Lets get the Party Started

This past Saturday we had two parties.  One of them was Solange’s birthday party and the other was the wards Christmas Party.  For Solange’s birthday we went to the Lama Temple.  This temple is a Tibetan Buddhist Temple and it is not only a worshiping place, but it has been open up to the public as a tourist site.  In the Lama Temple there is a Statue of a Buddha that is 18m tall above ground and 8m below.  It is a very tall statue and it amazes me that it is made out of a single tree. 

As we were looking around there were two main things that we discussed.  The first conversation was about the religious accessories in the shop.  Everything was over 300kuai and most things were not much less than 1000kuai.  I was looking at a bracelet made out of Beeswax that was 3000kuai.  I questioned how could anyone spend 3000kuai (about $500) on a bracelet, and Seth asked back “How much did your mission cost?” I had never thought about this, but it makes sense. “You cannot put a price on religious devotion”.  The second one was when we noticed that people were worshiping and we were standing there take pictures.  This is what our Temples would be like if we allowed people inside.  They would become tourist traps and the sacred aspect of our Temples would be defiled. 

When we were finished looking around at the Lama Temple we went over the President our Branch and we made omelets and ate birthday cake. The cake only cost 60kuai (about $10) and was custom decorated by a cake store for Solange (When Adam, Josh and I got our scholarships we bought a cake that had “Congrats on Scholarships” with our names around the edge of the cake).  Cake in china is very strange.  Most of the have little jellies in them, the kind that you would see in Bubble Tea.  It tastes good but the texture is a little weird. Solange really appreciated that we decided to celebrate her birthday but she did not know that we had bought her a cake.  I think it was a nice surprise for her.

After we cleaned up Josh, Adam and I went out and played some basketball.  It was a lot of fun.  I have never really enjoyed playing basketball all that much because I have never really felt that good at it.  However, playing with Josh and Adam I feel a little better about my basketball skills.  Not saying that they are horrible at basketball but neither of them are super stars at it, though both of them can hit those free throws pretty well. We had played the game 21 and in the game you can ally hoop the ball and it makes the other players return back to 0 if they are below 13 and back to 13 if they are above 13.  I apparently am pretty good at this, but that is about it.  Each of us won a game and at that point we decided to stop playing and get to the Christmas party.

The Christmas Party was just like any other Christmas party.  There was food and singing and performances.  Abby had performed a piece that combines Silent Night and I believe God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen that was very good.  I was in the choir and we performed a Blues Christmas song that was not the greatest and then Carol of the bells.  That song is not that hard with the exception for the men’s part at the end.  Everything went pretty well other than that part. We had Honey Ham, mash potatoes, salad, various desserts, and lots of other things, which was all very delicious.  It definitely was a great night even though it was this night that I had exhausted all of my funds.  I was not too worried about it but I still had a week left.

On Wednesday this week we also had a class Christmas party.  It was at the restaurant that we had eaten at before with Brother Galer and with the class.  The food was still just as good.  At the restaurant we had our Secret Santa gift exchange, I had Che Zhan He (this is the quiet Koreans name in Chinese) and I bought his one of those basketball hoops that you hang on the wall.  He said he liked his gift, which I am glad about since I had no idea what to get him that was under our 30kuai cap. Lee Eun Won had me and bought me an 8 foot by 18 inch scarf.  It is massive, but it is so very warm, and could not have come any sooner.  The weather here in Beijing has become progressively colder and wearing 2 sweatshirts is almost not cutting it.    Fortunately I don’t have too many days left here so I just need to endure the last little bit and then I’ll be able to have a nice warm jacket and gloves.  I sang Silent Night for my class because they like to hear me sing and then Alessandro wanted me to sing Come What May from Moulin Rouge.  Everyone really liked it especially my teachers.  It was a good night but really I wanted to get going because I didn’t want Emily to leave by herself and I also didn’t want to be out too late, especially since I was supposed to have a movie night with Josh and Adam. It has been a lot of fun spending time with my classmates and friends, and I’m glad that I have the opportunity to do so.