Kinkkinen juttu: A different Christmas

Yees, it was different. Usually on Christmas eve I am with my family having an early sauna, preparing the dinner, eating the dinner, talking, sharing presents, relaxing, spending quality time. This year there were no presents (amongst the persons I spent the Christmas with), no sauna (except for the last Sunday's jjimjilbang, a Korean sauna here in Beijing). What we had was a lot of good time with good people. Which was nice.

On Wednesday, Thursday, there were not so many people in our class, as one might guess. I was also behaving quite restlessly because of the upcoming holidays. Our teachers took it quite well though. On Thursday our teachers gave us presents and some Chinese sweets, which were quite OK considering.. Not many sweet things in China are that good.

On Thursday evening we celebrated Christmas at Jaan & Marit's place. Jani's parents brought all kinds of food: all the basic souffles (== casseroles), ham, mustard, Finnish chocolate, marmelade, gingerbread... And Jaan & Marit were very diligent in making their own national cuisines from e.g. this sardine-kind of fish, some vollkornbrot (rye bread), egg; another example is bacon rolls with good stuffing. Peach-brie-bread-on-a-cocktail-sticks were another good - although not traditional Estonian Christmas snack - stuff. We also had potato salad and rosolli :P. Egg-onion-meat bread, liver paste, blue cheese with hard rye bread were very good starters. Potatos and blood sausage were very good additions to the other dishes. So, basically a lot of good food. And even more all sorts of spirits, beer, you name it. It was actually quite interesting to realize how big a difference there is between Chinese and Finnish (Christmas) food when it comes to the feeling it gives one afterwards. I was totally feeling tired, too full, heavy after the Christmas dinner.. Sleepy. It's easy to blame the amount of food I ate, but I sincerely think there is a difference between Chinese and Finnish cuisines. Somehow different in the way it makes one feel afterwards. Anyway, We had all sorts of people at Jaan & Marit's, played a lot of music, sang a bit with Silja, some guitar playing et cetera. Most of us were feeling I guess not too drunk or something, because we did not go full-on to any place to dance or such. Only Nick, Silja and I (+ Jaan came afterwards) went to the Helen's Cafe for some winding down. The Christmas eve dinner had taken its toll on us, with lot of people just wanting to go to sleep. And eventually, so did we.

Christmas day evening was more energetic. First we went to Jaan & Marit's for some Christmas eve leftovers plus some chicken, so later on, at least I, did not feel as overtly full as I did on the previous evening. From the apartment we headed out for a karaoke complex called GGKTV in Wudaokou's U-Center, 6th floor. There, in the karaoke-room meant for only nine people, already were two of our teachers along with the students from our class and their friends. We were already too many, but we had very intense feeling there, people sitting on the floor with pillows, drinking own drinks, red wine, beer. Everyone sang either with or without the mic. There were a lot of good performances, especially the last climax of one Korean guy: he sang Frank Sinatra's My Way, which excited everybody to sing their heart's out, shouting the last "Myyyyy wayyyyyyyyyy". It was truly unifying situation. Our teachers also sang very well, which, in addition to their stimulating presence, was something to be thankful for. Of course, I had to do something special as well: me and a Mexican girl called Europe had planned something special for the evening: we wanted to sing "Cancion Del Mariachi" by Antonia Banderas without accompaniment for the audience. So we did, it was song well sang and duly noted. The karaoke lasted from 8 P.M. to 12 P.M., and was very-dam-well worth it. After this we headed off with a smaller group back to Jaan & Marit's for some mixes of Erguotou and Hou Tai, which are supposedly and respectively the best spirits in Beijing and the whole China. They are quite strong and uniquely flavoured, but nevertheless undrinkable in a condition of under 2 promilles. Fortunately most of us qualified for this. Of course there was lot of other stuff to drink. Lots of laughter, mighty-fine hosting from our Estonian friends, and later-on some good clubbing with ever smaller group of people. Nice!

Saturday evening was quite laid back, although I personally was up until 3 A.M. We were just sitting in Helen's Cafe, talking about Chinese language, jokes, music, whatever. I was anywheys feeling way too tired so I was just concentrating on trying to stay awake - in addition to eating two meals alltogether, because I had not eaten anything for 14 hours of wake-time.

The Christmas-time could be called a success. Now I am concentrating on the new year, two of Silja's and mine Finnish friends coming over on Thursday and seeing what we could do on the new year's eve. Anyway, Friday is an official free day from school, so this upcoming week no need for skipping school.

Here's some pictures from both of the big nights: