Three Thanksgivings and a Christmas tree

Well, it's officially the most wonderful time of the year. . . which means that Wal-Mart has had their Christmas decorations up since mid-October. I guess some things just transcend culture.

The first time since moving here I haven't
been a minority race

I figured that spending the holiday season in another country would be hard, but so far it hasn't been too bad. Sure, it's never fun to be away from family, but there's just something about celebrating an American holiday in China that makes you appreciate it that much more. 

Of course, there were a few interesting obstacles we had to overcome. The first was finding a Turkey (by the way, the word for Turkey in Chinese translates literally to "Fire Chicken"). Funny thing about that, China doesn't really do a lot of Turkey based meals. Dried Duck? You bet
. Sheep's Stomach? Sure. Pork?..... I wouldn't recommend visiting if you are Jewish or Muslim. But Turkey? Absolutely not. 

Miraculously though, we managed to find one. And now I can officially say that I have eaten meat ordered from the internet....I'm going to go check for tapeworms now. 

O.K. I'm back, and so far so good. 

Another issue was figuring out how to make all of the side dishes for the meal without an oven. Not because I personally don't have an oven, but because China doesn't have an oven. I actually asked a Chinese family if they had an oven and their response was "We are Chinese" (that means no).  

I think the bowl of forks was the
most exciting part.

So, through sheer force of will and a recipe from the internet, I managed to make stuffing entirely from scratch, in a Wok. 

So that pretty much sums up my Thanksgiving...Sort of. 

Since we aren't in America, we decided to overcompensate a bit, so we actually had three thanksgiving meals. 

The Saturday before we had Fakesgiving (because it wasn't actually Thanksgiving day)

The day of we had Mex-giving (we ate enchiladas, they were incredible)

The Saturday after we had Latesgiving. (because it was late)

After that ordeal I lapsed into a food coma until today when I finally decided that it was time for some Christmas decorating. 

After listening to my friends complain about how expensive Christmas trees from Walmart are, I had decided to forgo one this year, but then opportunity struck. 

I was running on the track this morning and saw a man trimming some evergreen bushes with a hedge trimmer. After passing him two or three times I thought, "those look sort of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree." So I waited until the man left for a smoke break and grabbed as many handfuls of trees shavings as I could and sprinted back to my apartment.  

Chinese pine trees have thorns...don't ever grab handfuls of them. 

If the government ever needs my DNA,
there's about a pint of it on that tree

After disinfecting the thousands of micro-abrasions in my hands, I created this stunning masterpiece above.

Oh, and to prove that I actually teach, here's a picture of my students. Teaching here is pretty great, and really frustrating sometimes. Overall though, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys asking the question "What's your name?" and having the student respond "No, I don't like basketball."

Ahh, the ancient Chinese symbol for "I see a camera!"