Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Season's cheer to those who care. And a merry 'bah humbug' to the rest.

As for me, I've been in a strange kind of Christmas limbo.

Three days to go and I am barely aware of it. Guess that comes from not living in a Christian society, or one driven by a major consumer culture. Even though I used to moan about the way the shops over-exploit Christmas, I really have missed seeing everywhere decked out in all that festive crap. And, believe it or not, I have missed the Christmas songs that get piped out everywhere you go. I find myself walking around and humming cheesy Christmas tunes to myself without realising it. I miss that.

I can't really put it into words, but it's such a strange feeling, especially when I think back to a year ago, when I was rushing around like a headless chicken in Harvey Nicks while everyone did their last minute shopping. It kinda made it feel special though, all that last-minute stuff, the dark nights, the cold weather, music, lights and people wishing each other a happy Christmas....

Today was the warmest day we've had so far in December, the internet temperature thingy said 17 degrees. A bit optimistic I think, but not too far off. Either way, it's bright and sunny and as un-Christmassy as you can imagine it. And I'm about to make it even more un-Christmassy by spending a decent portion of my break on a tropical island. More on that to come... Walking through town there is barely one shred of evidence to support the calendar's claim that it is, in fact, December 22nd. It could just as easily be October.

Still, Christmas is Christmas, and we couldn't let it pass unnoticed. I think we most certainly achieved that!! Last Saturday we went shopping for Christmas. It took a while and we walked many streets, but we eventually found a shop that sold Christmas. 300 yuan later we were the proud owners of 3 Christmas trees, two bags of decorations and two stuffed Father Christmas'.

I decided that my kids needed educating on Christmas, and I think I have had the best week of lessons ever. I exploited these kids curiosity by taking a huge bag round with me to every class, which had them all out of their seats with eyes fixed on me from the beginning. After a little suspense building, I pulled out a stuffed Father Christmas, and after the clapping and cheering had died down I went through who he is, where he lives, what he does and where the traditions came from. Then I spoke briefly about what my family does for Christmas, pausing at the point of decorating the Christmas tree, when I reached back into my bag and pulled out my plastic Christmas tree, getting the students to decorate it themselves in return for answering some questions correctly. Then I taught a verse of Jingle Bells and we all sang it together. It was an ace lesson. It was diluted accordingly for each level but the basic format was given to each class. There was plenty of opportunity for laughs, and after 15 runs, it was a finely tuned performance. To top it I took photos of everyone at the end of class and have loads of great pictures of all my students now.

It has been a good week. We got cable TV installed, including CCTV9, the English language channel (though I'm yet to watch any), and found out that our Christmas holiday would be extended to join up with a New Year break that we were completely unaware of. Bonus.

In bad news, I saw a massive rat run through the teachers canteen into the kitchen at lunch and lost 60 yuan in a game of Mahjong last night with some teachers. I've never completely figured out my attitude towards money here, but when on such a monumental losing streak I revert back to thinking in terms of pounds (ah, only 4 quid, not a problem) instead of yuan (shit, that's more money than I spend in a fortnight!).

Still, the good news far outweighs the bad and the best of all concerns our now 12 day Christmas and New Year break. We're off down south tomorrow to Guangzhou to get some big city benefits in a 4 star hotel before making our way down to Hainan Island, which is the only officially tropical part of China. Expect sickening photos to be posted on my return.

Man, I'm knackered. I haven't thought about packing yet and our bus leaves at 10am tomorrow. We just got back from judging a special English-language talent contest in honour of Christmas and it was a real blast. Anthony and I rounded it off with a manic performance of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' and it went down a real storm. They went mad for it.

Eh, Christmas in China has actually been pretty cool so far. Life is what you make it. I'm glad I'm here.