Christmas, competitions and Chinese hotpots

December was an exciting but stressful month!

With exams around the corner, travelling fast approaching as well as Christmas, we began December on a more relaxed note by by arranging a secret Santa with the scholars group. We had lots of fun trying to figure out the best presents for the best people.

Some of my Chinese friends invited me and a couple of others to participate in a talent show with them which unknown to us at the time; involved singing in front of an entire auditorium full of students. At the time we had little hope but in the end we actually won the competition!

To celebrate Christmas 圣诞节we decided to decorate the hall and our rooms. We spent the whole day making paper chains and hanging tinsel; some of us even got our Chinese friends involved with the decorating. By the end of the day most of the hall had paper chains running zigzagged across it and many of our rooms were covered in tinsel and fairy lights.

For Christmas Eve we pulled two extra mattresses into my room and bought enough sweets to feed the entirety of the scholarship as well as pizza. By the end of the night we had around 8 people sleeping in my room with more who had come and gone whilst we were watching movies.

We started Christmas Day off healthily by ordering a McDonalds breakfast and soon after we began opening our secret Santa presents. Some of our language partners and Chinese friends came up to visit us and exchange gifts too. Afterwards we began getting ready for Christmas dinner; some went to a real Christmas dinner; some went to an Indian restaurant and some went to a Chinese hotpot 中国火锅. I chose to go to hotpot with a few other scholars, our American friends and a couple of our Chinese friends. My mum had sent me Christmas crackers so we were able to show our Chinese friends how to pull them. Later that night we went out for a couple of hours but were back early as we had class the next day.

After Christmas I spent the rest of December without a voice and in bed ill however I still enjoyed the festive period.

Thanks for reading,

马爱丽（Alex）