Christmas turned out to be wonderful yet way to short. I had a Christmas party for my sophomores on Christmas Eve which was so fun even though nothing really went right. We played white elephant and one boy brought cigarettes for his gift! Crazy.
We had a big dinner that night for Christmas Eve with some other foreign friends who came in from other places. Jeremy's family flew in that night around 11:30pm and brought a ton of luggage! Most of it was for Jeremy as well as gifts for him and the rest of us! Trying to get a taxi was awful and they were trying to take advantage of us which was upsetting because it was late Christmas Eve night and Jeremy's family was tired and just ready to be done with their traveling!
Christmas morning was wonderful! We all woke up and ate ourselves some wonderful traditional American breakfast foods which of course includes biscuits, eggs, bacon, etc. We all opened gifts which were quite hilarious (please refer to my facebook profile picture!) That night I got to talk to my family and see my parents and Erica's face for the first time in quite a long time! We opened gifts via skype and got to spend some really good time together.
That weekend we went to an orphanage in the Henan Province. There were said to be about eighty kids and about 15 old men that are taken care of there. As we got off the bus at the orphanage some of the children immediately recognized some of our second years that went to their orphanage last year, took their hand, and were attached to them the whole time they were there. We had a party for them with a balloon streamer, a few singing acts, dancing, etc. We made them Christmas cookies and had a few 'give aways' where we gave the children some of the clothes, toys, school supplies, and other things that were brought on the trip. Because of the lack of beds we shared beds with the children there. I shared a bed with a 15 year old girl who knew a little bit of English, at least enough to say 'go to sleep' and 'good morning'. The bed we shared, I'm pretty sure, was smaller than a normal twin bed! I believe that the children aren't really schooled much, and they lack any organized activity. They really loved having people around to pay attention with them and play with them!
2 comments:
It's cool that you got to open presents with your family using SKYPE. I was wondering how the white elephant exchange would go, and that's hilarious that h brought cigarettes!
Merry Christmas Tara! I have really enjoyed reading your blog as you experience some interesting events in China. Looks like you are really having fun.
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