Christmas, Round Two

The next day, I woke up bright and early for the Christmas party with my first years. I donned a festive, school-appropriate party dress (an oxymoron if I have ever heard of one) and a Santa hat (sans malfunctioning lights). I arrived; breakfast 美女雹 in hand, just in time to see another co-worker in a Santa outfit playing Christmas games with the class. The kids got up and sang songs and one girl gave a short performance. Although she is one of my best students academically, her performance was less than average- truly painful to watch. She used the music as a crutch, singly so softly that no one was able to hear her. In the middle of her song, she attempted a half dance move/ half jump (Mary Katherine Gallagher style) and fell. Trying to be helpful, another student turned down the music, which in turn flustered her even more. She snapped at him and after several seconds turned the music up louder than ever, which blasted our eardrums but helped her to regain the confidence needed to finish her performance.


Mary Katherine Gallagher character from Superstar/SNL.


After this uncomfortable exhibition, I had a performance of my own when the same girl invited me to join her in singing Edelweiss from the Sound of Music. Poor kids had their eardrums assaulted that day.

After the party and subsequent physics lesson, I raced home on my bike to make my apartment presentable for my Christmas Eve party later that night. Although I had not finished setting up, I had to leave for church that night as I had been invited to go with one of my students. I gave a ‘Hail Mary’ in order to find a cab during rush hour and was sitting in a taxi no less than five minutes later- a true Christmas miracle. The church service itself was unreal. There was the requisite choir but the alter background was emblazoned with signs that said "Merry Christmas" and a picture of a gingerbread man which served an interesting background as we joined the choir in singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah- in Chinese. After singing and sermon, they acted out the nativity scene, complete with a smoke machine.


Despite all the smoke and mirrors (pardon the pun), the sermon was actually quite excellent and biblically based. The preacher would speak briefly in Chinese and then translate into English. As a result, the church service was two and a half hours long. I lost track of time and didn’t realize that I was late for my own party until I received a text message from several partygoers waiting for me back home.

Christmas, round two. Check.