Early Christmas - It did snow last night.

To All,

It seems that Santa came early this year. A package arrived from America today. Quite beat-up but everything in good shape. I quarreled with the idea of a proper wait until the special day between the time Katie called and said there was a package in our office, and when she returned, but, alas, gave in to temptation nonetheless. And thank-goodness because it has been Cold here.

Our poor students have to run around with bottles of plain hot water just to keep their hands warm. I had to resort to wearing gloves today. And though we'd rather not have to contribute to the coal-power air-pollution problem, we have had the Air-Conditioner/Heater on for several hours today. It only takes the nip out of the air and doesn't exactly make it cozy. It snowed for the first time in several years last night, enough to dust the hills around the city and to cause some slush to appear on the windshield of the bus on the way home at 9:00 pm last night. There was quite a buzz in the air as the Chongqing-ren aren't exactly accustomed to such things.

There are a surprising number of Christmas themed decorations around Chongqing. Also an inordinate number of red Santa hats. My students have been doing skits as their final presentations and one of them wasted three of their ten minutes mumbling the few words of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," that they remembered. Another group donned the ubiquitous red Santa cap and took turns break-dancing to "Jingle Bells" for two to three minutes of their presentation, while unveiling, one-by-one, scrawled onto torn notebook paper in red and green ink, "Merry Christmas to Everyone."

All of which is to say that the sight of several packages of hot-chocolate spilling out of the box as I opened it was a quite welcomed surprise. A few of Katie's teacher-students took us to a cafe last night, and we attempted to order Hot-chocolate, but the best they could do was to mix Hershey's syrup in a glass of warm milk. Not exactly bad, and we were resigned to the fact that it was as-good-as-it-gets. Not anymore. In fact, all of the goodies seem to have their place in that box, except for one.

Though we knew from the beginning who wanted that newspaper in the box, it wasn't until Katie opened it up that we got a small glimpse of why it was put in the box. The exact reasons I'm sure will forever remain unknown.

And so, after I opened the box and saw the timely treats, I wondered if I should wait until The Day before opening the other box. But I think I've lost the right sense of time, or the feel for the seasons, because I opened it, too. And so here I sit now, 9 days before Christmas, an electric blanket under me wearing three layers of clothes and still covered with blankets on top, boxes of sweets and treats, a random newspaper, a cup of Hot-chocolate and a charging Kindle strewn on top of our bed. Seems like the right time for Christmas to me.


Thanks, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.


Love,
Katie and Richy.


and p.s.

If you check the weather forecast it may not seem cold enough to warrant the above lament. In fact, the winter here is very similar to back home. As I looked through the average temperatures when I was hearing people complain about the cold winter last summer, I wondered exactly how it could be so cold. Well, the problem is that it's pervasive. There's never any chance to warm up. Nowhere is heated. And so everything is cold. And the only room we can heat is our bedroom, though the tile floors stay frigid, and the loose single paned windows mean it's always drafty. So the only time we're warm, is when we're huddled down in our bed.