Christmas comes early

Sorry for the delay in posts. It's been a very busy couple of weeks. Christmas in a foreign country is an interesting thing. Especially when that country doesn't share the historical or religious background of the holiday. Christmas in China is a purely economic adventure. They have taken the shopping aspect, already prized in this country and marketed across the land. At least in Beijing, Christmas is everywhere which is nice, but like most things, there is something lost in translation. China does not like religious worship by native Chinese citizens, yet the most popular song I have heard in the malls is Silent Night. I don't think they fully appreciate the song being about the birth of Christ. The other great mishap is the song "jingle bells" in which it has been translated to say ," riding in a one horse open sea." WHAT?! I have tried to figure out how that could make any sense, and trust me it doesn't. It doesn't even fit better lyrically with the song. It is, however, nice to see giant Christmas trees everywhere and hear carols, even when they are worded wrong.

At work, we had our Christmas party this week. Not just one, but two nights. Maybe it was a compromise for our Jewish teacher. I've spent much of the last two weeks organizing and decorating the party and all in all, it turned out quite well. I am beat though. On top of all this, I got to play Santa for the kids which was tons of fun. It was awesome to see all their happy faces when they got to take a picture with Santa. As a side note, all the pictures are on my facebook account. In more serious terms, I have been offered overtime for the next couple months at a reasonable salary so I might be working more, but it'll be good to save up for my trip in February. More on that later, for now it's on to what I've learned.

1) Kids surprisingly can't recognize you behind a fake beard.
2) A Christmas Story just doesn't exist in China, and this needs to be rectified.
3) No matter how much sugar you put in it, you can't sweeten unsweetened cocoa.
4) I now know why bored housewives love shopping.

No, I have not become someone's housewife, but the other day, I had some time to kill and went to the market to do some window shopping (a favored past time here). I was looking around at some shoes. I really liked this pair of boat shoes at one of the shops and started talking with the seller. She started with a price of 1350 yuan (~$200). I told her that what I thought they might be worth was too low to tell her and I didn't want to insult her, because I'm smooth like that. Instantly she dropped the price to 850 yuan (~$120). Again I tell her, I don't have much money and I don't need the shoes they are just nice and I was thinking of spoiling myself for Christmas. Here I am really laying it on thick. She finally gets me to tell her how much I'll pay. I tell her 250 yuan (~ $35). At first she says that's too low and can't do that. After some more sympathy talk from me, about how I am away from home for Christmas and blah blah blah, I got the shoes at 250 yuan, which I never thought she would agree to. Oh well, i got nice new shoes for Christmas. So remember, it's not bored housewives' fault, it's the prices are too low!