Merry Christmas from school!

All I want for Christmas is you, baby! Christmastime is here! Have a holly jolly Christmas! Woooo!

If you can't tell, Christmas is my favorite holiday, so it was very exciting to celebrate in Taiwan where I became the unofficial ambassador of holiday spirit. This is, in part, because of my great love of Christmas. This is also, in part, because Christmas is really not a big deal in Taiwan at all. Everyone goes to work and school on Christmas as if it were nothing. You can find fake Christmas trees and decorations at the stationary stores and in the one mall in the county they were playing Christmas music over the loudspeaker. Many Taiwanese who are Christian go to church on Christmas eve, but on the whole it is definitely not celebrated to the extent that an American or European Christmas is. Therefore, I took it upon myself to hype Christmas as much as possible, because I think it is such a quintessential part of our culture, whether you like the included commericialism or not.

To bring in the Christmas spirit, all of my 20 classes had at least one lesson dedicated to the topic. At the suggestion of my co-teacher Cathy, every class listened to "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey. This was a perfect segue into discussing all of the Christmas references the song makes: stockings by the fireplace, St. Nick and the North Pole, mistletoe, etc. At San Sing Jr. High we also watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966 cartoon version) in all of the eighth grade classes. In English clubs we played Christmas bingo. Key awkward points in the lessons came whenever the movie mentioned the Grinch's dog Max (my co-teacher's name is also Max...) and when I explained mistletoe to my students and then the boys and girls (8th graders, mind you) asked for a kiss from Jill Teacher. I also made gingerbread cookies and fudge to share with all of the teachers at both schools, so they could experience some traditional Christmas foods. While making cookies 7 at a time in a convection roaster is not ideal, the excitement on their faces when they found out I had made the cookies for them was really great!

Obviously the best part of celebrating a holiday in a foreign country, though, is not what you bring but what you can observe. I already mentioned that Christmas isn't as readily observed as it is in America, but that is not to say that some people won't still decorate for the holiday. As a "Christmas present" to me, my English club at Xin Zhong asked Cathy to make me come late to class. When I got there they had drawn a Christmas mural on the chalkboard. Xin Zhong also, unlike San Sing, had every homeroom decorate a Christmas tree. Some were small, others were large. Everyone had cards tied to them with the students names and (I think...) wishes. They also had the most random assortment of ornaments and garlands that I have ever seen. Amongst Santa Claus ornaments and traditional balls were Frankenstein heads, Easter eggs and jack-o-lantern garlands. This also seemed to be completely normal, so I had to be very careful in talking about the trees in front of my co-workers. There is just something so endearing about the all-holiday tree, though, and the apparent normalcy of such an idea that made Christmas in Taiwan so worthwhile.

As for myself, I celebrated the holiday following my usual Thursday schedule. Over lunch, though, I went to the orphanage for a small service and a feast of Mexican food. Nell, Jamie, Jamie's boyfriend Dan and I went to Christmas Eve service at the local Catholic church (same hymns, different language). And a bunch of us did Christmas dinner together at a local Japanese barbeque restaurant. The 16 of us also arranged a gift exchange and had our own Christmas party that started in my apartment, wandered up to the roof and then down to the bar below our apartment. It was nice to be able to spend time with our make-shift family of Fulbrighters, as we couldn't be home to celebrate. And though we were missing Mary who went home to celebrate in America, our Fulbright family was able to put together a great time full of laughs (Brittany's mom led the dancing!). That being said, I'm looking forward to Christmas next year with my real family!