Christmas Aftermath

After having a pretty manic Christmas party involving a visit from the police interrupting a mass chorus of Bon Jovi’s “Living On a Prayer” (80s cheese metal hasn’t quite found it’s deserved appreciation here yet), it was nice to have a practically work free week to chill out and enjoy the holiday. An improvement on previous Christmases in China indeed; the last 2 years have seen me dress up as Santa distributing/manically lobbing candy across classrooms, and attending the ritual Christmas dinner in Pizza Hut. It was nice this time to get a little tree, hang up some lights, order a turkey and roast vegetables, and have some great company round to let the chaos ensue. The following morning was spent feeling particularly fragile though the consumption of various chocolates and left over apple pie coupled with Lord of the Rings helped me get through the day.

Since I have been living in China for a while, it can be said that many of the obscurities and strange happenings don’t quite have the same effect as they used to back in the early days, hence the rather large gap between my blog writing. There are still little things that continue to amuse or amaze me however, one being finding a call card for a prostitute inside the wrapper of a kid’s lollipop the other day. I haven’t got a clue as to why or how it got in there, and the thought that it may be intentional caused not only bedazzlement but alarm, though my only sure assumption was that perhaps these agencies (or whatever prostitution companies are called) may need to have a good think about this new direction of their marketing. Anyway it certainly sparked the thought that there are still ample opportunities for various things to keep my curious brain occupied during my time in the Chinese capital. This was consolidated further two nights ago when, after finishing some Greek food with some friends, we stumbled upon a camera set up in the square of Sanlitun (one of the bar/trendy areas of Beijing) which projected your image onto a big screen overlooking the masses of coffee shops and trendy people wearing glasses with no lenses (don’t get me started on this obscure fashion trend!). The screen also had computer generated reindeers and a Santa which would do strange dances alongside your image, which, after being met with the initial “look I’m on the big screen!” reaction, was then followed by many people in the vicinity dancing along with these computer generated characters. It was quite fun and stimulating watching these people of all ages try to keep up with a dancing snowman, though the icing on the cake was the guy who decided to take the opportunity to action humping motions behind a CGI Santa.

It’s the end of 2011 now and I’m sure there will be many other musings to be had upon the last year which has flown by for me; starting with an initial plan to return to the UK and do a masters in the summer, followed by a turn of events which involved me meeting my amazing girlfriend and staying in Beijing and living a nice fulfilled life. Having had some doubts about where to go next in life before, I chose to follow my feelings this time and aside from missing an array of family and friends dearly in the UK, most of my desires led me to stay in China and develop my skills as a teacher whilst polishing my Mandarin ability and keeping my girlfriend happy. A busy life indeed! Though 2012 is looking like a promising year, and come next December I will be clambering on the giant Chinese ship depicted in the film alongside John Cusack saving me from world destruction. See you in the next life! (As sung by Suede…)