'Tis the Season

Bullet point blog, too early for coherent writing:

-The Christmas season is upon us but the lack of decoration and activities makes the holiday feel empty for me. I see a tree here and there at the touristy spots but nothing more. My classroom, however, has been thoroughly decorated with lights, multicolored tissue paper snowflakes, a tree, Santa and Jesus drawings and hundreds of Stars of David (inadvertent Hanukkah tribute) which creates a convoluted festive environment for me. The biggest thing missing is the absence of the music. The only Christmas song I've heard so far is an off-key version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" sung repetitively by my children as they've been learning it in music class. I am currently downloading all of my favorites as the season feels too weird without any Christmas music. I would have laughed in your face If you had told me that I would miss Christmas music when I left in March, but I do. I hereby renounce my recent Scrooge-like attitude toward the holiday; I want my candy canes, commercialism and Christmas parties back. And the NBA games.

-I'm also missing out my annual viewing of Holiday movies: Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch (obviously the cartoon and not the horrific Jim Carrey one) and my favorite, Christmas Vacation. I've looked for them at the shops but there must not be a demand for the mafias to bootleg Christmas movies. I'm having to settle for Mission Impossible 4 which I'm none too pleased about.

-Explaining Christmas to my children has been difficult. Grade two has been tasked with conducting a Christmas assembly and I am in charge of putting on a holiday program that touches on both the Jesus story and Santa Claus while downplaying the religious nature of the tale. In a previous blog, I mentioned that some of the parents hounded me with questions as to my motivations for being in Nepal, as they suspected I was a covert Christian missionary with the intention of indoctrinating their children, so I've had to be cautious in what I present to the kids. I've eliminated all but one reference to 'God's son', as the story cannot really be told without it and the kids know the basics of Christian faith.

-While I've avoided the toughest question so far (Is Santa real?), Christmas has left me unable to properly answer some questions. While reading the Jesus story, I mentioned the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh given by the wise men. "What is myrrh, Kyle sir?" I told the child it was some sort of oil, which was kind of a guess. "Why did Jesus want oil?" I said back then it was used to make stuff. "But why would a baby want oil?" I said it was for Mary and Joseph and it was valuable. "Is Jesus God's son or Joseph's son?" I said God's. "But then why was Joseph there?" Because Joseph was Mary's husband. "So was Joseph mad that his wife didn't have his baby?" No, he was fine with it because it was God's wish. "How did God get Mary pregnant from heaven?" At a loss for words, I moved onto Santa.

-I tied the Santa aspect of the holiday by saying he brings gifts to good children, and that gift-giving is symbolic of celebrating Jesus' birth, etc. Some of my kids do celebrate the holiday with the stocking thing, and coincidentally, all of the kids who are 'good' in class get visited by Santa, whereas the 'naughty' ones don't. I told the children that celebrating Christmas is up to their parents, but they are convinced that Santa rewards the well-behaved children with gifts, which has led to better behavior from some of my naughty ones seeking Santa presents. I feel kind of bad knowing their efforts are all for naught but at least I have a quieter classroom.

-Be careful what you tell children; one of my girls asked me if I had Santa's phone number, as she wanted to tell him what to bring her. I was busy and nonchalantly told her to look it up on the internet, not thinking that in today's world that of course there would be phone numbers listed for Santa. She came in the next day and told me that she couldn't call him because it was an international number but had emailed a list of gifts to him with the assistance of her parents (which was then, of course, sent to her parents). Fortunately the parents didn't mind.

-The weather is reminiscent of winters in Illinois/Ohio, as it's cold all the time and there's no central heating. Illinois/Ohio weather is definitely colder, but the absence of heat gives the nod to Nepal in terms of overall coldness. My classroom is located on the top level of the building facing away from the sun and we spend our mornings seeing our breath inside and shivering away. I have been doing a lot of lessons on the outdoor terrace where at least we get sunlight. I always run after school and sometimes do P90x as well, but have been doing a lot more of the P90x program as afterwards I retain the feeling of warmth from exercising for a good hour or so. Kind of strange to internally feel warm but be literally steaming after a workout. The only negative part about losing substantial weight (sick brag!) is I'm without my excess insulating blubber, meaning I'm cold all of the time. At night, I sleep with a 'hot water bag' which provides me some coziness. I actually appreciate the cold in the morning as it forces you to get up and move around to get warm.

Happy Holidays to all, enjoy yourselves and don't get annoyed at the traffic, long lines, music etc. You would miss it if it wasn't there.