December— 圣诞快乐！
It’s...CHRISTMAS!! That means tinsel and celebrating with your families and Mariah Carey all. The. Time.
Even though Christmas isn’t actually celebrated in China, we still managed to enjoy all that and more. It doesn’t really snow very often in 天津 because it never ever rains; so in order to bring in a more festive feel to Christmas period, a few of us decided to take a trip north to Harbin—the “Russia” of China.
And it was cold. Like, minus 15 degrees cold.
I bought a hat/scarf/snood thing off the national shopping site (consider it the eBay of China) called Taobao 淘宝, and with that and a sturdy coat in hand - we got the slow train! This time, however, we felt like we were travelling in style, as we had bunk beds to carry us through the 10 hour journey.
We arrived in Harbin without any fuss and set off to make our way around the sights. The freezing temperatures were definitely something to get used to, but I think we managed with the beautiful scenery.
This was outside the city of Harbin, in what felt like a winter wonderland. It was a beautiful park with so many Russia-inspired buildings. It felt like the North Pole or something, which got us all really excited for the 25th.
The next day, we went to a small Russian style village. The reason I don’t have pictures of it is because I left my gloves on the bus and didn’t want to risk my fingers freezing off if I exposed them to the unforgiving Harbin air. I did, however, get pictures of the ice and light festival which happens in Harbin every December-January.
What a sight it was.
Pure ice lit from the inside out, building massive fortresses I had never even seen before. It was insane.
It was brilliant, and a trip I’ll never ever forget. I don’t think I’ll ever see anything like it again.
We got the train back and before we knew it, Christmas had landed upon us. We had all agreed that we’d do secret Santa so that everyone received a gift on Christmas Day regardless of whether they’d gotten one from their family in time or not.
My best friend Emelie and I tried to incorporate a bit of fun into collecting the secret Santa gifts.
We went around each door, playing a different Christmas song and belting out the lyrics at every stop as we collected the gifts. Next year’s scholars, I highly recommend doing it. Most people got a good laugh out of it and we all got excited to open our presents the next morning.
Christmas arrived, and we all gathered in our common room and opened them together. We had a go at guessing which present was given by whom.
Then in the evening, we all got together to have dinner as a family. My Christmas dinner was chicken kebab.
I hope you all had a great Christmas!! I definitely did, and I’m glad I have the other scholars to call my new family. We got our tinsel, and we celebrated with our family, and we did end up playing Mariah Carey throughout most of the day. Figures.
Next month we go travelling throughout Asia! Exciting!
再见, see you then!
Kate