I have two students who are best friends and who are totally in love with me. Every day they come knock on my door and when I answer they have nothing to say, they just kind of stare wide-eyed and start laughing. This Christmas they wrote a song and lyrics for me and performed it in my living room as sort of an R&B duet. Here are the lyrics:

Because of you by Jaylo and Steven

Sorry, I cannot forget you. I really miss you.
When the first time I see you.
Baby. Do you notice me. Staying behind you.
I couldnt stop miss you.
Snowing carry heart.
Since I will love you.
Please believe you. I will stay behind you.
Because of you love.
Because of you smile.
Because of I really fall in love in you.
I wanna say thanks to you.
I wanna be love with you.
I will let you know.
Because of you eye.
Because of you heart
Because I take you hand out of my car.
Since the first night
Since the first night
I will take care of you forever.

And I have it all on video. :)

In what may go down as the must surreal Christmas of my life, I dressed up as "Blair" the sexy "cat-witch" from the Japanese manga Soul Eater and did a performance with my school's Cosplay club for a crowd of about 1500.

My life is awesome.

Merry Christmas from China! This is what greeted me as I entered the school today. I was rushing, running through my lesson plan in my head, and he made me stop in my tracks and laugh out loud. Things like this are what I love about China.



This week I taught my students how to make caramel popcorn in class. They'd never tried it before! I bribed them into sending you a Christmas message before they got to eat. This is class KO84, arguably my worst class ever...but for treats they'll do anything! :)

I'd be lying if I said I'm not missing home. This is my first Christmas away from my family and I miss you all dearly. Its not the same without you. But as my student poetically told me, your family always lives in your heart. Thank you for the gifts and the emails and the messages of love. I can feel your love 7000 miles away. You'll be in my heart this Christmas, as always.

Peace, love, and joy.

Hey there...if you're a subscriber to my feed I apologize for that last post. It was a creative writing exercise not meant to be posted to my blog.
Merry christmas!

Hainan was awesome. I flew solo and didn't take many photos because I was too busy soaking in the sunshine and making new friends. The first photo is me at "The End of the Earth" (the symbol means "love") and the second photo is me fishing in the South China Sea. Now that I'm back in the real world, my brain is occupied with how I am supposed to interview all of my students by the end of next week...so an excerpt from my journal, where I was describing the scene:

The amateurs are wearing matching Hawaiian print outfits: shirts, shorts, beach hat. It is so cute. They gleefully race towards the water and strike creative poses for the camera. Wife! Take a picture of me trying to do handstand! Now, pretending to drown! Look at meeee! Anything goes. They haven't forgotten how to play. There is absolutely no limit to their self-expression. A 50-something year old digs a hole and triumphantly sits in it. The old ladies dance like little girls, screaming when the waves hit their calves, holding hands. Foreigners are easy to spot, they are either too fat, too hairy, or too "cool." The Chinese people bring grocery bags to the water to wrap their feet in after they've washed them clean. Ingenious! The grandma/mom/toddler I've been watching trek back to their towel to suck on a straw that is stuck inside a watermelon. Strangers sit next to each other and laugh together. Hugging each others children.

I think I'm falling in love with China.

Above pictured: Thanksgiving 2!
I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss my family but I had such a great time with my new friends. It was loud and crowded and we played games til we were too tired to play anymore...just like home! If Christmas is anything like Thanksgiving, it will be a great holiday season.
I'm headed to Hainan for a long 5 day weekend...the ocean was calling my name!