Seasons Greetings of illness and doooooooom~

Dooooooooom~~ So yes, I am once again ill -_- <- unimpressed face! So far I have managed to stave off illness with the whole bannana-a-day practice, but I mistakenly switched to porridge over the weekend and BAM! dead -___-

Anyway! China is starting to chill, apparently the southern areas are experiencing snow fall, including Shanghai. We've planned to go to Yunnan in January (as south as you can get without pretending Taiwan is part of China), in hopes of finding some sun... at this rate I might have to switch shorts for a thick coat. We're definitely given 2 months of holiday for Spring Festival (YAY!), so from 5th January we're heading to Vietnam, then around Chinese Yunnan to see some of the minority cultures, one of which is called the Mosuo minority. This minority is particularly interesting because it has a fun system called "no-marriage-what-so-ever", in which the man and woman decide they like each other, he visits at nighttime, then stops visiting when they can't be bothered with each other anymore. Any children are raised by the mother and her family and the men stay in their maternal homes throughout their lives helping to raise their sisters' children. The paternity of any children isn't recorded. (http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_curiosity/2004-05/11/content_47041.htm) This place is plugged in most Chinese tour brochures as "The MATRIARCHAL society!" and subsequent taglines that can be summarised briefly as "Come see this weird place" - Well, worked on me, we're going to see ^^

New Year is on the 3rd of February, so I'm going to run home on the 4th and try to avoid the post-New Year-weekend exodus. New Year is the time when everyone returns to their home for celebrations, then the weekend after they all return to their work places The airports will be murder...

Why am I talking about January plans at Christmas? WELL, it's that time of year when one gets the urge to migrate back home and get fed - unfortunately, we're just getting in to the swing of exams here So it'll be another month before I can laze in bed till half 12 and eat chicken that doesn't carry various diseases.

Louise's boss has got me teaching a middle-aged guy about European culture/social norms etc. He's going to the Netherlands in January an, although he's been to American with no problems, wants to study European history to understand what he should and shouldn't do whilst there. I was confused that he hadn't felt the need to do this for America, but explaining personal space lasted over 15 minutes... Americans have personal space don't they?? Or maybe they're more touchy-feely... I don't know! But for future lessons I feel I might have to go in to detail on why people feel uncomfortable when you stand reallyreally close On the bright side this new job pays £13 an hour ^_^ Pity it's only once a week

All planned for Harbin! Hopefully there'll be internet so I can talk to people on Christmas day (love to Skype). The zoo in Harbin has quite a few Siberian tigers, which can be held for a small fee - It's £100 to hold a baby panda in Chengdu, so hopefully a wee, less-endangered tiger will be cheaper. I'm also going to Taidong tomorrow, to get some fluffy shoes, because my current boots are useless on ice... and Harbin is predicted -20 degrees celcius... BUT with fluffy shoes I believe all will be well.

Hopefully we're meeting up with Candy and Vivien tomorrow (language partners), they're very sweet and I'd like to see them before Christmas. Candy is technicaly my language partner (the quiet, bookish one ) and her mother recently made her break up with her boyfriend of 5 years. Apparently P.E is not a valid career path in China. So my response was to get her Jane Austen's "Persuasion" for Christmas, a book about a woman whose family persuade her not to marry a guy and then spends the rest of her life regretting it. Thankfully I came to my senses and decided not to get her such an obvious dig at her mother. Also the wording was too difficult. It's amazing how much grammar and wording can change after 200 years In the end I tried to find "Bridget Jones' Diary", but they didn't have that. Book City only really had American romcoms, so I got "Stardust" in the end - at least it has a momentary glimpse of Ben Barnes for viewing pleasure ^_^