It’s here! Yes, it has arrived even here: Christmas. Or at least the decoration. About a week ago they put up all the decorations on campus – lights on the two main roads, the big Christmas tree in the central shopping square, and along the road to the teacher’s building a lot of colored lights.
Now, whether the decorations are pretty is another question altogether, but at least there is something, and that’s enough to be thankful for!
I haven’t told you much about our Christmas Banquet last Friday yet. Let me do so in today’s Food Corner.
Well, after having had the same course of dishes for several years now, this year’s Christmas Banquet held a nice surprise. One of my American colleagues assisted in the kitchen and the result was a rather different banquet. Instead of squash soup with buttered bread buns, we enjoyed potato soup with bread that was baked with cheese and tomatoes. This was followed by a plate of various appetizers such as salads, sweet and sour chicken and meat with some kind of sauce, and yes, we also had cookies (I learned the cookies are a very typical side dish here in China!). The main course was mashed potatoes and pork with some steemed vegetables and our dinner was concluded with some sort of tiramisu.
Aside from the fact that everything was cold by the time it got to us, it was quite an enjoyable dinner accompanied with the performances of lots of my colleagues, ranging anywhere between amazing, cute, and hilarious!
I never got to tell you about the Dongzhi Festival (Winter Solstice Festival) or the Dumpling Day, as we commonly refer to it around here.
Dongzhi literally means “arrival of winter” and it is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese calendar. It usually takes place on or around December 22, when the daylight is shortest and the nights longest.
As with all the Chinese festivals, there are several traditional activities connected with the Dongzhi Festival:
At our school students usually get together with their classes at night and make dumplings which they will eat afterward. And in most cases those dumpling parties turn into huge flour battles among the students, resulting in everyone being covered in white at the time the party ends.
Legend has it, that if you don’t eat dumplings on Dongzhi Festival, you risk the danger of losing your ears during the long and dreadful winter!
For information on the Dongzhi Festival you can check out the article on wikipedia HERE.
Mighty mountain ranges, deep gorges, hidden valleys, countless springs, waterfalls and lakes – all this is Yuntai Mountain. Situated in the northern part of Henan Province right near Jiao Zuo, the spectacular scenery of this area draws people from near and far. Corel Peak, the highest point, rises about 1308 m above sea level, but it’s not only those who like to climb mountains who get their money’s worth. Since Yuntai Mountain was turned into a national park, the area has been greatly developed and is now conducive to lots of outdoor activities. The park offers countless opportunities for tourists, and visitors who like to spend more than one day exploring the scenery can stay in one of the various accommodations on site.
Those planning on visiting Yuntai Mountain, should know about the two downsides involved, though:
After skipping last week, the Monday Highlight is back over in the DigiScrap Corner, today featuring ScrapKitchen Designs’ “Christmas Past”.
Check out my post, and you might even find a surprise in the end!
Today, officially for me the semester has ended with the final exams. That doesn’t mean the work is over, though, since now there’s a lot of grading that still needs to be done. And I’m also continuing to meet with my students as usually, but at least classes are over. And once all the Christmas celebrations are over, I’m finally going to have some quieter days to come! Looking forward to that!
After skipping last week’s Monday Highlight (sorry for that, was out of town and previously had been caught up with my December Daily project), it’s about time to show off another product I recently fell in love with. Since the Christmas season is in full swing it is another Christmas themed kit:
Let me tell you, what I love the most about this kit are the papers! The color palette reaches from traditional Christmas greens and reds to cream, blue and brown, which makes it quite versatile to work with. One paper comes with a pretty Christmas themed wordart printed all over it, another one has a tiny holly leaf pattern (I love holly leaves, don’t know why!), and the one I love most is the background with the very vintage style paintings in the corner! Check it out:
As soon as I discovered this paper in the stash of backgrounds, I was all over it! It works perfectly for those old vintage style pages to scrap those memories from Christmas past!
Susan also added some nice unique elements, such as a set of three different Christmas trees (fully going with the trend of combining patterned papers as we see them all over the digiscrap market this year), evergreen branches which always make a good figure on any page, and a pretty pretty alpha. If you like vintage style pages, this kit by Susan Bartolini is a must-have!
Before I’m done with this post, I also have a nice surprise to share. Hop on over to Meghan Mullens’ website (Wild Dandelion Designs) where she has a Christmas special for all of us: Every day until Christmas she has a new freebie on her website, so make sure to grab them before the download links expire!
In the midst of the glare
I still hold inside
the soft glow of a star.
Quiet. Ancient. Timeless.
Beckoning me
to hope
to peace
to joy
to faith
to love.
To Bethlehem
Sun 19: Christmas Party
Mon 20: Final Exam
Wed 22: Cookie Baking with students
Thur 23: Cookie Baking with students/Concert
Fri 24: Christmas Celebration
Sat 25: Christmas Celebration
Sun 26: Raclette dinner with friends
I’m looking at a very busy week ahead with working on grades (the goal is to finish them before Christmas Eve), proctering, and lots of parties (most of which I need to organize and prepare for).
I found a new treasure for you this week:
Snow Fun by eranslow
She used the kit “Frostbite” by Julie Billingsley and I love how she worked with the blue papers and elements provided in the kit! In combination with the snowflakes and the evergreen it’s quite the perfect mixture for a great page! Besides I love her composition and this page makes me want to have some snow to play with here, too!
For some it is the cause for great excitement, for others it is a reason to turn their noses up and look at it in disdain: this year’s foreign faculty Christmas tree. True, it’s the first ever real Christmas tree we had in the lobby of the teacher’s flat, but for a real tree it’s a rather poor sampling. And even whether the way it is decorated is beautiful or not is open to dispute. After all, people’s tastes are different.
As for me, I’ve come to the conclusion that even though the tree as a whole is a somewhat pitiful sight to be seen, this year’s decoration is a lot better than in past years, though I would have preferred the fake tree!
