Monday, December 8, 2008

First Week of Christmas

After spending 6 years in Tokyo, and 4 years in Yokohama, Christmas is very special to me! Being a Buddhist country, Christmas is NOT on the Japanese calendar and is not celebrated as such. Retailers have learned in the last 5 years to celebrate winter and have begun to use lights. Each year, I taught my Japanese students the meaning of Christmas and how to celebrate. I'll never forget laughing to myself when I saw their first effort at the nativity. Twin Japanese girls were Mary and Joseph. The baby Jesus was dressed in a red and white Santa suit. I knew that I had lots of work to do! Ha!

Bill arrived in OKC last Wednesday via Tokyo and Minneapolis. It was 88 degrees when he left Singapore, so it was a shock in many ways. In spite of the money, he knew that he had a made a mistake to go to Singapore almost immediately. The administration had all grown up communist in Beijing. He quickly learned what it's like to live in a godless world. He gave them 3 months notice, wrote a music curriculum for them and left.

Friday, we had our faculty Christmas dinner at Gliori's Italian Restaurant and played dirty Santa. Saturday, we decided to take a drive to Ada and had lunch at Golden Corral. That evening we attended OBU's Hanging of the Greens concert. Sunday, we had Christmas choir practice after the worship service. Today, it's back to work. SEI asked Bill to teach full time since one of the teachers left for South Africa. I am teaching 2 Saudi Arabian students every afternoon from 1 to 3 pm. We have been invited to more parties next weekend! Fun!!