The Christmas Holidays (and a note to say 新年快乐!)
We have had a wonderful Christmas holiday so far, with a number of visits from friends and relatives and many special meals and memories. Over the next few days we will probably post a number of short posts, reporting on a number of the things that we have done over the break.
The couple of weeks before returning from university were very busy. The first week I had an important essay to work on and two presentations to prepare and give. The second week was busy with studies, but was more filled with cooking! I helped prepare two full Christmas meals, the first one for twelve people, the second for nine. I really love cooking and entertaining friends. There are few things better than eating well with good friends. Every Sunday we have a traditional roast meal (roast chicken or beef, for example, with roast potatoes, gravy, carrots, parsnips, served with fine wine), usually preceded by a special soup and followed by a dessert. It takes a lot of time to prepare, but it is one of my favourite times of the week. Over the last week of term, I had to make a lot of extra desserts, cakes and pies. I think that I probably made five separate batches of mince pies over the week and a lot of triple chocolate brownies. When I return to university I am hoping to learn some Chinese cooking. If any of you have some nice traditional Chinese recipes, please send them on to me!
I travelled back from university by bus on Saturday the 16th. I didn’t sleep at all the night before, but I wasn’t too tired. Just before I returned home, my Chinese teacher showed me how to set up my computer so that I can type in Chinese characters. Lots of fun! I just need to learn a few thousand more of them now.
I don’t know what it is like in Chinese, but in English about 20 words account for upwards of 30% of our speech (perhaps we really are just boring conversationalists!). I hope that this is true of Chinese as well as that is a reassuring statistic, if ever I saw one! I might utterly fail to understand approximately 70% of what you are saying, but it would be nice to know that, simply by learning 20 words really well, I would be able to nod in understanding to 30%+ of what you say!
Learning Chinese has been a lot of fun so far. My Chinese teacher is simply superb; she puts so much time and effort into preparing and giving our lessons. She is also incredibly generous and even cooked us an absolutely delicious Chinese meal a few weeks ago. On top of all of this, she is long-suffering enough to cope with my interruption of her disciplined revision schedule with questions on MSN and via e-mail about how to say certain things in Chinese!
Despite my being a little apprehensive, the bus journey really wasn’t that bad. It took several hours from Dundee to Manchester. Last year when I returned for Christmas it took me almost eleven hours by train, but that was largely due to problems on the line. In Manchester I met up with my brother Jonathan (Jonathan is doing a linguistics degree in Manchester University and so he often goes up there during the week) and we took the train from Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent together. Jonathan is also studying Chinese at the moment. We are at about the same level and were able to practice together. Mark seems to be interested in the idea of learning some Chinese, but I think that he needs a little more persuasion before he actually does so. (Go on, Mark, you know that you want to!)
Returning home is always strange after an extended period of absence. While all of my family and most of my books are here, I don’t quite feel at home here anymore, although it is certainly great to see people again. The day after I returned home, we had a number of people over for a Sunday lunch, including Laura and Emma, who really are almost like little sisters to us sometimes!
Mark arrived back on Monday the 18th (if I remember correctly). Over the week running up to Christmas we had a number of activities taking up our evenings (films, special meals, etc.) and I tried to do a little revision (without much success) during the days. I had a bad cold throughout that week, so I didn’t manage to get anywhere near as much work done as I had hoped to. Fortunately, the cold didn’t detract from most of the enjoyment of the week. Perhaps one of the highlights was going out for a special meal in Chinatown in Manchester with Peter, Jonathan, Jonathan’s wife Monika and her sister Jessika. 好吃！
On Christmas Eve we had a number of relatives over to visit, which was very special. We ate a big salmon between us and were able to spend time together again for the first time in over a year. We have some wonderful cousins, and it is always a lot of fun to meet up with them again! Unfortunately, our cousin John had not yet returned from France, where he is working at the moment.
Over the Christmas period many of the rooms of the house have special decorations. Our front room has a Christmas tree, covered with twinkling lights, tinsel, baubles, stars and chocolate. All of the presents, wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, are stored beneath the tree. There are lights around some of the walls and special Christmas candles. In our front room we have some special Christmas plants as well. In other parts of the house we have streamers.
Over the Christmas period we eat a number of very special foods (not good if you want to lose weight!). We eat mince pies, Christmas puddings and Christmas cakes. Over the last couple of years Jonathan has decorated our Christmas cake. He is very gifted at it and the marzipan on the cake this year is absolutely amazing, showing a number of different scenes from the Christmas story!
Christmas Day is perhaps the most special day of the year. Our Christmas Day usually begins earlier than other days. When we were younger we weren’t able to sleep for most of the night before, because we were so excited! Christmas morning starts with opening stockings. Each person has a stocking (like a very big sock!) stuffed with little presents, things to eat and other surprises. Opening one’s stocking is always a lot of fun!
At about 9 o’clock we eat a special breakfast together. It has become a family tradition for my mother to make a Swedish tearing — absolutely delicious! After breakfast we usually each open one present. This year Mark, Peter and I put together a big hamper full of presents for Jonathan and Monika. It had a number of special foods and chocolates, some ‘smellies’ (special shower gel), something nice for them to drink and a few books that we knew that they would enjoy.
After breakfast is over we go to a meeting of our church, which is always very special. Christmas is one of the most joyful times of the year for Christians and our church is like an extended family for us. It is always wonderful to be able to share joy with others.
In the afternoon we eat the Christmas meal. Traditionally, the Christmas meal consists of turkey, served with roast potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, stuffing, gravy and other things like that. There are few things as satisfying as a well prepared Christmas meal! Following the main course, we move on to desserts. The traditional dessert for a Christmas meal is Christmas pudding, served with white sauce, but we usually have a number of other desserts along with it.
This year we had about fifteen people in the house over Christmas Day, from a number of different parts of the world. Correy, the friend who first invited us to go over to China, was with us for the day as well. After the Christmas meal is over and all the washing up is completed, we start to open the presents. Each year we have a ‘postman’ (usually Peter) who gives a present to each person in turn. By the end of the present-opening the floor is generally covered with wrapping paper! Each year friends and family are incredibly good to us and give us some very generous gifts. It is very special to know that people really care about you. Christmas reminds us of how much we are loved, both by God and by others. This year Mark and I received a very special present each: knitted scarves from Gillian! We have worn them a number of times since and they are very warm and cosy.
After Christmas, life slowly returns to its usual pace. The turkey is soon finished and the many cakes and desserts are gradually eaten. Those of us who have exams coming up start to work on our revision. The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me. I return to university in St. Andrews on January 4th and have important exams on the 10th and the 13th. There is a lot of work to get done between now and then.
After Christmas we still have some special celebrations. Last night we went around to Jonathan and Monika’s and ate a special Korean meal — ramyon, kimchi and bulgogi! Tomorrow many of the family will be traveling down south to visit relatives (I am revising). I will end this post with a rather silly video that Mark and I made two days ago. It shows some of the Christmas decorations in our house and some of the strange things that we get up to when we are bored in the early hours of the morning!
新年快乐！
