Happy Dragon Year, 2012 恭喜发财

January 23 marks the beginning of the new Lunar Year, and the commencement of the Year of the Dragon.

gōng xǐ fā cái 

恭喜发财 

Congratulations and Prosperity!

In Chinese tradition, each year is dedicated to a specific animal. The Dragon, Horse, Monkey, Rat, Boar, Rabbit, Dog, Rooster, Ox, Tiger, Snake, and Ram are the twelve. Each of these animals are thought to bestow their characteristics to the people born in their year.  It is believed to be especially auspicious to be born in the year of the Dragon - and it is said that there will be a popluation spurt in China this year as people seek to welcome a Dragon baby, given the association with wealth and power.   It's true that I've noticed a lot of pregnant ladies lately...but maybe just because I am looking.  Jeb and his friends born in 2000 are lucky to be dragons!

It's hard to overstate the mania surrounding Chinese New Year here - it certainly rivals or beats Christmas spirit in the U.S.  Think decorations on 5th Avenue and multiply. Everywhere you go there are hanging red lanterns, dragon symbols and festive streamers. Houses are decorated with red paper banners which have auspicious sayings written on them. These are hung around doorways and are intended to bring luck to the household for the coming year. Red is an important color in Chinese culture, symbolizing happiness, wealth and longevity...so it's pretty much red, red and more red everywhere you look....

With all the celebration comes incredible traffic and congestion.  One of the modern responsibilities of a son or daughter at Chinese New Year is to travel home to spend the New Year with family. Chinese customs rely heavily on filial piety, which means that the children honor and respect their elders, who are in charge of the family throughout their life. On New Year’s Eve (January 22 this year)  it is common for the children to travel home for a reunion dinner that includes traditional Chinese foods. The reunion dinner is traditionally celebrated in the home of one of the elders of the family, such as the grandparent’s home. This accounts for the Lunar New Year crush as an estimated 250 million Chinese scramble to get home before the national holiday kicks off Monday.  New outlets call this the largest annual migration anywhere in the world.  This year there was a hug outpouring of anger as the government's online ticketing service for train and bus tickets (new this year and developed to handle the crush of requests) crashed, causing even greater delays and problems for travelers.

The mayhem is visible everywhere we go - especially the markets.  Carrefour is so crowded it's hard to move, and it's stuffed with festive decorations, holiday music and sales, which encourage the shoppers to stock up on boxes and boxes of chinese deliacies (like sliced jellyfish)...causing especially long lines at check out.  It's like going to the grocery store on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but 10x worse.  So, of course, we had to check it out....

Once again....we are heading into a school vacation week, as all schools and businesses in China close for the first week of the New Year.  We had an amazing all-school assembly on Thursday that showcased traditional Chinese dances (Madeline and Hope participated) and other celebrations of Chinese culture.  Here's a clip from ChinaNews showcasing the festivities at Concordia.  You'll find Madeline at 0:39 and Hope at 1:55.  Look close...it's a blur for both...but how funny that they made the news in China!!!!  (You can click the link or copy/paste it into your browser if that doesnt work.)

http://www.chinanews.com/shipin/2012/01-20/news51842.html

 Happy New Year to All!

恭喜发财

 

Happy New Year....Cambodia

We pulled off the surprise of the century with a meet up with the Hendos in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Wish we could post the video we have of the kids seeing each other unepectedly in the lobby of the Victoria Hotel.  It was magic and we are so incredibly grateful to the Hendos for the big effort they made to loop in with us during their vacation.

Ahhhh...pedicures Cambodian style....tickly and wierd, but no pirahnas so that's good.

As if seeing the Hendos was not enough, we had also made plans to meet up with the awesome Robbins family in Siem Reap...spent two days sightseeing together and having a blast.

Angkor Wat is the most famous temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city.  It is the world's largest religious building. One of the amazing things about the temples in the complex is that you can still wander freely around, climbing up on rocks and walls, exploring. A really fun place for kids. We wondered a lot about how this place will look in another 10 years and if it will be more difficult for visitors to touch and feel the ruins as they become more protected. When the temples were first discovered by a french explorer in 1860, they were hidden in the jungle and totally covered by vines and trees, having long ago been abandoned.

I took this picture upside down through my legs.  The image on the top is the reflection:

A big part of the experience of being at the temples are the bas-relief friezes that adorn every wall, telling the story of daily life or famous stories of the gods.

Here are some shots from the famous Ta Prohm temple.  The trees which grew up for centuries around the temples have been left intact and the roots literally sprout up and through the structures.

We also visited a Floating Village outside Siem Reap, one of the poorest places we've ever been.  I felt very mixed about this outing...it felt a little like "poverty tourism" and we were very skeptical that the local residents were benefitting from our donations or the money we paid to be toured around in a boat, even though we were told they did. Here a mother pulls up alongside our boat showing us her baby with a huge snake around his neck and begging for dollar.

Children in their home along the water...

A local orphanage

All in all, Cambodia definitely exceeded my expectations.  Not sure if that was due to the surprise we pulled off, the fantastic time we had with friends, the beauty of the temples, the rides in the tuk tuks, the incredibly delicious food, our awesome hotel, the over the top New Year's celebration...or maybe a combination of everything.  A highlight memory will always be the kids jumping in the hotel pool at midnight fully clothed, fireworks blasting in the background and Cambodian acrobats jumping through fire-hoops for the countdown. Thank you, Thank you to Ted, Bonnie, Mel Chris and Judie for the incredible chance to be together.  It made going home to Shanghai hard for all of us, but we now see light at the end of the tunnel...5 months and counting.  This year has been the opportunity of a lifetime, but there is no place like home.

Heading back to Shanghai..stuck in the Bangkok airport for 9 hours waiting a flight at 2:55am....what a way to wrap things up!  Happy New Year!

Sawadee Ca...Thailand!

Merry Christmas!  Best part of the trip was getting outside of China for the first time for all of us (except John) and the chance we had to see the Foulkeses and to be together for Christmas.  Reminded us all how far away we are.

We had a couple of days to settle in before the Foulkes arrived in Phuket to meet us...time to explore the island, get a family foot massage (wish we had a picture of that sight), eat some amazing, fresh, cheap Thai food, ride elephants and relax on the beach...

When the Foulkeses arrived on the afternoon of the 24th, there was general mayhem in the lobby of our hotel...man was that great to see their faces! We spent 3 awesome days together. Christmas morning we gathered in the outdoor lobby area to Skype in to Prov. for the Christmas Eve party. Here's what it looked like on our end - thank you, Steve Jobs and Skype.

College Bound....very proud of the Bird....(I was going to put the one of the armpit hair in here, Zoe, but I resisted the urge...)

A day trip exploring local beaches around Phuket....

A full day on our own boat exploring islands around Phuket...

Cant say enough good things about our times with the Foulkes...thank you for coming to see us!  That was a Christmas memory for a lifetime!