It's been a relaxing weekend filled with a little bit of Christmas spirit here in Changzhou. On Friday night after work Sean, and I met Ken at the DVD store to pick up some Christmas classics. That night we enjoyed an evening of Home Alone, which I hadn't seen in years but was still hilarious and heart-warming. Saturday, Qin Chen took us all to a tea house downtown where we spent the afternoon trying flower tea (very cool-looking - it tastes like you are drinking perfume), sipping coffee, eating ice cream, cracking open sunflower seeds and nibbling on the constant array of snacks that was brought to us. In many Chinese tea houses you pay one price and then you can get as much as you want off of a certain menu.

I went to work on Saturday night and as usual the five engineers just wanted to ask questions about American culture. Tonight they were especially curious about cars (how much do they cost? how much does gas cost? does everyone have one? etc.) guns (does everyone have one? how much do they cost? why does the government allow it? etc.) houses, average incomes, cell phones and computers. Fortunately, since I don't know Chinese the question and answer sessions have to take place in English so there is at least some learning going on.

After work I went over to Ken's because he was hosting another Beer Club. This meeting the beer of the week was Pabst Blue Ribbon and the game of choice was beer pong. By the time I made it there, however, the students had transitioned into playing another, incomprehensible Chinese drinking game which lasted until they had to leave in time to still make curfew. After everyone left and Ken's floor was properly covered in spilled beer as usual, we all sat down to watch the Christmas movie, Love Actually (love it!).

Today (Sunday) will be spent grading and probably napping. I'm also going to try and think of some interesting topics for oral exams next week so I don't go insane while listening to 225 of them. Here we go.

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