Deck the Halls

On Sunday we finally decorated our house.  It didn’t take long, but it was pretty fun.  We bought some fake snow to spray on the window along with some window stickers.  I bought a little tree at the store and strung some lights up on it.  Not anything like at home, but it does the trick for sure.  I was also able to find a snowman wreath, which resembles something that I would have at my house, along with a few snowmen to make my own makeshift snowman village.  In Beijing Robyn and I also bought little stockings to hang up.  I bought one with a snowman on it and she has one with a little Santa on it.  When I get home from school tonight I will post some pictures up to show a little glimpse of our Winter wonderland in our apartment.  Speaking of which, it’s still not very winter wonderlandy over here in Wuhan.  It gets very cold in the morning and in the evening, but in the day the temperature is still up around 15-18.  Not quite the winter that everyone is having back at home, I know.  I miss the snow though.  Even though it is a pain in the but getting around it’s still always pretty to look at for a few days before you get sick of it. 

                A group of us have booked our flights to Hong Kong for New Years Eve.  We have a three day weekend so we are taking advantage of it while we can.  I really want to check out Hong Kong Disney, but we’ll have to see where it is in reference to where we are staying.  If not I will have to make a special trip just to go back there J.  For Christmas one of the staff here have a house and she is going to have us all over for dinner.  She has two ovens so I believe that she is going to cook a turkey for everyone and then we are in charge of bringing the rest.  It won’t be like the Christmas I am used to, but at least we’ll all be together with our little Wuhan family.  I think that’s the thing that I am going to miss the most.  Making all of the Appy’s for Christmas Eve dinner all day, then lounging out by the tree and watching all of the moving parts, hehe.  Not being at Popos the next day is going to be different as well, and lastly my traditional Boxing Day shopping with mom will all have to wait till next year, or we could do a Christmas in July or something like that, haha. 

           

     Our long break is coming up soon and all of the staff are getting excited about it and planning where they’re going.  We go on break January 15^th which is about a month away.  A month flies by here.  Especially when we are busy.  That last week before the break will be filled with Finals and marking those finals.  So our break will be well deserved.  I think I have my holiday figured out for the most part.  I am spending the first week in Hawaii with Robyn and meeting up with Riley.  After that week I’ll be headed back over to Asia to Bangkok to meet up with Caitlin and we’ll travel around that area until I have to be back in Wuhan to finish up the year.  I’m already counting down the days till the trip (not that I hate my job, but I’m just super excited to see other people than Maple Leafers).  It will be nice to talk to people who are not teachers.  It seems that a lot of the conversations that we have always come back to teaching, which is great, but it will be nice to be around different people. 

                Tonight Mitch and Annali are hosting a wine tasting, so that should be fun.  The bus is going to Computer city, Taylor Street and metro on Saturday, so I think Robyn and I will be going on the bus.  Robyn wants to get a dress made to wear for new years.  Last night we were looking up different things that she could wear.  I think that’s one of my favourite things about living here.  If you want something, you can just get it made for pretty cheap.  I also love the fact that you can make something that you know no one else will have, like my pink peacoat! 

That’s all for now, I'll give an update after the weekend as per usual. 

Happy Friday!

-Taryn