Greetings from Jen Kaye in China!

Ni hao ma! (Hello how are you!) Right now it's 9:00 p.m. on Thursday night so we're 13 hours ahead of Oneonta. I'm currently in Qingdao, China with a population of about 8 million, only 1 million smaller than New York City. Last week we were in Shanghai which is the largest city in mainland China with a population of 21 million people. While there, we visted the Jade Buddha Temple, went to the top of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which over a hundred stories tall and saw a great view of the city, went on a river cruise, visited a really cheap bargaining market, and went to a silk factory. The food so far has been great although last night we went to some restaurant and ordered spicy chicken, a greenbean dish, a shark dish, and dumplings. The chicken and greenbeans were so spicy we could barely eat them, shark was ok but tasted weird, and the dumplings were great though! In some of the restaurants there are frogs, big fish, eels, and snakes in fish tanks, needless to say we have not ordered any of those things. People are crazyyyy drivers here. There are literally no traffic rules, we nearly get into an accident every time we're on the bus. We've seen a few accidents and there've been times when a pedestrian was hit. There are a ton of mopeds and scooters everywhere which makes traffic even more hectic because they cut in front of everyone. Well that's it for now...hope everyone is having a good jterm, have fun with those 7 a.m. practices!! 

My Meaning of Christmas By: Kiersten “STONE” Racela

They say that some things never change no matter how old you get. That sure seems to be the case for me when it comes to Christmas-time. Every year, I turn on ABC Family and there seems to be at least two specials that try to explain the “true meaning of Christmas”. I always think to myself, ‘doesn’t this ever get old?’

For me, there’s no set-in-STONE meaning of Christmas. It’s about those moments that you share with people that truly love and care for you. Every year at Christmas-time, all of my family members come together in one place, no matter how far away they might live. When we’re all eating and catching up on each other’s lives, you can feel the love and warmth in the room. You can’t help but smile. There’s also a feeling deep down in your gut which tells you that you’ll remember this for the rest of your life. Although you may not remember a particular gift that you received a certain year, you’ll remember the love that you felt. My memory can be pretty bad at times, but I can always remember how happy I felt when I got together with all of my family at Christmas-time. The amount of love I feel on that day is overpowering.

So the next time the topic of the true meaning of Christmas comes up in a conversation that I’m a part of, I’ll just simply reply,  ‘the moments, my friend; the moments and love that you’ll always remember for the rest of your life’.

Kiersten is an ISP: Communications major at Hartwick. We asked her to share a short free-write with everyone about her holiday experience.

(Coach Dell bolded and capped STONE above because she likes Stone’s nickname.)