Experiences Abroad, Holidays Away From Home, and Life Updates.

It has been exactly one month since my last blog post and life is still going well over here in Wuhan. One of the best parts of the life currently here is that winter has yet to show it's ugly face. While it is snowing back home, with temperatures dipping into the teens on a more regular basis, we have yet to see a single flake, and I have to say I don't miss it at all. We have had maybe our second or third cold week here since October-and by the winter standards I am use to, 50-60 degrees really isn't cold at all. I do get a big kick out of seeing all my students wrap themselves up in huge jackets as soon as the temperature drops below 60 and listening to them complain about the cold. The one drawback to this unusually warm winter-and who says global warming isn't real?-is that I don't think a White Christmas is in my future at all. With Christmas only a few weeks away, it doesn't seem as tough or upsetting as Thanksgiving did. Back home there are Thanksgiving/Autumn decorations everywhere, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Charlie Brown specials, and that fantastic smell of turkey come Thanksgiving Day. Aside from the smell of sweet potatoes lingering in our food street, there was virtually no trace of Thanksgiving anywhere.

Yet, take a walk around our food streets now or even a trip down to our enormous mall and you can see people selling snowmen, reindeer, and Santa decorations. Some restaurants that cater to a more westernized crowd have put up decorations inside and are requiring their employees to wear Santa hats. Not mention that multiple Christmas Trees I have seen popping up at various spots around campus and the bars we frequent. With the Chinese more willing to embrace Christmas-mostly because of the shopping discounts they get on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day and the younger generations increasing curiosity in western culture-it at least gives me friendly little reminders of the holiday and helps me enjoy the holiday more, instead of focusing on how I was missing out at home.

In the last couple of weeks I have been busy putting the finishing touches on my Spring Festival trip which will start January 16th or so and will last about a month. With stops in Vietnam-Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, and Saigon, Cambodia-Phonm Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville-and finally Thailand-Bangkok and Phuket-I am needless to say unbelievably excited to get out of China for awhile and do some more traveling. After living here in China for a few months, I have become a firm believer that travel really does broaden the mind. The other school of thought on travel seems to be that the more places you go to and the more you see, the more close minded you become. Some travel and see the places they explore as backward or not on par with their own experiences-this is especially true in developing countries. However, I think that is the wrong way to look at time abroad. Part of the problem too on Thanksgiving is that I was turkeyless-no Thanksgiving turkey and no Turkey bowl. We did all have a big group dinner at a restaurant here but eating sushi and rice just wasn't the same as turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

While abroad you have an opportunity to embrace a lifestyle that should be extremely different than the one you have back in the States. You have an opportunity to be engulfed by a new culture, new ways of thinking, new opinions surrounded you, and your core beliefs on the world and yourself are certainly challenged more then once. Just as a quick side note for those of you that hear or read that China is challenging U.S. supremacy or is on the cusp of becoming a world power, that may seem likely on the east coast of China or in places like Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Shen Zhen, but the reality is that super power status is probably decades away in China. Too many changes need to occur first-political reform, educational reform, equal income distribution as well as FDI, a general raise in wages for the working class, not to mention a healthy respect for civil society. Now after that little sidetrack, lets get back to the real point of this paragraph. Living here in China, I have seen some things that I never thought I would see and in some cases would have preferred not to see. But those are all part of the journey, part of the experience of moving 10,000 miles away. Had I moved 10,000 miles to be surrounded my strip malls, fast food chains and Wal-Marts, then there would essentially be no point in moving. Instead, living here is the chance to take in what the world has to offer,  learn from it and grow from it.

After my trip through Southeast Asia, visiting two countries that I haven't been to before-while going back to one that I love-, and having the opportunity to speak to another completely different group of people-I have to admit I am really looking forward to having a conversation with the people from Cambodia based on the history of their country in the latter part of the 20th century-I will have yet another opportunity to learn. Even though I am a teacher over here, I think I am learning just as much if not more than my students on a daily basis. For better or for worse I have started to feel unbelievably guilty when I walk around with my iPod in. I constantly feel like I am missing out on the sounds of China-mostly car horns, loud conversations, and loud music-or some sort of important cultural facet of life in China.

Other than trying to soak up everything I possibly can from life overseas, all is grand. I recently attended a play here on campus, the university had a showing of Othello and thankfully it was in English. Several of my students roped me into going and they weren't sure if it was in English or not, and after being placed in the VIP seating area I wasn't really in a position to bail if it was in Chinese. Finals will begin here on campus in two weeks and I actually finished putting together my first test tonight. I know understand why teachers fall behind on grading. I think the best analogy at times is that it is similar to working in a mail room, you are constantly getting papers (mail) coming in, and as fast as you try to mail them out, they keep coming. Luckily I have only fallen behind once and a lot of work on my weekend caught me up.

I hope everyone back home is enjoying the holiday season, the shopping, and the Christmas decorations. I will do another blog on Christmas to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Until then I miss all of you and keep in touch. It is always great to hear from all of you. GO PACK GO and the Bears Still Suck. Oh, one last thing that I almost forgot. My dream/future wife-Grace Potter-recently was part of Vh1's Salute the Troops show and was looking gorgeous as per-usual. I encourage all of you check out the videos here. I would be lying if I said I haven't watched these at least a few times already.