Farewell to thee, Oh Christmas tree
Okay, I was wrong. We did find out exactly what was going on. According to Thad, "Tent Mall" is simply a traveling trade fair--kind of a legacy of this place's rural past. I guess this group of vendors regularly roll into town and set up shop for all the locals. It makes sense in a rural community where the local Sears is hours away. Here, however, it's a bit superfluous. Everything they offer can be had at one of the local shops. But the vendors came anyway and people are browsing. Oh, well.Anyway, on to my post. It does seem like Christmas is over, even though this is only the sixth day of Christmas. (Let's see, that would still be in the livestock section of that song, right?) Grandma and Auntie are getting the full overseas experience. They were originally scheduled to fly out tomorrow morning, but on Wednesday, somebody decided to cancel all of the morning flights to Kunming. So, in order to make their connection to Hong Kong and beyond, they had to leave this afternoon. "You gotta be flexible and adaptable," they told us in training. Having helpful, experienced friends who can speak Chinese is useful, too. Anyway, the kids were quite bummed--well, all of us are rather subdued this evening. But a good time was had by all and the in-laws can take a nice, luxurious bath before tomorrow's trans-Pacific journey.
Tomorrow, life returns to... well, I don't know if you can call it normal. Our company is gone, but it's the end of the term and things are changing. Classes and English corners will be over. The girls and I will be starting a new school schedule. People will be taking off to various places for winter break. (We're doing a week in Thailand, but have to wait 'til the end of January.) Will this be an interesting time or one of winter doldrums? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
posted by John @ 5:53 AM
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