Tis the Season for Overwhelming Yourself

(For recent, December photos, click here)
You would think that outside of America, in a country where the vast majority of people have NO IDEA what the Christmas season really entails...that one could enjoy a nice relaxing holiday season. One would be wrong...December is filled not only with holiday happenings, but final exams, spring festival preparations and all the usual day to day activities. Oh yeah, and lets throw in some puppies! Amidst all the craziness, I once again neglected to write on the last three weeks events until the last minute. My apologies are becoming redundant, so lets forgive with the spirit of Christmas cheer and move on.

Three weeks ago, two of my favorite former students (current friends) called me to say that they had an emergency and wanted to see me immediately. They arrived in my home, I left the room for two seconds, and when I came back there was a puppy sitting on my couch! An adorable, shovel faced China puppy! Squealing, I scooped her up and smothered her with love, only to see another little brown ball of fur come bounding at me from across the room. TWO puppies! Turns out, Lawrence and Christina had been plotting the perfect birthday present, and wanted to give Angelyn and I something to attempt to fill the void in our pet lives after the loss of Lucy. So that is the story of how SimSim Bashful and Trixi came into our lives. They have destroyed my house, doubled in size, and kept me up at all hours of the night...and we love them! Angelyn and I are once again extremely proud parents, and developing conniving ways of keeping them, despite the insistence of our waiban that you...and I quote..."Can't have dogs, because their smell is harder to get rid of than cigarette smoke" (Yeah, like 2 packs a day for 10 years smells better than our Pantene Pro-V pampered pups)
The day we got the puppies, we had already broken the apartment code of conduct, so it seemed like a good time to climb the mountain behind our house and illegally cut down the traditional Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Barry and Trent were our mountain men, and toppled the tree that Barry and I carefully selected. However, our eyes were bigger than my living room, and the Charlie Brown tree became a gigantic force to be reckoned with. After some giggling hysterics on my part, we set to work pruning the beast and she is currently lit and fulfilling her Christmas destiny. Sadly, she is doing it postmortem, as the puppies consistently drank her dirty tree water until she passed...some 10 days later.
Barry and I have had our hands full these past few weeks judging various speech and song competitions. It is the 3rd Annual Foreign Language Cultural Festival, which is a truly terrifying time for the foreign teachers, as its the time our students get serious about showing off their English chops, and the caliber of our teaching is on display for all the world to see. Its hard not to compare yourself to the other teachers by way of your students' skills. Barry and I had some moderately friendly banter on the pronunciation of the other's students, or their singing abilities, and whether or not they waved at us from the stage (and how many times). The Singing Competition was 60 students, singing one minute each of an English song, and sitting there in the front row I could finally see why Paula and Randy love the first few rounds of American Idol so much...it was absolutely delightful to listen to 15 students butcher Yesterday Once More (Katherine, you would have died). We got through it by making jokes with each other, criticizing the other's scoring methods, and unfairly rating our own students much higher than the others. But the real highlight of the event was the finals of the Speech Competition. Oh, if only I had video for you of the opening act...6 girls in "juicy double" track suits bouncing, grinding and shaking what their mothers gave them to "Hollerback Girl" in front of 200 students, 50 faculty, the dean of their college, and the president of the university. The speeches were what was to be expected for the most part...until I heard a voice that made me perk up and feel...at home...that would have been the boy who spent weeks memorizing Barack Obama's entire victory speech and then used it to form 98% of his dissertation on "Flying with My Dream". His intonation was flawless, I was so impressed with his gumption I had to give him a 90. Cheating, plagiarism, these things are nothing in China...and by the time he was finished it was clear no one else had a chance.

I turned another year older. Some of my sisters stayed over the night before and we had a sweet old-fashioned slumber party complete with goodies, hair dying, boy talk, and a photo shoot. My birthday was a day filled with breakfast...mimosas, potato pancakes, bagels and quiche. I got all my birthday wishes: I was not required to do a thing that I didn't want to do, time with friends, a nap, a good book, a Christmas movie, and a full night's sleep with no dogs to wake me (Thank you Breelands!)
Lawrence was one of my very first students, and has since become a friend of mine. A few weeks ago he traveled to Beijing to apply for his visa to America. We spent a lot of time preping him for his interview, trying to form his answers so they could be assured he wasn't just looking for an American wife, or that he wouldn't disappear into the crowd and never return. Luckily, his puppy-dog like excitement and smile won them over and he got it! He left yesterday for Wuhan to catch his plane to Columbus. He has been accepted to Ohio State University's engineering program, and I'm so excited for him. We took him out the night before he left for some classic Chinese food and one last round of KTV - turns out he's wild for it and I think he'll be heart broken to know its not so popular among the Waiguoren. Knowing that he'll probably have to wander into some western bar on a Wednesday night to sing "Man, I feel like a Woman" in front of 30 drunk, ambivalent strangers to get his karaoke fix kinda breaks my heart. He has all the nervousness and unrealistic expectations of anticipating his life in America, so we spent a lot of time talking about what he would find there. We encouraged him to plug into college ministry, or to find a Chinese family to worship with, and to make friends with those who would build him up and love him as a brother. He just recently began expressing interest in the Word, and I am really hoping he finds people in the states to lead him into the light. It was hard to say goodbye to him. I never realize how protective and mother hen like I get over these young adults...until I have to truly put them in the Father's hands.

As of now, I'm in the midst of finals craziness, and have another to give this afternoon. Tonight John, Megan, Trent, Angelyn and I will board a train to meet our Xiangfan friends in Xi'an for a pre-Christmas get together. Hot springs, the Muslim quarter and Starbuck's toffee nut latte's...here we come.

(Although, this trip has a high standard to live up to...and I will be thinking of your dear friend!)