We wish you a Merry Christmas

The heart of the holiday season has come and gone, and what a merry Christmas it was! I must say, I was a little worried about spending the holidays so far away from home, but, entirely courtesy of my amazing family and friends, I had a wonderful Christmas.  I spend Christmas eve with my co-teachers and school's TA staff at one of the universities in Taichung, where we listened to a Christian church service (in Chinese), sang hymns (mainly 'silent night' repeatedly), and counted down Christmas day with the ringing of the bells 100 times (it is tradition to count each 'dong' of the bell and then make a wish at the 100th ring).  Christmas day was spent with my closest friends in Taiwan, who I call my "Taiwan family'.  The day was spent in Yuanlin, where we started with a steak lunch, then proceeded to one of the teacher's houses for our gift exchange (we played Secret Santa amongst the teachers, and may I just say that the pictures and trinkets I received from my gift-giver almost made me cry, they were so well thought out), consumed some mulled wine (that was my first time ever drinking mulled wine, why have I never been introduced to this Christmas tradition?) and snacks, and played some games.  Overall it was a perfect Christmas day.  The next morning I was able to have a more traditional Christmas day, thanks to the wonders of technology I spent some time with my family at the cabin and enjoyed opening family presents which have been patiently waiting for me to open for a month (when you are a child your parents monitor your presents to make sure you don't open them, when you are an adult you have to monitor yourself, it is tough work).  Also, for anyone who was worried about it, Santa found me out here and was able to fill my stocking!

The Homei teaching staff - 'ringing' in Christmas day in Taichung

My 'Taiwan family'

Seeing as it is the week of Christmas, I also got to bring the holidays into the classroom.  Monday was a theme-teaching day with the CEI classes, so my co-teacher and I combined classes and hosted a singing competition, decorated gingerbread man cookies, and watched the claymation Rudolph (for me it just isn't Christmas without that movie).  In each of my classes (courtesy of my wonderful mother) I was also able to present the students with stockings filled with 'American candy' (tootsie rolls and laffy taffy).  Christmas may not be a big holiday here, but it was still fun to subject the Taiwanese children to some of our 'quirky' traditions.

As much as I would like to overlook the negative parts of my week, it would be skewing reality too much.  The first, and most unfortunate thing that has happened this week is that my brand new camera   went missing (almost certainly at the night market).  I have filed a missing property report with the Changhua police department, and now I am sitting patiently, hoping it is returned to me.  I also managed to lose my keys on Christmas day (this story has a much happier ending however).  On the taxi ride back from Yuanlin, I joked to myself about leaving my keys behind, but I hadn't, and I pulled them out to prove it.  My keys must have fallen as I was getting out of the taxi however, because as soon as I stepped out, they were no where to be found.  As I was having a borderline break-down in the middle of the street, my friends called the taxi back (who originally told us he he didn't have the keys, but agreed to drive back when we offered to pay him) and lucky me (though luck had nothing to do with it, since I had already confirmed that they keys weren't with me), we found them in the taxi right away! The real memory in this 'unfortunately adventure' is the fact that the taxi driver was so apologetic for not having found the keys by himself, that he refused to let us pay him for his troubles, which goes to show either the spirit of the holidays or the good-nature of Taiwan.  Final bit of negative is that I'm getting sicker...I am much more congested this week.

My random thought of the the week involves Taiwanese eating customs.  In Taiwan, nothing is considered a finger food (because, as is logical, our hands are dirty, though not everyone is strict with this), so 'finger foods' such as hamburgers or chicken wings pose a complication here.  I was reminded of this tonight when, at dinner, our basket of forks and knives was also accompanied with plastic gloves.  We ate at a hamburger restaurant, and, because that is a food which is common to pick up, the solution is to cover your hands first (pretty clever if you ask me).  The aversion to touching foods is also noticeable when purchasing fruits, which are always sold with skewers so you can stab your food instead of picking it up (as I discovered this week, that is an exceptionally difficult way to each pomegranate seeds), when buying street food which always comes in paper wrapping (and often with a skewer again), and when buying cakes (which are sold with the knife for cutting pieces, and the plates and tiny forks for eating).

Unfortunately the countdown to Christmas has restarted, and since I don't want to count the next 358 days, I'll do the brief countdown to New Years, in which the festivities will commence in: 1 day!