As the sounds of Christmas carols played in the background, we carefully pawed our way through the Christmas tree section at the local Metro. We were early, so selection should be good or so we thought. Boxes and boxes of trees were stacked everywhere. We had our eye on the $5.oo CAD model that we had scoped out the previous week. Alas, the only one left was the floor model and for some reason, not clear to us, floor models are not for sale, even if it is the last one in existence. Do you smell the old bait and switch.? Suck you in with the cheap model then upsell you to the more expensive model. Nonie wanted her Christmas tree so we bit the bullet and got the $10.00 CAD model and then blew another $2.oo CAD on some gold garland. She eyed the wreathes longingly but we had blown our budget and had to leave without it. Maybe next year. We are now the proud owners of a 1.5 metre pine like Christmas tree, made in China of course. We will be hosting a small but growing Christmas ornament making party this weekend. I will post pictures of the finished product on our next blog.
The Chinese seem to have discovered the opportunities that await those cultures that celebrate this special day of Christmas. Not, I believe for the religous aspect of the holiday, but more for the gift giving and of course buying aspects presented by the holiday. Even in the smallest corner store, you'll find tacky little cardboard Santa Clauses and glittery signs wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year. On occasions, they have problems with their adjective selections. The Chinese are gift giving by nature and I could see them embracing this day with gusto. They just need to figure out how to include it on their list of holidays. We are constantly being suprised by the small gifts we receive from our Chinese friends and aquaintances. On a regular basis, the sweet laundry lady is dropping off a healthy selection of fruit for us. Even the foreign teacher contingent has taken this custom to heart. Re-gifting must be done with care in such a small community.
Nonie's arm is doing well. She went for a followup visit with her GP and got a thumbs up, the universal sign for "Everything is good". It is healing well and she does not have to buy the fancy brace to provide additional support for the arm. She was having some difficulties with the traditional sling as it left her arm too free for use. Not conductive to healing. We went on line and found an upright sling model that would immoblize the arm so she would quit trying to use it. The Doctor seemed quite impressed with it and spent some time looking at how it was constructed. Our Chinese aquaintenances continue to be amazed by the way Nonie has been dealing with her injury. They work on a 100 day principle of healing. It seems if you break any part of your body, you must rest a minimum of 100 days before you do anything. They struggle to understand Nonie's attitude to her recovery. They just don't know Nonie and the power of a good frenzy.
The last few weeks have been quiet. I had the opportunity to co-host a live local radio program with one of our Foreign teachers, Branson. Branson, along with his teaching has taken on the challenge of a daily English radio program on the University Radio service. The show is canned usually but once in a while they will do a live broadcast. It is broadcast on an FM band here in Haerbin as well as on the web. The station can be found at http://www.newschooltime.com/ and is called Easy English, Easy Time. It broadcasts at 6:00 am (10:00 pm PST) and 2:00 pm (6:00 am PST).
We received a lovely Christmas card from our friends, Harry and Barb Konkin. It was great to touch something from home and created a few moments of homesickness for me, missing family and friends. No this is not a hint for more cards and letters, but if you need our address! We do appreciate your emails and gossip. Never enough gossip. Loneliness has not really been a problem. E-mails, Skype video and telephone calls have kept it at bay along with the shenanigans of the younguns. We are busy working on our holiday return to Canada and will keep you posted as it firms up.
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