Thanksgiving in Wuhan

Since a few people had to work on Thursday, we had our big feast today (Saturday). I got up early this morning (well, relatively, at eight...but I didn't go to bed until two, so it felt really early...) to get started cooking. Micah came over mid-morning to bake his pumpkin pie; he doesn't have an oven.  Meanwhile, I got the carrots going and mashed my sweet potatoes.  We were about twenty minutes later leaving than we meant to be, and then had trouble getting a taxi, but we still ended up being some of the first ones there.

The Myers and the Lus hosted--they live across the hall from each other, so we could use both of their kitchens and living rooms.  We split the cost of the turkey--they are quite expensive here; chinese people don't eat turkey, so it's a specialty item at Metro (a bit like Sam's club; caters to foreigners).  The side dishes we brought potluck; I took glazed carrots with bacon and sweet potato casserole.  They both turned out even better than I expected; you never know because sometimes ingredients are a bit different here.  I have a few carrots left, but the sweet potatoes were cleared out fast.  I should get some more pecans while they have them and freeze them so that I can make more later, maybe for Christmas.

There was so much good food...two or three kinds of dressing, green bean casserole, bread, turkey, ham, tacos, deviled eggs (which I'd never eaten much of before, but am starting to like), sweet potatos, and plenty of other stuff. I had a piece of Micah's pumpkin pie for dessert--I love pumpkin pie. :)  Later, I snacked on a bit of Eric's no-bake cookies.

There were probably thirty to forty people there; of course the best part of Thanksgiving is spending time with family and friends.  While I am far away from family, I did get to talk to my grandparents and to my mother over skype, and having such a big party today with friends made it truly seem like a holiday.  I got to spend quite a while catching up with Ron, who I worked with in Jingzhou, who is visiting in China this month.  I also spent time with several of the workers who live at nearby campuses; we really need to get together more often to shop or play games.

After we ate, several people started up a big game of the card game golf (ask my mom or Sue if you're curious--they're experts.  Well, you could ask Dad or Doug, too, but you're more likely to get a good explanation from the first two :) )  I didn't play this time, but I watched the game as I spent some time talking with others.

It was a wonderful day.  The only problem is that now I just want to curl up with a blanket and look at my Christmas tree--but I need to get busy writing exam questions for the final for my writing class.


Edit: Alright, sorry for the rather haphazard placement of pictures.  The internet is being cantankerous tonight, and if you only knew how long it's taken me to get them on here at all...

Another Chapter Closes

Today was my last day with the bank!  The thought of this day has got me through the irritable Mondays, the boring Thursday afternoons, and the chaotic Saturdays, but now that it's here, it doesn't seem quite real.  It just feels like I'm on vacation so far.

My coworkers organized a pizza party for lunch for my farewell party, and were generally crazy all day.  We entertained ourselves by hiding one of the security chips from the meat department in Jo's things, so that she'd set off the alarms every time she went out the door.  Unfortunately, it only worked about every other time, so she didn't notice the pattern until India gave up and told her.  Jo's been threatening to duct tape me to my chair so I can't leave, but she decided not to as it might look a bit incriminating on the security cameras.

I got several emails and phone calls from other branches as well, and Judy stopped by.  It was nice to know that I was appreciated.  There were a lot of things I liked about working for the bank; one of the best parts was that it was the sort of job that, once you've clocked out, is over.  There's nothing to take home, even if I wanted to.  Teaching is never over.  There's always something you could be doing: lessons to plan, papers to grade, students to assess. 

As we were leaving for the day, we got Dylan, one of the Kroger employees, to take some pictures of us in front of the branch.  We were joking and laughing so loudly that most of the Kroger employees were looking at us anyhow.  

Adult Birthdays...Meh

I celebrated my twenty-eighth birthday in the usual adult style—working 9 to 5.  To make it even more enjoyable, it was my hump day, even though it was Thursday, as I as scheduled to work that Saturday (although I really can’t complain about that, as I do the scheduling…) And what a lovely day it was—one of those days when we were short staffed, I was in charge, and everybody had a problem.  Our favorite (where’s the sarcasm font when you need it?) customer came in an threw a full-on, cursing, insulting tantrum, which is rather unbecoming in a sixty-year-old man, and it was gloomy and gray, which made it uncomfortably cold in the air conditioning. I went to Zumba after work, and then home to fix dinner—Mom had promised me barbecued chicken and broccoli salad for my birthday, but she had self-defense training (“Butt-kicking class,” as she and her friends refer to it), so I got to cook my own birthday dinner.  I made pasta with my two favorite sauces, though—Yay for comfort food.  (Edit: I finally got my barbecue chicken and broccoli salad on August 14th!)

However, my coworkers made up for it the next day. India (whose birthday was three days after mine) and I had a joint celebrations; we all brought food for a potluck snack-fest; I brought more of my favorite pasta, Latasha brought chips and plates, Karen brought chicken nuggets and vegetarian crescent roll pizza, India managed to make edible brownies despite her fame as a non-cooker, and Jo brought her trademark pigs-in-a-blanket and a crock pot full of Rotel dip, enough to feed all of us until we couldn’t move as well as several Kroger employees.  They also gave us a few little gifts; my favorite was lip gloss in the shape of a miniature Mountain Dew can. 

Ever since I graduated college, I’ve felt about twenty-six.  I’m not sure why twenty-six, of all ages; I guess I felt like I was still young, but didn’t feel the urge to be a wild twenty-one-year-old out partying.  Most of my friends that I spent a lot of time with during the period from the time I was twenty-two until, well, the last few months really, were quite a bit older than me; most of them, in fact, were married with children.  However, now twenty-six has come and gone, and I still feel about the same.  I still want to be a carefree twenty-something with plenty of time, but thirty is looming in the near future, and the biological clock ticks pretty loudly sometimes; I wonder how many times I can push the snooze button.    

I’ve loved my twenties; I’ve enjoyed being single and free and able to easily pick up and move to whichever far-flung place I found work to do.  Sometimes it just seems like these years have gone too fast.  There’s a song that my Pandora station plays frequently, with lyrics that go, “We are young, let’s set the world on fire!”  I feel kind of sad when I hear it, although I like it—I feel like I’m no longer part of the youth scene; setting things on fire sounds irresponsible. :)