The Expat Christmas Party

 We returned from Kobe to Suzhou on December 9th....just in time to prepare for the Suzhou Expats Association Christmas party on December 10th.  We weren't hosting the party...but just attending.   I wouldn't think much preparation would be needed for that.  Wrong again.  There were dresses to be picked up from the dressmakers and nails to be done and hair to be styled.  NASA moon launches had less complex logistics.

 The Renaissance Hotel hosted the party, as it does most other EAS functions.  They did a great job of decorating for the season.  If you woke up with amnesia calling "where am I?", you'd have no clue that you were in China.   The crowd of partiers would not have been a clue either, as it was an overwhelmingly Western group that could just as easily have been gathering in Melbourne or Strasbourg or Peoria, Illinois.

 The party is actually a charitable event - you buy tickets that entitle you to drinks, dinner, and dancing.  Any profits go for local orphanages and such.  They sold exactly 100 tickets this year, which they said was the most ever.  Evidently there are more expats in Suzhou this year....or at least more that are homesick for Christmas.  The photo above shows Theresa with Ed and Delores.   They are a lovely couple - he from England and she from Ireland - who've been living in Asia for quite a while now.   Their apartment is three floors above ours, and from time-to-time we see what trouble we can get into together.

The photo above is from the dessert table.  Amongst the gingerbread houses and Christmas puddings, this was the only thing that seemed to be a little odd.  It is a watermelon sculpture.  Maybe watermelon is a traditional Christmas food someplace -in Australia or South Africa, I don't know.  But given the Chinese love for the melon, I'm guessing this is a local spin on holiday dessert.