The Brain Dump

Hello, all. Sorry for the hiatus. We lost our internet last Doodle Day, and then Christmas spooged all over us and I didn't find the time to keep up with the ol' blog. But that hubbub is over. Christina and I put together a Christmas photo album on my snapfish account, found here (room code = chinaphotos).

This Pic o' the Week comes from Boxing Day, the day when all of the foreign teachers (and their assorted better halves) could get together and exchange a Secret Santa gift. Christina got a very nice comb. I got two sets (his and hers) of travel-sized chopsticks, fork, and spoon. And a giant lollipop.

From left to right: Me, Adam (from Poland), Muzi(?) [pronounced "Moo-zuh"] (Adam's Chinese girlfriend), Robert (from New Zealand), Annie (from the Philippines), Sheryl (Robert's Chinese girlfriend), and Christina (the ever-beautiful)

Christmas, it would seem, is growing in popularity here in doodleland, especially among the younger generation. Christina's and my students were certainly at their most excited when babbled Christmas nonsense at them. They also enjoyed singing Christmas carols--though that could have just been my awesomeness with a guitar that held them in rapture. . . .

Well. It's finally beginning to feel a little like Christmas, at least to me. And it's not the random stores that have a string of Christmas lights or gaudy portraits of St. Nick. Rather, it is this week's Pic o' the Week:

Yay! . . . Purchased at the ever-helpful Dennis.

Here we are once again. Christmas. And even here in China t'is the season. Christina went over to the local hypermarket, Dennis, looking for . . . I can't remember what, but she came back with this week's Pic o' the Week:

Oh commercial holidays, is there no place you can't reach?