During the Chinese New Year here in China people celebrate 15 days each day having a particular purpose or activity that you preform.  Throughout the New Year grandparents and parents give the children a Hong Bao.  Hong Baos are small red envelopes with money inside.  These Hong Baos are meant to give joy and good fortune to the receiver.  Well, yesterday we were invited over to the house of a family from our school who are Malaysian for a End-of-Chun-Jie party.  At the party we talked about each day of the Chun Jie celebration.  At the party our hosts gave each of the unmarried guests (it is the custom to give Hong Baos only to the unmarried) a Hong Bao.  I am constantly learning about new customs and traditions in China!  I was so excited to get my very first Hong bao this year!

Usually the Hong Bao envolope is red but this time it is pink so we called it “fen hong bao” meaning “pink treasure” where as Hong Bao means “red treasure”.

My first Chun Jie here in China many people told me how loud it would be on the Chinese New Year Eve.  I set my expectations pretty low knowing that sometimes a lot of fireworks to some one won’t be too impressive to another person.  At 12 ‘oh’ clock my expectations were blown away!  This year, I told myself “Last year I just came to China and was easily impressed, the fireworks are probably not as impressive as I remember.”, but Oh ho! Low and behold, from 11:30 to 12pm and after you couldn’t hear the person next to you if you didn’t shout!  Tons of firecrackers were POP POPPING and On every side of the house, whichever window you looked out had a wonderful view of  hundreds of fireworks painting the sky green, red, orange, etc.  Each one fanning out in beautiful arrangements of colors. Some would cackle at the ends and others would fall like rain when exploded, still others would create perfect circles (however that works out!)!  I felt like every family in Tianjin must be setting off fireworks!  Even now, on “Chun Jie Yi” as the Chinese call it meaning the day after the new year began, I am watching large green and red fireworks unfold in the night sky.

Here are my favorite type of fireworks; they pop and crackle when they explode.

I especially like the colors in this firework!

This is one of the many beautiful fireworks we viewed on Chun Jie Eve!

I have now started to hear the familiar *POP POP* of firecrackers and today when I went on a walk with Mom I saw, what I call, “Firework Square”.  On a small intersection, all four corners of the sidewalk are covered in huge firework stands!  I am still confused why they would all set up in the same place considering it’s probably bad for business, but maybe they are all owned by one person or company.  Any way, I get so excited looking at the HUGE boxes of colorful fireworks and also the  small toy fireworks for children!  Recently, I was awoken to the sound of several strings of firecrackers going off at 7am, and I know it won’t be the last time this week!  Because we live on the 8th floor we have a wonderful view of most of the big fireworks that are set off around our  building.  In fact some fireworks are right at our eye level!  Also, because we live on the 8th floor, the noise is not as deafening, but there are still times when we pause our movie waiting for the firecrackers to stop!  I am so blessed to be able to experience this interesting new culture during this time of the year!

Behind me are some of the giant fireworks they set off around here!

Recently many of the community of people working with LDI have been moving out of the apartment complex, Fu Kang.  This is mostly because the leaders decided to sell all of the units that LDI owns in this apartment complex.  So my close friend, Amelia, had to move to a different apartment complex.  Unfortunately its a bit of a distance away;  I can’t walk to it or anything, I have to take a taxi or public bus.  It is definitely very sad that I am here and she is there making it more complicated to get together.Recently I went to see her new house for the first time and she is really excited with it.  It is a nicer environment because they have larger window and are up higher where as before they were on the ground level with smaller windows.  Maddie, Josie (Amelia’s sister), Kelsey (another of Maddie’s friends), Amelia, and I all went out to a Korean food place that was next to their apartment. It was so delicious and we all had lot of fun just talking and eating.  It’s always fun when you go out to eat all by yourselves and stuff!   Also, one thing that is right next to her apartment is a large man-made lake (or pond, it’s hard to tell).  Because it has been so cold here the whole thing has frozen over!  In addition the lake/pond is pretty shallow so we gingerly walked out on the ice!  After inspecting it’s safety we just walked down the lake and talked.  It was so much fun and was very beautiful out there!

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture BEFORE we started eating :D! The dish on the left with the red orange sauce is a Korean dish called Dok Bok Ki

Amelia and I!

This is me on ice! As you can see the, we had the whole lake to ourselves!

On Thursday I walked out of our house with a suitcase and carry-on.  I had to go through two classes until my friends and I loaded on to the bus for the airport!  It was sort of a surprise on my part mostly because I am definitely not a “sporty” girl.  Actually this would the first sport I have participated in more than two years!  Even when I plan to sign up for a sport it never really materializes!  I just am not too motivated to have physical challenges.  Oddly enough, I ended up signing up for basketball, one of the most physically demanding sports our school offers, and I must admit it was some what on a whim!  I asked my self several times while I was doing extra work to make up for the days I would be gone at the city of Wu Han for the tournament.  I know you are probably wondering “Why is she going to a tournament at the beginning of the season?”, it’s because the way our seasons of sports line up with the other schools unfortunately we have the tournament at the beginning of our season.  We only got one practice before we left for Wu Han.  On the plane I wondered to myself… “Self, why are you on your way to a tournament of a sport you have no passion for or even know the rules for?”  “Well, I don’t know, Self.  The hand over there signed us up!”  “It’s not my fault!  The brain told me to sign up!”, and so on and so forth.  The true revelation I experience in Wu Han on that Basketball court is… I LOVE BASKETBALL! Haha, it’s funny how I went from hardly knowing about the sport to having a blast playing it!   Our team won 2 out of the 6 games we played, and even though that would be 33% on a test, I had lots of fun!!!

Team Picture! (My teamates aren't very enthusiastic smilers!)

My teamates and I are cheering!

The coldest room in our house here in China is our kitchen.  It is probably the fault of the tiles that cover the floor and wall, but even though these tiles make it frigid, there is a pro to them that outweighs the con.  We can draw on them!  Using white board markers we can make everything from shopping lists to little cartoon characters on the walls that are easily erased with a wet rag.  It’s also fun to add little details to other people’s drawings.  All of this  is new for us because we did not have tiles, even in the bathrooms, in our previous house.  So yesterday I drew this little picture shown  below.  Michael added the word “love” to it!

Love... <3

Tonight a friend lent us a movie called The Legend of 1900.  In this film Danny, part of the crew who worked the boiler on a ship called the Virginian, found an abandoned child on board.  He raised the child and called him Nineteen Hundred, in honor of the year he was found.  Nineteen Hundred was eight when he discovered his amazing talent to play the piano.  Without music or lessons he could play any tune or create music based on a feeling or emotion.  Nineteen Hundred was born, raised, and played the piano for first class passengers, but since he had never set even his tiniest toe onto dry land, his best friend Max pleads with him to get off the ship. I would not say this movie left me thrilled  and it was not anything to ‘write home about’, but I did find it interesting and entertaining.  I was very disappointed with the consistent use of foul language (such as misusing the Lord’s name and the as bad as the “f” word) throughout the movie.  If you find this summary amusing and wish to watch this film by all means do, but the rest of my blog will reveal the conclusion of the film and my own thoughts of this movie, so if you wish to watch it unspoiled I would advise you to stop reading NOW!I found this film interesting but a bit depressing in a way as well.  Max, friend of Nineteen Hundred, is constantly trying to persuade him to get off the Virginian. Max is a trumpet player for first class passengers’ entertainment. Since Nineteen Hundred’s youth, Danny, in fear that the government might try to take Nineteen Hundred away from him because of his lack of paper work, Danny told his ‘son’ never get off board; this plus the fear of leaving the ship, his home, keeps Nineteen Hundred from satisfying Max’s requests.   Once,  Nineteen Hundred actually decides to leave the ship, but because of reasons that are unknown until the end of the film he stops half way down the gangplank and turns back.  Max, the narrator, eventually leaves the ship to seek a new job.  At the end of the movie Max comes back to see what happened to the Virginian and his friend.  He finds that the rusty boat was a day away from being blown up with dynamite because of it’s sad state.  Max is sure that his friend is still on board and he searches for him.  Just before it is time to send the boat out into the sea to be disintegrated to smithereens, Nineteen Hundred comes out of hiding.  Max pleads for Nineteen Hundred to come with him off the ship, but Nineteen Hundred tells him that a piano has a beginning and an end, 88 keys, and with it you can make an infinity of music, but when his was on the gangplank he saw a world that had no beginning and no end unlike his home on the boat that has a bow and a stern.  Nineteen Hundred could not handle a “infinity” world where you pick just one home, one scenery, one woman.  He said that a life like that is meaningless.  So he refused to leave the boat saying that a birth, life, and death on the Virginian is better than living in a “infinity” world.   Nineteen Hundred chose death, so Max was forced to leave him.Now as a Believer in Jesus,  I observed that Nineteen Hundred’s choice was wrong.  It is true our lives our full of an infinity of choices that we go about making each day.  What is different between myself and Nineteen Hundred is that I am not afraid to go into the world, because my choices are guided by HIM who gives my life a purpose and reason for my existence.  So in a way this movie did make me think and was entertaining, but if you do not enjoy sad movies that have complicated themes, then I do not recommend this movie to you 🙂 .

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking, but my title is simply the name of a fantastic restaurant next to our hotel. It’s a beach side cafe that sells, in my opinion, the best Thai food that I have had here in Thailand so far. The first day we came to the island, Ko Samoi, Beach Love was closed, so we ate at a different Thai  restaurant. One night dad took us kids, not including Megan, for a walk on the beach at night. We ended up running quite a ways down the beach and back again. So by that time we were all pretty hungry. At night Beach Love sets out tables pretty close to the water, this creates a wonderful atmosphere! We order Pad Thai, a sweet peanut-thai noodle dish, a spicy beef salad (that has hot peppers and other greens), red curry, and spring rolls. In my mind, the thing that defines Beach Love as the best restaurant so far is their shakes. They have mango, lime, tropical blend, and other flavored shakes; but our favorite so far is the coconut. The atmosphere, food, and shakes all make this restaurant unique and delicious.

Beach Love sign

The famous Lime Shake that Rachel and Maddie ordered almost every time we ate at Beach Love

Maddie, Michael, and I having lunch at out favorite restaurant on Koh Samui

Our last dinner at the Beach Love restaurant 🙁

School.  Isn’t it a word that most of us dread?  Well, since I moved to China, the Opinions and Facts that frolic in the field called SCHOOL in my brain have multiplied significantly.  Their are hundreds upon hundreds of things I could write about concerning the new experiences I’ve had at an institutional school V.S home school, but I’ll keep those to myself for now.  Today, I will be educating you on the differences between Korean, Chinese, and American schools and students.  I must state that I hold Korean and Chinese students in great respect for their endurance through what I am about to explain.  The last two weeks I have been throwing myself a Pity Party as I go over and over the stuff I must memorize from my 4 big finals, but when I stop to think about it I don’t have it HALF bad!Schooling to Asians is one of the most important things in life, for you to succeed.  I’ll start with Chinese students.  When we taught an English class to a few Chinese students last spring, they told us that Chinese Middle schoolers to High schoolers are physically in school, learning, for approximately 12 hours a day, not including breaks for  lunch and dinner.  Most student, as you can imagine, get very little sleep.  The schooling environment is very different as well.  “Structured” would be a good word to describe it .  Because their is so many students in classes (there can be up to 50 per class room) talking or any fooling about is strictly dealt with (and corporal punishment is common and accepted throughout the schools).  All Chinese students are required to wear uniforms as well.  Thankful for American schooling system yet?  Well I’m not done!Now there is the Korean schools to deal with!  Imagine, I was complaining about studying for all my finals, but just think about having to study for 4 hard final is a DIFFERENT LANGUAGE! AHHHH!!!!  I would DIE, if I had to study in Chinese!  (Okay maybe I wouldn’t but you would NOT want to see my report card!)  There are kids at my school that work extremely hard every day to keep up with homework and studying in English while for most of them Korean is their native language.   Then, even my close Korean friend, goes to Korean Academy after school.  Academy is like going back to school to study a lot of what you just learned, but the teaching is all in Korean!  Sot that they will understand it!  One of Rachel’s friends goes to Academy from 5pm to 12pm every weekday then on Saturday goes from 11am to 2pm!  Screaming yet?  There is more!  One of my friend said that in Korea  her 3rd grade teacher was her least favorite teacher.  She said that if they did not eat all the food they were served at lunch they would have to write a two page essay on Confucius beliefs.  Then other punishments would be that if the class misbehaved they would have to raise their arms above their head and hold them there for an hour!Any one up for becoming a Korean or Chinese exchange student?

Yay!  Fall is here!  Or is it?In China some seasons are very intimidated by others.  Seasons like Fall and Spring are very shy, and no matter how much we compliment them, they refuse to stay around more that a few weeks.  Summer and Winter drag on with their extreme stuffy heat or frigid cold weather.  Here, you would know when Spring has made it’s prized visit, when green leaves start to unfold giving you a happy sense of new life.  But this beauty is short-lived, soon dust layers itself over the new leaves, giving them a new brownish coat.This being my second Fall in China I have observed two things.1. Being in China there are not many things to get you in the Fall-ish mood, such as a fully stocked candy aisles in the grocery store, or new cute fall fashion sections in  my favorite clothes stores (Gap, Old Navy, American Eagle, etc.)2.  Because of the lack of Fall spirit in the local people, when there is a hint of a chill in the air, you get the urge to whip out the winter clothes, make jack-o-lanterns, eat candy corn and caramel apples, make apple cider, etc. !!!So as you can guess I was ecstatic that Fall was here!  This year we did get to make caramel apples and eat candy-corn (which is a big thing because coveted items such as caramel and candy corn is more expensive because it is imported)!!!  Sadly, Winter is already pushing Fall out of the way it seems.  The temperature this morning was a chilly 39, and we are expecting a freeze tonight.  After this cold weekend I fear Fall will not return.Is this the last I’ll see of Fall’s cool crisp weather until next year?

Maddie and I making Caramel Apples!

My Jack-O-Lantern in progress.

The finished prodject. Isn't in adorable?!