Chinese New Years

So today is the big day:).

I've been really lucky... in that last night Vicky and Sunny (my old roomates) cooked me a really nice meal and we had a sleepover at their dormroom. This morning they made me breakfast before work. At Zhou Nong Xiao, or the agricultural college where I stay, Jung Xiao Dong my boss and friend cooked up a huge lunch feast and we shared it with some friends. Then tonight for dinner, I was invited to my new friend Alexandro's(talk about him later)english student Christina's house! All of her (Christina's)family will be there and it will be a really delicious slice of culture. Also, tomorrow morning my other student Fee(I named her that) or Fan in Chinese invited Jung and I to have breakfast at her family's house and that will also be so much fun and so yummy! MMM. It's strange, but in China everyone knows how to cook. I think that they must have been taught from a young age and why not? It's such a fundamental skill in life. Plus, when there are big meals to be cooked, it's the men that cook them and not the women. Tonight Alexandro invited me and some friends to a New Years party that his friend Mark (a British bloke) is holding. I'm so excited! Vicky and Sunny will come with me and Jung as well. It was overly cute this morning because Vicky who doesn't get out much, asked me to show her how to put make-up on and asked me what she should wear. Vicky doesn't drink and doesn't dance, but Sunny and I do both and so I think that by the end of the night we'll all be dancing our worries away:).



Lifestyle:

Showers
Up until today I had been taking my showers by dumping warm water(the pipes heat up the water in the day) over my head while standing in between two squat toilets and trying to avoid floating toilet papter. Today though, I found out where the showers were and forced myself into freezing water for a quite refreshing shower actually.

Cooking
I cook with a wok and am learning quite a bit from Jung and Sarah about how to cook and what to cook and for how long, how much oil etc. The only thing is I occasionaly electrocute myself, and the heating pad has only one level EXTREMELY high. When I first started cooking a couple weeks ago, Jung said "Holly my God, if you lived in China and had to cook for yourself you would starve to death!" He was right, everything I cooked was burnt, one time I put in this mystery spice and my whole mouth went numb. Now though, I'm learning the secrets of Jalapeno peppers, ginger and of course garlic! I love making fried-rice, it's so delicious on of my favorites! Tomatoes work a wonder for that dish!

Chinese
Every day I learn at least a new word. I am still so horrible at Chinese but it's so satisfying when I understand a few words being spoken to me or between others. I had given up hope on learning Chinese, it just seemed so hard, but Laurent my french friend helped to rejuvinate my passion to learn some more and now almost all of my friends are Chinese and so they help me out as well:).

Alexandro
K so I met Alexandro a few days ago at Mei Mei Cafe on Manting Lu, the tourist street. He is a really interesting fellow. He is 40 years old and has been travelling for 20 years now. He started when he was 20, my age. He has been to about 135 countries and is originally from Brazil. He rides his bicycle everywhere which he made especially and has a basket in the back for his dog. Alexandro is really nice, and good to talk to. He's my only foreigner friend here in Jinghong now since Laurent left. He lived in Tibet for 2 years and has been in China for quite a few years now. He left his hotel the other day and is sleeping in this field in his tent with his dog now. I think that he's really good to talk to because he's chosen to live an alternative lifestyle and decided to go for what he wants in life even if it's not socially accepted, or what people usually do. Also, I can think about his life, is that really what I would want? I want to be able to afford to buy a sleeping bag if I want one, or a new shirt for New Years. What if my back hurts when I'm 40 and I don't want to sleep on the ground? So meeting him has been good for me to think about lifestyle choices and he tells me about his friends who lead alternative lives. This couple he met work for the REd Cross managing things and they get to move camp every year. They are together and they get to travel all over the place while doing their work. I think that that is pretty cool.