All my other jewellery is happy too, because it came with a cleaning cloth. See, everything that I wasn't wearing every day had tarnished. I was very sure that I had ruined all the jewellery that has so much sentimental value to me. But the cloth cleaned even the blackest piece right up, so I'm happy.

After I opened the gifts, played with them, and photographed them it was already 1pm! So I decided to walk over to Taipei 101, and see the craziness. It was packed, and there was some guy climbing the outside of the building (I think I recognized him from a documentary on the Discovery Channel. The one who got arrested for climbing buildings illegally.) He had a rope this time, so I wasn't afraid that he was going to fall on top of me or anything. This time it was sponsored and it looked like he had ropes. I thought about seeing a movie, but the lines were longer than you could imagine, I would say at least 1000 people in line. So, I ate lunch outside, because it seemed the thing to do when you live somewhere that's 22 degrees on Christmas day, then I treated myself to a taxi home, where I enjoyed my book and had a little nap.

Then I got all dressed up to go for dinner. It was supposed to be just us teachers from Fu-Hsing, and a guest each, but then it expanded to be 15 people, which is too many in my opinion. I invited Daphne, and neither of us had very much of a chance to get a word in edgewise amid the loud conversations going on throughout the room. We sat on the couch and listened and talked to each other occasionally. The food was great though, and it was Daphne's first Christmas dinner ever, her first taste of turkey.

After dinner we just all sat around and talked (my party games just didn't fit - I'm saving them). It was what I imagined a group of people my age would do in a foreign country for Christmas, although I am quite glad that Christmas means so much more to me than an excuse to get really drunk, which is what it seemed to be to everyone else. I stayed around till 1:30am, then when everyone else left for the bars, I left for home, and was quite happy to fall into bed.

Then this morning I woke up just in time for my parent's call. (I emailed them when I got home and told them when to call, banking on the fact that I wouldn't sleep any longer than 8.5 hours. And sure enough, I slept exactly 8.5 hours!) After a nice long chat about Christmas here and Christmas in Canada, I curled up in bed to read some more. That was pretty much the whole afternoon, reading and then a lovely nap.

So Christmas is over for another year. I'm not as depressed about that as I usually am in Canada, probably because it finally means the end of all the extra work at school! And it really helps that my birthday is in January. I have something immediate to look forward to. I do hope that my parent's package comes by then - it's been 8 weeks already. (Claire's package from the US took exactly a week.) And we're doing a group birthday party for me, Justin and Amin, we all have birthdays in the first two weeks of January. I'm excited about that - I don't like being the center of attention! I think we're going to try our hand at KTV, like from the Lost in Translation movie. We get our own room, and we get to sing. This is only fun because there are quite a few of us who have no singing ability at all, so it should be a hoot. But I am getting ahead of myself. I have two weeks of teaching left before the tests come, and I'm going to the gym everyday this week, because I haven't gone in two weeks - I've been so busy. I figure if I get my act together this week, I won't feel so much pressure when new year's resolutions time rolls around.

Goodnight to all. I hope your Christmas's were enjoyable, and warm and cozy. No one got stuck in a snow storm or stranded in an airport? I hope to hear all about your celebrations by reading your blogs, the Family Site, or a plain ole email (if you're still in the dark ages!) Here's a picture of my family celebrating Christmas in Toronto.

Early Boxing Day morning

I had all these grand intentions of writing a wonderful Christmas blog entry, and special Christmas emails to everyone. However, Christmas day filled up much quicker than I thought it would, and it's already 1:30 am on Boxing Day, and I just got home. So, I'll just postpone my eloqent ramblings, and tell you all about my day after I get a good night's sleep. Sleep is so important you know. I can think of nothing I would rather do at this moment. Sleep, ahhhhh....

Merry Christmas Eve!

I woke up this morning to my alarm, very unusual. I usually wake up before it, but last night I stayed up till midnight redoing my blog. (That was a geeky thing to say!) Then this morning, I got an email from Mom suggesting I actually call the comments "comments" instead of "0 people cared" and increase the font size. Done. Anything else? This is so much fun.

I treated myself to banana bread and hot milk tea for breakfast. I have one Grade 2 class this morning, and that's it. Oh happy day! I was talking to my parents last night, who seemed surprised at how happy I am to be spending Christmas here. Yes, it's not a mask, and I am very content with my little holiday here. The performance yesterday, the junior high performance today, have the same kind of feeling of reward after much anticipation - that opening a whole pile of presents under the tree does. And I will be glad for the big school 'feast' and then going to the Baptist Church for the carol sing. Then tommorrow, some time to myself (finally) and then hopefully ice skating before a big full turkey dinner with 12 people sitting on the floor. It will certainly be a memory! (Oh, and Daphne (old pen pal) is coming - I'm so excited!)

Although I am happy to be right where I am (and I hope all of you have the same feeling, wherever you are), I found an essay that I found really poignant for Christmastime. Read it if you have a few minutes. It's called A Wedding by Terry Teachout.

New, redesigned and stunning, right?!?

What do you think? Snazzy? I put a good two hours just into deciding on what 'skin' to put on my blog. Now that I know how easy it is to change - I'll be doing it more often. I know it means I lose some of the continuity of the identity of the blog, but it's just more fun visually. Tell me if you have any problems viewing any part of it or if it takes too long to load. By the way, the Chinese symbol means 'tranquility.'

Oh, and I did just realise I spelled 'traveler' wrong. I've had a long day (involving the final 3 hour Christmas performance this morning.) Now I'm officially in Christmas mode, and could afford to waste the time between getting home at 5 and going to bed at 10:30 on re-doing this blog. And here it is - remember to keep reading, I posted even when the site was down. Now, goodnight!

I thought she looked especially beautiful - I cropped this out of a candid shot. It's too late at night to remember her name, but I do know it!

A little impromptu moment after the Christmas performance. I was swarmed by my 'bad' grade 2 class once they finished getting their class photo, and they attacked the box I was holding like piranas! Nothing in it - that was the point of the skit - but they thought it was fun.

My tutee - Jasmine. She's a sweetie, but she has a short attention span. (= We only meet once a week for an hour - but it did mean she had a noticeable improvement on her last test - which made me thankful. 

At the end of the day - a nice cup of hot milk tea, which they put in a regular coffee cup, and then seal with plastic. I was happy that I got a seal with a cat on it (the pictures are different each time).

Uumm - what day is it?

I’m feeling a bit discombobulated.
I was thinking about all those big words we had to learn how to spell in high school with A Beka and thought I should throw one out.
Then started second guessing myself and had to look up what it meant and if I spelled it right…
Yup, usage and spelling correct. Whew.

It’s been a long day. Another 13 hours at school kind of day. Just the thing to put you in the Christmas spirit. But after tomorrow morning’s performance and four of my least favourite classes to fill up the afternoon, I’ll officially be able to stop and take a breath. My tutee told me tonight he has to cancel for tomorrow night, and I was more than happy to hear that I will finally be able to stop and think about the fact that Christmas is in three days!

The long day began with getting to school early (7:30) to be at the last grade 5 christmas practice. Then the rest of the morning was classes, ending with what I am now beginning to think is the Grade 2 class that belongs in a teacher horror film. An hour for lunch, back for the afternoon full of classes (Wednesday is my heaviest teaching load) followed by a 90 minute Grade 5 after-school class, subbing for another teacher who lost their voice. Then 15 minutes to run over to the other building, scarf down the leftovers from lunch (cold) and then tutor for two hours.
There was one good story from today. At lunch, I had free refills on my Diet Coke, and did my usual three. After lunch, I made sure to go to the washroom before my class. When it was time for my third class, I sort of had to go to the washroom, but I didn’t really have time. Started teaching my Grade 7 boys. Half way through – really had to go. At five minutes to the bell I was in agony. I was so distressed, I couldn’t even put my thoughts together. So I figured it was better to have the embarrassment of excusing myself than the embarrassment of peeing my pants! So I asked them what they could do for five minutes until the bell, and one of them suggested sleep. So I had them put their heads down, and told them I would be right back. As soon as I left the room, there was a general roar of laughter – but I didn’t care. I came back a minute later, rather sheepish, and was honest with them. They thought it was hilarious – and I was just glad it was them – my grade 7’s who are my favourites.

Oh – and me telling the Christmas story has been going over really well – of course tomorrow are my hardest classes and they are the test. But overall I’ve been amazed at how interested and engaged they are. Of course, there only knowledge of the story comes from the Christmas songs they are made to practice for ridiculous amounts of time in preparation for the Christmas performance.

Below are some pictures - of lunch today, and of some of my kids opening their letters from their penpals in Indiana.

Jillian and Justin goofing off at TGIFridays at lunch 

They seem equally excited about reading each others letters as they are about their own 

Most of my grade 7 girls with their pen pal letters 

Jenny and Annie with their letters 

Valerie and Veronica with their letters 

I was lucky enough to passing in the hall, when they were organizing this class picture, and their homeroom teacher offered to take one of me with the class. I'm really glad I got it - I couldn't exactly organize it myself. Sadly, I didn't have time to crack out the 'real' camera! 

This is an example of the extent of the show. These are the grade 5's sitting in the foreground, and the grade 3's dressed as Mary and Joesph (x250!) Some of the best kids get to be the 'representatives' and stand on the stage. Oh, and they call this Christmas 2005 - oddly enough.