Since September, JP and I have been incredibly busy, and will remain busy for the next three weeks. After that, we hope to have some time where we can relax as a family.
In the week leading to Christmas, we took part in four Christmas events: a Christmas party at our house for my co-workers, some stories and games at a local elementary school, more games at my school, then more fun at a preschool, where we were able to tell the Christmas story using puppets. The whole week was fun because it was the first time that most of the Chinese ever heard anything about Christmas.
Christmas Day was busy opening presents, joining friends for a flash mob at the People’s Park, then dinner with a lot of friends. You can watch the flash mob video on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=352791978071044
Another cool thing happened when we renewed our visas in December. For foreigners living in China, getting and renewing visas are a major pain in the you-know-what, but the lady in charge of the visas for foreigners in our city is great. She speaks good English, and knows the rules, and is very helpful.
While we were there, JP and I began talking to her, and I asked her, “In the next 5-10 years, what kind of jobs would be good for foreigners to do in X?” She said, “Let me tell you…We like foreigners like you. You come here to live, work or study. You don’t cause any problems. We don’t care what kind of work you do. Teaching English to our children is great. We welcome more people like you.”
She had some words about other kinds of foreigners in China, but she really encouraged us. She even praised my dad whom she only met once. We thought that was cool, too.
We are incredibly blessed to be in China, and can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for us.