Happy New Year!

As Shelley mentioned at the end of our last post, we are in East Asia this year for the holiday of all East Asian holidays- the Lunar New Year, otherwise known as the Spring Festival. This is our first time ever celebrating New Year's Day in East Asia. We have had to make several trips into town to purchase food at the market, to register Max, etc... and each time we went into town we noticed it got busier and busier. Well last Friday, we had to make a trip into the big city, and so we enlisted our driver Mr. Zhang to take us in. He was born and raised in our small town, and he knows it well. When I mentioned to him how busy it had gotten on the days leading up to New Year's, he said "Yes. It is because we are in the farmer's village. In the city, they cannot celebrate like we celebrate in the farmer's village. At 12AM New Year's Day, every house will shoot off fireworks (that actually happened). They will shoot fireworks and celebrate from 12AM until well into the day (that actually happened as well... 6AM while I was walking a rather skiddish dog). They don't do this in the city. Look, the town is very busy today. Instead of taking the freeway, we will go into the town and you will see all the traffic and how many people there are." So, as if he was driving the Magic School Bus, Mr. Zhang took us into traffic instead of around traffic to show us just how much traffic there was. And we pay him to do things like this...

Needless to say, there was a lot of traffic in our little "farmer's village" and there were a ton of people. Mr. Zhang said that we should come see the town on New Year's Day because everyone will be there. Shelley and I typically avoid crowds whenever possible because East Asia redefines the word "crowd" by about 1.3 billion, but in this case, we thought we would go and check out the New Year's festivities. We may only get this opportunity once! What we found was a carnival like atmosphere in our little town, and it was a lot of fun. Dragon dancers and drummers put on shows in the main square. People were dressed in their very best, and everyone was happy to see foreigners with their little dog out celebrating the New Year. Here are some pictures:

It is difficult to see the end of this crowd. This is what the streets were like for a half mile.
Everybody got treats on New Year's Day. I chose the delicious pineapple on a stick.

Shelley got gerber daisies (It was also Valentine's Day afterall).
And Max got a deep fried sausage on a stick. These things are gross, and people eat them, but not this person. I figured Maximus deserved a treat for braving the crowds. He sniffed, licked to test the temperature, and promptly ate it in 3 bites.

I am observing a chess game. In East Asia there is a saying that 2 men play chess and 12 men watch. It is true. When observing a chess game, you must look very focused and intelligent. Got that memo. You must also wear navy blue. Didn't get that memo.
And of course, no New Year's Day celebration would be complete without fireworks. Some lucky child would get to light these babies.
After the crowd, we went home to enjoy a Valentine's meal of homemade pizza and salad, courtesy of my gourmet chef wife.

With all that said, our break alone here is quickly winding down. In a few days our friends will start to come back in. We have really enjoyed the time here by ourselves, and feel as if we are even more a part of this up-and-coming community. We look forward to our friends' return, but will certainly look back on this as a sweet time in East Asia.