Christmas Part II

On Christmas Eve, I went to the Catholic, Chinese Mass at Wenzao at 8 o'clock. When I got there, I felt a bit alone; however, it wasn't long before I walked over to our auditorium, where the mass was being held, and I saw a lot of familiar faces. My Japanese classmate (who lived in New Zealand for university:aka awesome english) and my enthusiastic French 同學 were happy to see me, and we proceeded to grab seats in the auditorium. I saved a seat for Nora (who showed up an hour late because she was eating ice cream), and looking around, it was obvious how many different nationalities were represented at Mass. Nora and I saw a lot of our Indonesian friends who are from an Ursuline high school where they won a scholarship to study at Wenzao for four years. Because Wenzao is a Catholic and language school, many of the teachers are quite religious although Taiwan as a whole has less of a Christian influence than the southern United States. Two Spanish teachers were sitting behind me; one with a Bible in hand: he doesn't speak Chinese. The whole service was in 中文, but a lot of the music I recognized, only English lyrics has been substituted for Chinese ones. It was interesting, even though I'm not sure what the sermon was, and I learned that even in Taiwan, non-Catholics aren't allowed to take the communion. 

After the service, they had a reception afterwards with free food. One of my teachers from Spain gave Nora and me turrón, a traditional Spanish Christmas chocolate. I spent the night at Nora's and briefly talked to the Mc-Family on Skype.

When I woke up, IT WAS CHRISTMAS!!! It was also like 9:30, and Jubbie and I just went home. The middle of my day consisted of lots of laundry, a chore I had put off for too long. I called the NSLI-Y group and organized a Christmas dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant (they have real cheese). Before we ate, we took pics.

NSLI-Y Bringing Christmas to Taiwan aka 聖誕節快樂！

At dinner, we ordered enough food to feed a small army. It's pretty much the only restaurant where we pay food prices that are similar to eating in the United States, but it's worth it for CHEESE.

I left a bit early to be home by 10 to skype with my American family there Christmas morning. We has both sent packages through customs and it was pretty cool to open presents via skype with Ya-Shu Mammy and Jubbie at my side. I got to translate comments like "(while looking at Charlie) Is that Jubbie's boyfriend?" from Ya-Shu Mammy, and it was cool to see how my Chinese has improved. Translating is so cool, and it's something I didn't know I loved until I came here. 

 Siblings!

 The present on the left is from me. The present on the right is from Dad.

 Stars and Strips, Chrismas present in Taiwan 2011. The blanket was an incredible, homemade graduation gift from one of my best friend's mom. My room is awesome. 

Tanner got a lot of tea. Christie sent Jubbie and I matching PJ's, and I am super excited bout my new electronic translator that has 14 languages!! With so many different foreigners at Wenzao, I already know I'll be able to use Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Korean, and Japanese. (and Jubbie says the Brazilian men come second semester, so cross your fingers I'll be using Portuguese.) Our skype date ended quite late, so when I finished chatting, I shut my computer and went to sleep. 

It was a merry Christmas, if not a white one.