Chinese New Year- fireworks and fires.

After this week I have much better understanding of Chinese New Year. I would have to equate it to Christmas in the US, but maybe a bit bigger. Maybe it's just because there are more people living here, and all of Asia celebrates this particular holiday. Maybe it's just because I live in Beijing, but I have been blown away by how the Chinese celebrate this holiday. It's called Spring Holiday as well as Chinese New Year. It's hard to wrap my mind around how it can be "spring holiday" when it is still freezing cold outside, but that's what it is. The Chinese teachers at school had 3 weeks to pull together a program for our celebration there. I was amazed at what they accomplished. All the classes sang two songs in Chinese. Some students did amazing recitations in Chinese. It was really beautiful. Even us teachers managed to sing a verse of the Olympics theme song in Chinese. (I think there were enough people to cover my horrific pronunciations.)

After school on Friday we had an entire week off. Saturday night I went out with friends to a Russian restaurant. It was my first time riding the subway. I have heard nightmare stories about the subway being so crowded that you could not force your way through the mass of bodies to get off when you needed to. So we get to the subway, and it was completely empty! Apparently everyone was out visiting family. It was unbelievable.

A few weeks ago, I asked my friend Sri where a good place to go and watch the New Year's Eve fireworks would be. In my mind I was thinking of 4th of July shows in the US. She kind of stared at me blankly and then said, everywhere! I was a bit confused by her answer until Chinese New Year's Eve. I went to a party at the home of my school headmaster. There had been fireworks going off here and there throughout the past couple days. But they really started going Sunday evening. I really don't have words to describe the fireworks at midnight, but they definitely put everything I have ever seen in the US to shame. They were unbelievable! Everywhere you looked, in every direction low and high, there were fireworks going off. It went on for hours. I will never forget walking home in the madness. Firetrucks and police cars patrolling the streets were almost the only vehicles out. People were everywhere watching and lighting the fireworks. It seriously sounded like a war zone. It went on for hours.

But they did not end there. The fireworks continued for the next 5 days. There is apparently now safety concern in the people putting them off. People set them off of balconies on apartment buildings, roofs, right next to buildings and cars. I saw to fires. One in bushes near the mall. The worst one I saw from Chris's apartment on the 21st floor. We were standing in her window watching the fireworks and commenting on how stupid it was to set them off so close to the buildings, when I thought I saw a fire. Sure enough, about two stories higher than hers there were flames coming out from around the air conditioning unit. It was a very helpless feeling seeing it and not being able to do anything. It was such drama though. We saw a guy in the apartment above notice the flames. We watched him run and get water and try to pore it down on the flames. After awhile the guy in the burning apartment saw the flames to and together they got it out. What a crazy thing to see. The whole thing had made me much more grateful for and understanding of safety laws concerning fireworks in the US. There have been lots of other fun things that have happened over the holiday, but I will save that for another day in the near future.

Still saying "I can't believe I am in China."

Well time is flying by. I can't believe I have been in China for five months already. Tonight I was thinking about how I still have these moments where it is just so surreal that I am really on the other side of the world. I wish I was more faithful about getting on here and sharing my experiences, but I will try to catch up.

Christmas was great. I expected to be very homesick. While I had a few moments, for the most part I was ok. Skype really helps me keep connected with everyone, and I was able to call home on skype and see the whole family gathered for their celebration. A friend of mine who went home for the holiday was able to deliver my gifts, so it was fun watching everyone open the stuff I sent.

For the first time in my life I spent the holiday on the beach. To escape the cold of Beijing, a couple friends and I flew to Hainan, a small island off the southern tip of China. There I spent Christmas day lying on the beach, getting a massage in an open air hut, drinking coconut juice out of a young coconut, and eating fresh pineapple on a stick. I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience in a truly tropical environment. We also visited a minority village and rainforest. I really enjoyed seeing all the tropical fruit trees with fruit growing on them. One of the highlights was our visit to the Hot Springs. I felt so pampered as I went from the coconut milk pool to many other lovely springs. The most interesting was the "Fish Therapy" pool where little tiny fish eat the dead skin off of your feet and legs.

Another first for me was spending New Year's Eve at church. My friend Sri suggested it so we all went along. It was an amazingly powerful experience. The church leaders had people pray from different countries all over the world. Each person prayed in his own language for a different part of the world. Between prayers we sang praise songs. It was amazing to be part of such a passionate time of prayer and hope for what He is going to do around the world in the coming year. It was an amazing way to bring in 2009.

School started again for three short weeks before we break for Chinese New Year. I have one more week until that holiday begins. Tonight I had another " I can't believe I am in China moment." I went to club. Those of you who know me, know that this is not generally my form of entertainment. But tonight at this club, the Christian band Delirious was performing. It was an amazing thing. They were really limited as to which songs they were allowed to perform, and they almost did not make it due to visa "issues", but as I stood in a crowd of 1000 people, I was in awe of my mighty King.The lead singer in the middle of the concert said, "I can't believe we are in China!" And, as we sang "I can sing of your love forever!" I said to myself, "I can't believe I am in China experiencing this!"

Well, It is one week until the biggest holiday of the year here, Chinese New Year. From what everone tells me, that will blow my mind even more. I have some fun adventures planned, and hopefully I will have lots more to share soon.

The adventure continues.....