February 10, 2013 -

This was all done in flowers and was the
 welcome sign to the Temple Fair

CHINESE NEW YEAR! (CNY)

Happy Year of the Snake - It is your year Corey James Martin! 

I really was not at all prepared for CNY! When the fire works started at midnight I was completely startled. We started out on Saturday, Feb. 10, by going to a real Temple Fair. I can only describe it as a mix between a traveling carnival and a boardwalk experience!  Picture Wildwood, NJ with all Chinese food and traditional items for sale complete with a huge temple and park!  There were so many people, so much food and anything you can imagine for sale (except for wine!)  The food was probably the most overwhelming part.  There was everything from soup to nuts!  Literally - I tried what looked like a "doughboy" (fried dough with sugar).  It was OK, but did not live up to my boardwalk days level!  Most of the men were dressed in Chinese traditional clothes.  I loved the dragon pot in this picture.  

Note the dragon hissing......

Stall after stall of different foods lined the pathways.  It was pretty amazing.  I had a ton of homework to do before we left for Cambodia so unfortunately we did not stay long at the Temple Fair.  

The traditional food for CNY is dumplings.  We were invited to a beautiful dinner preceded by making our own dumplings.  I missed the dumpling making part, but Bill went and enjoyed it.  I joined in time to eat!  The older women at the dinner made the best dumplings.  Since I did not participate I really can not comment on the preparations except to say I could pick out the dumplings made by westerners!

We were incredibly luck to be invited to join this dinner. On the way home, every street corner had people burning ghost money.  Do you remember me telling about that at the Autumn Festival time?  It is when you burn money for your ancestors that have died so that they can use the money in their after life.  The fire works are all private and all over the city!  Really - it is indescribable.  Hours and hours of explosions.  The dogs were not happy!  Finally, around 2:00 a.m. there was a bit of quiet - enough so that you could sleep........We were up early the next morning to leave for our first holiday in Asia.  Next post - Cambodia!  Happy New Year to everyone - love you all - 

Andi

February 6, 2013

The Stage for the Temple Fair

BEIJING BLUE!

The skies cleared, everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief (literally), and then the snow started falling!  Sometimes you just can't win but I will actually take the snow I intensely dislike over the smog.  This past week we had our Temple Fair at BCIS.  Temple Fairs originally were held in the temples.  They were a time to celebrate the new year and to appreciate the Chinese culture.  There are games, lots of food, entertainment, shopping (that might be more modern) and they are very crowded.  I found the crafts incredible.  The snake below is actually candy that a man blew like glass.  It was something I had never seen before.  Each of the shapes was beautiful!  They also made candy lollipops that were quite intricate.  It was amazing how they made them so quickly and they were so beautiful.  Being the Year of the Snake, there were quite a few snakes grazing the gym!  

Candy Snake with other animals in the
background.

My favorite entertainment was the drummers and the dragons.  You might remember precision Chinese drumming from the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.  There were four beautiful women preforming the symbolic drumming.  It was something to see.  It was almost erotic in its beauty.  Anyway - during the drumming the big dragons that you probably associate with Chinese New Year were circulating through the crowd.  They were also beautiful and gave you goose bumps moving to the beat of the drums.

The whole atmosphere was exciting and charged with children and puppets and face painting etc. I hope to go to a real traditional Temple Fair but not sure I can fit it in this year.  Might have to wait for the year of the Horse!  We will be gone most of the week during Chinese New Year.  One of the traditional foods is a specific dumpling which we are going to learn to make on Friday night.  I am a bit excited - I will have to take pictures.  

The other highlight last week was an invitation to the Irish Embassy.  I was beyond excited, but, in the end it was a bit of a let down..... The invitation was beautiful. The event was much more Chinese than I had expected.  Two of our students were preforming. They are ranked internationally for Irish dancing and will be competing in the World Championships in Boston in March. I am pretty sure that is why we were invited.  The Irish Ball is on March 16th and I am looking forward to that although it is formal and do you think I brought anything black tie to Beijing?  Then again - that just means I need to buy something! The reception was held in the Ambassador's residence which is beautiful and we met several people which was nice.  

Here is a picture of our two students.  Next post will be Chinese New Year!  Miss you all and please keep in touch.  CNY is on Saturday and then off to Cambodia on Sunday.

Andi