CHRISTMAS APPROACHES

This term seems, in many ways, to have gone very quickly, at other times it seems to have been very long and intense: there is a general feeling of emotional exhaustion among colleagues and friends alike. It leads to occasional fractiousness all around: especially as this year seems so much more difficult than the last one!

Following my weekend in Beijing I begin to become ill: I develop diarrohea and stomach pains, and hope it is not the fish I ate whilst there. I'm still able to teach until the next day when I begin to develop a high fever: despite having layers of clothes and lying down under 2 quilts I'm shivering with cold and aching all over! I feel worse than I've ever done while in China! Looking online for symptoms I find I probably have gastroenteritis or gastric flu, the symptoms are exactly the same: so I cancel my next day's classes and am confined to my flat for more or less the rest of the week. At the end of this all I can eat is toast and the odd bit of fruit, and all I can drink is water. Looking at myself in the mirror I'm a bit shocked as I look haggard and gaunt. The next week although I can teach I have to rest when I'm not doing that. Any form of exertion renders me exhausted afterwards, and what makes this worse is I have to teach the two classes I missed, so I arrange to teach both groups at the same time, all 50 students. This works out OK but is exhausting. Following this I feel run-down much of the time and am careful what I eat. I do go out to a Malaysian restaurant recommended by a friend, and the food is very good if a little expensive so I'm determined to go again soon!

My painting project has foundered for the present as there are some materials I simply cannot obtain without considerable effort and time: one of them is emulsion paint. I have scoured the areas of the city I know without success looking for a paint shop. I sometimes feel this kind of material is not available to the public in China. I then find what I need online and ask some students to help me get it. They are happy to do so, but we find that no supplier will transport the stuff as they fear it will freeze in transit! I am bewildered and feel this would only happen in China! Finally I find, through one of my students, a big builders' market on the other side of the city. Going there to get what I want is a big project in itself as it will take the best part of a day and I need someone with me. So I think about who I can take: there is a list of possibles but as I begin to feel a bit forlorn about this I've neglected it for now, preferring to concentrate on the approach to Christmas and my teaching, as we are getting ready for assessments.

I generally feel somewhat sad: it's hard to understand why. I do try to maintain and expand my social circles, but this is immensely hard work: it involves constant organisation and communication and sometimes I wish it were easier, and just a question of meeting in a bar occasionally! But without this kind of contact, I know I will become overwhelmed. I do get to go out with people but even so feel there is something missing, and I think, deep down it's the lack of someone to open up to the way I can with Sarah. Perhaps I am expecting too much at times. It's becoming too cold to sit in the shacks with a beer so I'm doing this less now, also since my bout of gastroenteritis I have not really felt 100% healthy and seem to lack energy. I'm unsure of how to handle this and find myself just eating at home most of the time, and resting when I'm not teaching: another reason why other projects are not getting off the ground yet!

Also I'm distressed to find my father has suffered a fall whilst at the pub and Sarah's car has broken down. He is ultimately OK but Sarah's car turns out to be irreparable and we have to discuss obtaining a new one. Both of us knew we would have to this year but I had hoped not as soon as this!

I know Christmas is approaching, and of course, this is not a festival that the Chinese celebrate, however they do love a good party and an excuse to go to KTV (Karaoke) so there are a number of options being planned. The University is planning some sort of event but at present it is not clear what this will be; I decide to try and make my own plans and ask around to see what is happening.

I do some cleaning and tidying up in my apartment and manage to find an artificial Christmas tree in pieces stored away in a box! So I fetch it out and see if it can be assembled: and it works!

In an attempt to stave off the blues I decide to see if I can introduce some Christmas feeling into my flat, particularly as Sarah is putting up her tree in England as well! I travel out to a couple of supermarkets in search of Christmas decorations and find there are plenty of these, so Christmas in China does seem to be gaining popularity. I manage to buy a load of tinsel, tree decorations and lights, so have a bit of fun putting these on the tree: it takes some time but I'm pleased with the result.!

I arrange to have Seven and Christine round for dinner as I haven't seen them for a while: as they are vegetarians I make mushroom carbonara for them and some garlic mushrooms. It makes for a pleasant evening, and I try out my new camera in low light!

This gives me the idea of having a Christmas buffet and inviting some friends and colleagues. So I ask in the American bar about this and it seems some of the people I know there would like to come. I consider the idea of having them round along with my colleagues, but realise this means over 20 guests in principle: I mull this over as it seems there are a number of options: having everyone round at one go (overwhelming), having only one group or the other (easy but unambitious) or having 2 parties. (bloody hard work) Finally I plump for the third option. So I invite my colleagues around for Saturday. It takes me all day to prepare and I'm very tired after this, but happy with my efforts; a cold buffet with home-made guacamole, salsa, rice salad and coleslaw, some bread and oils, corn on the cob, a prawn ring with my own seafood dressing and some tortilla chips, egg mayonnaise sandwiches and pickles. I manage to find some Christmas music online and everyone seems impressed with the food, the tree and the music!

One of my guests (unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view) loves to sing so we are treated to impromptu renditions of “Fairytale in New York”, “The Wild Rover” “12 Days of Christmas” and a number of Irish ditties until midnight when it's time for everyone to go...Cleaning up doesn't take too long due to my shrewd policy of serving everything up on paper plates with plastic cups and forks! Plenty of beer and wine is consumed and there is a definite Christmas feel!

Following this I'm living on left-over buffet food for the week until Wednesday, when I make the second one. Sadly, the day before this I wake up with terrible back pain and cannot stand up: I have to crawl around the flat on all fours before it subsides with some physio tasks that Sarah showed me when she had this problem. I barely manage to make it to my classes on Tuesday: the worst day as I have 2 groups. Sometimes it feels as if Tuesday is “sick day!”  

Anyway I made far too much food the first time, so this time I'm a bit more restrained: potato salad and coleslaw, chicken salad dips, tortillas, crisps and sandwiches. My neighbours James and Iris come round with some Christmas pudding and mince pies!

This time the evening is a bit more restrained and intimate, which I prefer as I'm getting worried my neighbours will be annoyed with me!

Anyway a good time is had by all, and now I'm looking to have a couple of meals with friends, see if I can get this paint at some point and organise my travels for the Chinese New Year break! However for the time being I decide to stop hosting for a while as although I've enjoyed it, it is expensive, time-consuming and hard work: I feel I need a break from it!

Looking at this I realise that everything I'm describing is really quite mundane:  but what makes it less so is the fact I'm on the other side of the world from everything I'm familiar with and the sheer effort involved to do even the most basic things!