Christmas

Another late post.

Christmas wasn't that bad this year, despite it being the first time I have ever missed being at home.

On Christmas Eve, five of us went to the Korean BBQ to get good food and french toast like we said we would. It was AWESOME as usual. I naturally wasn't drinking cuz I was on antibiotics and didn't want to screw anything up with the intestinal inflammation finally dying down. But we all had a good time. And I was able to talk to the 'rents and everyone else who was home on Skype, so it didn't seem like I was that far away.

Christmas Day I quick packed up all of the stuff for making the roast (which Rosie's husband, Ming helped me buy), grabbed the oven and headed off to Shijuan and Megan's apartment to start the cooking. Me, Megan, and two of Megan's students spent all day cooking, and I must say we turned out one heck of a Christmas dinner. We had the roast, mashed potatoes, honeyed carrots, green beans and mushrooms, fried pumpkin, rolls, and a few other miscellaneous items that everyone enjoyed immensely. Oh, and a HECK of a lot of beer. There wound up being ten of us at dinner, but only 9 ate since one had eaten earlier. After dinner, we all sat around drinking beer (minus me, antibiotics) until the students had to leave at 10 for curfew.

After the students left, there were five of us that participated in a gift exchange. It was basically a white elephant gift thing that you couldn't spend more than 20 qui on. I bought this hideous pillow with a giant face on it that was really soft. Hideous, but functional. Chris loved it immensely. I wound up getting this awesome pair of slippers with a giant pink pig on it. Yay pink!

Of course, getting home was a problem. The busses stop running to Shijuan at 7 pm, and we didn't leave until 1 am. Bad idea. There weren't even any taxis waiting outside the school gates. We (Me, Zach, and Matt) had to walk 3 miles in the freezing, biting cold carrying a guitar and an oven to even find us a taxi to take us the rest of the way back into town.

The next morning I was able to chat with the family again on Skype and watch them all open gifts, including the ones that I sent home for everyone.

All in all, it was a pretty memorable Christmas.