My Chinese New Year

I celebrated Chinese New Year on Friday night (instead of Wednesday) by going to a party hosted by the Chinese Business Professional Association at the OSU Fisher College of Business.

My Sichuan friend who I graduated with at Muskingum, Tao Huang (left), is getting his MAcc from OSU and helped organize the event.


Happy Year of the Rabbit! 兔年快乐！

The celebration started with dinner catered by Lee's Garden, and then the performances started. There was a really impressive lion dance that involved the dancers lifting each other into the air, and then we watched a video of professors trying to give greetings in Chinese - hilarious! Next came the music segment, and I definitely knew all the songs and their artists, much to the chagrin of my Chinese companions. "No, I swear to you, Cai Yi Lin 蔡依林 sings this song, not JJ Lin 林俊杰!"

Another highlight was the Chinese dress qipao 旗袍 show. This past week I worked hard to alter my own dress - I lost a lot of weight since I had it made in China in 2008. I successfully took in all the seams and darts, which was a huge project. But anyway, the women walked in with flowers, ribbons, fans, feather boas, and other props, and their variety of dresses were really beautiful.



After the performances were games and prizes, and everyone just mingled and had fun for the rest of the time. In this picture I'm playing the kongzhu 空竹, like a yo-yo and top combination.

Obviously, my favorite part of celebrating the Chinese New Year was speaking and listening to the Chinese language! I'm always amazed at how easily everything comes back to me, but also how much I have to learn and practice. Totally contemplating a trip to China within the next year or two...?



Photo collage from the New Year party: Red envelopes containing Chinese money - a Chinese tradition; Brush and ink for Chinese calligraphy; Two of the cutest children on the earth; Baby slippers and decorations; Fan with Beijing opera masks and a bowl of green tea leaves.




新年快乐，恭喜你发财！ 兔年吉祥！
(Just some "Happy New Year" type sayings... I refuse to translate words like "prosperous" and "auspicious" like that's normal. Not going to do it.)

Xi'an

I rode the train to Xi’an with Bei, her cousin, and her boyfriend. When the four of us got off the train, it was about 5:30 on Monday morning. We took a taxi to a university-owned hotel that Bei’s cousin knew of. The hotel was reasonably priced and very safe for us to stay in. We dropped off our luggage in our rooms and then we looked for breakfast- hot soy milk and fried bread.

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel room and took a much needed shower and nap. Bei, her cousin, and boyfriend met with some other friends from Xi’an, so I had the room to myself all morning and afternoon.

Because I was in the room most of the day, I didn’t get a good impression of Xi’an until the next day. The four of us spent the whole day on the streets of Xi’an, going to parks, shopping, and eating in restaurants.

Xi’an is so much cleaner and more beautiful than Fugu. The pollution in Xi’an is relatively unnoticeable, and city workers are constantly sweeping the sidewalks and picking up trash. There are so many more trees in Xi’an as well. I mentioned the parks that we visited; they celebrate the Tang Dynasty which ruled from Xi’an beginning at about 700 A.D. The parks are filled with trees, fountains, and sculptures.

As for the shopping, I had so much fun. With the exchange rate, most shirts cost about $7, and skirts and jackets are about $20. After searching for good prices and doing a bit of haggling (with help from Bei, of course), I got some great deals. The clothes here are very Chinese in the sense that they wouldn’t be found in America. I bought four items, all of which are strange, but I think it will be fun to wear them even when I come back to America.

Because we’re staying in hotel rooms without kitchens, we eat out for every meal. Our first day in Xi’an we ate regional specialties. One of which was a noodle dish that we might call soup in America. I enjoy spicy food, but was warned to order mine “not spicy” and it still will be. Mine was so spicy it made my tongue and lips numb, but I actually enjoyed it. To cool off we had another regional favorite- fried bread filled with mutton. To me, it seemed like a cross between a Greek gyro and a shredded beef sandwich. Since then we have been eating more traditional Chinese food.

Because of the delay between our train to Xi’an and to Lanzhou, we have a total of three days here. Bei tells me that Lanzhou will be more like Fugu as far as pollution. I wish we could stay in beautiful Xi’an longer!

Chinese Food

Some of the food is amazing, and some of the food will take some time to get used to.

In this region they make a special noodle, so it is found at every meal. I could hardly swallow it the first time I tried it. Of course, to be polite, I ate a lot of it. But it is so strange. At first glance, the noodles seem about the consistency of jello, but if you stick a chopstick into one and take it out, you can’t tell where the hole is. It’s just a thick, slimy, chewy consistency. And they’re huge noodles, so they are very hard for me to eat with chopsticks.

I was also served something that apparently does not have an English translation- thank goodness because I think it’s beef fat and bone. It was served with beef slices and had a clear-yellow color. It was kind of like jello, but had chunks of… something related to beef… inside. It tasted like fat. Gross.

On the other hand, I have had many great Chinese dishes. Some are similar to what is served at Chinese restaurants in America, but they taste better of course. There are dumplings, beef, pork, vegetables, peanut dishes, rice, and soy milk. I have also tried many dishes that were new to me but very good. I had pumpkin slices that were only slightly sweet, but good and juicy. I also had fried pumpkin, fried and steamed bread, pickled vegetables and potatoes. And then there are many, many main dishes that I enjoyed but don’t know what exactly was in them.

Is that good or bad?