The best night of my life

There comes a point in one's life when he realizes life doesn't get any better. For some, maybe it's when they get married, or have their first child. For others, the day the Cubs win the World Series (which will be soon, I promise). For me, it came tonight: Christmas caroling in China.

There were nine of us American teachers spreading the Christmas cheer, wandering from one dorm to the next, standing outside as we sang Christmas carols to our students inside. 

 Braving the -9º  weather (that's ºC, not ºF, folks), we sang for about an hour and a half. Some of the taller, lankier, less-appealing members donned Santa suits.

The best part of the whole evening was the reaction we got. Unbelievable. Probably the most joyful and happy thing I've had the privilege to experience--I just wish I could capture even a fraction of the experience for you. Alas, I'll try anyway: upon our arrival to each dorm, we announced our presence with an angelic horn (uh, or a trumpet that one of the other teachers accompanied our singing with). Like little foxes popping out of their cozy little hole to investigate the odd sounds they just heard, the windows of the dorms would fill with the faces of the eight curious occupants inside, peeking out from behind the closed curtains. Soon the windows would open and the girls would all be piled on top of one another, positioning for a good view. As we sang, scores and scores of students watched from their windows, waving and yelling "Merry Christmas!" as we sang. 

And then they came. Crowds of curious, happy, laughing, surprised, happy, curious Chinese girls poured out of the dorms once they realized we were there to stay for a while:

This is just of fraction of the audience at this dorm. Moments later, we had a crowd about three times this big encircling us. It didn't take long before the word spread and students emptied from other dorms too. Fortunately, this was our last stop, because we were swamped with picture requests. My Santa suit was something of a novelty, so you can imagine the picture requests with "Santa" were more than I could handle--but I loved it. The students loved it. They were so excited, and so were we.

It really was (and still is) indescribable. The students (pretty much 100% girls, since the campus is 90% girls anyway and the boys don't generally seem to care as much about these sorts of things) were so happy and excited to see us. They loved our Santa hats. They loved my Santa costume. They just couldn't believe what they were witnessing. I really felt like a rockstar. 

We even had groupies for a while. These students followed us for a bit before the cold was too much for them.

 The students also brought gifts when they came out to see us. By the end of the evening, we all had our hands full of things the students had given us. This isn't a rare thing either--the Chinese will give gifts all the time, usually food of some kind, and it's often spontaneous. Whenever I run into students walking around campus and they have some kind of food (usually an apple or orange) they will always give it to me. Always. This is one of the more endearing things, in my opinion. They just give. They give and give. It doesn't matter if it's the only one they have left--they will give me that last orange if they see me on the path to class. And so it goes with this caroling: the girls brought us gifts of food. I love it. 

 Here I display a few of the gifts I got: s sucker, some glow-sticks, and yes, a carrot. The oranges I also had received are out of view. 

I can't wait to do this again tomorrow (and neither can the students. Word quickly spread about our musical escapades and the whole campus is abuzz. They will be ready for us when we come again, since tonight we caught them off-guard). It's a little frustrating that I can't fully convey the experience through this blog. Just know that this has to be one of my greatest memories, and not just for China. This is one of my greatest memories, ever. I will not forget this, ever. 

Ever.

I think what I loved about it all was the pure joy and elation that the students showed. They were so happy to see us. They couldn't wish us Merry Christmas! enough times. When we sang "Jingle Bells" they all joined in, since that's really the only Christmas song they know, and I was so excited to be sharing this part of Christmas with the students. As Christmas is still very foreign to China, the students are always excited to learn more and participate in celebrating with us. They love learning about American holidays, and it has been a joy to share Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. Ah...

I'll stop, because I'll just keep going if I don't.

Can you tell this was an experience that I enjoyed just a little? 

And now on to other Christmassy things.

Earlier this month, I invited some of my students over to my apartment to help decorate it for Christmas. In my naiveté, I assumed my students would be eager to learn about how Americans decorate so that they could then decorate my apartment just like I normally would at home in the States. They had other plans: 

 The Christmas tree I made. Yup. Nothing but yarn and parts of other, non-Christmas trees. Who says I can't be crafty?

After the students have had their way. They even made a star to go on top. 

According to my students, the firework-looking explosions hanging from my ceiling were for sale in a local shop, marked "Christmas tree." Naturally, when they purchased the items, they assumed a Christmas tree is what they bought. I set the record straight. 

 You see the various paper creations the students assembled and hung from the yarn. Quite the collection of paper and its various artistic uses.

The traditional "balloon face" that I enjoy making each year. Oh, this isn't a part of your Christmas decor? That's a shame. The nose and freckles are hearts and butterflies with my students' names written on them.

No, the decor is not of the traditional variety, but I like it. Bright colors and flashy, shiny things. Very Chinese. Very. And that's why I like it. I'm in China, so I might as well have Christmas with Chinese characteristics.

 In these two pictures, my students are gazing at the pictures on my computer. They are enthralled with any and all of my pictures. My one regret in life is that I didn't have a video camera to record their reaction when they first came to my apartment, since I have scores and scores of pictures hung around and they were amazed and excited at the sight. They entered and immediately set about discovering every picture, followed by a chorus of oohs and ahs. They also traveled in clumps, which is another favorite characteristic of the Chinese. They will clump and cluster--squeezed next to one another because personal bubbles don't exist here--and stare intently and curiously at anything that isn't Chinese. These photos demonstrate the clumping well. 

More Christmas things:

I did my final lesson on Christmas. I taught my students about both the cultural traditions (i.e., Santa, elves, et al.) and the original, true story of Christmas. At one point I had them drawing pictures either about Santa and his ilk or about the Christmas story. I decided that you needed to seem some of them yourself:

Artistry and concept ranged from the rather skilled...

...to the not-so-skilled...

...to the, ah, abstract:

Some boasted rather liberal interpretations of the Christmas story:

Others chose a more modern take:

A few others:

 The indispensable yet highly under-represented Elf Mice and North Pole Starfish.

 Timeless Santa

Avant-garde Santa

Minimalist Santa

Floating baby Jesus 

Why the single curly hair?

 Not really sure

My favorite picture. Possibly disturbing, always thought-provoking.

Without blabbing for pages, I will say that I've enjoyed this Christmas season despite it's non-existence here. Not being surrounded by Christmas on the street, in the store, or while watching TV has made it difficult to "feel" Christmas, but it's been a fine experience. I actually don't miss it so much--at least the commercialized parts. I do miss snow and carols and advent, but in their stead I get these drawn pictures, my home-made tree, and mobs of students asking for pictures with me/Santa. You can't buy things like that. 


And my students have been so wonderful and generous and loving and great during this time. Many have given me gifts for Christmas, some of which have been very thoughtful. They care so much for me, and I really love them--they're my little darlings. I was very sad to teach my last lesson, knowing that I will not be their teacher again (unless the school decides to keep me as their teacher next term and not assign me different classes....which I really, really hope they do). With one class (and not so surprisingly my favorite class), when I had finished the lesson early and dismissed them with about five minutes before the official end of class, they just sat there. They didn't move. They didn't say anything. They just....waited. They were so sad that it was all over and didn't want to leave. I had just told them that this might be our last lesson together, ever, and they were visibly upset. I explained multiple times that I was finished early and they could leave, yet still they did not move. So I just let them stay there. I didn't say anything, and neither did they. We all just stayed there...but it wasn't awkward. It was really special. 


I won't forget that either.


And I won't forget this Christmas. It's been full of unique and entertaining experiences, most of which I'll never have time to write, but you can always know that I'm having an amazing time every day. I know this post is long (well, I guess they all are), but there was just so much I couldn't not tell you. Plus there's a bunch of things I just wanted to get into the blog before I go on my two-month winter vacation. (Yup. More on that later.) So please excuse this long ramble of a post as I try to formulate some type of closure, now that my first semester in China is already done. 


That's nuts. I hope life slows down just a little...because I'd like China to last just a little bit longer.