage and they dragged me up there. So embarrassing.

Last night I threw a surprise party for Amara. The party was held at our friend Henry's new restaurant. It is a very nice place - they serve Brazilian food, and it's cheap, too! Henry is from California and also studied Chinese at East China Normal University. They did an excellent job serving our party.
The surprise was very hard to organize and keep Amara in the dark at the same time. In fact, Amara tried to organize a party a few days later, because she didn't know. This caused some confusion with the guests.
It is Chinese tradition for the the person whose birthday it is to pay, so we honored the custom and treated everyone.

I decided to throw the party yesterday because people are really busy around the 23rd.

Today I went to the travel agent and booked our flights for our upcoming SouthEast Asia trip - We will fly to Nanning (Southern China), and take a train into Hanoi. We will spend a few days there, and fly to Bangkok. We play to spend several weeks travelling through Thailand (including the beaches of Ko Tao), and make a side trip to Ankor in Cambodia. We will then fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and spend a few days with our friend's Sue Gee and Adam, whom I went to College with in Michigan. We will return to China from Kuala Lumpur.

Thank you for the Christmas Cards, YES, they HAVE gotten to us.

-Erik

Yesterday Amara and I went online and downloaded a bunch of christmas music to get us in the christmas spirit. She downloaded some Bing Crosby christmas classics. I mistook the singer for actor Bill Cosby, which Amara found hilarious - I said "thats NOT the guy from the jello pudding commercials?!?!!" I decided to download the Beach Boy's christmas album, which I've listened to at every christmas since I was a boy. Listening to this music makes me sad I will not be home for the holidays.

I have "secret santa" gifts that I need to buy at both work and school. I always enjoy doing this. I am also excited to shop for Amara's present, although she told me not to buy her anything since we are saving our money for our Southeast Asia trip next month. I think will also buy a christmas tree. The local Carrefour sells cheap plastic trees that will do just fine. As for stockings, we don't have any, so maybe we will use socks.

Today my classmate from Holland handed out special cookies to celebrate Sinterklaas. She was nice enough to think of Amara by packing her a little bag full of cookies for me to take home for her. It was a very nice gesture. This Christmas, we might not have our families but we have our friends.

No pictures today, we haven't gone anywhere interesting lately.

To everybody I haven't had the time to call or email personally, Happy Holidays!

-Erik