Chinese New Year

So, after a week or so of seeing in the New Year of '08, this time based on the Chinese lunar calendar, I can say I'm all rested up and ready for, well, life outside of the house again. All I can say is that the days have been rather a blur. The weather continues to be as overcast, rainy, and humid as it has been for the past few weeks, so there hasn't been much else to do other than eat, sleep, and play Mahjong. I'm not kidding. When we weren't eating or playing Mahjong, we were either eating or playing Mahjong. As I understand it, those are basically the traditional activities of Chinese New Year, so I guess I got the appropriate dose of activities in my cultural immersion. We had a big dinner with the family (here), then another big dinner with Mom's side of the family (at an uncle's), then another big catered dinner with Dad's side of the family (here, in the garage). During the interim of shuttling back and forth and eating, we were here at home eating snacks or leftovers, or, you guessed it, sleeping. Ok, we also played Mahjong. I must say, though, it was a lot of fun.

I should also say that there was one other diversion filling our time that wasn't as traditional, and that would be the Wii and Super Mario Galaxy. It seems that those hours spent hanging out in Weldy's room next door in college honing my Nintendo skills on Super Mario World have finally payed off. I've apparently garnered a reputation as being skilled at the Wii, enough so that YT's cousin's son, who was here for a big dinner, wanted to watch me play Super Mario. Yeah. I successfully entertained the kids, sometimes by request, for hours.

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I should also not forget to mention the most traditional of activities (I think) -- the giving of the red envelopes. On New Year's Eve, we all gathered together and gave red envelopes, which were prepared with some amount of money inside. The recipient of the red envelope has to offer in response a wish or good thought for the deliverer in the new year, such as (I'm summarizing here) may you be either happy, healthy, wealthy, or well-nourished in the next year. The kids definitely made out pretty well in the end, but it's mostly to be saved for the future. We gave red envelopes to the kids, and to mom and dad as well. We also received red envelopes from mom and dad, and Karrie (YT's oldest sister). It was a nice time, and even better (needless to say) with YT back. It was the first time she has been able to celebrate Chinese New Year with her family in seven years. I'm glad I could be a part of it, too.

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One day, we took advantage of a slight break in the weather to get out of the house and went to soak in one of the many hot springs (basically, geo-thermally heated pools of groundwater) in the area. I've never done it before, but it's a pretty popular thing to do. It's supposed to have healing qualities, but that's about all I know. I can tell you that it involved everyone being in their birthday suits at this place, independent sections for each gender of course, which is just how it's often done here. I can also admit that I'm not that accustomed to public nudity, and though it wasn't really that big a deal, it did take some getting used to. The scratchy throat I'd felt in the morning did seem to go away afterwards, by the way, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, lunch afterwards was sponsored by the all-around winner of Mahjong during the previous days. The 'winnings' went towards the dinner out, so I guess we all sort of contributed to it, but some more than others (such as myself and YT, unfortunately).

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So, that was basically it, my Chinese New Year of '08. It was a very nice time, though I literally lost track of which day it was, they were so much a blur. Now it's back to class and into the general swing of things again. I've been told that it all starts tomorrow, but I can still swear I have a couple of days yet. At least, I think. Definitely looking forward to the next time Spring Festival rolls around. Happy Chinese New Year to you all, and 祝你們恭喜發財.

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Till next time, BB