Looking Back at December

Days have turned to weeks and weeks have turned to months, and the first semester has flown by. December brought cold, wind and smog. Like I said earlier this month the smog has hit record highs and has not gotten much better. Aside from all the major health risks and dangers from the smog, there is one benefit, no morning exercises!

To kick off December we had a fire drill at school. Unlike the American “stay calm” approach, our teacher told us to run like crazy as fast as we could out of the classroom. No calm there. Our teacher also told us to put a towel around our mouth and nose, which in my mind kind of increases our chances of catching flames, but we followed directions. The only towel I could quickly find was a pink one with flowers on it. To add to the chaos, someone “in” on the drill lit a flare on the 5^th floor of the boys’ dorm. It just got more fun from there. Everyone was running around campus like crazy, some with towels on their faces, and some with their pollution face masks. The drill ended with a fire extinguisher demonstration and everyone got a chance to put out a fire with a fire extinguisher. That’s was actually fun. And so, ended the annual fire drill at the High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, or JDFZ, as we know it.

 

A few weekends ago, before Christmas, we went to 新天地 and 田子坊 (Xintiandi and Tianzifiang), two very popular tourist attractions in Shanghai. We were supposed to go a week earlier, but the field trip was postponed due to hazardous air pollution. These two landmarks are devoted to the traditional Shanghai 石库门 architecture, are also popular for shopping. After exploring the architecture and design, Keiondre, Brady and I found a DVD store that sold almost any CD and DVD known to man for less than 2 dollars. We bought a few.

 

During the days leading up to Christmas, we spent time in our history classes eating and making dumplings and other traditional Chinese foods. I should be pretty good at making dumplings by the time I get home.

 

To try to lively up the Christmas spirit my group of American kids all pitched in some money to buy a few Christmas decorations. We bought a stuffed Santa Claus, some Christmas stickers, and even a Christmas tree with decorations.

On Christmas Eve we had a gift exchange and everyone received some fun gifts. A box my mom sent FedEx with my iPod in it finally arrived, after a long hold up in customs. I think it took more than a month for that FedEx box to reach me. Regular mail seems to reach me faster than FedEx.

On Christmas Eve, we also had an assembly where some of the Chinese kids performed some songs and short plays. The choir also performed a few Christmas songs. That night we watched one of my favorite movies, a Bollywood hit called The Three Idiots.

 

On Christmas Day we had a day off of school and went to an amusement park called Happy Fun Land. We rode some precarious rollercoasters and walked through a couple outdated haunted houses. After we went to Happy Fun Land, all the international kids went to a KTV or karaoke bar type thing.

 

In China, Christmas is more of romantic holiday than the religious holiday in America. All over Shanghai there were signs that said "Merry Kissmas."

 

 

When we weren’t making merry for Kissmas, we have been studying very hard for midterms and other big tests. January is our big test month.