It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...Chinese Style

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Winter has just about hit us in Xiamen. Today the temperature dropped below 50 for the first time, and I'm beginning to wear my jacket outside. Unfortunately, without central heating and with poor window seals, I am also beginning to wear my jacket inside as well.

But we have more than the weather to remind us that Christmas is just around the corner. Even though China does not recognize Christmas as a holiday -- which means I will be working on Christmas for the first time in my career -- evidence of Christmas is all around us.

From my conversations with students, though, there really isn't much celebration with gift exchanges and such. They are interested in Christmas, but I get the impression that they don't know much about it beyond that it is a commercialized Western holiday. 






We also have had to purchase decorations to make our home look a little more festive, although the experience was a little over (and under) whelming. There were places to find the decorations, but they weren't at the quality we would have liked. We also managed to purchase a Christmas tree and get it decorated. For a fake tree, it is pretty nice, but we sure miss the 14' nobles we used to have at home. Although, we miss our family and friends more.





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