Yesterday when I awoke the taller karsts had something whitish on them. Only at their tops. And not very thick. Betts and Laurie have never seen anything like it here. When they arrived in January 2003, everyone said there had been snow the week before. But that was five years ago and they have seen nothing like snow in their years here. We decided the lacy look covering the karsts yesterday was frost or ice. The thermometer outside my door registered 2C/36F all day.

Firecrackers woke me this morning. That is not unusual and is becoming more and more common as we near Spring Festival. (All that will be a topic for a future posting.) I looked out the door to see if one of the neighbors had set off this morning’s firecrackers... and saw ice drips on the gate! And the same lacy crown on the karsts. The thermometer reads 0C/32F this morning. The walk and street are only wet, no ice there.

So today people in the Yangshuo area will have another day of sitting by fires fueled by wood or charcoal. Or like Vivi, the receptionist at Owen College, they will hold hand warmers, charged by electricity for five to ten minutes, and, if they are lucky like she, sit near an electric space heater. They may even close the doors and windows as she surprisingly had done when I took this picture.

I think my room will be the best place for me today. I cleaned the filters in the air con/heater last week and it is churning out plenty of warmth these days. Surprised by the big stuffed dog on my bed? Who knew a big stuffed dog would make such a good pillow? When the sixth grader gave me this monstrous softie for Christmas, I puzzled over what I would do with it. But it has made a great back rest as I read or study Chinese while the wall unit hums out its heat.

Wonder what weather I might wake to tomorrow. People tell me Spring Festival is to the Chinese as Christmas is to the foreigners. But, I’ve never heard them say they dream of a white Spring Festival.

The chill from Siberia hung around. This past week we had temperatures between 36 and 40 most days. The skies were cloudy and gray. The sun teased us for an hour one afternoon but then disappeared. Two days of drizzle followed.

This was the last week of the school term. The schools in FuLi and Guilin didn’t need me anymore. I was only at DuTou. Each morning I bundled up in my layers of clothing:longjohns, lined wool pants, turtlenecks, sweaters, coat, hat, gloves, scarves, multiple pairs of socks. I was thankful for the stretches I walk to get to DuTou. A fast walk can be warming.

None of the schools I taught in this term had heating. This week at DuTou we had a wood fire in an unused classroom. The week before we sat outside in the sunshine for warmth and when the sun didn't shine we had a charcoal fire in the staff room. With this weeks colder spell a warmer wood fire was built in the unused classroom.

During the breaks between classes the teachers huddled around the fire while the students played vigorous running and jumping games outside to warm themselves.

At lunch the teachers had hot pots. The hot pots had more meat than our normal dishes. Each had a goodly amount of broth. Very warming. Once the hot pot was chunks of fish and slices of ginger. Once it was bite sizes of pork and three varieties of mushrooms. Hot pot is a good dish to warm you up.

Even though I wasn’t teaching at FuLi this week, I walked through it and past the school in transit to and from DuTou. Therefore I often saw my FuLi students. Their warm smiles and hellos always warmed me...as did my lessons with my DuTou students.

It has been a cold week….but not without its spots of warmth.

Just yesterday a chill Siberian wind descended on Yangshuo making last weekend’s barbecue even more of a puzzle. We’ve had these chill temperatures off and on this winter but last weekend it was a bit warmer and quite nice if one was out in the sunshine. Last Saturday was a perfect day for a winter barbecue. The Owen College students meant to capture the moment.

Usually the school barbecues are held in front of the school building. But this time we went to a field about a thirty-minute walk from here. This was my second time to this particular field. In August 2006 I wandered into a valley looking for how rice was harvested. The pictures I took of the rice harvest are in an earlier posting. Interesting that we ended up in the same field last Saturday!

We arrived at the field just before noon. While others readied the fires, some of us prepared the meat skewers. We had lamb, beef and chicken. The lamb and beef were in thin strips. The chicken was wings and legs.

The school has two grills. (No we didn’t carry the grills to the field! The grills, the other supplies and a few people were transported to the field in the school wally wagon.) We cooked everything over charcoal fires.

We cooked lamb, beef, chicken, sausages, tofu, eggplant, corn, and onions. We also had some bread, sugar cane, oranges (from the market and from the field next to the field) and cake.

The guys drank a beer. The gals had orange pop or water. That’s a fairly common drinks arrangement

As always there was more than enough cameras around and much posing for photos. Kelly and Lynn stopped for this picture. I have Kelly to thank for the pictures in this posting as I forgot my camera and she remembered hers.

After we ate, some people went for a walk, some horsed around on a bike a teacher rode to the event, some played badminton or cards and a few even rested. It was an enjoyable afternoon….right in the middle of someone’s field!?

Christmas morning Laurie dressed as Santa and we went to DuTou for a bit of a party. The students were thrilled. They loved getting close to him. And he loved playing the part. His "Ho! Ho! Ho!" was quite convincing.
The students lined up in their places on the playground to sing Jingle Bells, a favorite song across China, and then we broke things up to do the "rabbit dance." I soon realized we were doing what we call the bunny hop! Some danced in the normal line and some tried this circle approach. After the dance the students lined up again and we handed out the "goodies" for DuTou. I received some very sweet notes and pictures from students. One of these days I'll find someone to tell me what the notes say!
After everything was handed out, we teachers, volunteers and friends gathered for a photo. Then the foreigners went back to Yangshuo since we had the day off. Most of us talked with family members at home that afternoon and then gathered for a Christmas meal in the evening. It was a complete day.
There have been other meals and gatherings to finish out the year and to start the new one. Much like at home we have celebrated together and been thankful for family and friends.

Christmas Eve I felt a bit like Santa as I headed off to school with my bags of pumpkin pies for the teachers at DuTou and Fuli and the last of my goodies for the students at FuLi. I must admit one of the highlights of the season was shopping in FuLi for the majority of the "goodies." That happened Thursday. Miss Qing and her six-year old daughter took me under wing and we had a fine time searching out the best price for the little English notepads, pencils and candies. The items we bought on that shopping spree were thankfully stashed in my desk at FuLi. On Monday I had only the odds and ends and pies to transport.
I taught my normal morning at DuTou and as always had lunch with the teachers there. They thought the pumpkin pie was maybe even better than the apple pie. After lunch I went to FuLi like I normally do. Much to my surprise the students there met me with cards and gifts! They were so sweet! I taught my two classes and then these teachers and I donned our Santa hats and played Santa's helpers. It was great fun. A very special day.

The Sunday before Christmas Kelly and I were invited to our Chinese teacher's home for homemade jiaozi/dumplings. Here we are with Gary, our instructor, and his four-year old daughter LanLan. When we arrived, the filling and the dough for the skins were already prepared so I still haven't learned those two steps!

LanLan spent most of the evening with her new crayons and pad of paper. She is quite an artist and loved drawing pictures and showing them to us.

Gary rolled the dough into round skins and Sophia, Gary's wife, showed us how she closes the skins around the filling. Sophia's method is different from the one I learned in Ankang. Each person or family seems to have their own unique style of making jiaozi. When all the dumplings were made we enjoyed several bowlfuls. It was a very satisfying evening.

I've just spent my second Christmas in China away from family and friends at home. Not sure how this has happened, but it has. What I've noticed is even though I'm in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, a bit of Christmas is here with me. Seems we bring ourselves to our new location. And so....
I had a Christmas tree this year. It arrived soon after Thanksgiving. I was so curious to see what my daughter had sent me that I opened the box in the post office. And started laughing. It was an artificial "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree which was funny in itself, but the fact that it was made in China, so had crossed the ocean twice, was also humorous.
The week before Christmas I moved the tree into the living room to share my enjoyment with my flat mates. Kelly decorated it with bows from the presents I received from my FuLi students.
Kelly, Carly and I also feasted on the required Christmas sweets. Carly, a Texan, made these cookies. Kelly, French-English, made crepes and I provided pumpkin pie. There were also chocolates and candies in abundance.
I also put together a puzzle over the holidays. It was sent to me by my friend Monica. Do you call a person a friend who feeds your addiction?