Christmas Cards

So I got this card from a friend on Christmas Eve, and it made me cry (and I haven't cried in a long time).

"谢谢你这么长时间以来对我的帮助！谢谢你在我有困难的时候陪伴我！很开心，因为有你这样的好姐妹。我感觉真的好幸福!"

translation: Thank you for so long being my help! Thank you for when I have a difficult time being with me! I am very happy, because you are such a good sister. I feel really blessed!

I also got this awesome Christmas card from one of my funniest, awesome friends:
“猪力：Merry Christmas! 圣诞节快乐！！你要多吃些哦！因为你太瘦了。”-猪第

Translation: Pig Power (what the sounds of my English name sound like in Chinese...it's a joke between us). Merry Christmas! You should eat more! Because you are too thin."-Pig Brother (what her English name sounds like in Chinese). This card also included little drawings of pigs. So funny!

Recent Life Happenings

Currently sick with a respiratory infection (blech), which, for various reasons, feels harder to deal with in China, if solely for the fact that I ride my bike everywhere, and due to lung issues, I can't currently do that. Hence I have not been eating much and am currently dreaming of juicy jaozi (dumplings) and malatang (soup that you choose your own ingredients for). I am drooling just writing that.

Anyways, Christmastime in China is different...it is celebrated more widely in China nowadays than in years past, but it's still not the same as celebrating in the States, with lights and Christmas music everywhere. Nonetheless, I enjoy this time of year and getting to share Christmas traditions with local friends.

Anyways, so some recent life happenings:

-I started studying Ancient Greek. My friend had a book and we decided to study it. In just an hour a week I am picking it up fairly well. On a personal note, it will be nice to be able to read the New Testament in its original language!

-I have also started being officially tutored in the local minority language (wasn't self-motivated enough to do it alone!). I am actually considering studying it at the university next semester, but as I also obviously want to continue to improve my Chinese, I haven't decided about that).

-I have been teaching a "Spanish Corner" in addition to the English Corner I already lead. Several students approached me about wanting to learn, and while I was surprised as that doesn't seem to be the most useful language, they are picking it up well, and it's good for me to brush up on my rusty Spanish!

-I am enjoying周杰伦's (Jay Chou's) new cd, courtesy of my knight-in-shining-armor who mailed it to me when I couldn't find it in the stores here! You should give it a listen! Tracks 7 and 10 are my faves. And it has its share of usual cheeky numbers too.

What else...for those of you who enjoy the light-hearted updates, here is an update on the saga of the cute barista. Well, he recently saved me from the advances of a drunken coffee shop patron, after which he came up to me and launched into an explanation/apology of some sorts for the inconvenience, but I'll be honest, I only caught about half of what he said, he was talking so fast. (Enter the nod and smile, hoping that he was not saying anything totally crazy.)Aside from that I wasn't really getting anywhere, aside from a conversation one night in which he told me I needed to stop cleaning up after English Corner and let him do his job. :-) “不用那么客气！”(bu yong na me ke qi--need not be so polite!)

I will admit to doing some stalking on renren (the Chinese version of facebook), but his profile was private...and renren has some features that are not stalker-friendly, such as letting a user see who has looked at their profile and when. Well, one night I was staying late at the coffee shop to have a meeting with the owner...we were discussing renren and how she should get an account (even if she is older than the typical student...I gave her the example of how all the parents are on facebook now). Anyways, I wrote down my renren account info to give her...and I guess she passed it on to her employees cause...cute barista added me! In actuality I wasn't all that thrilled because renren still has those features that mean I can't stalk him that often..and sometimes I feel more awkward as a result of social networking, because it's like added pressure. You know what I mean? Like, "well, we weren't really that close before, but now that we're friends online, I guess I should talk to you in person more."

So there you have it, my life happenings and love life here in the middle kingdom.

Traumatized?

Warning: This story may be a bit upsetting to some readers.

Friday night I got a text from a friend...I briefly glanced at it....there was one word in it I didn't know, but it said something about going to participate in a class that had to do with horses. I decided to be safe that I had better look up the word....and when I did, I discovered that yes, my friend was in fact inviting me to participate in a horse dissection class, not horseback riding (which is something we had previously discusssed). After a giggle, I decided that I couldn't pass up on something so random, so I said that it sounded interesting and that I would like to participate. I was thinking it would be fairly comparable to a veterinary science class in the States.

When I showed up Saturday morning to watch, I discovered that, 1) the class was taught in the local minority language (that I only speak a little of), and 2)a group of male students was holding down a tied horse...still alive. They then proceeded to kill it right there in front of everyone. And, I suppose since it's China and the school doesn't have a lot of funds...it wasn't done via injection like they put animals down in the States...the professor simply found the artery in the neck and proceeded to just drain all the blood from it that way.

If it makes anyone feel better, the horse didn't seem to suffer really...but it did take a while to die, and that was sad. I then stuck around to watch them skin the horse and prepare to dissect it. My friend has invited me to come again next week...I think I might. Much as I wish they employed similiar practices to the States, I realize that this agricultural school doesn't have access to the kind of funding that universities that I am used to do.

English Corner Activity

To learn some anatomy vocabulary, at my past English corner I had them play a game where they would get into two teams and label their "model". The team with the most correct labels won...and I'm not gonna lie, it was also fun for me to observe.