kickin back in wujiang

an account of what SR and i did over chinese new year:
so we had a nine day holiday for Chinese New Year, which happened to fall on my birthday this year (january 29). chinese people all go home for the new year, so SR and i went back to her hometown to hang out with her parents. they live in a small town about an hour and a half from shanghai and close to Suzhou. the town is small (you can still pretty much walk anywhere you need to go) but is growing fast with the help of many new factories that have been built there. there are at least two KFCs and one McD's and wal-mart is building a store there.
i am not exactly sure what chinese people did traditionally for chinese new year, or spring festival, but nowadays it is mostly a time when families get together and eat a lot. the new year also initiates a confusing time when chinese people start talking of dates in terms of the lunar calendar, so new year's day is the first day of the first month, etc. it gets pretty confusing (we came back to shanghai on feb 3, but SR parents always said the sixth) for a week or so until everyone goes back to using the normal calendar.
there is a big meal on new year's eve (see the sideways picture to the left), when they make much more food than anyone can eat, which is supposed to allow them to eat leftovers and not have to cook for the next few days so they can rest at the start of the new year. after dinner, most chinese now have the tradition of watching the New Year's Gala, a four hour show that is pretty much terrible. a lot of chinese people also think it is terrible, but it is usually playing somewhere in the house anyway. there is a lot of celebrating china and the communist party through song and dance (this year there was a strong focus on the two pandas that china wants to give taiwan, though of course there was no mention that taiwan will likely not accept the pandas), though there are some funny skits thrown in .
then at midnight, everyone in the country lights off firecrackers. it sounds like WWIII outside as everyone rings in the new year. we of course did our part.
over the course of the next few days people visit relatives and eat a lot more. several of SR's aunts and uncles and cousins came to see us. we also visited her 80-something maternal grandmother. i had met most of her family before, so it was pretty normal.
we spent most of the six days we were there eating, watching TV (there were NBA games on almost every morning), taking naps, reading and talking to her parents.
i had a few of my own goals for the week: to take a nap every day and to finish one book. i didn't meet either of them. i took a nap every day except the day before we left, and i made the fatal error of starting on a less interesting book before switching midweek to walking the bible. while i did make good progress, i did not complete my mission.

they bought me an nice big cake for my bday.


this year is the year of the dog, which is SR's year. this means it should be a pretty good year for her. and she is supposed to wear more red (a lucky color). she recently bought a big red down coat, so she is doing pretty well so far.
so that was Chinese new year. nothing too crazy, but a restful and relaxing six days.
when we got back we had another taco night. our friend michael's parents were in town, he is from San antone, and they brought mounds of mexican cheese and tortillas, and they even bought some exorbitantly priced avocados to make guacamole with. we of course had our homemade sour cream and roasted green peppers, and it was an excellent time.
we also had a few snow flurries yesterday.
got to go back to work tomorrow. we are now counting the days until our next weeklong holiday in may.
-elias