Chinese New Year Program @ YCIS

Xiao Nian

Xiao Nian Fireworks

Eliza's reflection, with fireworks blasting outside the van

Sean & his Hydraulic Systems Engineering Team

This year Chinese or Lunar New Year is on January 26, which is the first day of the first month of the new lunar year. With Chinese New Year is just around the corner, our bags are already packed and we’re ready to escape the crazy days that lead up to and follow China’s most significant holiday. We leave Saturday morning for the Malay peninsula (I know … again!) The pyrotechnics, screaming car alarms and weather forecasts that literally promise "smoke" (due to the aforementioned pyrotechnics) is enough reason to vacate for at least most of the holiday!

On Sunday night we ventured out to Taidong for Caterpillar’s annual New Year’s Dinner. Sunday was also Xiao Nian, the kick off of the fireworks in Qingdao. Xiao Nian (Little New Year) happens the week before the actual New Year’s Day. My language teacher explained the purpose of Xiao Nian is to remind that the New Year is eminent. “As if the nation that works 50 straight weeks out of the year would forget this,” I thought wryly, but only to myself.

 Unless you experience it, it’s hard to explain what fireworks on every corner, in the middle of the street, or blasting over the elevated highway (launched from below) feels like. The fireworks are, admittedly, amazing (think of the fireworks we sprawl out on patchwork quilts to watch on warm summer nights around Independence day at home.) They are beautiful, really! But also, very terrifying to watch blasted between rows of tall concrete apartment buildings, with sparks landing on tile roofs, and duds sending the pyromaniac who lit them scrambling for cover!

 So… while the rest of China, including those brave expats who opted to stay, will endure the fireworks, we’re opting for a week a little closer to the equator. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of fireworks waiting for us when we return… the New Year Holiday runs for 15 days!!

The finished Qi Pao's

Our Seven-Year-Old

Celebrating @ School with brownies, butterscotch cake 

and mandarin oranges to share with her classmates

Fun birthday gifts from Lucy in Boston!

Birthday Cake for Eliza @ the CAT annual dinner

Can you believe our Eliza Hazel is Seven?

Neither can we!

Swimming @ Sea View per Eliza's birthday request.

Swim caps are mandatory -- Sean and Millie where are yours?

Breakfast in Bed

(A birthday tradition @ the Johnson's!)

The Requested Birthday Breakfast:

Toast with cinnamin and pink sugar and a baby cappucino

Qi Paos

So… its that time of year again… throngs of people rushing to buy their New Year’s presents, Christmas lights strung in all variety of ways (making everything look “lit up like a Christmas tree” but it’s really lit up for the Lunar New Year!), fireworks, red envelopes, and new clothes. For the Johnson girlies it was time to head to the tailor to have this year’s qi pao (sounds like: chee pow) made for their New Year’s performance at school.

It was so cold inside the tailor’s that we kept our hats and coats on (until the final moment when the measuring takes place!) Chinese buildings are usually not heated and to compensate locals don several layers, tote hot water bottles, and keep their loose green tea covered in boiling water.

Selecting the silk fabric traditionally used for qi paos.

Eliza' signs her name in Chinese on the order form.

Taking Eliza's measurments.

and Millie's measurments.

Eliza's Birthday

Eliza Hazel's Birthday is Sunday!!
We've compiled a bundle of pix into the slide show above chronicling her seven years. If you click on the slideshow you can see the pix in a larger format and scroll through memory lane at your own pace!

 

Underwater Shots from the GBR

SWJ @ 15 meters

Green sea turtle

Chelonia mydas

Reef whitetip shark

Triaenodon obesus

Barrier Reef anemonefish

Amphiprion akindynos

Giant Clam

Tridacna maxima

Three-band anemonefish

A. tricinctus

Sending Love to our Grandmas!

We're sending Get Well Wishes to our Grandmas who have both hospitalized this week! 

Much love to Grandma Ferguson and Grandma Ruby from your fam in far off China!

Jen's Mom, Auntie and Grandma

Sean's Grandma Ferguson

Random Aussie Facts

• • On an Australian menu what we call an "appetizer" in the US is an "entree" in Oz, and what we call an "entree" is called a "Main" down under
  • Chunder the Aussie word for puke 
    (as in the lyrics: We come from the land down under
    Where the women glow and men chunder...)
  • Koalas brains are about the size of a walnut, rendering them a bit dim
  • A swim suit is called either your "swimmers" or "cossie" (short for swimming costume) depending on what part of the island you are on
  • Breakfast is "Brekkie"
  
  For further explanation on how to "speak Australian" listen to the song Waltzing Matilda on the playlist.

Koala Kuddle

@ the Zoo above the Casino

One of the reptilian reasons
Jen skipped this outing

Under this guy's drab dark feathers
hid a brilliantly colored crown:

red, yellow and orange
would flash when he was excited

A small freshwater croc

And so, the Blue Tongued Skink

is not just a clever name

"And by the way, Mom,
I forgot to tell you that when
the presenter was just
about to show us another reptile,
the blue tongued skink,
I think it was,
a bird landed on her head!"
-Eliza