Wait, who gave Rudolph a bloody nose?

Work went by quickly today. That was in part because my normal Monday is at least 10 hours and today was only 6.5 hours. Nice.

This evening I finally invested in a heater. I found one for about $25USD and decided it wouldn't be a waste of money. This decision was made in part because I've recently had a lot more sinus issues. I figure it'd be a lot better to be slightly warm and maybe cut my risk of sickness. It's not extremely cold here, but the humidity makes it feel that way. I told Lauren last night that it feels like camping in KY in November...but doing that every day without ever getting in your car or going inside a building to thaw out. I was wearing my gloves at my work computer today. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, I'm content but explaining. As Athena's uncle told her, we have to stop thinking like Americans. I will be LOVING central heating in the states in just a bit!!!! Cherish yours. It's not even 'winter' here yet..which is another reason I bought it. The prices are supposed to go up.

I set out to find a unique Portuguese shop I'd discovered online tonight. It was closed, but I was able to locate it. A funny story related to things Portuguese--the other day I was walking through the strip of Chinese antique shops near Senado (many of which seem to be tourist traps). I saw this set of salt shakers with the white and blue patterns similar to the Portuguese tiles I've posted some pictures of. They were set out on a little table on the sidewalk, so I thought I'd flip it over to look at the price as I passed by. Who would have thought, but stamped on the bottom was "Pier 1." Haha...I'm going to go ahead and say they weren't genuine Portuguese antiques.

Here is a glimpse of how Macau is celebrating Christmas. My first grade class today could not identify any of the Christmas related words and pictures I was using to teach today, so these things are clearly for tourists.

Notice the Portuguese "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" is similar to the Spanish Feliz Navidad you know. It says "Feliz Natal E Bom Ano Novo"

Both of these pictures come from Senado Square. The tree here is not broken, but it lights up one tier at a time. Ohh la la.