SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Merry Christmas!

I miss being home for Christmas, yet I was still filled me with joy as I celebrated with friends over here. I spent it with the other foreign teachers at my university and some other close foreign and Chinese friends. We went to a wonderful dinner at noon the Shangri La Hotel and then walked along the banks of the frozen Songhua River.


On the banks of the Songhua River.


Me and my friend, a student from Canada, ON the frozen Songhua River.

COOKIES, CARDS, & CAROLS

So... my apartment is a mess of card clippings, sugar, flour, and chocolate, and things are really hectic with planning finals, grading, teaching. But, since I don't have a class to teach tomorrow morning, I thought I'd share with you all a little bit of the fun that I've been having in the midst of all this busyness.

I've been throwing Christmas cookies, cards, and carols parties for my students last week and this week. ... Right now I've had 5 groups of 11 over (on 5 different nights). I've got 6 more parties to have before next week.

Here some students in the process of making and decorating cookies:

You can hear one student, frustrated with sticky icing, saying (in Chinese), "Chopsticks are better." ... Chopsticks actually do work well for icing cookies! We tried it last night.

Most have my students have never baked before, or cooked very much for that matter, but the cookies have turned out very well! As you can see from the picture.

Before we eat them, we must take a photo!

And this is what it look like 3 minutes later:


And now it's time once again to clean up. ... I guess I'll just HAVE to lick all the spoons covered in chocolate.

p.s. Is it just me, or was the turn-around between Thanksgiving and Christmas abnormally fast? I really feel like Christmas has snuck up on us this year!

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Before Thanksgiving, I had one of my smaller classes (this class actually started at 30 something, but is now down to 8 because it is an ungraded course) over to my apartment to bake apple pie and apple turnovers.

Some reactions to apple pie: "It's so big!" "It's sort of like making a dumpling." (referring to the apple turnover) and of course... "Mmmmmmm."

And no, I have not forgotten about the turkey story yet. I don't think I'll be able to write it up until after the holidays though. These next two weeks are going to be a whirlwind of baking cookies, having parties with students, teaching, writing my finals and giving them. I'll be done with the majority of my classes on the 23rd, but I give one final on January 2nd.

I can't believe it's already December. Oh, and yah, it's cold here. Last Friday, the high temperature was 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius). Today it warmed up to 20, and it felt good. ... It's not even winter yet though. ... and I think the sun went down at 3:30 today. ... I sorta like the cold though, when you're wrapped up in layers and your down coat, you feel cozy. I'll post a picture soon of what I normally look like when I go outside.