Tidbits:

Xinjiang is technically on Beijing time, because all of China is one one time zone, but this doesn't functionally make sense because Xinjiang is around 3000 km west of Beijing, meaning that on Beijing time the sun doesn't rise in Xinjiang until around 10:00 am. Because of this, people who live there go by "Xinjiang time," which is two hours earlier than Beijing time. So, when it's 10:00 am Beijing time, it's actually 8:00 am Xinjiang time. All government run things open on Beijing time, but non-Han children (especially far out west) seem to go to school on Xinjiang time. When making appointments, etc. people generally specify whether they mean Xinjiang time or Beijing time.

Uygurs seemed to really like their hats. They have many different types of hats, but most resemble Russian-ish hats that are furry and stand fairly tall on one's head. They don't cover one's ears though, which seemed counter-intuitive because it is so cold in Xinjiang.

While traveling in Kashgar, we saw hardly any Han Chinese people (or foreign tourists, for that matter) and the few Han Chinese we did see were tourists and definitely seemed like outsiders.

On a completely different topic:
Most of the classes here use textbooks that are kept on reserve in the library and can be checked out for three hours and then must be returned. However, many students take these textbooks to print shops and get the whole book copied and bound for a few dollars. There is no enforcement of copyright laws for these books....which also makes me think of plagiarism. Since the beginning of the year, there have been a few instances of students plagiarizing and getting caught- I think all the cases involved Chinese students. There is definitely a different mentality when it comes to taking someone else's ideas or just blatantly copying paragraphs without citing sources. Students seem to think that if they can avoid doing the work or research by taking some one else's, then they are saving themselves the time and effort. This is not to say that they are not capable of completing the task themself, but just that it is more efficient not to.

Lastly:
It's the first day of Hanukkah on Thursday and the first day of December tomorrow (advent!), but it certainly doesn't feel like it here. It was in the mid-60s yesterday and all of the leaves still haven't fallen off the trees. My thanksgiving was in Urumqi and we ended up going to an Uzbek restaurant and having central Asian food rather than any sort of traditional American Thanksgiving food, so it kind of feels like Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet.