In the minority, but in a good way...

Last night I had a great night out. My office mate, Emma from Ireland, invited me out for her birthday. No idea what to expect, the venue was set for a Japanese all you can eat, all you can drink restaurant. These are pretty common in Shanghai but I have not been to one yet. The next time I've got a big group, that's the place.

It didn't take me very long to realize that I was going to be the only American. Surrounded by Welsh, Irish, French, Scottish, Japanese, Chinese, South African, and English was something that's never happened to me before. It didn't take us long to get into the sake and, as you may already know, when you get into the sake you end up singing. I realized that I was going to encounter a few interesting items:
1. I'm not a very good singer.
2. I don't know many songs off the top of my head.
3. This is pretty funny.

So when all else fails and after listening to everyone else sing national or native songs, I resorted to what I knew: the North Dakota state song. It's short, sweet, and to the point and my turn was over quickly. I could compare to Helen from Wales as she informed me that the major religion of Wales was singing. I believe her. Upon coming back from the lu, the whole room had erupted in a rendition of Don McLean's American Pie and a few gentle chides telling them they had confused all the verses into one megaverse, they eventually quit and started to move onto another song. After the rounds of singing were done, we ended up where you would expect a bunch of Irish and Scots would be, a pub called the Blarney Stone for a couple of pints.

I actually enjoyed being the minority of that group, though I did preface my song with the statement that I was deferring to my heritage (Scotch and German among others) and that I didn't know any American songs that were as good as theirs. That drew no argument :) The whole evening was wonderful and if I could be the minority all of the time, that would be a good group to do it with.

Happy 13th Birthday Emma! ;)

end of semester flury...

sorry there haven't been any updates for a bit. things have been a little hectic. check back as I'm putting in retroactive blogs starting about 16Dec.

My first Christmas away from home...

I guess it had to happen sooner or later; I’m spending my first Christmas away from home. Up till this point it had only been either Christmas Eve or Day but never both. The week leading up Christmas was difficult because I had to teach something about Christmas. I had my students read the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” which turned out to be a bit too hard. So I summarized the poem and divided them into groups to act out their interpretation of the poem. In my office, I had found reindeer antlers, a Santa hat, and a Christmas stocking and allowed my students to use them as props. There were some definitely interesting interpretations and roles given to students. The commercialization of Christmas is evident, because when you don’t understand the holiday that’s all that may be left is a row of stores with disembodied Santa heads and garish lights wishing you a Merry X Mas. Several of my students had invited me out to KTV (karaoke) on Christmas Eve, but around 5pm I got a text message saying that one was sick so they decided not to go. This was fine with me because the thought of staying up until 6am was starting to wear very thin. I ended up meeting the Grimm’s for happy hour at the Marriott (my new favorite haunt) and then when they went to their reservation for dinner I went in search of the Christmas Eve staple, lasagna. There is a little Italian restaurant not far from where I was so I gave it my best shot. To no avail, though. They had an excellent selection of pastas but no lasagna so I settled and had a nice meal anyway.

When I got home, I went straight to bed as I had to get up at 4am so I could speak with the Shide side during their Christmas Eve celebration. It was very strange and made me realize how absurdly far away I am. It was very good to hear about the sledding and general merriment that was happening in my absence. They could have used more snow as it was pretty warm, but I don’t think too many people minded. Around 11am on Christmas Day I was able to talk and see the Gratton side. They were still celebrating Christmas Eve but my cousin Chad (The Professor) had brought out some video equipment so I could see everyone as we talked. It was a good thing the video equipment went only in one direction as I was taking an easy day and was not even out of my PJs yet. For lunch, the Grimm’s and I went to a Chinese restaurant close to campus. I have been eating there so long that I’m a regular and all the staff knows me. Sometimes I tend to order several of the same things and the staff is always asking if I want my standards. Sometimes they have suggested things that were quite interesting and turned to be quite good. After lunch, the three of us wandered around the neighborhood to see what kinds of things are around. I stopped to buy some DVDs and picked out 5, of which only 2 worked. This was disappointing because I would have liked to have them all. The problem was that I couldn’t exactly hear if the movie was in English or dubbed in Chinese and I wasn’t taking any chances. The day was warm and it was nice just to be outside. I imagined trudging through the snows of past years and that probably the only major improvement that I could see.

This Christmas was very different and very hard. I would be lying if I said anything else. Being so far away from home during this time of year can take an emotional toll. For the most part, I tried to keep things low-key and that was to my benefit. I will be able to celebrate when I get home as my mom has informed me that the tree and everything will still be up. I also was very sure that no matter where in the world I am, I have the support of my family and I can always have "Christmas in my heart."