Dec 18
Last night I attended the holiday party thrown by my business park. It was put on at a 5 star hotel, good food, free flowing wine & beer and pretty decent entertainment. I won a flashlight. Exciting, huh?
Anyway, here are a few pics of what went down. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the images. These were taken by my cell phone in a dark room.
Error: You must go to the admin section and set your Picasa Web Album Username in the Options section.
Dec 9
Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Dec 9
December is in full swing here. I have already been invited to about a dozen parties/events in the next couple of weeks. Because most of them are business related, I have to go. But I would much rather sit at home playing on my banned (thank you Microsoft) xbox.
Nov 26
Lots going on. Aside from my normal work I am also deeply mired in the re-design of my company’s website. The current website was supposed to be a temporary measure, but that was almost 2 years ago now.
Somehow, I think it is a little sad that a web design company like mine has to have such an ugly website. But that is what happens when all of your time is spent making great sites for other people. But I have finally forced myself to set aside the time and the manpower to create the new site. And it will be one that I can be very proud of.
Aside from work I have been trying to spend more time with my boys. But that hasn’t been as successful as I would hope. During the week I am lucky if I get to see them for two minutes before I have to rush out the door. Normally by the time I get home they are already asleep. Weekends are a mixed bag. I get to spend a little more time with them but a lot of my time is still spent working in my home office.
Speaking of my boys, I picked up their American passports the other day. They are now officially American citizens. I don’t know how long it will be before they get the chance to go to the United States, but the thought of transporting 2 eight-month old babies on a 14 hour flight seems like a very difficult thing to me. I will probably have to wait until they are a little older.
In a couple days is Thanksgiving. Of course it isn’t really celebrated here, but there are a few restaurants where American expats will gather for what passes as a traditional Thanksgiving meal here. But the food doesn’t really matter that much. It is the chance to be around friends and people who share a common culture with you for a little while. You would be surprised just how much that can mean sometimes.
Anyway, enough of these boring random thoughts. It is time for me (and probably you) to get back to work.
Nov 3
Halloween was one of my favorite holidays when I lived in the US. I always looked forward to either dressing up or handing out candy to visiting kids, or doing both.
Halloween would always start with a visit to the store or a local farmers field so that I could purchase a few suitable pumpkins for carving. Every pumpkin was screaming out a design that suited its particular shape or coloring. However, my talent at carving pumpkins was never good enough for some of the more challenging designs that true pumpkin artists are capable of doing.
The exception to this of course was a few years ago. I actually found blue prints and tools for making cool pumpkins. It had templates that you could rub onto the pumpkin and a saw that you could use to cut out the intricate designs. I ended up making a very cool looking pumpkin that had a skeleton breaking out of it and a few others.
Then, of course, there was always the fun of eating all of the candy that was left over because you ‘accidentally’ bought too much. Again.
But now that I am living in China, Halloween is not really celebrated here. Only in a few very small expat communities will you find children dressing up. But even then the kids don’t go door to door. Instead they go to closed parties where they can get their candy fix.
If kids here tried to go door to door shouting trick or treat while wearing masks and holding out pillow cases, they would be greeted by mostly stunned looks, several people who would be calling the police and maybe a BBQed chicken foot if they were lucky.
And pumpkins? They exist here, but they are all very small. Too small to really make a cool carving from.
So how did I spend my children’s first Halloween? I spent it on a business trip to Hong Kong. Another place where kids to not trick-or-treat. But man, do they use it as an excuse to party. Of course, Hong Kong-ers will use just about any excuse to have a party.
I find myself in a kind of strange holiday-state. Without the constant sensory input of American holidays I very easily can miss them without notice. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Independence Day, etc.. all go by with barely a thought.
On the other side, because I don’t speak or read Chinese, I get very little sensory input about Chinese holidays. So it is very hard for me to work up any kind of enthusiasm over them. Mostly, Chinese holidays are painful because they are days I have to pay my employees not to work. But being a boss here is a subject for another day.
So it is kind of strange how quickly we lose our attachment to holidays when we don’t have the constant reminders around us. Kind of makes me a little sad. When I have the time to think about it.
Makes me wonder what traditions/holidays my boys will grow up forming attachments too.
Oct 1
It is “National Day” here in China. That means lots of fireworks tonight. Fireworks are great and all, but in my neighborhood they literally don’t stop until sunrise. And even then it just kind of slows down to the random chain of firecrackers going off.
Sep 26
Monday is the start of the National holiday here in China. That means that there is a mandatory 7 day vacation for most everyone in the country at the same time. 1,600,000,000 people all on vacation at the same time. What can go wrong?
The way they get their 7 day vacation here is kind of odd. Basically, it is a 3 day vacation, but they “borrow” a weekend” to fill in the other 2 work days, hence giving them a total of 7 days off (3 day vacation + 2 days from borrowed weekend + 2 days of real weekend). Simple, huh?
Now, in order to borrow this weekend they need to balance the books by making everyone work a weekend. So before the 7 day vacation comes a 7 day work week. Working the weekend is a way of getting the “borrowed” weekend that extends their 3 day vacation into 7.
Everyone clear on that? Good.
In my office, I just say “screw it”, throw up my hands and admit that I hate working weekends. So, my staff lucks out and doesn’t have to work a 7 day week. So they actually get 9 days off rather than 7.
That will give them a bit of a jump on their travel plans. Since it is customary for people to go back to their hometowns on the holiday they will all be jumping on busses that will take up to 30 hours to drive them home. Just so they can turn around a few days later and spend another 30 hours on a bus coming back.
Now, I am faced with 9 days off. What adventure do you think I have planned?
That’s right! You guessed it. I will be doing nothing but staying at home, playing with my kids and computer games. Then later in the year when the rest of the country isn’t invading every other part of the country I will take some much needed time off someplace that is not in China.
So if you are planning on coming to China between now and October 5th, I have one piece of advice. Don’t.
Sep 14
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to one and all. I hope you are all with someone you love, or someone in your family. Or perhaps both if you are really lucky, or well adjusted.
I am spending tonight with my lovely wife, who gets prettier every year, my mother-in-law, who gets sweeter every year, ayi #1, who always seems happy, ayi #2, who isn’t very good but she really tries hard, and my two 6 month old boys, Wyatt & Cyrus, who give my face a reason to smile and my ears a reason to bleed.
Gwailo
P.S. Added this new theme today. I think it really sets the mood here well. What do you think?
Sep 12
Imagine my surprise when I found out that there are actually moon cakes out there that I like. Let me rephrase that, there is actually A moon cake out there that I like.
With Mid-Autumn festival this weekend, China is being flooded with moon cakes. Everyone, everywhere is either selling, buying, giving or assaulting people with moon cakes. In my opinion it is the Chinese equivalent of the western fruit cake. Except people here actually seem to enjoy them.
Moon cakes traditionally come in one of two types. The first is made from mashed up, compressed lotus seed. In the middle of this lotus seed is an egg yoke. So you basically end up with a round hockey puck looking thing that kind of tastes the way a you would expect a hockey puck to taste.
The other type is made in pretty much the same way except that it is made from a combination of 6 different nuts and ground up meat. Not much better tasting than the lotus seed version.
Every time I tell one of my Chinese friends or employees that I don’t like moon cakes, the answer is always the same. “You just haven’t tried a good moon cake. The ones from (insert name of home province here) are famous in China.”
My answer to their response is always, “I have tried many moon cakes. They always taste like compressed bricks of wax.” This answer doesn’t seem to make many people happy. But they always turn their noses up at really good pizza, so I feel it is fair.
There are also a lot of non-traditional moon cakes made from every ingredient you can think of. But the only one I have ever liked is the ice cream moon cakes made by Hagen Dazs. These are VERY expensive but if I am going to be forced to eat moon cake, then these are the moon cakes I want to be forced to eat.
To the moon cake lovers out there, I do apologize. I am not insulting moon cakes, nor am I saying that moon cakes are bad. I am just saying that I don’t like them. Simple. You are free to tell me what foods you don’t like and I promise not to get mad. See. We can all be friends.
So Happy Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival to one and all. Have a great weekend.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Holidays category.
