|
With short winter days and the countdown beginning, the sound of Christmas
carols became a soft reassuring that it wasn’t long until the two
day holiday would arrive. Walking the street to the blast of hard forceful
wind trying to uplift and deliver you quicker to the place of need, I
was thinking that I was going against mother- nature and being scolded
for not obeying her. Before long, it was time to buy the annual Christmas
tree and decorations to make my house more family orientated, even though
my house was quite cold with one central air conditioner short circuiting
every time I used the DVD player, turn on the lights and the microwave.
I decided to visit many of the back streets of Qingdao looking for the
best of the best decorations that would fill my house, but all that was
really noticeable were the shops housing or trying to display the decorations
that had been stored every year and then wiped over with water to make
them shine with the small ray of sun present. My heart was not happy as
there were more Santa cardboard cut-outs and Christmas music playing,
than the quality of decorations being sold. Raiding through a market which
sells every knick-knack available, I finally settled on finding some decorations
that would add some color to the white cold dull walls, while setting
the ambience of a would be Christmas back home.
The final days leading up to Christmas were giving me feelings of joy
and slight sadness as this was the time of giving and sharing with family,
except my family was twelve hours away and sweating it out in the high
summer heat and I in low temperatures of winter. With the visual display
of Christmas flowing around the streets, there was a small amount of snow
that blanketed the ground with visible footprints parting in all directions,
as people walked around busily looking at the many shops. The landscape
of bare brown tree’s holding onto the small piles of snow in their
forks was like a scene from a fairytale that added to the droplets of
melted snow falling from the tree branches. Christmas was nearly here.
The window displays ranged from shop to shop as if they were competing
for the annual Christmas awards with the customers voting in a secret
poll. My vote was going to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, for its innovated approach
to the Christmas spirit, while entertaining the children. The hotel displayed
a bridge over a small pond with Santa and reindeer housed in the middle,
while surrounding the ground area with a mixture of farm and safari animals.
Standing and taking pictures for memories in later years, I quickly acknowledged
secretly that for many years Christmas may not be about the birth of Jesus
and as foreigners we had it all wrong, as Christmas maybe about the animals
of Africa and country farms… Well maybe in China!
I traced back in my mind of growing up in Australia and not having Christmas
with snow only summer heat. So living abroad in a country such as China
or Europe gives me a great feeling of what Christmas feels like, instead
of receiving the Christmas card every year as a child, with the picture
of snow on the front cover, and the words saying ‘Merry Christmas’.
Being given two days off for Christmas, I awoke to the bright sun rays
beaming through my window and slightly hitting my eyes. Opening them wide
to see if the snow had fallen the night before, I could see people walking
and chatting as they walked the street.
After half an hour of calling home to wish everyone a happy Christmas,
I called my good friend Jan and had a short chat about our plans for the
evenings dinner and the exchanging of presents, before proceeding outside
to find that Christmas was just a normal day of shopping.
Traveling around Carrefour and viewing the Chinese Santa all skinny
and wearing an oversized red outfit, that was tied up several times with
the black belt, and a poorly white beard. I was on a mind search of finding
a real oversize Santa, even though I knew the closest thing was a fake
plastic three meter battery operated Santa vibrating and laughing to the
tunes of Christmas carols and the array of locals buying everything that
was Christmas minus the baby Jesus.
* * * * *
Savoring the delights of Christmas and smiling at the look on Jan’s
face when she saw me dressed in a traditional Chinese outfit was memorable.
The outfit was made of bright shiny silk and stitched with gold Chinese
symbols all over. I was brighter than the traffic lights. Arriving at
the restaurant with Jan, everyone stopped eating and glanced quickly with
their heads turning at full speed like they were watching an F1 race.
I couldn’t tell if the Christmas tree in the foyer of the hotel
was brighter or if I could have been a decoration ready to be hung on
it. Everyone was excited to see the foreigner dressed so elegantly in
traditional Chinese clothing and I for one, was forgetting the downside
of not having family around for Christmas. Over the evening of indulging
the food and alcohol that felt to me like a last meal catering for everyone’s
taste. I was happy to be sharing my Christmas in China and with the people.
There was music and the visual images of children enjoying the spirit
of Christmas, as carols were playing through the ceiling speakers, which
gave the ambience of heaven angels singing and the soft glow of candle
lights illuminating the room. Christmas was one western tradition that
had many of the Chinese on the street and in the room celebrating and
embracing. I was thinking that maybe in a few more years to come, China
will embrace the spirit further by declaring it a short break for all
to enjoy. Only time would tell…
* * * * *
With having the past two days off, it was time to embark back at work
before the big event of New Year’s Eve and the array of fireworks
that signify the end of a long year and the beginning of the new. Preparing
to organize a dinner was the easy part, but finding where the fireworks
in Qingdao were going to take place, ended on the beach with a group of
foreigners waving sparkles and letting small bangs fly into the air.
Beginning the evening all gathering still in the cold winter air and
arriving at a restaurant with the show of what you want to eat on display.
It reminded me of entering a lucky door prize with the winner not knowing
the outcome. Taking place around a table consisting of two, we all chatted
while the beer flowed before moving forward to ordering. I for one was
a little nervous of what to eat as it was a like game of pick and eat.
The restaurant was proud that they offered a huge range of fine food lined
up in the different categories from seafood to scorpions. YES! Scorpions!
As the food arrived, the scene was an array of color and not just from
the foreigners dressed in silly outfits but the plates assembling on the
table. The mixture of aromas were beginning to linger through my nose
and drawing me back to the arrival dinner that took place ten months ago.
This time around the highlight wasn’t the new foreigner but instead
a plate full of fried scorpions, on shreds of prawn crackers starring
at you and ready to attack. Holding the tail, I placed one on my tongue,
closed my mouth and began chewing over and over. They taste and texture
was of pork skin, deep fired and flavored with salt. I was hooked and
ate the plate of scorpions as if being at the movies enjoying the surroundings
and placing popcorn in my mouth over and over until all was gone.
With the evening progressing smoothly and all very happy, it was time
to light the sparkles and have a small celebration of western New Year,
even though here in China, we still had time a couple of hours to go.
After a short moment the decision to party was in full swing and I was
about to take Jan to the place that had all the foreigners partying at
every weekend, the ‘Jazz Bar.’ Arriving a short time later
the bar doors were open and the flood of heads and bodies dancing to the
beats of music was in full swing.
I was taken back a little at how, even though being in a foreign country,
people are all the same no matter if your eastern, western, black or white,
cultures combine when the spirits of friendship are formed.
Quickly ordering drinks and dancing, the night seemed to take shape
that would last forever in my heart and the countdown to the New Year
was only minutes away. I filled my glass with beer and proceeded to wait
for the big bang of fireworks to happen, but to my surprise the only real
big bang at the time was all the people in the club drinking and cheering
as a clock rang.
|
