Well, my friends things are hopping in China....bu dum bump!!! I am sorry, that was bad. Yes it is the coming of the New Year ....the year of the rabbit. Which means utter chaos here as the country prepares for the massive shifting of people from one area of the country to another. The next couple of weeks are like Christmas here for the Chinese. The landscape is decorated with lanterns of red and gold. There are massive rabbits all over the place. There is even a really tall white one that follows me around, his name is Harvey ..... Sorry, I am full of bad jokes and references today. Imagine the travel at Christmas in the US and multiply it by a few more million. People wait for hours in line to get train tickets etc.. For a lot of people who come to Shanghai in hopes of work and prosperity, this may be the only time they see there loved one's in a year. Not infrequently this may be the one time a year to see their only offspring, who are commonly left with the grandparents to rear. Of course they are expected to bring money and gifts back with them to show off their success. It can actually be quite draining for those that travel. There is a lot of pressure to come back with the product of their hard work. Not to mention the pressure to find a spouse and produce that single offspring.
I don't know, for the young Chinese of this newer generation, it has to be tough straddling these two different worlds. I read an article today with these types of stories. A young hairdresser traveled for over a day to get to her Auntie's house just to be greeted by a slew of her aunties friends excitedly grasping various hair dyes and permanents. She worked through the night for free, traveling the next day to her home town, just to be greeted in the same fashion.
What do we expats do for Chinese New Year? That's right....get the heck out of here. I was told right when we arrived that unless I enjoy hanging with millions of Chinese people and listening to fireworks go off all night, every night it would be a good idea to get out of here. (There are actually fireworks going off right now, as I am writing.) So I am taking the advice of wise expats before me and we are off to Singapore and Indonesia. Yes, the kids get yet another week off school in observance of the year of the rabbit. They also got to have another classroom party to celebrate. Private school, reminds me when I was a kid. We got to have all sorts of parties and activities to celebrate different holidays. So, I show up at JP's class to help with his Chinese New Year party yesterda, and he comes up to me and grins. "Mom, look at my wiggly tooth." "Hmmm let me see I say....then I yanked it out!!!!" Am I a bad mom? I couldn't help myself. It was just hanging there asking to be pulled. I am the daughter of a dentist you know.
With that I will sign off, I need to put my edentulous son to bed. Xing nian kuai le!!! or Happy New Year
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