A cup of tea anyone?

I cant believe its Dec 13th already, time is flying! The weather here doesnt feel like middle of Dec weather at all. During the day, in the sun, its still around 70 degrees and at night it gets down to about 50 I guess. It hasnt rained here in a long ass time either which is nice. Ive heard a couple different people say that next week it will get a lot colder than it has been and then from here on out it will continue to drop. We will see. I still need to buy a winter jacket and some new clothes, but its soo hard to find something I like in my size. AHHHH.

I did buy a new Chinese tea set which is pimp as hell. Its everything you need to make a perfect cup of tea the traditional way. I paid like 20 bucks for it when they tried to get me to pay 45. Bastards.. Thats the deal here though, they will change the prices of things depending on who is buying them.. They charge tourists the most and then foreigners who they know live here and then the Chinese ppl from other parts of China and then the locals get the best deal. If you know how to speak Chinese to them they will give you a better deal and if you know how much the thing is supposed to cost you can get them down too. Michelle is a pro at talking them down.. I guess its the blonde hair and the broken Chinese they love to hear. It works like a charm though every time. Anyway the tea set is awesome and Im addicted to making it the way they do. Stop in for a pot one day.

Since most people in China are not Christians Christmas really isnt celebrated. Some of the bigger dept stores and certain shops put up a tree and decorate a little but nothing crazy like back home. Its kinda weird for me. Xmas is like the biggest holiday back home and all I remember growing up was counting the months and weeks and days till Santa would come bring me a bunch of new shit. NYC is the best place to be for Xmas without a doubt! The city is the most beautiful I think between Thanksgiving and New Years bc of all the decoration and Xmas cheer. I will miss that for sure. I cant remember if there has ever been a year where I didnt see the tree at Rockefeller Center, thats crazy. Someone comment if you know of a year. We are having a Xmas party for the kids and families at school on the 20th which will be fun I guess. Some of the classes will sing Xmas songs and we will do different holiday games and activities with them. At least we wont have to teach that day.. :)

One thing that sucks about this job is that I dont really have time off to travel around other than Mon and Tues, but I cant really get far in a day. I have a week off at the end of Jan for the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year and we will go somewhere. Then I get another week paid vacation sometime after that and I dont know where I will go or when that will be yet. So two weeks off in 6months is what I get. I guess thats not too bad, just thought I would get to travel a little more. I feel like I havent really seen that much since I been in China, partly bc its soo big and the culture is soo old that there is tons of stuff to see everywhere. Maybe I can convince Michelle to go somewhere for Mon and Tues.. Ill have to look up some cool hot spots after work tonight.. Shit that reminds me.. Im fuckin late for work now.. Son of a bitch!! Dammit.. Sorry the last couple posts are short.. If I dont do anything exciting or new I have nothing to write about and I dont want to bore you with drunken nights out and hot Chinese girls.. The usual so I leave that alone. Gotta go. Peace