Happy 2010!

(Some of the glamorous hosts of the New Year's performance).


(The final act of the performance, which was about how the Communist Party has revived the homeland and will continue to do so in the new year).


(With some of my favorite friends on New Year's Eve).


(Launching one of the paper lanterns outside on New Year's Eve).


(Some of the police who soon arrived and confiscated our lanterns).

I'm sorry I couldn't think of a more creative title for this blog, but it is indeed a marvelous new year. I am only 23 years old, but I have lived to see four decades so far! Is that possible? I've experienced the '80s, '90s, '00s, and now the '10s.

The past couple of days have been chock-full of activities and conversations. On Wednesday night the other American girls and I performed our Christmas dance in front of 2,000 people at the school's annual New Year's performance. There were many school officials and some of our students there. Performing in China can be a hassle, because they take it so seriously. There isn't much joy in performing in China, especially when it's so over-the-top and they think national prestige is at stake.

But we tried to change that mindset when we performed our incredibly cheesy but amazing N'Sync dance. Our number was nestled among countless performances about communism, the glories of the nursing profession, glittery national dances, and even more songs and dances about the wonders of their homeland and the Communist Party. The students screamed their heads off when we performed (especially when I did two cartwheels!) It was a wonderful time spreading joy not related to love songs and communist slogans. And I think my students came away from the performance thinking Miss Laura was pretty cool.

New Year's Eve was also quite interesting, especially since I was still teaching. One momentous thing that I discovered is that one of my students is a female... but I thought she was a male all these past few months. I can't believe I thought "she" was a "he." He/She/It has a very gender neutral English name, dresses like a boy, talks like a boy, and sits with boys. It is especially strange in a country which is quite traditional and where girls are quite feminine. Girls are very girlish and boys are very boyish.

However, the rest of the last day of 2009 was memorable and refreshing. In the evening many of our closest and dearest friends gathered in Joelle's apartment to play games and hang out. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else; I was so incredibly content and happy. Later in the night, we wrote wishes on paper lanterns, which we then tried to launch outside by lighting candles under them. It's a very popular Chinese tradition.

We managed to release one lantern in the air, and dreamily watched as the gleaming light soared off into the dark sky, joining other lanterns that other people in the city had launched. We were ready to release another one when some police saw us and decided we were doing something unacceptable. About ten of them marched over in their uniforms and red armbands to break up our lantern festivities in a rather heavy-handed fashion.

They snatched the lanterns and tore them up, while scolding us for practically trying to burn the campus down. They were very surly and demanded to know "who was in charge." Our Chinese friends just started to argue and plead with them all at once. In a very dramatic fashion, one of my precious friends pushed her way through the small crowd and bravely appealed to them to give us the lanterns back. But they just got more indignant and lectured some more in Chinese. (If you have any power in China, no matter how small, people like to leverage it over others). Then they all marched away in formation, after they were satisfied that we wouldn't cause more trouble. (My friend Kelsey captured a photo of some of the police with our wadded-up lanterns. For some reason they were smiling when the photo was taken. Maybe they didn't want everyone to think they were really mean).

After that event, somebody pulled out some silly string and we all ran around screaming and going crazy. I felt so light and carefree, just laughing and nearly crying. It was a wonderful way to end the year. I went to bed in the wee hours of 2010, pretty certain that 2009 had finished well and that 2010 would also be filled with a lot of new, meaningful memories.