Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?

I must apologize to my diligent blog-followers for the past few weeks of empty updates. My only excuse lies in the fact that the past couple of weeks have been full of some of the busiest times since our entry into the East. My Christmas was, as expected, an unforgettable one. The week leading up to Christmas was full of holiday lectures, showings of Home Alone (much to the glee of many students) and an excellent Christmas party. Team Boading invited about 15 of our closest friends, teachers and students, to celebrate the season. We prepared like true Americans, bringing iced cookies, hot chocolate, and a Christmas tree with decorations. The only thing we were missing was a nativity set so we decided to further embody the Christmas story by putting on a small Christmas pageant ourselves! Jon and Emily took on the roles of Mary and Joseph, Amelia the angel of the Lord, Cameron a wise man (from the East!), myself a lowly shepherd, and Ryan the story's narrator. Although our costumes were not exactly Broadway quality, our acting spirits arose to the challenge and put on a comedic performance of the Christmas story, much to the amusement of our Chinese friends. After the play we led the group in the singing of Hark! the Herald Angel's Sing and Silent Night. Finally we attached the crowning jewel of any Christmas party with an intense game of Yankee Swap (greed, dirty santa, white elephant, etc.). All in all it was a great time to introduce our friends to some brand new Christmas traditions.

On Christmas day the whole of our IECS team traveled from their homes of Langfang and Tianjin to stay with us for three days in Baoding. As traveling in China is not the most easy (or comfortable) experience, we have only gotten to be with our other American friends on a brief handful of occasions. Therefore, it was an extra special Christmas gift to be able to spend three days with our other teammates. On Christmas night we ate a fantastic meal of western foods that was possibly the greatest gift of the day. I would not describe myself as a food conosseur in the least, but being without familiar foods for three and half months has made me realize how much I do cherish the foods I love. Among the delicacies that were provided included, ranch dressing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and cappucino brownies, Afterwards we revealed a long awaited (and much guessed at) time of Secret Santa.

After three days full of touring, games, meals, and KTV (of course) we bid adieu to our friends as they departed for their perspective homes. Then it was back to business with three long days full of finishing up classes. While half of my classes were Oral English and did not require exams, the other half of my Business Writing classes demanded a final worth 70% of their grade. It was interesting to reflect on the fact that a mere year ago I had been preparing for my own final exams in college while now I found the tables turned as I prepared to hand out a final to my students here. After going through both sides of the experience I can soundly say that I preferred the latter (experience) by far to the former. I must admit that some part of me really liked making up my own exam. After analyzing patterns of multiple choice questions for years and years...ABAABCABBC - (this one's gotta be a D!), I relished the opportunity to come up with an obscure code of randomness to the pattern of my own multiple choice questions. The exercise was not all fun and games however as it proved a delicate process to judge what would be a good balance of difficulty for my Chinese students. I believe that I managed well considering it was my first exam creating experience and am pleased (so far) with the spread of grades and quite glad that they didn't all ace my test. New pictures soon to follow...