So today is Mother's Day, and while I don't know if my mother reads this regularly - and I kinda hope she doesn't after my last post - I thought I'd best put a Mother's Day greeting in writing. I will likely talk with her using MSN Messenger's voice chat (MSN or Skype is a far better option than those goddamn long distance IP cards). So in any case, Happy Mother's Day, mudder!

To be honest, I nearly forgot all about it. Forgetting about holidays (and other events in the outside world) is a pretty common thing if you're living in China. Before I came here I often thought that living in China would not be entirely dissimilar to Dorothy's adventure in Oz, only instead of short, jibberish-talkin' Munchins I expected I'd be be surrounded by...well...short, jibberish-talkin' Chinamen. In some ways I was completely wrong - for one, Chinese people here in the Northeast (aka Dongbei) are often amazingly tall, and if you teach ESL you can often get by with only English, as your co-workers will typically all speak English.

But in some ways, my "Oz Analysis" has proved to be dead-on. It is, in many ways, like going to a crazy parallel universe, very isolated from the world you knew before. I've never been to Kansas, but I'm pretty sure China it's not. As I said, I often lose track of Western holidays, because they're just less important to the people around me, or not even discussed or thought of at all.

I didn't get home for Christmas last year, and I only got one day off (if I remember correctly) to celebrate with a quiet dinner with my girlfriend. Easter came and went without much fanfare, and I never got my chocolate fix. On April Fools I totally forgot to soap the toothbrushes and saran-wrap the toilet, as per usual. And now, I just barely remember Mother's Day. Western holidays, as one would expect, just don't carry the same weight inside Chinese borders.
Note: It's also a lot trickier to do that saran-wrap gag on a Chinese toilet! Yet another reason why they should make the switch...

How about Chinese holidays you ask? Well, as you probably know, Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year) tops 'em all, with a ton of time off from work/school. I had about a month off last time, believe it or not, as that's the break between the semesters at my university where I study Chinese. Sweet deal, hey? On this occasion (and usually on the shorter week long holidays of May 1 Labour Day and October 1 National Day) many foreigners in China take the opportunity to travel around and see other parts of China. Lately, I've been trying to pick up more work on these holidays, as I wanna save some cash instead. Despite the fact that I'm in China, I wouldn't call myself an avid traveler... :S

There's also Mid-Autumn festival (three guesses as to when this one is...) which is also celebrated in Korea as well as China. Apparently they enjoy eating those shit-arsed cakes too. But the idea behind this one is for family to get together and gaze at the full moon at its brightest. I can't get into those moon cakes though. It's like eating a box of those really cheap, lousy chocolates that your grandmother gave you at Christmas, cause despite her wisdom, she's not familiar with the good chocolates yet. You take a small bit of one, then put it back, bite another, put it back, etc, etc. That's moon cakes in a nut-shell. I despise the muck.

There's also Dragon-Boat Festival, which since once of its traditions is that you wear a rainbow-colored bracelet, could easily be confused with gay-pride day in China. Apparently after the first rain after its commencement, you take off the bracelet and throw it in some water, at which point it is supposed to transform itself into a dragon. Cool, wha? I'm told that if it doesn't rain for a long time, you can even toss it in your sink or toilet. I'm sure a little Dragon could live for weeks more in the bottom of my sink, feeding off the bits of food stuck in my drain. A dragon wouldn't do so well in my toilet though...

Chinese holidays will likely be most fulfilling if you have a truck-load of Chinese friends. So if you really wish to experience these holidays, make sure you don't spend all your time with other ex-pats, otherwise you'll miss out on all the culture you came here to see (if that was indeed one of your goals). I myself, feel slightly hypocritical saying that, spending most of my time lately in the company of Japanese and Koreans. But hey, this way, I can experience two other cultures without having to dish out for the plane ticket!

Other than holidays, big sporting events are cool to experience - and by sporting events, in this case, I mean televised sports. I first got here in 2002 when the Japan/Korea World Cup was on everyones TV. It was great fun to watch the games here in Dalian on a big screen in the square. While hundreds of Chinese were content munching on a few million sunflower seeds, me and my laowai (foreign) friends would usually make a beer-run to Wal~mart. Standard drill was to buy a huge plastic washtub, and then hit the fish department for (un-used) ice to fill it with. Instant beer cooler! Of course, we'd get a few stares from the Chinese, but when is it not like that? It doesn't officially count as a holiday, but who the hell cares! It's just fun to be a silly extravagant foreigner sometimes. Make sure you do it about once a month just to break the monotony. I'm really looking forward to the World Cup this year, especially the possibility of hitting some Korean ex-pat bars for some Korea games. Wish they carried the Stanley Cup Playoffs here...

Anyway, that's my relatively quick take on holidays (and lack of holidays) for a foreigner in China. It's just one of the many aspects of life that will change should you choose to drop over. Nothing drastic or "shocking," but just a tad different. Try to enjoy yourself, wha?