Well, it's now day two of the new year in China, with most of the world still observing the first of 2009. Thankfully, I did not have class today, which opened up possibilities for the preceding night. I'd say it was a pretty eclectic celebration--we covered a lot of ground and represented a lot of countries between us. With so many kinds of people teaching, studying, or just hiding out abroad, you never really know whose path you'll cross. And even though the Chinese (Lunar) New Year is a much bigger deal here, they do still use the Gregorian calendar; thus, I got the day off. I also get tomorrow off, but I have to teach tomorrow's class on Sunday at 8 am, so the long weekend comes at a price.
I never did talk about Christmas. I'd been meaning to, but I guess I got busy. I did teach on Christmas (and the eve), but the students already knew almost as much as I did, so I didn't teach for very long. I walked around afterward and, surprisingly, found carols in the streets, decorations in the windows, store employees wearing santa hats, etc. And there was a ton of shopping. It was very much an American holiday. Seems like the Chinese are getting into it more and more. The night of the 24th was actually pretty quiet for me, since many of the Wuhan laowai had already gotten together for a party the weekend before. "Laowai" (老外), to explain further, is a more colloquial form of "foreigner." My Chinese friends tell me it's not meant as an epithet, but sometimes I wonder.
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