Shanghai Times

First off, here is the long anticipated video from my birthday. We had dinner at an Indian restuarant that night during the course of dinner, some diners started dancing on stage. They insisted we join them, to my embarrassment. So here is the video of that.

All in all, it was a fun night.

New Years Eve was also a good time. Luckily for me, I didn't have to work on Saturday or Sunday, so I had a nice four day vacation. Erik, on the other hand, had to go to Chinese class on Saturday (to make up for having class off on Tuesday) and had to teach on Monday (to make up for having work off on Saturday). So, he stayed busy. We went out with friends on New Years Eve and then both enjoyed New Years Day off. This was the first year that I didn't watch the ball drop in Time's Square on TV, but the restuarant we were at did have a countdown on a screen for the last 10 seconds of 2007. So it was still fun. Here's some pictures from out night out.

The resturant went all out for New Year's Eve. They had this guy juggle fire, it was pretty cool. Here's a video of that.

Happy New Year everybody!

Here's some pics of us celebrating Christmas at Kid Castle. The kids and us had a lot of fun. Santa visited all the classes and did a present exchange with the kids. We also made an Advent calender with the kids. (A secular Advent calender, the kids had no idea it was originally a Christian thing. They just enjoyed coloring 25 pictures and gluing them haphazardly to posterboard.)

Singing "The 12 Days of Christmas" a song I taught them.

In Shanghai, bunny ears are also a part of Christmas.

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.

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

Erik Here. Thanksgiving in Shanghai was a bit lonely being without family. However, we got together with a couple of our American friends to celebrate the holiday. We ate at an American restaurant that was offering a Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun. Akio, did you go to my sister's?

It felt a little strange going to class and work on Thanksgiving (Me and one other student were the only Americans to show up that day). I am glad I went that day, because I found out that I got an A on my Oral exam and B on my written exam. That made the day much better.

We joined a gym last week. It was only 900 yuan (120 dollars) for the entire year. The price included personal training services, and all the classes we want to take. My trainer is a huge chinese guy who calls himself "hulk" because Hulk Kogan and the Incredible Hulk are his heroes.

We truly have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Amara here. Thanksgiving was good this year. We had a good night with our friends. We've been keeping busy with work and studying Chinese. Like Erik said, we joined a gym and its been a lot of fun. I joined with one of my Chinese girlfriends and we take all kinds of classes together, yoga, salsa and belly dancing, and pilates. So Erik and I have both been on a bit of a health kick lately. The Chinese are so healthy! It makes going to McDonalds a little embarrassing. Oh, also, good news! I finally have my work and residence permit. I ended up not having to take another health exam (which costs about $100) so I was thankful for that. Now I am finally working legally in China. Also, we are free to travel in and out of China and I don't have to waste more money on visas to get back into the country.

Here are some pictures from Yuyan Gardens and one from Thanksgiving: