Chrstmas Gifts

 Chrstmas in China is very different than America. This is a gift I received from a friend. Can you tell what it is? It's an apple. Let me explain. Chstmas Eve in Chinese is Ping an ye (means peaceful night) Apple in Chinese is ping guo. See the first "word" This pronunciation in Chinese is the same. So, many Chinese people give apples as a gift. They sell these little boxes that fit an apple perfectly :)

Here is a gift from one of my students... Can you tell what it is???? :) :)

It's snowing!!!

I was told last night (Christmas Day Night). That it was snowing. Nicole and I looked outside and saw nothing. This morning, Nicole sent me a message saying it's white outside. Sure enough!!! It snowed in Wuhan last night and continued throughout the morning. I have pictures!

I had to tutor this morning. I bike 30 minutes to get to the place we meet. Today was a very interesting bike ride. It was slightly sleeting on the way there and snowing quite heavily on the way back. I was wearing my helmet, so by the time I got home, I had a small pile of snow built up in the crevices of my helmet. No matter, it was still and interesting experience biking in the snow!

I wanted to add more photos, but my internet doesn't work very well. :(

The courtyard at 9:00am

Courtyard at 1:00pm

Chrstmas in the Classroom

I taught my students all about the First Chrstmas. We even read the story directly from the NIV. It was sort of a happy/sad moment for me. Happy because I know some of them had no idea what Chrstmas is all about, sad because of some of the responses I got/heard  during class. Here is what some of the students said.

I was explaining who Mary and Joseph were, one student said something like "I heard something like G-d was the father, so then who is Joseph?" I then explained how Mary got pregnant. One student said, "Wow, that's amazing!" Another responded right away, "It's just a story." I was heart broken. I didn't know how to respond.

When two students were talking about the First Chrstmas, one student asked about J-sus and Zeus, "I always get them confused..." Hmm... I guess there names are similar???

Another student said, "Thanks for telling us about the first Chstmas, most Chinese people don't really know what it's all about. Now we do." Yuppers! "Now you can tell your family and friends." (This time I knew what to say. :)

At E-ster I will talk about the next great holiday :)

Halloween Pictures

 I am at a friend's place tonight and they have AMAZING internet! so I'm taking advantage of it and posting more pics!!!

Girl from "The Big Bang Theory" and Buzz Lightyear!

 

odd monster

yes, it's a man.. and the joker

bear and a cat

our pirates!!

bear pajamas... so cute :)

girl from a book, I forgot which one, sorry Lisa! and I am "A Dark Night" clever, I know :)

And Old Lady, Nicole again, a butterfly, and another pirate type person...

Wedding Pictures

Adam (groom) is talking to Linda (bride) before we go and pick her up.

They don't use Limos in China, instead they rent black cars and put pink ribbons on them.

Random picture as we were in the car. Notice what this man is doing as he's "driving" That tells you how bad traffic is...

Adam is putting hong bao (red envelopes) under the door. This will get the bridesmaids to open it

The view once the door is opened... beautiful!

Lead car... I drove in this one on the way to Linda's home.

Adam carried her down to the car!

Afterwards we went to a hotel to have dinner, we are waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Kelsey and me in my new qipao (Chinese dress) This one is a bit warmer than my other one.

Oh the horror! You asked for what?!

Here is a text message conversation I recently had with one of my students...

7:25pm Me: Can I have your email address??

7:26pm Student: My horror. celia****@sina.com

8:03pm Student: Sorry! I just wanted to say it is my honor.

8:04pm Me: Yeah, I figured :)

I didn't realize that asking for an email address would cause such a reaction. :)

Chinese Wedding

I thought I knew what a Chinese wedding was like. I mean, I've been to two of them, so I figured I had it figured out. I was wrong.... so wrong...

Last weekend I was able to participate in the entire ceremony. I will give you some step by step events.

7:00am- Kelsey, Nicole, and I were picked up to partake in the ceremony (we figured out later we were kinda the groomsmen along with one other Chinese guy).

8:00am- The line of black cars with pink ribbons were lined up and ready to go to the bride's home! I sat in the front car with the groom since I and the other Chinese guy were going to host the ceremony (that happens a bit later).

8:40am- We arrived at the bride's home... there was a lead car that recorded our trip over and as we got out of the car, basically everything we did. Firecrackers were set off to alert the bride and her family that we had arrived. After the firecrackers, we ran up to her door. The groom started knocking, but they wouldn't let him in. They asked him questions (who are you? what do you want? what's your name? why are you here? etc...) He slide red envelopes through the door full of money to encourage them to open up. Finally, he got through the front door. Her whole family was there- parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc...

8:50am- He does the same thing to her bedroom door. Finally, her mother came over and opened the door, then we saw the bride sitting on her bed with her dress on and flowing around her on her bed. She looked beautiful!!! Her four bridesmaids were there. This is the point where we discovered that we were the "groomsmen" The groom picked her up and carried her down to the cars. We all jumped in on the caravan and off we went! To where you ask? We didn't exactly know at this point...

10:00am- We arrived at the grooms home (his whole family was here). He carried her upstairs and set her on his bed (their new bed). They ate some soup (which I'm sure has some meaning). Offered tea to his parents and went back down to the cars (this time she could walk on her own)

11:00am- Last stop... the hotel! No we weren't checking them in for the night... we were having the ceremony and meal. The bride and groom greeted the guests as they arrived.

12:30pm- Ceremony begins! I helped host it, but sadly I made a mistake on one of my lines... So that was a little sad. However, I didn't care so much. I was honored that I was asked to be a part of their wedding in such a special way. Very seldom will we be able to see the "behind the scenes" part of the wedding. Only family and close friends get to join in the morning events.

I have pictures that I will add in the future. However, the internet isn't working very well right now so uploading pictures will be a bit difficult. There are other small things that happened which I didn't include. I didn't want to make the post too long, but if you want to know more, just let me know!