“The Christmas is coming…”
I keep hearing students say this phrase. The first time I heard it, I was reading a note from a student – it was a note that came with his gift to me, a wind chime with dangling wooden dolphins. He wrote:
Hi Annie. I am sorry I bother you. But you know the Christmas is coming. Maybe it’s a long time. But I afraid I will forget it. So I give this to you as a Christmas gift. I know you need something to make your house more beautiful. So I think it’s a good thing. I hope you like it. You are a cute girl and smart. Though I am not your student. But I think we can be friend. But if you think I will not be a good friend, say “NO” it’s ok! But I hope Yes! Hope you have a great Christmas.
Your Jim
Jim’s Christmas gift came in November. During the last week of class in December, I was flooded with more: apples; paper cranes; a decorative plate with Chinese characters; a stuffed Santa; a metal figurine of a green girl wearing leaves in her hair and holding a wand; traditional Chinese knots; and even a fresh brown egg with a picture carved in its shell.
The oral English classes had a strange schedule. The English teachers gave students the final exam during the first week of December, but then had a week of class after the exam was finished. We had already graded the exams and turned in the final grades for each class, so in the last week I didn’t even give my students a participation grade. The grades, the exam, everything was finished – I guess we just went to the classroom for one last hoorah. I told my classes the history of the Christmas holiday and taught them Christmas carols. In the last thirty minutes, I gave them green paper and stencil cut-outs so that they could make Christmas cards. I tried to explain that they could give the cards to their friends, but each class inevitably lined up almost single file at the end and stacked their Christmas cards into my hands. Some cards had faces drawn in the paper ornament cut-outs that I’d given them. Some had stocking shapes, or Christmas trees, or paper cranes. Some of them were addressed to me, and some of them weren’t. Here are messages that were written inside:
Dear parents:
Merry Christmas!
I have a lot of words want say, but I don’t have more time.
In my heart, you are important. I love you forever.
Your son,
Ty
May my Annie Teacher more and more beautiful! May my classmates Happy forever!
-Lily
Dear Annie:
You’re so beautiful.
You like my sister.
Merry Christmas Day.
We will miss You!
Yours Sarah.
To Annie:
I hope you very happy every day and you have a good healthy, and I wish you more beautiful and more beautiful. I hope you can find a very good husband. Ha Ha.
Your student:
Adam
Annie:
May everything beautiful and best be condensed into this card. I sincerely wish you happiness, cheerfulness and success.
Ian
To: Annie teacher
I’m very happy learn English from you!
I wish you have a happy Christmas Day!
You are our friend. Forever!
You sweet smile warm us! happy every day!
From: Myra
I want a notebook computer. (blak)
Happy new year to everyone I have known.
Bobby
One card, addressed to me, said, “Best wishes for you!!! My honey.” Another had written on the cover, inside a bulb ornament, “eat it and you will become more and more strong!” Another one addressed to me had a cut-out of a stocking on the front, with an arrow pointing at the foot. It said, “The best present in.” There were others I liked: a drawing of a jack-in-the-box with “smile” written beside his mouth, or a Chinese-looking monster with stocking legs, a bulb ornament head, and eyes drawn in each end of a ribbon’s bow.
Sias campus, I’m told, looks much more festive this year than it has in the past. There are flags and lights strung criss-cross across European Street, and colored lights strewn over the bushes that line the walkway to Peter Hall (the foreign teachers’ hall). Pictures of Santa Claus are pasted everywhere. The Chinese sense of Christmas style, though comforting, is somewhat different from the Western sense. Here is a picture of a Christmas tree that’s been set in the middle of our campus’ Italian Square:
Since this photo was taken, students have written wishes on white note cards and hung them all around the lower half of the tree.
The foreign teachers do what they can to add to the Christmas spirit: we had a contest in Peter Hall for the best-decorated floor. My floor won a few awards...
Our idea: make snowmen of ourselves
My students helped us decorate
I bought a Christmas tree of my own. I thought it would be a worthy investment for my first Christmas away from home.
Classes have finished completely now. Half of the foreign teachers have returned home to America for the Christmas break. The rest have stayed here. There are a few reasons why I’ve decided to stay. You can see them here in a letter I wrote to my family not long ago:
Hey fam,
Culture week is finally over, at least for me. Today is North America day, but I am not really going to be involved. I did my part yesterday and sang a viking drinking song in the middle of a square and wore a traditional Norwegian dress (and stamped passports and posed for pictures about every 5 seconds or less :). The students really seemed to love it all, so I guess it was all worth it in the end. I had one dance last night, and that was my last. Now a little bit of my cold came back and I'm planning on getting some alone time in my room today and maybe watching a movie while i lesson plan!
I got your package, mom, and it rocked! It felt good just to be able to read the labels and names of what I'm eating (even though I don't usually read labels...just knowing that I could if I wanted to was a comfort). I ate a Reese's right away and I think it was the best Reese's I've ever had. A nice ending to my culture week work.
I wanted to send you this e-mail to make clear to everyone that I am not coming home for Christmas. That's not an easy thing for me to say, but I realized I had left things hanging for you since I'd left, not giving you a definitive answer on the subject, though in my own mind I think I had decided awhile ago that I'm not coming back until the school year is over. Last week, I felt some doubts about whether or not I should really stay here over Christmas, because I started to miss you all very much, but the more I think about it and talk with other teachers, the more I feel this is the right thing to do. I don't really have the finances to go home andtravel in China and start paying off my loans. And I don't think it would be very wise for me to leave after only being here three months, adjust to America for a month, and then come back to adjust again for four months. Adjustment-wise, I think it would be better to just stay in Asia. I also hope to get to see a lot during January and part of February: I hope to start making more definite travel plans with the teachers now that culture week is over. There has been talk amongst some of us already to stay at Sias through Christmas and then go North for the Harbin ice festival, and from there make our way South and maybe even eventually move into Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand.
I hope that you understand. I think I will ask Bob to use my decision to stay to benefit the students in some way -- I might have some opportunities to visit some of them over the break. Even if not, I know he can use the time to equip me to teach the second semester, to keep me thinking about the Chinese people, to keep me working at understanding foreign cultures, and all-in-all to return to Sias more prepared to serve students again.
Missing a Christmas at home will feel like a sacrifice even if I see all of Asia while I'm gone, and since it will feel like a sacrifice, I figure I'll ask Bob to make it a sacrifice for the sake of the students. I would be lying right now if I said the students were my motivation to stay here over Christmas. Mostly, I just think it would be good for me in the long run, but I do believe Bob can, regardless of my motivations, use my staying to benefit students. So I'm thinking of it this way -- "Bob, it's better for me adjustment-wise and financially to stay here... so since I'm staying anyway, make my stay a sacrifice that benefits the students."
Love you all and miss you!
annie
