Christmas Performance Rewind

Well, we did! We successfully performed for 30 minutes of the Crazy English Christmas party this weekend. After a quick dress rehearsal, we were prepared to put on a show!

Our team was the first group up to perform. We began the evening with a "moving" presentation of the Nativity story mimed and narrated (We were all moving around the stage, just without words. I hope it was more moving than just that). At the conclusion we all sang "Jesus, Born on this Day."

No time for rest as we were also the second group up on stage to perform again. We quickly changed our costumes by putting on Santa hats before presenting the Christmas caroling tradition to the students by singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". That was fun and almost makes me want to pick up a candle, put some hot chocolate in a thermos, don the Santa hat, and knock on doors singing Christmas songs.

We were followed by some student performances including "Silent Night" in Chinese and a Chinese version of the parable of the lost son. The lost son story is very meaningful to Chinese and is often used as one of the greatest examples of the Father's love. We've even been able to share this story to some students this year!

We concluded our performance with a Christmas edition of "Family Feud" pitting audience members against one another for some awesome Christmas prizes. The girl team capped their comeback by correctly answering the final question.

And what performance would be complete without some karaoke to conclude the evening!

Merry Christmas!

What's It Like Outside Today?

It's a normal question: What's it like outside today? and especially if it determines whether we'll need 3 or 4 layers! If we ever wonder how cold it is outside, we could boot up the computer and check the latest weather update or we could buy ourselves a thermometer and stick it outside our window or we could just look out the window.

We have a coal plant out our window and have a perfect view from the 20th floor of the smoke (or steam or general pollution or as Kanyon would say, "clouds") coming out the smoke stacks. Since we've been looking at it for over a year now, we can tell the temperature by the amount of smoke visible on any given day.

(You can also use the same coal plant to determine how close we are to spring. Just check out how much coal is left in the pile. It'll be gone by the time the warm temps come back around!)

Look at the picture above, what's the temperature? By the amount of smoke, it's about -7F (-22C)!

Sheng Dan Kuai Le 圣诞快乐

Time for a little seasonal Chinese lesson. I still find it so awesome the way words are formed and this is another great example.

Sheng 圣 means holy, sage, or emperor
Dan 诞 means be born or birthday
Kuài le 快乐 means happy

Put Shengdan together to mean Christmas (a holy emperor's birthday, so true!).

Put the characters together to mean Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We hope all your holiday travels are safe (especially with the huge ice storm/blizzard in Texas) and that you all enjoy the time off from work celebrating with family and friends. We are remembering each of you this week as we celebrate in China.

Beijing's Winter Wonderland

As we traveled back and forth to the hospital in Beijing, we often passed the Bird's Nest, the National stadium that hosted the 2008 Olympics. Kanyon would point out the taxi window and say, "football." While that was true once (the stadium hosted an Italian soccer match), what is the Bird's Nest up to now?

The stadium first drew revenue from tourists (like us in May) paying to step inside the stadium just to be a part of history. But those numbers fell from 50,000 visitors per day immediately after the Olympics to a couple of thousand in recent days. The stadium costs some 200,000 RMB ($30,000) per day to operate and those numbers would not cover the cost.

The stadium turned next to other events including a Jackie Chan concert, a Zhang Yimou opera performance, and some famous Formula 1 stars in a rally race. But has found little to keep it in the black. The problem is such that the original operator returned operations to the government after only 12 months of a 30 year contract.

The government's first attempt to create revenue is Beijing largest winter wonderland.

Birds Nest tries snow business¹ (December 17, 2009, Shanghai Daily)
China's iconic national stadium, rarely used since the Olympics, has found a new purpose: hosting a snowy winter wonderland in the heart of Beijing. Mounds of artificial snow and mini ski slopes await local visitors and tourists who are expected to flock to the snow festival's opening on Saturday to reacquaint themselves with the Bird's Nest, which dazzled millions during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games but has since largely lacked the roar of the crowd. Creating this snowy wonderland does not come cheap. It will cost the company running the sports ground some 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million) to complete and maintain the transformation. The Huaibei Ski Resort has contributed technicians, and snow machines have been pumping out artificial snow 24 hours a day since December 10.


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¹ ZGBriefs for December 17, 2009
² Bird's Nest Snow World Reuters Photo