Let's get down to it; Christmas was not-so-fantastic this year. It is truly a holiday that is meant to be spent with family. It came and went this year and I can honestly say it felt nothing like what I'm used to. I hope to never miss another Christmas with my family. They mean the world to me and spending such an
important holiday away from home helped me realize that even more. Sometimes I take them for granted. Actually, many times in my life I have taken my family for granted. This year I think I truly realized how blessed I am to have such an amazing, supporting, loving family. On a brighter note, Christmas Even was pretty good. I know that totally contradicts what I just said, but given the circumstances it was good. A bunch of the foreigners all gathered at one of the apartments and had dinner. Everyone brought a typical dish from their country. The food was excellent. We also had a secret santa gift exchange, which was fun as well. Christmas day was blah. The bright spot, however, was breakfast at McDonald's with Kait. Of course it didn't even come close to some good old fashioned egg casserole, but it did the job. I did get to talk with the family via Skype on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, so that was nice. Well and it sucked. But mostly it was nice. The picture on the right and below is from our Christmas Eve party.
New Year's was a good time as well. We went to dinner with a lot of people and then just went downtown to a bar to celebrate. Again, it didn't really feel like new year's, but I do have to say it was better than Christmas day. Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time here and have made some amazing friends. But the holidays are just different away from home. Much different. Almost as if they don't exist. I mean they do exist, but it's like they don't. Like I know we had December 25th and January 1st here this year, but it just wasn't the same. Ok, I'm done. The picture below is of Fritz and I on new year's. I'm not as grown up as I look. Trust me.
I have also gone on a couple short trips over the past month. The first one was to a city called Yangshuo. It is about an hour and a half away and is a very popular city to go see. It is very touristy. The city is beautiful. It is surrounded by mountains. I went there with some friends for a night and then met up with some of the other foreign teachers/student
s the next day to take part in a massive (massive as in 300 people on each team) tug-of-war game. Later in the night we saw a show on the water with the mountains lit up in the background. It really was beautiful. I tried to get some pictures but they didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. The next short one night trip I went on was to a city a little further away called HeZhou (prounced huh joe, or something like that...who knows). I went with a buddy of mine, Erik. He is from Estonia and has been teaching in China for a little over a year. Good dude. It was me, him, Charlie (his Chinese roommate), and a bunch of Charlie's colleagues. The main attraction there was the hot springs. Erik and I traveled there by ourselves and planned on meeting Charlie at the bus station. Well, we got to the bus station and called Charlie, but no answer. We waited for about 30 minutes until he finally called back. He was in the hot spring. Fair enough. Erik and I took a taxi to downtown where we were supposed to meet up with Charlie. He and his colleagues showed up about an hour later. It gave us a chance to walk around and see the city a little bit. We eventually went to dinner and then to a KTV (karaoke bar, but you get your own private room). We were there the rest of the night. Toward the end of the night there the Chinese guys taught Erik and I a gambling game. Of course I refrained. I mean, come on, my parents taught me better than to gamble. Especially with guys I don't know in a foreign country playing a game I'd never seen before. I won 100 yuan. Suckers. The picture to the left is of the hot springs. The picture below if from Yangshuo. It's Fritz, Carmine, Ricca (a Chinese friend), and myself.
A few more things...A special thanks goes out to John for booking my ticket back home for Kyle and Katie's wedding on June 4th. I am super excited and very thankful to John for using his miles on me. I know they could've gone to much better use, so thank you so incredibly much.
Happy birthday Rohlf, and happy birthday Chad. Joe's birthday is today and Chad's is the 5th.
A big congratulations to Calvin Clark and Melissa Lewis on their engagement. Wowzers, I can't believe it. Seems like yesterday we were in Ross Hall getting caught for making a beer pong table (sorry Mom and Dad...never told you about that one). But I wish the best for you two and can't wait for the wedding.
As always, I hope this post finds you all well. I miss you all and love you all very much. Life is good my friends. I hope 2011 brings you all the happiness in the world.
-Kevin
This is a picture of one of my classes. Fantastic.
