Christmas Weekend

When I decided to come to China for a year, I knew that one of the consequences of my decision was that I was going to have to spend the holiday season far from my friends and family. But I had no idea though just how much I would miss it.

In hindsight, I probably should have stopped reading my blogs for the month of December because I'm sure all of those blog posts and news stories about the joys (sometimes miseries) of the holiday season didn't help me feel any better either. It seemed like while everyone else (well...everyone in the Western world at least), was out celebrating with friends and family, I was trapped in China far from everything I usually took for granted every holiday season.

I actually wrote a post on things I missed about the holidays at home, but stopped short of posting it since I didn't feel like raining on everyone else's holiday parade.

However, before whoever is reading this feels too bad for me, I did not end up spending Christmas weekend alone. As luck would have it (okay...more like a teacher's vacation days would have it), my family friend Ben* and his girlfriend (who are both teachers at international schools in Hong Kong) ended up coming to Beijing the same weekend as Christmas and I was able to spend my weekend with them. Hooray for not having to spend holidays alone!

On Saturday, Ben, Heidi (his girlfriend) and I headed out to the 798 Art Space in hopes of strolling around the galleries. Unfortunately though, most of the galleries were closed for Christmas. Go figure that we end up in the one area in Beijing that actually seems to observe and closed down for Christmas on Christmas Day. Regardless, I was happy to spend time with someone who's known me longer than 3 months for once on a holiday that I usually spend with 20 people who have known me for my entire life.

Anyways, special thanks to Ben and Heidi for letting me tag along this weekend and basically ensuring that I didn't spend the holiday weekend depressed and alone. :)

Taken at the 798 Art Space in Beijing

For those of you who think it's odd to hang out someone you'd classify as a 'family friend', you have to understand for me, it's pretty normal. Blame it on being an only child. Not to mention that Ben and my parents are really good friends (especially our dads), thus making Ben almost a cousin of some sort.