And so this is Christmas?!?

Christmas in an officially atheist country SUCKS. Any religious organization must be registered but still at Kiristi’s church they warn that the mass is only for foreign passport holders and people with Hong Kong and Taiwan (China?) residence permits.

To quote my friend Patrick O’Malley, this would be the worst Christmas ever, if it actually felt like Christmas and not just another Saturday. Nothing about that day or leading up to that day helped to make it feel like Christmas.

On Christmas Eve I went over to Samantha and Leila’s apartment in Jing’An for some holiday festivities. On my walk to the metro I got really sad as I thought that most of the people I passed had no idea it was Christmas and those who did, really didn’t know what Christmas means. So I cried. When I got to Sam’s neighborhood I tried to pick up some dessert but the market was filled with Chinese people trying to snatch up things for Christmas parties. I may be wrong but it seemed like Christmas to them meant cake, company and cocktails.

My Christmas celebration with the girls (and Miles) was traditional if only in the fact that we ate SO MUCH. Sam had prepared appetizers: real cheese (SO RARE), mexican dip, fruit, and Sherry and Paulette made Sushi. We ordered Mediterranean food from Sherpa’s (a food delivery service that caters from many restaurants) and had cheesecake, homemade brownies mailed from America, and cream puffs for dessert. This was a bit of a repeat for Jin Cai’s smorgasbord of different ethnic foods (which only leads to a stomach ache) and we obviously ate too much (which leads to a stomach ache). So I went home and passed out around 11:30.

Ugg collection.  These are fake China Uggs which make your feet smell grossssss so you can imagine what our Christmas eve smelled like.

My amazing China family <3

I woke up early on Christmas Day and Santa left a bottle of tequila for me, Annie and Miles. According to the Internet, St. Ignacius Cathedral had an English mass at 10:30 but it was actually at noon so I ended up having Christmas breakfast at Starbucks. I got sad again because even in this very commercial part of town no one cared that it was Christmas. The store decorations were minimal and even though some employees wore Santa hats, no one said Merry Christmas or even Shengdan kuai le. Maybe they think its like most Chinese holidays that are spread over multiple days but get with the program peeps. It’s December 25, EVERY YEAR. So then I cried at breakfast.. and again at church.

Church was nice, I’m glad I went. I definitely prefer the Catholic mass over the nondenominational one but I must say people were less friendly at this one. I couldn’t tell If it was the form of service or the fact that it was filled of expats that made the other church so friendly. I still can’t make a definite judgement because to my surprise there were a lot more Asians, and to my guess since they didn’t take communion, a lot more Chinese people, at the Catholic church. They sang parts of the mass that are usually spoke and some of the tunes were a bit odd. Still the mass ended in exactly an hour and there was communion which made it much shorter than singing camp church.

I spent most of the afternoon after Church being a lazy bum and then decided to take advantage of the fact that my gym was open on Christmas Day (which would never be the case in the US of A). I ran a lot to try to forget the things I ate/would eat that night.

Christmas evening I wore a silly outfit of green tights, red shoes, and a black dress. My students already called me an elf because I have small feet and I knew they would make fun of me if they saw me out. Annie, Miles, Samantha, Leila, Sherry and I went to… guess…. Blue Frog… for Christmas dinner and for the 12 Shots of Christmas. We did not plan to have 12 shots left on Christmas it was just serendipitous. However, we made a mistake, then they made a mistake, then we had to do the 100th shot again, then we got a celebratory shot… so it turned into the 16 shots of Christmas. Don’t get scared, some are like grenadine and cream which is really no shot at all and in total it probably amounted to four real shots… mixed with a pastrami sandwich and fries. Oh so why the 12 Shots of Christmas? Because they were our last 12!!!! Miles and I finished the Blue Frog 100 Shot Challenge! It was a party! The manager announced it to the whole restaurant and we were gifted (yay Christmas presents) with a shot glass, tumbler glass, umbrella, hat and t-shirt! Now whenever we go into the restaurant they owe us a drink! Time to start making money off of this investment.

the last ones!

98/99 New York Cali double whammy.



COMPLETED! Our cards are going on the wall!



Me and Samantha!  These are actually all her pictures :) Look at her pretty necklace she designed at the pearl market!



The non-alcoholics



On the 12th shot of christmas blue frog gave to meeeeee...

Celebratory shot 101!

As if the night could have gotten any better, Miles proposed. Check out our "free" gear.

All of our Chinese friends told us they go clubbing on Christmas so we tried giving that a shot. The best part of that adventure was our spontaneous Christmas song medley in the cab. The scene was too Asian for us so we waiting til Christmas ended and midnight and called it a night.

Have a Johnny Walker Christmas!

Well Christmas just ended in American and I hope it was a good one! I promise I will be home next year!!!