It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

As in the USA, the Christmas decorations started popping up around Macau just after Thanksgiving, along with the holiday carols playing in every Watsons store (FYI: Watsons is a HK pharmacy chain kind of like Walgreens or Rite-Aid) and in many other public places as well (e.g. Senado Square). Only about 10% of Macau's population is Christian, and most of that is Roman Catholic because of the Portuguese colonization, but it still seems to be a huge deal here just judging from what I've seen so far. Some photos below:

Decorations in the Venetian

Even the gondoliers have Santa hats!

Hanging icicle lights and tinsel along the roads
(this photo taken from a bus)

One of the many fabric/wire Santa figures
(think back to the bunnies from Mid-Autumn Festival)

Setting up more stuff in Taipa

At the airport (the deer actually move up and down like carousel ponies)

Something random but semi-related...you know the song "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."? Well, Susan and I have been on a roast chestnut kick recently - they're relatively healthy, quite tasty, and they make great handwarmers on the bus ride home =P We started off buying the 8-9 MOP bags from Sanmiu, but found those were always not very fresh, even to the point where we had to throw out half the bag because they were moldy or charred or otherwise inedible.

Thankfully, we discovered one vendor in Senado who roasts them fresh in a rotating urn...the chestnuts are consequently more expensive (a small bag is 10 MOP, medium is 20 MOP, and large is 34 MOP for some strange reason), but we feel they are worthwhile because we can actually eat all of them, and they're actually good! It's gotten to the point where Susan and I will call/text when we happen to pass by Senado, just to ask if the other person wants chestnuts ^^;

The hardworking roaster/vendor

Yes, they're annoying to crack, but they're worth it.

De-shelled and ready for consumption...I used to pretend that eating chestnuts was like eating mini-brains =P

In other news, we have just three weeks left in the semester but so much more to cram in...my students just handed in their final writing projects (topic: write a cover letter pretending to be a fairy-tale character applying for a real life job), the final exam begins at the end of this week (administering it in class over two days), and the students still have to do final presentations (they worked in groups of 3-4 to create an advertisement for a product, either real or imaginary). Oh well...back to grading!