Christmas!

Christmas in China is a very strange holiday.  It reminds me of St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day; mostly just a commercial event where the Chinese go out for drinks or food.  The nostalgic, sentimental elements of the holiday are pretty lost on the general public.   

Honestly, it doesn't feel like a real holiday at all!  

And since it's not a "real" holiday, English classes still go on and Disney English employees still have to go to work.

Christmas Eve started at work were our Center Manager/DE had ordered a turkey.  It was so cute in it's little basket.

Ben, Ashley and one of the two hams that were also ordered.  (The Chinese staff preferred it over the Turkey, which they thought smelled weird.)  On the side we had gravy, applesauce, and chestnuts.  Chestnuts are EVERYWHERE in China and I keep trying to eat them because they smell so good but they taste kind of mushy and gross.  We had to fish paper plates out of the craft supplies box and here Ben is hacking into the ham with our only knife, which is about three inches long. 

 My darling friend, Timo.  We were pretty fascinated by the turkey basket.

 After work we took a taxi to a street of bars and restaurants.  When we got there we found a strange street festival atmosphere with Chinese pop music, disco lights and clowns on stilts.  Nothing says, "Merry Christmas" like balloon animals right?  

 We ended up at a bar with a giant screen that looped BMX and Monster Truck videos and that only played music by Springsteen, CCR, and Chuck Berry

 

We all complained when Timo led us into this bar because we wanted food.  "Don't worry,"he said, "I think they'll order food for us!"  Sure enough the bar didn't serve food but the bartender agreed to call the restaurant across the street and place an order.  I figured that it would come take-out style but 20 minutes later four waiters come marching across the street carrying steaming plates and bowls of food.  They even brought real silverware.  Timo handed them his credit card and they had to run back across the street to swipe it!  Ridiculous.  Only in China. 

My sweet roommate, Ashley, and out Christmas shots.

On Christmas Day, I talked to my family (it was their Christmas Eve) and when I got off of Skype I promptly burst into tears.  It was awful.  But after I had a little pity party I rallied, then Ashley and I met Timo and Ben at a Mexican Restaurant next to our apartment for a buffet brunch.  My family was horrified that we were planning on eating Mexican food for Christmas and I told them not to worry because...it's China.  It's pretty unlikely that anything resembling Mexican food will actually be served.  Sure enough I ate potato soup, salad, chicken strips and fries, and drank a lot of milk tea.  Poor Timo and Ashley had to head into work but it was Ben and my's regular day off so we hung out for another hour drinking free refills and watching a group of about 15 rich Chinese mothers trying to keep santa hats on their kids' heads while they devoured the buffet.  The moms and kids were all in matching red outfits, it was pretty cute.  Then Ben and I walked to the foreign food store and paid a RIDICULOUS amount of money for butter, cheese, and some other outrageously priced Western ingredients to be eaten at Christmas dinner.  We carried the stuff back to my apartment then Ben left to go play soccer.  I spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies and doing laundry.  

Later that night my sister Skyped me and I watch her open her presents with her family.  That was promptly followed by a Skype date with my parents as well as my brother and his family.  I watched them open their presents too.  It was a lot of fun and I can't even tell you how grateful I am for technology that lets me talk to my family on the other side of the globe...for four hours...for free!  But I will say that it was weird for me. Everything seems so different from what is happening here that it made homefeel much farther away then usual and like I was peering into a totally different life.        

On Wednesdays, the entire staff at DE is off so some of us planned to have a Day-After Christmas Dinner at Timo's apartment.  Timo, Ashley and I spent the entire day shopping and cooking.  A lot of things had to be improvised because of a lack of ingredients and/or kitchen supplies, but on the whole it was a success!
 

 

 The Christmas Goose!  Ben bought one whole goose and had one cut up at the butcher, and had a funny story about trying to negotiate the price in Chinese.  I can't believe we actually had goose, it was like being in a Dickens' book.   

 Ben sifting through the trash because we misplaced the potato peeler and had a total panic attack.  We found it but then it sucked so we ended up peeling things with a knife.  I felt like we were cooking in a camper or something.

 This is my teaching partner, Karen.  She was so excited to come for her very first Christmas Dinner!  And I was pretty impressed that she tried everything, though she did eat a lot of the Chinese food that my boss, Rebecca, brought.  Karen's always feeding me things like liver, chicken's feet, and unrecognizable vegetables at work so I guess she was due.  She asked me a lot of questions about the mashed potatoes, her favorite dish of the night!  

 Timo took advantage of Karen being at his apartment to have her translate some of the buttons on his refrigerator.

 My pumpkin pies!  I had to make them sans evaporated milk, but it's ok they tasted great!  I was happy that I brought cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg with me from America.

Karen and I again.  I adore her so much! We work together all day long and I still want to hang out with her on the weekends!  Ben said, "You're basically obsessed with her."  

Funny...and a little true.

 Timo's dining room table only seats six so we decided to push together his living room chairs and lay his coffee table glass across the top.  Necessity is the mother of invention :)

My experiment with hot apple cider!  I put cinnamon, cloves, fresh ginger, orange peel and lemon peel into a giant tea bag and simmered in the crock pot with apple juice. Success!  It was awesome and reminded everyone of home.  We ran out of glasses to put it in so Timo drank his from a bowl.  Also, please take notice of his super adorable Mr. Roger's Christmas Sweater.

Candied Yams...maybe.  We're not exactly sure what kind of vegetable they were but they were delicious in our expensive butter.  We even scrounged up seven large marshmallows to put on top.

Goose! And also, beautiful flowers supplied by our friend Helen. 

The Feast!

 My plate! (Wheat roll, broccoli, carrots, cheese, goose, sweet potatoes, pineapple and cheese casserole, sea foam salad (which was Timo's dish: pears, lime jello, cream cheese, whipped cream, etc.).  Basically a Christmas miracle on a plate.  We also had olives, mashed potatoes, spinach dip, little smokies, and of course five kinds of purchased Chinese food.   

I was determined to have whipped cream for the pumpkin pie but that means that we had to hand whip it in a bowl.  I never imagined that I'd miss my Kitchenaide Mixer so much.  All the way through dinner we took turns whisking that damn cream and kept putting it back in the freezer to cool it down.  We worked on it for at least an hour until finally it set up!  Helen and Karen were mystified by the whole process but they liked the whipped cream a lot because I didn't make it very sweet.  However, they were super grossed out by the sea foam salad which the foreigners couldn't get enough of.

Karen eating her pumpkin pie with chopsticks.  Clearly the bowl is glowing with Christmas magic.

 

 We had a little gift exchange and I bought the Chinese version of Jenga. Karen ended up with it and we promptly opened it up to teach them how to play!  

 Karen and Helen were so hilarious, look how stressed she is!

A couple of weeks ago one of the families at the center gave Timo an old guitar.  Turns out Ben can play a little so we forced him to indulge us in a sing-a-long.  Helen and Karen were ECSTATIC about this, it's all I've heard about for two days since.  Helen grabbed my camera and took about a million videos of it and this is my favorite because you can hear her cute voice as she tries to figure out how to film.   

Merry Christmas!

Dumplings in Suzhou!

 “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber

By this time you've heard about my relocation to Suzhou!  I was only supposed to be here for two and a half weeks to cover classes while they waited for their new trainer to get here, but three days with this enthusiastic, hardworking staff and I didn't want to leave!
I requested a transfer but Disney English said no because they have a policy that you have to work for six months before you can change centers.  However, Suzhou has had a cycle of people in and out of this position and they're desperate to get someone in that can create some stability.  So the management fought for me to stay and the transfer request went all the way up to be approved by the CEO!  


The most wonderful thing about Suzhou is that they all want me here!  It's so great to be working at a place where they great me enthusiastically everyday and go out of their way to help me settle in. 
Yesterday, when I announced to the parents that I was staying permanently they actually applauded.  When I told the staff, the Foreign Trainers gave me gigantic hugs and the Chinese girls started making plans to take me for KTV and shopping.  I never thought I'd be living in Suzhou, but clearly it's the best place for me :)   

Just a few weeks ago I was thinking about leaving China, now I'm so happy I feel like I could stay forever!  I leave work everyday exhausted and deeply satisfied.  I'm so optimistic about my future here!

 Last week everyone came to the center early and our Center Manager, Wilson, hosted a dumpling party!  His mother prepared the meat and dumpling skins and then we folded them up and boiled them.

 I was the only foreign trainer that showed up and Wilson was disappointed, but I scored lots of bonus points with my coworkers. :) They were all excited to show me their different methods of folding dumplings according to the city or region that they're from.  We had some quality bonding time.  The foreign trainers at the center are all men, so they told me over and over again how excited they are to have a female foreigner to hang out with.

 This is Jesse, one of the classroom assistants, he is vivacious and hilarious! I adore her!  Her classroom is next to mine and she's always popping in to sing with me or to criticize my Christmas decorations.

 Helen!  The first time I did a demo class with her as my assistant she listened to me give my opening spiel with a big smile.  Then she said,"Ashlee I like your accent!"  Obviously, my accent is no different from the other American's at the center, so I said "You mean that you like that my voice is so high-pitched?"  Helen: "Yes, yes, you sound very happy! I like you." 

 Some of my dumplings!

Dumpling feast!  One of these dumplings has a coin in it, if you get that one you'll have good fortune all year.  They were so delicious!