Without my flash. We went to the Peace Market to buy the white lights and it took forever. I think that sales girl had to go to several different stalls to find enough strands that actually worked. But it sure is pretty.

Here is our finished product (before I went back and spread out the branches and ornaments).

Don't you love Christmastime? It is so much fun to involve my new friends in old traditions that they have never experienced. I must admit though that I redecorated the tree after they left, a few boughs had more than one ornament.

Holiday Traditions

Today was Thanksgiving, a holiday which is not really recognized in Asia because it isn't very commercial and it is country specific. Despite this fact, the Americans in my city went all out and had a good old fashioned pot-luck Dinner. We had cornbread dressing, broccoli rice casserole, sweet potato casserole (my favorite), mashed potatoes, veggies (my other favorite), pumpkin and pecan pies, and Chicken. That's right, a turkey is now alive today because we had chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner we played Phase 10 (and I was stuck on phase 5 until the end of the game, but we won't talk about that), and then we took part in a very odd holiday tradition that we started on the 4th of July. The place we have our holiday get togethers is a 10th/top floor apartment. On the fourth of July we went up on the roof and someone started spitting watermelon seeds off. Then it progressed and someone threw their watermelon rind into the bushes, so then we all did it and tried not to hit the protruding air vents on the way down. It was fun so we decided to do it every holiday. So tonight we through dinner rolls off the balocony. Of course these were kind of hard and ball shaped so dropping it into the bushes was not the objective. This time we threw them and tried to get them onto roof tops and in other places. Unfortunately it was dark so we could not see where they landed exactly but we could hear the thud and kind of tell if it landed on a roof or the ground. Now I know this probably sounds very adolescent to you, but I will let you know that all of the participants are fully grown adults and some of them even have grown kids. Don't worry we didn't hit anyone and we have made a point to only throw things that are ok for the environment. So what will the food of choice be for Christmas? I don't know yet, but it will be exciting!

Notice the big water bottles under the desk. The dormitory does not have hot water so the students must go to the cafeteria and pay for hot water if they want to wash their hair. Of course, now the sun has decided to go into hiding, my solar heated shower does not have hot water either, perhaps I can borrow from them.

Just goofin' off and takin' pictures.

Looks fun, I think I will join them!

College students take a break from studies to play in the park. These four are majoring in law.

Aerobics with an Asian Flare

Tuesday I went to a nearby gym to check out a "Dance" class. After about 30 seconds of the dance class I realized that it is really just high impact aerobics on fast forward. I seriously wish that I had video tape of it because I know that I would laugh (oh wait, I did). Not only did the male instructor take normal aerobics moves and put them in double time, he also made them bigger. We spent about an hour and a half flailing our arms and legs in multiple directions and moving our bodies in ways that just don't seem natural. The work out was definitely good for my heart, but don't know how great it is for the rest of your body. Perhaps if I have time I will try the Latin dance class next time.