Thanks for stopping by.... and for the recent comments.... It really does work!
Well the New Year is already well underway.... The last few weeks one continuous blur of late nights, parties and celebrations of..... well.... just being here..... and different. If there is one thing the people here love to do it is to host a party.... and there are plenty of people here.... you can do the maths..... seven days in a week, plenty of people wanting to host a party and they love to invite foreign teachers..... and there's not many of us to go around, so it's been a busy social time..... and a whole heap of fun!
Christmas was spent with the other foreign teachers for a lazy afternoon lunch and some music, good conversation and plenty of laughs. Although we've only known each other for a few weeks, we are a pretty close knit mob. You have to be. We're all so far away from family and friends, we speak very little of the language..... which is fine when its a holiday.... different when you live here..... so we have to look out for each other. I'm lucky we have a really positive group of people here. It's easy to stay sunny even when the weather is grey and cold. Not that that happens very often.... I think there's been about three days where the sun hasn't been shining brightly for at least part of the day. So no matter how cold it is, if the sun shines I'm pretty happy. I guess its kind of screwed up to have your moods so set to the weather conditions.... but we all have our own buttons that get pressed!
So we had plenty of food. I missed the usual Christmas feast of seafood and turkey and salad, but trust me.... when you've been living on noodles and unusual Chinese foods (they eat anything and everything here!) a home made pizza with real cheese, Pringles, Kit Kats, fruit, Nang (Uyghur Bread) and other assorted goodies was to die for!
I loved my start to that day too. I was woken by a ringing phone.... on the other end was Karen sounding all Christmas cheery. It was a great start to a day that just kept getting better..... at night I called my family as they were gathered in Perth, at my sisters place. This time I joked around with my Brother-in-law, and spent a bit of time catching up with George. Sometimes I need to remind myself of the people that are important in my life. Then it was off to the local watering hole where we sang some songs and socialised with many of our new local friends. They have all made us feel so welcome, it was fitting to include them in our big day for the year.
The New Year was a fairly quiet evening. I guess all the parties caught up with me on Saturday night and I got ill. Turns out that my diet was lacking some pretty important stuff..... like nutrients..... I got a bit disoriented. I'd like to think it was only due to being blonde..... but alas I cannot back that up in fact any longer... as my blonde locks are now slowly leaving me. So, New Years Eve was a dinner with some friends at my apartment, watching Roses' music video on the TV and chilling out with some wine. Then at 1130 we headed down to the Culture Street, a walking boulevarde with galleries, a big screen TV and clock tower, fountains and a big ice slide to muck around on. We got into the celebrations with the Drum Troupe, the ringing of the bells using a large carved dragons head (not mine!). We saw the New Year in at about -15 degrees then went on to look at some gallery exhibitions of photographs from around Karamay. It was a cruisy night spent with some new friends and thinking of what my friends in Sydney were up to. I felt a bit reflective for a short while later that night and relaxed into the feeling the whole of the next day. Sometimes the best times are the quiet ones that afford you a chance to touch base with your thoughts and feelings. I enjoyed the peace.
Well thats it for now.... I trust you have all had a safe and equally enjoyable entry into what is going to be a year of development for so many people I know. It is the year of the Monkey coming up.... a year of new beginnings.... in whatever way you wish to interpret that. May it be a grand one for you and those you love.....
Come on back to the Dragons Blog again soon.......
