Christmas Weekend

My senses are pushed to the max and all I want right now is to be back in my comfort zone of where my loved ones are, at least, for Christmas. The madness continues as I continue to battle the "differences" of Macao. Trying to get to something familiar, I went to the closest Starbucks to get a gift for the company Christmas party and enjoy my grande gingerbread latte. I found myself walking to Wynn and a tiny Starbucks counter awaits me. The drinks and service are far from my expectation, not to mention really expensive for the local pocket. I am used to having 4 Starbucks in the same vicinity, but 4 is the number of Starbucks in the whole of Macao! Man!

This Christmas weekend did make me ponder a lot about what it means to me. Just when I thought that the retail therapy, shopping for stuff for my apartment that I do not have to pay for, was starting to cheer me up, something happened...

I was approached by 2 persons from Nanking telling me that they have lost all their money at the casinos and needed "assistance" for a meal and lodging, promising that someone will be coming to their rescue the very next day. To cut the long story short, these were swindlers. I obviously knew about it, but since it was the Christmas season, I wanted to be nice and believe that there is still good in people, especially these who I was dealing with. Furthermore, I wanted to run this little demented experiment of mine. The cost was rather expensive, but it did prove that I was right. In conclusion, I have decided to over play my foreigner card and refuse to speak any Chinese unless it is a life and death situation. Above that, let's just say that God loves China and the mainland Chinese. Even though I really dislike almost everyone of them that I have met (with exceptions to maybe 2), but because of my Savior who we celebrate his birth this season, I will love them too... but I can tell you frankly that I do not like them, not one bit at all. And, I will take it as an insult if someone calls me a Chinese and relates me to people of that country.

Anyways, it IS Christmas and I cam across this quote "You keep what you have by giving it away" by Marc Katz. Money has never been a big thing for me. But as much as I love to say I knew it I was right all along, I still wish to hold strong that there is good in everyone, but now, I will have my defenses really high for the Chinese and hope that I can be a better person to these people in the future.

On the other hand, I did manage to find a church to attend on the Christmas weekend. It was an Anglican church and it was nice to be in the midst of English speakers. It was a very small church in comparison with the Catholic churches around here. I reckon there are a few Protestant churches but I am not too sure whether they have any English services. At this moment, I just wish not to mingle with the locals. The service was fairly similar with TUC, formal and traditional for my taste. And the best thing is that I was invited for a Christmas lunch. I do look forward to that as the family were originally from the UK and have a strong affiliation with Hong Kong University. I reckon that the conversations shared would be fairly interesting and I get to train my ears to the British accent.

I moved into my apartment on Sunday and have set up my bedroom. I decided to use Christmas lights to my advantage and it would be a permanent feature for the warm ambiance. I also bought a big pot of poinsettias and they compliment the corner of my room. Almost everything about the room was pleasing except that it is still rather bare and has no curtains. I will have to bear with using my muffler and shawl for now. It is not that bad. I will be shopping tomorrow and all week for stuff... It will get better.

Merry Christmas!