Thanksgiving in China...does that happen?

This is officially the second Thanksgiving that I have spent out of the country and, as always, I'll find a substitute for the holiday.  Fortunately, China is the biggest market for KFC (Yum! Enterprises).

 

So I did just that.  On Thanksgiving day I went to KFC and ordered the largest meal I could find--the bucket of both regular and extra crispy.  It came with three pops, so I assume that meant it's supposed to feed three people?  Well, like Pizza Hut, they're terribly wrong on their estimates, because I cleaned that bucket up in true Thanksgiving tradition.

The following day, Friday, the school took all the foreign teachers and our Chinese counterparts (those who work with our program) to a collective dinner for Thanksgiving.  Granted, I'm the only American at my school, so the other teachers had to ask for some clarification, but I enjoyed it.  I think they also intended it to be a Christmas celebration too? 

Many say that schools will take their new teachers out to a fancy dinner in order to build the relationship--you do something for me, I do something for you.  If they take the first step with a fancy dinner, then they may leverage it later for extra work.  Fortunately, Sean and I already put in a month of teaching twice as many classes as we should have, so it's going to take a lot more one-night dinners before they can leverage anything against us. 

 

Thus began my holiday season.  Next was to deck my apartment out in Christmas style.

Fortunately, most Christmas decorations are made in China, so I bought them for the cost without
shipping and import tariffs built in.  

I figured, if Zhengzhou doesn't have any snow on the ground, I can still have my White Christmas.

The Chinese characters are pronounced "Sheng dan kuai le" meaning "Merry Christmas."   And, yes, that is a 3-foot silver bow behind me.  It's ridiculously huge; I love it.

With Thanksgiving past, it is clearly the beginning of the Christmas season!

Later Days,
Rick