Getting Out of the Bubble

Life-size gingerbread house! One of the strangest things about living abroad is being away for the holidays. Christmas is a time of year that is filled with more traditions than any other and being away from home during this time really makes you consider what the most important aspects of the holiday are. Last year was my first holiday away from home and it was an odd mix of extreme fun and extreme disappointment. Things that I would have said really weren't that important turned out to be some of the things I missed most.   This year is the first year that Orion and I are celebrating Christmas properly together, and Orion’s first proper Christmas ever – I can’t imagine getting through 30 years of life without a proper Christmas! But trying to make the most authentic Christmas possible in China can be a bit of a struggle. Lots of the things that I consider essential to a true Christmas that don’t really exist here (mince pies anyone?) so there’s a bit of mix and mat

One thing I knew about Yinchuan before I came was that it was going to be cold, but it's difficult to understand how cold somewhere is without experiencing it. Now, for the second time, we are experiencing the cold of the North first hand and, yes, it's very cold. When a 'warm' day is -2 ° c you know you're living in Arctic conditions.  But the thing about the cold here is that it's dry. Snow is a rarity, even though when it does snow the white blanket hangs around for weeks, and icey pavements aren't something we have to deal with that often. Just crisp, pure cold. I haven't decided yet whether this dry cold makes everything feel colder or less cold, but I guess when the temperature is below freezing the nuances of cold seem less important... The weird thing though is that I'm quite enjoying the cold, sure the inside  of the bus windows are covered in ice from frozen condensation, and sure  *slightly gross alert!*  I did once blow