... ...it's beginning to seem alot like Christmas... ...

So first for the exciting news! I am going to be on TV and in the paper! So it all started when I was in cooking class this afternoon. We had finished preparing two kinds of hotpot, a Sichuan fondue-like soup, and were just standing around eating our delicious creations when my phone rang. I picked it up and it was one of my swimming friends. She asked if I was coming to swimming today. I said yes, I was in class now but I would be there in about an hour. She said OK and hung up. I thought that was a little weird, but weirder things have happened in China so I thought nothing of it. Ben and I rode our bikes back to Chuan Da and when I arrived at the swimming pool there was a lady with a video camera on her shoulder there. Everyone called me over and said "we were waiting for you to arrive." I said I was sorry but I had no idea what was going on. They said that people had come from the TV station and the newspaper and wanted to interview me. I still have no idea how they found out about me, but they asked me all sorts of questions about when I started swimming and if I studying swimming in the States, meaning am I training to be a professional. Then they let me go get changed and took pictures of me as I dove in and of me swimming, it was all very surreal. By the time I finished swimming, the TV people were gone. I asked one of my swimming friends if they had said when it was going to be on, but she said she didn't know. But I am going to try to find out.
Today my swimming friends also gave me pictures from Saturday. I wanted to post them just so you could see that I wasn't exaggerating when I said that each person and every possible combination of 2 or three people must take a picture with me along with several group shots. There are also pictures of me and my two favorite people on the team. Chen Laoshi is the one with short hair wearing the blue coat and I don't know the other lady's name.
To make the day even better, I got a package from my mom and a card from my Grandma today. They always seem to arrive together and I'm not sure why, maybe something with the mail system here. I love getting mail! The package had Christmas preparations in it; like, my stocking, "The Night Before Christmas" book, and some pictures. It made me want to sing Christmas carols! I can't believe that Christmas is almost here, but I'm very excited too. Everyone is starting to decorate for Christmas here in that tacky-Chinese way and it is a little weird because no one really celebrates Christmas here. I go around singing "chestnuts roasting on a open fire... ..." to myself because they really do sell roast chestnuts everywhere and it always makes me think of that song. It doesn't seem like winter here though. Even less than Seattle. Today was sunny and about 50 degrees. I suppose I should be thankful and I am. I am thankful everyday that I get this amazing opportunity to be in such an interesting place. And soon I'll be famous here, it'll be me and Da Shan. Just kidding. (If you don't get that joke, don't worry about it)