kung hei fat choy!

In other words: Happy New Year! Yes, I am fully aware that it is the middle of February. For those of you who may be located in the Western hemisphere, I'm sorry that you were not within ear shot of the fireworks/pots & pans/red pocket/everybody is off work and in the mall extravaganza that flooded this weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year. Despite the rain and chill that rolled in with the festivities, I loved being able to just be a witness as everyone prepared for time with family and the start of a new year. We are still learning new culture lessons every day and enjoying watching them play out before our eyes. Mary, Zach & Micah definitely out celebrated any of us when they purchased inflatable tiger hats to wear during the festivities. Appropriately so, it is the year of the tiger. As soon as I have photo evidence I'll make sure to share. Monday night there was a fireworks display scheduled at the harbor. (Of the few things I do know, I know that people here don't joke around when it comes to fireworks, they invented them-literally.) So we went to the harbor early to ensure some good seats for the show. As the temperature continued to drop and the gray clouds that loomed over the buildings did not dissolve, we decided that the fireworks would probably be delayed and warm dinner sounded much more appealing than letting the rain spit on us for another couple hours. A group of us cozied into a booth in a pizza place, excited to be indoors and in the company of good friends. And just around the time that they bring that good bread and oil to dip it in, the TVs strategically placed around the restaurant put our assumptions to shame. A panoramic shot of the harbor came up and for the following 30 minutes we watched as fireworks lit up the skyline in a wonderful display. Lesson learned: the Chinese don't hesitate when it is time to celebrate. Rain or shine, celebrate we will. Although we missed out on the fireworks, we did catch little glimpses of different people celebrating across the city:

It's a gift to be here. Learning that more each day too.