Christmas in China Recap

I know many expats struggle with feelings of homesickness around the holidays each year. While I've had my own feelings of loneliness at times, the holidays this year were actually quite enjoyable for me. I've met some wonderful people in China and they made me feel welcome and appreciated. I am fortunate that my new friends want to learn all about my holidays and traditions and were excited to celebrate with me. I can honestly say that over both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays I didn't miss being in the states one bit!

On Christmas eve and Christmas day I made plans with friends to have dinner and do a gift exchange. You can read about my plans here. On Christmas day I had to teach two classes, but it was final exams week so I really just had to sit back and listen to student presentations. 

On Wednesday evening (Christmas eve) I received a call that the dean and a few other people from the English department wanted to host a special lunch for me and the other two foreign teachers on Thursday in honor of Christmas for us. We had a formal Chinese meal and it was delicious. It was a really nice gesture and I was even more surprised when they presented us with gifts to celebrate as well. I received a lovely scarf and a snuff bottle that is painted from the inside. It was presented in a wooden box. One side has a beautiful Chinese image and the other side is painted with the school logo.

I was also delighted to receive fruit and small gifts of candy from several of my students and my teaching assistant. The Chinese Christmas tradition is to give apples or oranges on Christmas eve. They do not really celebrate the holiday although you will see Christmas trees and other decorations around the malls and shopping centers. It appears to be more of a commercial celebration than anything else. The apples and oranges were beautifully wrapped and presented. My students told me that apples mean 'safety' and oranges mean 'may your dreams come true'. Tucked inside the folds of paper were little pieces of chocolate. I'm told that means 'may there be sweetness in your heart'. It was all very unexpected and heartwarming. I was expecting Christmas to feel pretty much like a normal day here in China and I felt extremely honored that so many people went out of their way to celebrate a holiday with me that they don't typically acknowledge. From the meals, to the gifts, to the flood of social media messages on QQ and WeChat, everyone really made me feel very blessed this Christmas.

Decorative Fruit

Apple in a Gift Box

I hope you had the same joy on your Christmas day! 

  

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday filled with joy surrounded by your loved ones!

2014 Christmas Celebration

This year I will be celebrating Christmas in China. I found out way too late from the school that I could end my classes early so that I could return to the states for Christmas. This wasn't really a problem for me since I had no intentions of going back home anyway. My plan is to make the most of my time in China and see everything I came here to see, plus a whole lot more. Not to mention, I don't have a home in the states to return to. I haven't spent Christmas with my family in years and spending Christmas with my soon-to-be-ex-in-laws always caused me great anxiety (and I'm not generally an anxious person). 

I didn't do a special Thanksgiving post this year, but I spent my day teaching and in the evening I had a special dinner with my adult evening students. I teach English to eight working adults on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Our Thursday evening class coincided with Thanksgiving, and I'm allowed to be creative with my teachings for the class. So I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner to teach them all about our traditions and I was able to prepare a dinner very similar to what I would have had at home even with my limited kitchen appliances and no oven. Oh yeah, and no turkey either. As far as I can tell, they just don't have turkeys here. By the end of the evening, I had so much fun with my new group of friends that I didn't even miss being home for Thanksgiving at all.

So this week for Christmas I decided to do the same thing. We could have ended our classes early, but the class and I wanted to share a special Christmas party together. We are even doing a gift exchange game and everyone is bringing a gift. The school has generously scheduled a special lunch for the foreign teachers as well so I will be celebrating much of the day. On Christmas Eve, I will be having dinner and exchanging gifts with some friends I've made during my short stay here. They don't celebrate, but they know I do and want to experience the Christmas traditions with me. We'll be dining out at our local Pizza Hut and I'm really excited for it! It sounds really weird to have Pizza Hut for Christmas Eve dinner, but I love pizza and rarely eat it here because all of the western restaurants are really expensive. The Pizza Hut in China has a wide variety of menu items, including steak. I'll of course be sticking to the pizza. With all the stress I've had over the holidays during my marriage, I'm really looking forward to enjoying a fun Christmas party with new friends. I hope you all enjoy the same!

What are your holiday plans?   

December in New York City Part II

Last week I posted about my first few days in New York City in December. Here's how I spent the rest of that glorious week:
Monday my husband had to return to work so I began my week of sightseeing solo. I had an amazing day returning to Bryant Park to go ice skating. Then I walked next door to the New York City Public Library to explore and visit the massive reading room.

New York Public Library

Tuesday I had tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I walked out of the hotel in the morning to see large snow flakes coming down. It was a really wet snow, so I was happy to have my umbrella with me. The snow and fog caused a short delay for the boat. When I booked my ticket, the crown was completely sold out for the day but I managed to snag a ticket to the platform level. Due to the snow and delay I was the first person of the day to make it up to the platform. It was pretty peaceful having the space all to my self. Unfortunately with the fog I wasn't able to see the NYC skyline. As I'm told the platform is great place for a skyline view on a clear day. 

 

Next stop Ellis Island. The museum reopened less than two weeks prior to my trip after under going renovations needed following the hurricane that tore through a year before. The main halls were open, although many of the smaller exhibits had yet to reopen at that point. It was still an interesting visit for me because I believe some of my ancestors may have traveled through here at some point.

Ellis Island

After I returned to the Manhattan, I walked north a few blocks to the 9/11 Memorial site. There is an unbelievably long process and several checkpoints to pass through before you actually get to the memorial. There are two identical pools, one for the south tower and one for the north tower.

9/11 Memorial

On my last day in New York I decided to just walk through the streets and take in the city. At the end of our trip we stayed at a hotel in Times Square so I started from there and headed west to Fifth Avenue. I walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral to take in the architecture. Unfortunately the cathedral is under massive construction to preserve it, so there wasn't much to see. Afterwards I continued north Central Park. My first visit to the park was during our trip to New York City in May. December in the park is a much different scene, but equally beautiful.

Central Park

 

What's your favorite part of New York City?

December in New York City Part I

It has been about a month now since I flew to New York City for a week of sightseeing and fun. My sister-in-law currently lives there and my husband had a business trip scheduled during the week. So we elected to fly out the weekend before to spend time with family. I was lucky enough to stay the week, sightseeing on my own after everyone else had to return to work. 

The fall semester was a tough one for me, probably the most difficult semester I've ever had in school. Nothing seemed to go as planned. Add in the stress I felt from several different aspects in my life and I wasn't in the best of places. In fact, I almost decided against going on the trip even though the tickets had been purchased. A week before I was scheduled to leave for New York I couldn't decide what to do so I chose to throw caution to the wind, take control over my anxieties and follow through with my trip that I had been thrilled about only two months before.

I am so glad I did! The moment I arrived in New York I knew it was the right decision and every worry I had about the trip, school or life in general all melted away. New York City is such a fantastic place and I just soaked up all of its glory. 

 Saturday was our first full day of vacation and we couldn't wait to get started! My husband is studying to be an engineer so he is fascinated by structures like the Brooklyn Bridge. Walking across the bridge was a must for him and due to rain, we missed the opportunity on our last trip in May. Although the weather was cold, the sun was shinning and we had a beautiful walk across the bridge and learned some interesting facts about the construction along the way.

 

Brooklyn Bridge

After our scenic walk across the bridge, we had lunch in New Jersey then took the subway back to Manhattan. In the afternoon we took a tour at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The museum hosts several different walking tours that recall experiences from 19th and 20th century immigrants. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the museum, but the Hard Times tour was fantastic. Our guide told a compelling tale of two families that lived on the second floor before the building code laws forced the owner to close the residential portion of his property.      

Sunday we explored a different part of the city. On my must see list was the Christmas tree and skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Over the weekend we stayed in the West Village so we took the subway up to Times Square, walked through the Christmas market at Bryant Park and up Fifth Avenue to 30 Rock.

Ice skating rink at Bryant Park

Ice skating rink and Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center

 

After we checked out the tree, we bought tickets to the top of 30 Rock to check out the view of the city which was pretty spectacular.

View from the top of 30 Rock

We then continued our walk north on Fifth Avenue all the way to Central Park to check out the famous window displays and Christmas decorations. We finished the day by walking the High Line all the way back to the West Village. 

Fifth Avenue shopping

Christmas in Chicago

This year for Christmas my husband and I decided to create a new tradition that was all our own. We have been married for four years now and usually follow the traditions of our individual families. This year we opted to spend Christmas Eve in Chicago and join the family for festivities on Christmas Day. For our day in Chicago we chose to do some of our favorite winter activities.

Christmas in Chicago this year was brutally cold. The temperature was in the single digits and low teens. We weren't discouraged though. We bundled up in layers and headed out to explore some of our favorite parts of the city. Eataly Chicago opened at the beginning of December and we were eager to check it out as the New York location has become one of our favorite spots. It did not disappoint! We had lunch at La Pizza La Pasta. There was a little wait but they will text you when your table is ready. So we wandered around the store and had a drink at La Birreria while we waited for our table. The food was excellent and the staff was very helpful and friendly.
  
Our next stop was the Christkindlmarket in Daley plaza where we enjoyed Glühwein and admired the Christmas tree. The German Christmas Market opens after Thanksgiving and closes for the season on Christmas Eve so we were able to enjoy the last few hours of the 2013 season. The Glühwein was delicious and we're already looking forward to tasting it again next year.  
   

I ice skated for the first time in about fifteen years when we were in New York City a few weeks ago and I was excited to go again soon. We stayed at a hotel in the Theatre district in Chicago which is only a few blocks from Millennium Park. The rink is free and they charge a fee to rent skates. I wasn't sure what to expect for Christmas Eve but the crowd was small and there was no wait. We had a great time skating and my husband even showed me a few of his old moves from his hockey playing days. I definitely want to make an effort to go out at least once a year.  

 

 

After we turned in our skates we walked up to the Cloud Gate and took a few photos. In all of the times I have visited the park, I realized this is the first time I've seen it at night. Our Christmas Eve mini vacation was extremely fun and special for both of us. We were able to enjoy time alone together at the holiday before joining the family for the traditional meals and gift exchanges the next day. 

What traditions do you celebrate on Christmas?