You… OFF MY PLANET!

so for more than two billion chinese people around the world, it’s the lunar new year…it’s a holiday that i’ve been celebrating my entire life…this year, it means a little more i suppose…i always treasure the moments i spend with my grandparents…money or not (though it’s good to always get money on new years, it’s a tradition where the older generation gives money to the young), i know that they’re getting on in age, and can’t move as freely as they once did…

i wish them all the health in the world…whether they know it or not, they are part the rock that keeps me sane.

so 2006, it’s the year of the …(it’s a dog…can’t you see it??!!)

here’s a brief explanation of who what when where:

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to “catch up” with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-yearcycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year’s Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast called “surrounding the stove” or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.

so, in the spirit of tradition…here’s some good wishes for all:

and to everyone…have a very healthy, safe, and prosperous new year. May this year bring you success, love, and whatever else you may be looking for…

~ciao

steph

1/19 –

Observations: well, here we are in Shanghai. actually, it looks like a small taipei. a convinence store on every corner, tall buildings, nothing looking too historic. the rain is coming down in buckets…dad says that in shanghai when it rains, it pours…he’s right. we waiting 40 minutes for a cab outside my aunt’s apartment (she owns one in shanghai…don’t know why, but hey, that’s a few bucks saved for this leg of the trip) - from the apartment, we went to have brunch…really lunch if you look at the time. we had noodles at this place that i swear, nobody would find unless you knew where it was…some back alley between houses. but the food was cheap…and absolutely amazing.

from there we walked around to do shopping…the xianyang market in shanghai is world famous for knockoffs…which is where we were headed. we walked out ladened with bags, scarves, change purses, and various other things…we got them at awesome prices as well since it was raining, and all they wanted to do was make the sale to make their day worth while…

…tomorrow, we get ready to head out again…sheesh…so much flying…so little time…i hope we get our airline miles for all this crap…

1/18 –

Observations: so today was the Summer Palace. We got up earlier than we have, ate breakfast, and was happily on our way to the Palace by 9am. Walked around the Summer Palace for about 90 minutes as well, which was all that we can afford time wise. The place was beautiful…on the water, it was a summer vacation paradise…during spring and summer months, they actually allow you to rent paddle boats so you can go out onto the lake. Oh well, maybe next time. This time, the lake was frozen solid, and many more adventurous than us went for a stroll on water…we, figuring our luck lately, decided not to tempt fate. Many, many, many rooms later, it was finally time to go. We hopped the same cab back to the hotel, where we arrived in the nick of time for check out…grabbed bags, stored them with the bellhop, and went for a little buffet lunch. Today is a travel day. Onwards to Shanghai.

Raining in Shanghai after a very turbulent flight…didn’t feel well…walked into the house, and crashed.

1/17 –

The Hotel (continues): breakfast wasn’t included. We nixed the idea of hunting breakfast elsewhere as my father suggested and just added it to our room…100 RMB…which roughly equals 12 USD. All you can eat buffet…mix of Asian and American…you wouldn’t know how interesting it is to eat a steamed pork bun right along side of a stack of silver dollar pancakes until you try. Take note…syrup does not go well with steamed pork bun.

Observations: today started out…not so auspiciously. Apparently, the plug for our hair dryer is not a converter like most of our other electronic products…therefore, I blew a fuse in the room. Go figure, that wasn’t good. Okay onwards to start the day…bellhop hailed a cab for us…okay, so it looks a little rickety, but it should be okay right? Well, that’s what we thought. Again, go figure…I was wrong. 10 minutes out of the hotel, the cab died…actually started smoking while driving, which well…wasn’t good. Thank god we didn’t take that one to the Wall…got out of that one, switched to another, newer looking cab. We negotiated with the driver to take us to the wall, summer palace and or the forbidden city. All for the bargain price of 600 RMB. Alright, so here we go…an hour to the Wall right? Well, not so much…we were in the second cab for not longer than 5 minutes when he committed a traffic booboo, and was pulled over. Obviously, he was getting a ticket that he couldn’t talk his way out of…so he asked us to excuse him for a moment while he “confers” with the police…here’s what I saw. I saw him arguing, pointing, jumping…essentially doing everything to keep from getting a ticket…he then pulled on the cop’s sleeve to show him something…that turns out to be a really big booboo. The cop took major offense, started screaming, calling for backup…so here’s now 3 more cops…all surrounding our driver. More arguing…more pointing, out comes the night stick…so now I’m thinking damn…we’ve got to get another cab cause this guy’s going to be arrested in a few seconds…god was trying to tell us something, and we obviously weren’t getting the message…but the arrest was averted, and we went on our way, with ticket to the driver.

So now we’re finally headed to the Wall. An hour drive later brought us to the mountains, where we climbed half way up on the Wall (pictures to follow). The view was magnificent, breath-taking, (insert superfluous adjective here). The stairs presented an almost vertical drop, yet we braved it. In consideration of time, we exited after only an hour and a half. Along the Wall, there were vendors selling the generic souvenir items…we rejected all their advances to sell us the trinkets…it wasn’t until we got down to ground level did I find out that those people up there has to carry everything they’re to sell up to their carts every morning…then bring it all back down at night…the thing I guess that made me feel a little better is not that I was rejecting the little people…you know, mom and pop who has to do this or else they wouldn’t survive…they’re all part-timers…the real owners never even show up.

Okay, so from the Wall, we trek back to the city. Here we encounter lots of traffic, and the original plan of going to the Summer Palace was thwarted. So we quickly decided that we would just do the Forbidden Palace first, then the Summer Palace tomorrow…turned out to be a good idea.
In the Forbidden Palace we did a quickie tour, 90 minutes to walk the length of it…okay, so we saw nothing in depth…but it was magnificent. It seems unreal that all of that, belonged to one person…it’s almost unfathomable. There are lots of thought I had about the Forbidden City, but that will have to come in another entry.

By the time we walked through the whole City, and reached Tiananmen Square, we were both frozen solid, both from the actual cold, from being exhausted with the climb, and just having been out the whole day…so we headed back to the hotel. At this point, we should mention that we haven’t eaten anything since breakfast, and are now starving…so my hunt was for Peking Duck…I mean where else are you going to go for good Peking duck than in Beijing??

So, we asked around, and found this one restaurant that was extraordinarily famous…into the cab we go to the restaurant for some takeout (couldn’t imagine sitting at the table for food at this point) – so this was another fiasco. The cab driver told the bellhop he knew where he was going…turned out he lied…so he dropped us off at some random place, and told us to go look for it ourselves…angry at this, we walked around the plaza where he dropped us off…turns out to be a pedestrian mall…which we ended up shopping at for a little bit. We finally found the restaurant, bought an entire duck, and went back to the hotel…the duck was absolutely amazing, to die for, and never to be duplicated. Alexis had lasagna from room service since the duck just wasn’t up her alley. Crashed at 9 while Rome was screaming at us via the television.

…TO BE CONTINUED…

1/16 –

Observations: Woke up way too early, no fun laying there staring at the ceiling that you really can’t see because you don’t have your lenses in…wondering about the day ahead. We rushed out of the house at 615, only to arrive a bit too early for the flight…layover in Hong Kong…large airport, glad we got in on time…would never have made the connection gate if we were late. Sat around until well after our original boarding time…I suppose we were waiting for all the people that were on a late flight…got on a plane straight out of the history books, tiny seats, horrible food (don’t ask…I actually eat the food on the planes, you’d be surprised – sometimes not so pleasantly). Finally made it to Beijing in one piece…pick up bags, find cab, on to hotel.

The Hotel: Beijing International Hotel: not so bad. Not exactly 5 stars…but at least a 3…if the bathroom was better, it’d make a 4. beds were a standard semi-double…which means, it’s a little wide for one, but a little small for two…we made do. The shower was interesting…it was a barrage of water, not quite unpleasant, but not pleasant either…at least you get a water massage out of it. We had next to no energy to go out and hunt for food…so room service it is. Lasagna for me, spaghetti for the girl…yes, we’re boring…but it wasn’t an exciting room service menu!

…TO BE CONTINUED…

so here we are…in sunny taiwan. when i say sunny…i mean sunny…and a lovely balmy 75. people look at us funny when we walk out with no sweater, coats, and just a tshirt.

anyway, since alexis is the avid photographer, here’s the her blog with the pages: Alexis Blog we’re pretty much together so the pics that she takes, are the same sights i pretty much saw.

leaving for beijing tomorrow morning, to start our whirlwind trip in china before returning to taipei to witness the festivities of the chaos…

okay for now…

~ciao

DIRECTIVES FROM THE POWERS THAT BE (i.e. the people who control my salary and my professional fate)

…We will be having a meeting next week…
…to discuss this meeting we just had…
…about the meeting we had earlier this week…

*ahem* thank you…that was a very productive meeting…

and you wonder why corporate america looks the way it does?! next time we’ll be having a meeting about when to meet…lol…

~ciao