Zhoumo kuaile!

Before I sign off for a week or so, I wanted to leave you with a few parting pics. 

Waxing and scraping the board in preparation:

Chinese New Year's Eve dinner last night:

And fireworks in the middle of the street:

Happy Chinese New Year! Xin nian kuaile! Gongxi fa cai!

What the Horse Will Bring

Want to find out what's in store for you in the Year of the Horse?  Check out City Weekend's recap of one astrologer's predictions.

Here's mine (I'm a MONKEY!):

2014 will move quickly for Monkeys. You will be full of energy and open to every opportunity. The year will be full of chances to make big gains, but don’t forget to relax, spend time with family and take care of your health. 

WORK: You will encounter much pressure at work and will receive extra attention from your boss, including the chance to get promoted. Make sure to fully utilize your talent for leadership. Maintain harmonious office relationships and get along with superiors, colleagues and subordinates alike in order to take your career to the next level. 

HEALTH: Work pressure will cause headaches and possibly even insomnia. Relaxation is very important this year, and meditation and massages will help. In addition, you might suffer from a small injury this year, so be careful around sharp objects. 

LOVE: Your relationships will be stable, but you need to spend more time with your other half during your busy workweek. For women, this year might bring the chance to get married, but there could be small conflicts; be tolerant and understanding of your partner’s personality to avoid arguments, and keep the big picture in mind. The conflicts are temporary. 

MAKE FRIENDS WITH: Rats, Dragons BE WARY OF: Tigers

And the celebrations begin

We kicked off Year of the Horse celebrations last night with another Factory Five ride. They promised free beer and snacks at the end of a short bike ride so, obviously, I lifted my temporary ban on the Tuesday night rides (crowds and cold weather had kept me away).

Taking off at 9:00 p.m., we rode swiftly through the city, hitting all of the major tourist spots: through the Former French Concession (our neighborhood) to Yuyuan Garden, from the Bund to Nanjing Pedestrian Street. Back at the bike shop, we were greeted with cans of beer, bins of chips, and a hong bao. 

Hong boa ("bow," as in "take a bow") literally means red envelope and is a Chinese New Year tradition, although you also see them at weddings, graduations, and other major life events. Filled with money of varying amounts, New Year hong boas are usually bestowed upon young children and employees, housekeepers, and nannies.  

Last night, one hong bao holder won a new bike. I wasn't as lucky, but I did come home 

$1 richer. 

Recognize two people in the last photo, bottom right corner?

A Word About Fashion

I've been wanting to write another post about Shanghai fashion for a while now, but it's hard to capture some of the more outrageous outfits, much less understand and explain them. I've managed, however, to come up with a few street fashion themes based solely on my opinions and observations:

Professional attire? What profession? I've been floored by some of the outfits I've seen at work (when I used to work), or while out and about bearing witness to morning commutes. They just seem terribly inappropriate! There are only a few places where hot pants, over-the-knee boots, and short skirts are acceptable, and those jobs aren't usually 9 to 5.

Little Girl Wear. I don't know how I feel about young women (emphasis on "women") wearing bows and pigtails, cartoons on clothes and furry animal backpacks. Disheartened? Disappointed? Disenchanted? It may not be as much of an emotion as it is an eye roll and
a sigh.

Mix-and-Maybe-Match Patterns. Don't get me wrong, I love the look of layering different prints and I certainly admire those who can do it successfully. But not a lot of people are successful at mixing and matching and the result can be dizzying, don't you think?

Zhoumo kuaile!

You may remember that the question asked among expats in December is, "When are you going home?" whereas the question asked at this time of the year is, "Where are you spending Chinese New Year?"

For us, it's Japan! (It was South Korea last year.) This time next week, we'll be on a plane to Sapporo (after a very short layover in Osaka). We spend one night in Sapporo where we hope to catch a glimpse of the city's Snow Festival that starts a few days after our arrival. It promises streets and parks lined and filled with snow and ice sculptures. From there, we head to the mountains (Hirafu) for three days of snowboarding. To give you an idea of the conditions, it's been snowing there every day since Dec. 28 (excited husband!).

We'll end the trip in Tokyo with a couple of days filled with sushi, sake, and shopping (although I imagine the sake will likely get previewed in Hirafu during après-ski.)

Last year's requisite snowboarding pic

What's on the CNY menu

There's new energy in the air, a sense of excitement with an overlay of glee. Chinese New Year (CNY) is coming. Its Eve is next Thursday (the 30th) and preparations are under way.

Fields, an online grocer from whom we buy most of our proteins and some other edibles, published an article on Chinese New Year foods that I found really interesting. Here's what
you eat -- and why -- on Chinese New Year:

Fish. The word for fish in Chinese ("yu") sounds similar to the word for surplus; the dish is thus a symbol for a year of plenty.

It's served whole, representing completeness, but you don't eat the whole thing. Mike's mom had told us that some should be leftover for our ancestors; according to this article, the head and the tail are to be eaten on New Year's Day, symbolizing a smooth transition from one year to the next.

Cake. The term for this New Year's cake is "nian gao," which sounds like "higher year" in Chinese. It's sticky and sweet, made of glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, and sugar. (How come I haven't had this yet?)

Dumplings. These tasty bites take on several special meanings during the holiday:
- they symbolize wealth;
- the "jiao" in "jiaozi" (Chinese for dumpling) also means change;
- they look like "tael," an old Chinese currency.
Apparently, some cooks will place a coin in one of the dumplings, promising prosperity in the new year to the lucky recipient.

Mandarins. In season now, these little gems represent gold and wealth. Their Chinese name (which translates to "golden orange") sounds similar to luck or fortune in certain dialects.

Rice dumplings (or, as I like to call them, balls). Remember these? In some parts of the country, these are eaten on New Year's Day; in others, they're eaten on the 15th day of the new year, Lantern Festival, marking an end to CNY celebrations. Their round shape symbolizes family reunions.





More on CNY to come -- including our travel plans to Japan (woot!)

What Shima Did This Weekend

Chased Mike around the skate park on Saturday:

 Had an afternoon drink with me on Sunday:

She had so much fun this weekend that she made herself sick (read: vomited all over the bed) come Monday morning. It's okay, Shima, we all feel that way about Monday mornings.  

Zhoumo kuaile!

Remember CaliBurger?  Well, look what's across the way.  I got myself a burrito at Mex&Co the other day; I walked along a bar, selecting ingredients with which to stuff it. Remind you of a popular chain back in the US? I'll give you a hint: it's owned by McDonald's.

Even though it wasn't that bad and I'll probably get another one in the not-so-distant future, I wish you a weekend of authentic Mexican food 'cause I miss it already.

Mex&Co:
1818 West Nanjing Road (but west of the Jingan Temple)
(In the basement of yet another mall on Nanjing)

Language Nerd*

I'm a self-proclaimed language nerd -- always have been and probably always will be. I grew up speaking both French and English, and often heard Arabic in the background (if we were visiting my mom's side, it'd be Armenian). I took Spanish in high school, Italian in college, and German while I studied abroad. And now, Chinese. Language nerd for reals. Don't get me wrong though, I certainly haven't mastered half these, but I have enjoyed studying them (nuances are fascinating) and listening to them (they're part of who I am, they tell my story).

❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞ - Nelson Mandela 

Chinese is hard, no doubt. But it's the pronunciation that's hardest (my teacher tells me you can't have a lazy tongue when trying to speak) -- not the grammar (tenses don't exist!) and not the vocab. In fact, it's a very logical language. Check out my attempt to illustrate (!) this point below.

*This post is dedicated to two of my college besties, fellow language nerds, Katiun and Pammie.

Brilliant Idea

I could really use one of these while waiting in line, riding the subway, and traveling within China on a holiday.

"Passive Aggressive Fashion"

Five (More) Questions

Not too long ago, I commented on (okay, ranted about) the five questions we often ask one another, we being old acquaintances, or news ones both living abroad.  When I was home this last time, I noticed something funny...

Zhoumo kuaile!

We don't have too much planned for this weekend; maybe a winter bike ride with Shima, dinner with friends, a Saturday morning yoga class. Mike is off to Shenzhen Sunday evening, leaving me to my own devices for the week.

So I leave you for now with this: a missed opportunity; a gigantic, bigger-than-life-size portrait of the newly betrothed at the reception site. Why didn't we think of this?

Some of my Favorite Things

I was very spoiled this Christmas and received some awesome gifts, several of which came from some of my Shanghai favorites.

The small/medium/large cubes are vases from Spin, a ceramics store located in an adjacent neighborhood whose creations are marvelously simple with a playful undertone (like: an arrangement of bowls that resemble a lotus flower; a series of tall, narrow vases that look as if they've just escaped from Alice's Wonderland; a pen holder that could be mistaken for a block of tofu). Every time I set foot in the store, I find something else to add to my wish list.

The soup dumplings t-shirt is Pinyin Press'. She's a graphic designer whose side project is creating cards, pillows, tote bags and t-shirts with words and images linked to everyday expat life here in China. There's the "C is for chuzuche" card ("chuzuche" is "taxi" in pinyin, a phonetic version of Chinese) and the "Z is for zixingche"("bicycle") tote. Cute idea, no?

Then there are my glittens from Muji. Have you heard of Muji? I discovered it a number of years ago while living in London and have sought it out ever since. It's a Japanese chain of retail stores chalk full of items that are super clean and simple, functional and innovative. I love it, and am thankful there's one that recently opened in SF for when I return to the States.

And private yoga classes at Yoga Garden, what has become my sanctuary in this crazy city of mine.

I guess I was on the good list last year.

I'm back!

Home welcomed me back with perfect weather: clear blue skies and bright warm sunshine. It was three weeks of bliss, time well spent with close family and awesome friends.

I saw "Her" one evening with my mom. Have you seen it? It was completely enchanting and both of us loved it. It tells the tale of a youngish man who slowly falls in love with his "Siri" (or, OS). Bizarre, yes, but lovely. The setting is Los Angeles in the not-so-distant future, where men rock high waisted pants and everyone wears an inconspicuous ear piece. The skyline is infused with more buildings, modern and taller, and at one point, it looked all too familiar. During the movie, I turned to my mom and whispered, "that's Shanghai!" It was crazy to think that, at least according Spike Jonze, the future looks like the city I currently call home.

As whimsical as the movie may be, the story doesn't seem completely out of the question. Maybe if the flick had been created 10 years ago, it would have been. But in today's world, when couples on dates stare at their phones rather than each other, it seems plausible that Siri could become the other "woman."

So in light of "Her" and its LA/Shanghai connection, one of my resolutions this year is to be more positive about the experience of living in China and all of the opportunities that come along with it. Here's to a year (or six months, at least) of Asian adventures!