December in Review

THINGS I LOVE DECEMBER

1.       Skyping with my family and with Jon

2.       Visiting friends in Shanghai and Hefei one last time :* )

3.       Hot cocoa with Baily’s and Kahlua

4.       Watching the Swan Lake ballet performed by a Russian company in Hefei's cool performance hall (it wasn't the Nutcracker, but it was still Tchaikovsky and it was still awesome!)

5.       Packing up all my stuff and getting ready to travel!

6.       Sharing Christmas traditions and candy with students

7.       My new best friends: the casts of How I Met Your Mother and Gossip Girl

8.       Double Chocolate Stout beer (found some in Shanghai and that was the gift I opened for myself on Christmas morning ; )

9.       Christmas dinner with my students’ families and with my Chinese family

10.   Christmas songs and decorations filling up my apartment

THINGS I MISS

1.       Being home for the holidays

2.       Christmas dinner, drinks and desserts

3.       Christmas cocktail parties

4.       The Christmas Ship at Richmond Beach

5.       Making Christmas cookies

6.       Watching Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story, Little Women, It’s A Wonderful Life and Elf and . . . . well, you get the idea

7.       Trying to catch Santa on the Fire truck on Christmas morning

8.       EGG NOG!!!!!!!!!!!!

9.       Get Fit With Fido (I miss running and I miss dogs . . . . )

10.   My friends and family

Light Up

Kings of Neon

Roses are red, violets are blue, Sunshine is yellow, what color are you?  Apply this question to a Nation and some are easy to answer.  Greenland is white.  Iceland is Green.  Switzerland is beige or some sort of neutral tone.  And all the Commie countries are red, with China the most red of them all, right?  Wrong!

Admittedly, China does seem to have scarlet fever when it comes to decorating things or assigning symbolic meaning.  Anytime I wear a red dress or shirt, my Chinese friends will tell me how beautiful I look and that red is a very lucky color.  The color red is associated with courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, passion, and summer. Before the influence of Western white weddings, brides traditionally wore red.  Now they often wear both; changing from their frilly white dress they wear during the ceremony into the glamorous red, bedazzled dress for the reception.

During Chinese New Year people give out gifts of money in red envelopes.  The flag is red.  Students often wear red kerchiefs around their necks.  The fireworks that are lit off at any time of the day or night to ward away evil spirits all leave behind red confetti-like debris.  Red carpet is rolled out onto the sidewalk anytime a new store is open.  The list goes on and on. And yet, with all the red one is bombarded with all the time in China, there is still a color (well, series of colors technically) that will symbolize China to me more than red ever will.  Neon.

Go to any city in China and there is a distinct feeling of being trapped in an ‘80s music video.  There are twinkling neon lights everywhere, and indeed entire buildings are outlined in various flashing colors and lights.  Of course, all the shops blast Chinese pop-songs out into the streets, so that might contribute to the music video feel a bit as well. 

I don’t know the reason for their obsession with bright lights, but I’ve certainly got my theories.  Maybe it’s because there are so many people, and so many buildings and so much of the same, that it’s nice to have something stand out a bit.  Maybe it’s because the skies are often shrouded in heavy, murky gray smog that it’s nice to get some color.  Maybe it’s a natural progression from their mastery of pyrotechnics (they did invent gunpowder after all) that they would become masters of anything that could light up the skies. 

Whatever the reason for the lights, I’m hooked. And I have to admit, at this time of year when I’m missing out on all of the holiday traditions back home, it’s nice to know I’m not getting any shortage of Christmas lights.

 

November in Review

THINGS I LOVE NOVEMBER

1.       Skyping with the family on Thanksgiving

2.       QiYun Shan

3.       Visiting Danielle in Hangzhou

4.       Transferring my money into my US bank account

5.       Making garlic mashed potatoes and hot spiced cider for Thanksgiving dinner for my advanced class

6.       Downloading Christmas songs!!!!!

7.       Taking the Christmas tree from the staircase in my building and using it to decorate my apartment (someone put it out there last spring)

8.       Modern Family marathons!

9.       Getting to wear winter clothes, especially UGG boots

10.   Sleeping in

THINGS I MISS

1.       Thanksgiving dinner at home

2.       Pumpkin pie

3.       Fresh, clean air

4.       Not having anxiety attacks every time I go outside

5.       Running and exercise

6.       Western food

7.       My bed at home

8.       Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving DVD

9.       Decorating for the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas)

10.   My friends and family

The K-9 Connection

Going to the Dogs

Being raised in Seattle, a city where there are allegedly 45% more dogs than there are children, it has been quite a change living in China where the dog culture is strikingly different.  Though dogs definitely do NOT outnumber children here, like so many other things in China, the dog culture is evolving quickly.  As more and more people have the luxury of disposable income, the notion of having a dog for a pet rather than for a meal is becoming more and more popular.  In fact, last April an activist group stopped a truck in Henan province that was hauling 500 dogs off for slaughter. 

That said, dog meat was very plentiful in Hefei and I could find it at various markets throughout the city.  And while visiting the remote village of Dazhai there were lots of dogs that wandered around everywhere, but they were clearly not pets.  One of my Chinese friends told me that farmers in the countryside of Anhui would buy big dogs to help protect their homes, but they would get stolen by hungry peasants and eaten.  Another bizarre dog culture aspect I’ve encountered was seeing a row of kennels of dogs at the zoo in Hefei.  Then again, pretty much everything about that zoo was bizarre and unfortunate.

There are plenty of mangy dogs people have as pets, as well as some incredibly beautiful pure breed dogs, and the vast majority of them are not kept on a leash.  I was impressed with how well trained and obedient many of these dogs were and wondered what the owners’ secret was.  But after seeing various dogs get kicked a few times I got the picture.

I also marvel at how these dogs without leashes, and sometimes without owners, will actually manage to cross the streets and not get run over.  I still haven’t figured that secret out.  Perhaps the most entertaining, albeit slightly terrifying aspect of dog culture here is seeing them ride on the motos and e-bikes with their owners.  The dogs will either stand or sit on the floor boards at the owner’s feet.  It must be the ultimate thrill for these pups, but I really don’t know how they know not to jump off whenever they see or smell something interesting.  This mode of transportation isn’t just for the little guys either; I’ve seen a massive Old English sheepdog that could barely fit sitting at the owner’s feet and smiling happily as they putted along. 

Due to the limited space in China, the majority of dogs kept as pets tend to be small.  And similar to the dog culture in Seattle, these dogs are very much doted upon, as is evidenced by the various outfits and face painting I’ve had the pleasure of observing. 

Here are some of my favorites J