International holidays

I have had an international holiday weekend. First, I went to a Christmas Eve party where I was surrounded by several Chinese Mandarin speakers and lots of tasty homemade Chinese food. I think it's time I resumed the study of Chinese. It would come in handy to at least laugh at the jokes with everyone else, or at least know which food item they're talking about.

Then on Christmas, I went to a service where Luke 2:10-11 (But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord") was read in the following languages:

Swahili
Japanese
Mandarin
Cantonese
Spanish
English
Thai
Hebrew
Telegu
Hausa
Malay

For a language fan like me, it was exciting and worthy of nerdy appreciation. And some people sang in Chinese, Thai, and Swahili, so it added a special dimension to the multilingual celebration.

After that, I went to a Christmas party to eat delicious and artery-busting Scandanavian food (Swedish pancakes, sausage, cheese, cakes, fruit soup) among European-decent people and Asians, most of whom stayed away from the food. Their loss.

Finally, I ended the day with the first night of Chanukah (Hanukkah). The best food to eat on Chanukah are latkes, which are potato pancakes. The key is to have good homemade latkes, and I think I've eaten the best throughout the years (a German recipe), so I've been satisfied.

The only way to reverse the international weekend is to make sure that I exercise all that wonderful food off so that I don't have to make any weight-related New Year's resolutions.