A Christmas miracle
The red christmas candles was stucked into old beer bottles. The christmas tree was pine tree twigs stucked into a red plastic bucket. The christmas dinner was soup and calzone and filled zucchini/eggplant/tomato and Julianes egg-goo on Julianes home-made bread, and it was eaten with green plastic chopsticks. The glögg was German gluhwein, which is the same thing, except there are no raisins in the German version (and for those who don'thave the tradition of either glögg or gluhwein, it's basically heated red wine with christmasy spices added to it). There were christmas gifts and christmas coziness and christmas joy and in the end.... even christmas charades. (Especially Christophs imitation of teacher Li was appreciated.) It was as it always should be on christmas, a christmas miracle.
Alex, Chin By, Juliane
Where did all the gifts come from?
Deeply concentrated on the taking of the family portrait.
Alex, Juliane, Chin By, Lucas
Alex, Juliane, Chin By, Lucas
Egg-goo.
Alex
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Alex
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Shengdan jie
The sun is shining in Wuhan again. The day before Christmas, and I sit out on the balcony in a t-shirt enjoying the heat. It's true that I imagined that it would be much less cold here than in Sweden this time of the year, of course it would, but I expected it to be at least... cold. Wuhan is warm when the sun is up, and, as I have experienced, a really depressing place when the sun isn't.
This is the first Christmas I celebrate without my family, it's a rather strange thing. Instead I will celebrate the event with my three flatmates and some friends of ours. In China, the land where kids don't believe in Santa Claus, young people get together with their friends at Christmas Eve and party, the direct opposite to the western way in other words. We, however will stick to the traditional western style, and have dinner and exchange presents (there might also be some wine, women and song, but it will be under relatively calm conditions).
Tomorrow is not only Christmas Eve, I also turn Five Months in China. Five months, it feels like no time at all, and in the same time, it feels like I've always been somewhere else than... home. It's such a short time, but still, a lot of things have changed. Sometimes I sit wondering if, when the day for my Return Home will come, my friends will still know me at all. I guess that the important things, the heart that beats in my chest, will be the same, as it has always been the same. Perhaps I will have another way of speaking and another way of reasoning, but after all, it was the change that I desired when I left. Change and challenge. (And after all, how difficult is it to get to know eachother again? It could be like.... having a really good friend that you don't know.)
So I celebrate Five Months and Christmas tomorrow, without family but not alone. I send away all my Christmas cards to Sweden with the snail mail way, way to late, and now I wonder if they will arrive before February. I send a package to France with the private air mail (a friend who went back to France over Christmas brought it with her). The packages I'm expecting haven't arrived yet, at least I'm not the only one who is late. ;)
Tomorrow I will wake up with stars in my eyes, just like I have woken up every Christmas morning as long as I remember. And just like when I was a little kid, I will spend the whole day in impatient anticipation, waiting for the evening when I will give and get gifts. I wish we had a Christmas tree.
Shengdan jie kuai le! (Merry Christmas!)
Love,
Alex
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This is the first Christmas I celebrate without my family, it's a rather strange thing. Instead I will celebrate the event with my three flatmates and some friends of ours. In China, the land where kids don't believe in Santa Claus, young people get together with their friends at Christmas Eve and party, the direct opposite to the western way in other words. We, however will stick to the traditional western style, and have dinner and exchange presents (there might also be some wine, women and song, but it will be under relatively calm conditions).
Tomorrow is not only Christmas Eve, I also turn Five Months in China. Five months, it feels like no time at all, and in the same time, it feels like I've always been somewhere else than... home. It's such a short time, but still, a lot of things have changed. Sometimes I sit wondering if, when the day for my Return Home will come, my friends will still know me at all. I guess that the important things, the heart that beats in my chest, will be the same, as it has always been the same. Perhaps I will have another way of speaking and another way of reasoning, but after all, it was the change that I desired when I left. Change and challenge. (And after all, how difficult is it to get to know eachother again? It could be like.... having a really good friend that you don't know.)
So I celebrate Five Months and Christmas tomorrow, without family but not alone. I send away all my Christmas cards to Sweden with the snail mail way, way to late, and now I wonder if they will arrive before February. I send a package to France with the private air mail (a friend who went back to France over Christmas brought it with her). The packages I'm expecting haven't arrived yet, at least I'm not the only one who is late. ;)
Tomorrow I will wake up with stars in my eyes, just like I have woken up every Christmas morning as long as I remember. And just like when I was a little kid, I will spend the whole day in impatient anticipation, waiting for the evening when I will give and get gifts. I wish we had a Christmas tree.
Shengdan jie kuai le! (Merry Christmas!)
Love,
Alex
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