Jiang, fixing us our Lunar New Year dinner.
Us, enjoying our Lunar New Year dinner.
Tons of great lanturns at Confucius Temple.
Our Korean dinner.
Tomorrow we head off to Thailand. We are so excited! I wanted to write about this week before we leave, because I will have too much to write about Thailand, I'm sure. The children have been out of school this week, and Mike hasn't had to work long hours, because of the Chinese New Year. The children played with the few friends that are still in town. Nicole had a great time talking to Erin, her best friend from Michigan, this last week, and I got to call and wish my Mom a happy birthday! I won't mention her age. A special day was when Jiang, our driver, brought us some Chinese New Year specialties that he had made himself. I know I mentioned before, that much of the celebrating is done by cooking as a family. Jiang made special dumplings and spring rolls, and came over to our house to cook them for us! They were so delicious! The spring rolls are only eaten during the New Year celebration, not at any other time of the year. The children just gobbled them all up!
On Tuesday evening, we went as a family to a Korean restaurant. The children had never tried Korean food, and since Mike went on his mission to Korea, we thought it would be a good experience. They loved it! I am really surprised at how expanded our children's ability to try and even like different foods has become. They especially liked the Korean barbecue. They are even starting to be able to peel the shrimp here in China, like pros. This entails removing the head, legs, tail and all. It can be very disconcerting to have your meal staring at you! Later that evening, we went to the Confucius Temple to see the special New Years Lanterns and Vendors. It was really fun. We bought a Chinese yoyo that wasn't too hard for me to do when the man started it for me. When we brought it home, we found it is near impossible. But Mike isn't giving up! Maybe he'll be able to get it and teach the rest of us.
On Wednesday, we planned to go to Hunan Lu to see the Dragons, and Drums, etc. Jiang had found the time and date in the news paper for us. Well, when we got there, he was told that it wasn't going to happen. We never found out why. But, it didn't really surprise us (lots of things are like that here). We still had a good time walking around, and the children all got those special artistic caramel suckers. We had a whole group of people taking photos of the children. Some followed us down the whole road. I think my girls thought they were on a runway!
The fireworks haven't disappeared yet. They go off every night. Last night, there was an influx of fireworks at 12:00 again, and then we were treated to another gigantic round at 5:30 this morning. Apparently, there is a special part of the celebration going on. We hear that the last day of the vacation, which is Saturday, is the biggest yet for the fireworks. We won't be here to "enjoy" all of the smoke and noise. We were wondering if they just use that day to get rid of all of their left-overs. Who knows?????
