rupert and hannah

Hello All. Happy new year to everyone!

We'll be celebrating it 8 hours ahead of you, so when you guys are singing auld lang syne or some variation thereof, no doubt with liberally applied beer, we will be just waking up.

I taught my last lesson today, which was kinda sad. We are now effectively on holiday till mid-february. Ahh, the tough life...! Some funny stuff has happened today. After my last lesson, I was mugged by loads (well, 15) of my female students who insisted on having their photos taken with me, individually, one by one! About half an hour later the photo session was over, so I went back home, to be met by a screaming flat full of Hannah's students making dumplings for us. The food they are cooking is very yummy, but our flat has kinda been over-run. See the photo as an example. We are holding a NYE party tonight, dunno how that will go, it should be a laugh. Hope you all have good nights!

Just a little post to wish you all a happy Christmas and a great new year. It is kinda hard to get in the festive spirit because Christmas aint that popular over here (we had to teach on Boxing Day - I am giving the final exams to my students, so they are all very nervous, mwhahaha!).

A few days before Christmas many of my classes held Christmas parties in their classrooms. We went along because they had invited us. It was very strange, they treated us like celebrities, screaming and cheering when we walked into their classroom and giving us presents (of mostly sweets) and a card. Every class without fail asked us to perform a song or do a dance (the Chinese have no shame and will sing and dance in front of any crowd no matter how bad they are). We politely refused.

The photo is from one of the more raucous parties - you can see me in the middle with a hat on - hiding my pretty short hair - we've got a Webcam now so if you Skype us you can check out the hair Live!....hmmm.

A week before Christmas, we went to a Christmas party organized by the government for the foreigners. It was very interesting. We saw loads of foreigners we hadn't seen before, most from other towns on the island. Some of them were pretty ghastly, including the foreigner who made a speech on behalf of all the other foreigners. He was pretty odd - a failed industrial physiologist who had originally come to Hainan on a failed agriculture venture. He claimed to be a teacher, but when the translator couldn't understand him, he just shouted the word she couldn't understand very loud again and again - a horrible man. Later on one of the Chinese Government officials gave a speech in English. It was very amusing, because he kept on going on about how his office was one of 'friendship, openness, peace and copulation' and how that one day Haikou will also be a city of 'friendship, openness, peace and copulation' - we think he meant cooperation. Strange dreams....

Anyway, Xmas was fun, we went for what was billed as a Traditional Western Christmas Dinner in a 5-Star hotel. It turned out to be Turkey and vermicilli with vegetables, so traditional. It was still yummy though.

Well, our 40-day holiday is in about two weeks, so we really can't complain. We are getting very excited about it and have begun to plan where we are going. Have a great NYE people, we will be celebrating it with some students and a bottle of green 'wine' we were given as a present by the College. It taste somewhat like mouthwash - but it does the job!