Christmas is not an official holiday here. Everyone has to go to work, I still have class at 8:00AM (my listening comprehension teacher basically threatened to kill us all if we skipped for Christmas), but Chinese young people absolutely love Christmas. There's Christmas music playing in various places, giant inflatable Santa Clauses in many buildings, and Christmas trees. Today there are fancily wrapped apples for sale everywhere, because the Chinese word for Christmas Eve is 平安夜 (Ping'An Ye), and the word for apple is 苹果 (Pingguo) and since the two pings sound the same, everyone buys "平安果“ － Christmas Eve Apples.

Furthermore, the Chinese internet loves Christmas. Observe:

This is RenRen, China's answer to Facebook. I giggled a lot when I saw the Santa Hat imposed over my picture today. My 8 minutes ago status update you might notice there says that I wish everyone a happy Christmas Eve.


This is the homepage to Baidu, China's most popular website. It's basically Google (which is also popular here) but is far more kickass in that you can download pretty much every song ever.


Tudou is one of China's Youtube knock-offs - I personally much prefer Youku, but apparently Youku is uninterested that it's Christmas. Haha.


This is Zuosa, Chinese Twitter. I only use Zuosa because it let me link my account to my Twitter account, so while I still have no idea what anyone else is saying on Twitter, I can update mine. But, really... you can say a whole hell of a lot more in 140 Chinese characters than you can posting in English.



My tree!! And some of our cards. My roommate and I are well-loved, our TV top is full of cards too!! There are lights on this tree... not sure why they photographed so poorly!!


I also had no place to hang the other lights I got, so I just strung them around my headboard. I think it's festive!!

I'm not yet quite sure what Chinese people do on Christmas Day itself, as our teachers all kept saying "oh, only young people celebrate Christmas in China", but I'll be sure to let you all know!!

I like how she changed up the lyrics a little bit each time to keep it fresh.

Bought the song on iTunes, but somehow the song alone isn't as awesome.

The good news:
Today when I punched in for work I got a message that I was now eligible for my benefits. I don't think that's quite right - I think what it means is that I will be in 31 days and now's the time to put in the paperwork. Anyways, I got a big packet of benefit information, and have to figure out all my insurance stuff. It's kind of overwhelming...

The bad news:
Got into a head-on bike collision on the way home from work today. Both of us were okay (although the fingertips on my right hand hurt for a good five minutes afterwards - they're still tingling), but I damaged my bike. Not sure of the full extent of the damage right now, but I know the front wheel won't rotate, and it looks like it's an issue with the breaking mechanism. Which meant I had to walk my bike home lifting up the front wheel the entire time. At least the back wheel was fine - it would have been even worse if I had had to carry the bike the whole way. Marcia's on winter break, so I'm going to ask if she can take me to the bike shop to get an estimate on it tomorrow.

My mom sent me hand-me-downs.

From Allie.

My 7.5-year-younger sister.

FML.

"It's so simple. The Borg hurt you, and now you're going to hurt them back."
"In my century, we don't succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility."
"Bullshit!"

It's nice to see holes poked into the show's Utopian bubble. I'd like to quote the whole scene, really, but I'm too lazy.

[EDIT:
"So much for the Enterprise-E."
"We barely knew her."
"You think they'll build another one?"
"Plenty of letters left in the alphabet."

Hah! Waitin' for the Enterprise-W.]

"Captain, I believe I am feeling anxiety. It is an intriguing sensation. A most distracting--"
"Data, I'm sure it's a fascinating experience, but perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now."
"Good idea, sir. Done."
"Data, there are times that I envy you."
- Picard and Data, from Star Trek: First Contact

Ugh, my room's too hot. I have nothing but my sports bra on on top, too. If only I could think of it as summer, I'd be able to even enjoy this, but my "living life" psychology seems to be immune to placebo effects. I wonder how much money I'd be wasting to open the windows...

Found this 11.5 minute movie on YouTube. Apparently it was the winner of Best Narrative Short at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar. I enjoyed it, but then again it somewhat catered to my weird-ass tastes.

TGIF!

[EDIT: Alright, the end of this video was cool:
]

I don't write about China enough. I mean to, but my life here pretty day-to-day and full of me doing things that aren't in any way remarkable or exotic, and so sometimes I forget that life in China, and particularly Harbin, is so very different from life in the US.

And so, in an attempt to make myself write more about China and at the same time deflect responsibility off my myself, I am coming to you guys!!

What do you want to know about life in China?

Ask anything! Big things, small things, whatever! People here ask me well-intentioned but vaguely offensive questions about life in America all the time, so don't worry too much if you don't think your question is not "PC" or whatever. I will be happy to dedicate an entire entry to everyone's questions about China, and so I write more, you read more, and everyone wins!!!

I guess Twitter's down right now?
The other day I was really in the mood for tortilla chips and salsa, so I bought some at Walgreens, but when I came home I discovered we had an open bag of tortilla chips so I had those instead. So now I opened the Tostitos chips I had bought, and am distressed with how unimpressive they are. Primarily, they're super thin and just kind of crumble at the slightest pressure, which makes for an oddly frustrating experience. So yeah, not buying Tostitos' tortilla chips again. :(