A Year in Xi'an: This Week in Xi'an

December is racing by so fast I almost wish for a Narnia-like delay of "always winter but never Christmas" just so I can get more done in this month before Christmas arrives, hard pressed by the New Year at its heels. But despite my wishes, Xi'an days do fly by.

John rarely gets away from his desk at home, grading his piles of papers or preparing a new powerpoint for the next day, but finally Saturday I got him on bus 700 and headed to the remarkable Xi'an fabric market to try to find material to have him some new trousers made. We had tried to buy him some new pants but everything he tried were floods on him so we decided to go the custom-made route. Dozens of shops loaded with fine woolens line several streets. Each has its tailor who can size you up in short order and write up an job slip before you have even decided that you are going to buy! Our tailor came highly recommended to us by our branch president's wife so we hoped we were in good hands. We came away with having ordered three pairs of trousers as well as a herringbone top coat, all for about $120. We are to pick them up on December 29 and then we will know how well the money was (or wasn't) spent.

Xi'an continues to provide sunshine and very crisp days that feel more like late autumn than winter. My students' journals all bewail their not having any snow to play in yet, but John and I are not complaining. It can stay this way all winter in our book. Christmas Eve is actually supposed to see a snow flurry so who knows, we just might have a white Christmas after all. That is OK with me (as long as it all blows away on the 26th!) It is invigorating to still be able to ride my bike to class--even bundled up in my down coat, Pashima shawl, gloves, and ear band.

Friday I taught my last classes for the term. John still has a week and a half to go (but he started much later than I did, so all is fair!) I still have finals to give and grade so the pressure is still on. This week I gathered all my students' personal narratives and formatted them before having them published in a little book called "Growing up in China"--my Christmas gift to them. I took it to be printed and bound with a nice red cover at the college print shop (two copy machines jammed between vegetable bins on one side and clothing racks on the other). When I picked up the 32 finished books the next morning and paid the bill it came to only 144 yuan--about $20, or about 62 cents each.

Besides school stuff I also made my monthly visiting-teaching trek to see Amanda Delange at Starfish foster home and had fun helping to weigh and chart the littlest babies before they are bathed and then fed. It was a busy place since Amanda is being pushed out of the four apartments she has had nannies and babies in for the last several years and the renovation of her new quarters is not yet finished but somehow Amanda will move, lock stock and baby, by the end of the month. She is a remarkable person who seems to me to do the Savior's own work in her service to the weakest of His little ones. She often has volunteers from all over the world who come to help out and take part in whatever way they are needed.

My favorite outing this week was a long-anticipated visit to the artists' street, just inside the city wall. Elise Britton, back in town from Xiamen for Christmas, met me with her artist daughter Bethany on Saturday morning so Bethany could show us all the treasures of this area. Because she loves art, and speaks Chinese, she has found a number of friends amongst the artists who are there working their craft as they welcome visitors to their shops. Many of these shops had been renovated and they were beautiful with wonderful doorways that drew us in to admire their works. Along the way we stopped to buy hot breads that were stuff with veggies to keep up our strength as we wandered. It was a lovely morning.