Spending the Holidays in China

A terrible photo of me

A not so nice photo of Melissa

     Unfortunately, Flagship has provided no time off for any western holidays. However, I do get New Years Day off! So far, I have no specific plans to celebrate New Years.

     As for Christmas, many of my classmates came together and organized an big holiday get together, complete with decorations, food and presents. Although the event was fairly small, with only those involved in Flagship and their roommates in attendance, it was still a lot of fun. Melissa and I spent most of our time there at the photo booth, and even then we failed to take any nice photos.

    

Christmas Toast

Hot Pot!

     Also, this last weekend, a good friend from Shanghai came out
 to Nanjing, and we got together on Christmas Eve and had a big meal of hot pot in celebration and had a great time! 
     Much to my surprise, on Christmas Eve in China, it seems to be customary to give away apples (I mention this because I received a ton of apples on this day, from restaurants, my teachers, and my roommate. Needless to say I was good on fiber for the rest of the week). In part, this might have to do with the fact that the word for “peace” and “apple” 

平安夜苹果
Peace Night Apples

in Chinese are somewhat similar. However, it is strange that this custom is common practice in China in the first place given that it is appears to be closely related to Christmas, which is not a widely celebrated holiday in China. I have probed a few of my Chinese friends about it, but they have all claimed that this practice was originally Western. However, although I was born and raised in the West, I have never experienced nor heard of such a custom. Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask questions/leave comments.