Christmas and all that stuff:

Ah, Christmas- a time to spend with family, eating and drinking while preparing for a night of presents and laughter. I thought going through the holiday would make me homesick, and was mildly surprised that it didn't. Somehow being placed in an environment completly foreign from your own has a way of making you feel as though the holidays don't matter so much. Christmas is celebrated in Chengdu, but it's different. Very different.

My Christmas started the Thursday before. That afternoon I recieved a phone call from my Chinese roommate informing me that I had an already scheduled appointment with her that evening. This was news to me, but the plan included eating, so I was in. Later that evening, we were taken to her friend's place where we were treated to a special Christmas dinner and presents. The appointment phone call had initially annoyed me: I hadn't been clued in to that evening's plans until the last minute. Being so well treated by complete strangers changed my thinking on the matter. From what I gathered, they didn't ordinally celebrate Christmas, but because they knew we did they made dinner and bought us gifts.

The following day I packed up enough clothes for the weekend, shoved the bottles of margarita mix and tequila into the bottom of my new TrustMart bag and left with a few classmates for the mountains. We were first taken by private car to a hotel located about an hour outside the city. The hotel was quite literally in the middle of nowhere, the only draw being that it was located next to hot springs.

We sat in the hot springs for a little over an hour. The heat felt great after spending the last few weeks freezing in my house. Our hot water has been next to zilch lately, so I tried to soak up as much warmth as I could. It was great.

After drying off we drove further, our destination being some cabins in the mountains. We pulled onto a one lane road that was situated precariously on the edge of a ravine. The driver drove like mad while we all hung on for dear life. Fortunately, the drive was short and we all made it in one piece.

When we arrived, the owners of the cabins came out to greet us. It was then that we realized the place was closed for the winter, but they had opened especially for us. Dinner was served in the restauarant part of the resort, everything was wonderful as always.

That evening, we retreated to a main room where there was a fireplace and Christmas karaoke. The entire complex had been decorated for Christmas, and Sarah had made a box full of Christmas cookies. I spent most of the evening trying to avoid the karaoke microphone and eating cookies. Sarah told me she had made well over one hundred, I'm sure I ate at least the first hundred.

The next day we decided to take a hike up one of the mountains. The retreat was situated far from any development, the only signs of life being a few peasant homes nearby. There was a trail up one of the mountains that led to a Temple.

The trail was incredibly steep, although it wasn't hard enough to be unpleasant. We walked up a jagged stairway for a couple of hours before finally arriving at the top. Along the way we got lost once, found a really deep hole to throw rocks in, and found the biggest bee in China to take pictures of. I don't know what this type of bug (shall I say, beast?) was, but I do know that one of them once dive-bombed me while I was trying to buy a bootleg DVD. I'm totally-totally-totally-completelyfreakedoutI'mgoingtodieandnobody'sgoingtoknow-scared of bees. My classmates, being much more smart and science-ier than me, just had to stop and take pictures. Just the sight of the bee was making important organs such as my brain shut down, so I opted to continue up the hill. I'll be posting pictures of godzilla's offspring as soon as I get them. Later that afternoon we decided to head out to see one of the tourist sites nearby. It was described to me as a "some old rich guy's house." We arrived, checked the entrance fee (way too expensive), and opted to hang out in the parking lot for a while, checking out the vendor's goods. In the far corner of the lot sat a group of old men in front of their honeybee nests. Nearby sat several jars of honey, just waiting for a brave tourist to enter the danger zone and buy one. I was not that tourist. We didn't actually go in the rich old guy's mansion, but we still had fun. We ate pinapple-on-a-stick, discovered some mint candy, found the back door and tried to sneak into the mansion, and wandered around. It was fun.

That evening we sat around the fire, telling stories of ghosts and drinking warm margaritas. When the margaritas were finished, we bought several bottles of wine and finished those off too.

After breakfast the next day, we packed up our stuff and left for a mountain ski resort called xilingxue shan. The "xue" part of that word means snow, but there was little to be found. As we pulled up to the park entrance, we asked the man selling tickets if we would find snow at the top of the mountain. If we rode the gondolla to the top, he assured us, we would find snow. I'm a heights person, I love being in tall skyscrapers and admiring the view from someone's top-floor apartment. But even with that mindset, the Chinese gondolla was still a scary ride.
The top of the mountain was cluttered with all sorts of odd tourist activities. There was paintball (we think- check out the picture below), an ice Great Wall, a hot air balloon, and what looked like a Chinese version of a luge slide. The actual ski run was lamer than the bunny hill, with maybe three inches of compacted snow making it just possible to slide down the hill rather than ski. Nevertheless, the Chinese tourists were decked out for a full blown ski trip and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm not sure if you can see what the English caption says at the bottom of this picture. It reads: "We provide arms and ammunition as well as targets. You can experience the excitement of killing!"

After surveying all that the "resort" had to offer, we opted to spend 30kuai for a ride on the luge. The fee included a ride further up the mountain in another, even scarier looking gondola. As the gondola rounded the last stretch of track, the operator pulled open the door for us to get in. As he did so, we all looked on in horror as the door literally came off in his hands and fell to the cement floor. Completely unfazed by this, the operator signaled for us to wait pulled open the door of the next car, shouting for us to get in.
The ride to the top was uneventful, and we got off the car unhurt. I've never been on a luge before, but I think on a luge the rider usually lays on a sled. We however, sat on a go-cart type of car, complete with hand brake that worked about as well as the brakes on my bike. I watched from the top as Sarah took the plunge, then I sat on the car and gave myself a good push. The slide started out rather slow, but as it continued, the car started going faster and faster. Soon I was having to use the handbrake to keep from flying over the sides of the track on the curves. As I rounded one curve, I came face to face with a HUGE rat. I'm not normally scared of rats, but this one had me freaked out. I screamed, pulling my handbrake as far as it would go. The rat ran out of the way, and I was left sitting on the track.

We ate lunch at one of the degected looking hotels The place was nearly empty, but it was the only one that looked as though the construction was completed.

That evening we drove back to Chengdu. Discussing with friends beforehand, I discovered a new holiday tradition: bat bashing. On Christmas eve everyone gathers around the fire and-- wait, that's America. In Chengdu, the people gather in downtown with inflatable bats and hit each other. No kidding.

The gathering place for Christmas eve festivities is a street named Chunxilu. It's the main shopping centers in Chengdu, much like Westlake in downtown Seattle. My friends had told me of this tradition, and then in all ernestness warned me not to go. How could I not, when they had just filled me in on all the details? The bat bashing in Chunxilu has become so violent and out of control the past couple of years, that rumour was the police were going to try and put a stop to it.

We arrived Chunxilu just in time to see the police forming lines and pushing people out of the shopping area. This left only one place for them to go: the streets. Instead of one mega-crowd engaged in bat bashing, this left gangs of roaming teenage boys ready to take out their energy on passing foreigners. For the most part, people without bats were left out of the brawls, but when one of my classmates bought one, it was all we could do to walk a block without getting attacked. Eventually the police caught on to what was happening, and began confiscating or popping bats. On each corner sat a pile of deflated Christmas cheer.


In comparison to the weekend, Christmas day was pretty mild. We made omelets, and then watched movies until we couldn't put off the homework any longer. We were supposed to be in class that day, but from what I hear, my teacher showed up to an empty room. Oh well.

Sorry for taking so long to update. Things have been busy as usual, and I've been having a hard time staying connected to the internet. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays!