The Year of the Rat

Happy New Year to you all! Chinese New Year has been an event - a week long celebration of family and friends. Our friend Matt has visited us since New Year's Eve (February 6th) and both guys took a lot of pictures. I didn't. I'm (as you probably realize by now), more interested in capturing people than things. Both guys have agreed to let me make copies of some of their pictures and when I do I will post them for your viewing. One benefit to being the one without a camera affixed to her face is that I am the subject of many of their pictures, proving beyond a doubt that I was in China for New Years. Here is one picture I took of the two of them at Yu Garden to prove that Matt really did visit:

This year is the Year of the Rat. Most of the decorations make the rat look more like a mouse and I think the Disneyland here is taking full advantage of the connection. I even saw some balloons with Mickey and Minnie on them. Rats are seen as good animals here and there are many stories about how the clever rat managed to manipulate the other animals so that it would be first on the Chinese zodiac. Rats are supposed to be charasmatic, charming and manipulative. I am a Monkey, so the Year of the Rat looks pretty good for me depending on the website you choose. One that we have had a lot of fun looking at is:

http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Rat.htm

This website also assigns an element to different years to coordinate with your year of birth and really gets some characteristics dead on. For example - I am a metal monkey: "Persuasive and passionate, this Monkey is a warm person. He is successful due to his innate determination and ambitious nature. He works hard to climb the ladder of success and prefers to work alone. They are loyal employees, always prepared and tactful with answers and upper management. In love these Monkeys are just as loyal as well as loving and affectionate. "

One thing that we had the opportunity to do was go to dinner with my friends Mike and Lily Chiang and their children. When I first got to China they were wonderful, making sure that I had everything I needed. We stuffed ourselves on dumplings, rice, soup and veggies and then Lily bought us cream puffs to take home. Below is a picture of me with their family in the metro station. It's been pretty cold here for Shanghai so we were looking for a warm spot to snap a photo.

Other Chinese New Year memories that I hope to expand on later - fireworks and firecrackers being lit in front of our building and hitting our window, getting carried along by the mob at Yu Garden trying to cross the bridge of nine turns, walking through the market and narrow streets after we found the fabric market was closed, Matt buying so many DVDs at the DVD store, eating Hot Pot and being the only customers in the restaurant, following the woman who decided to make it her mission that I found a milk tea, negotiating for Matt's rolex, burning incense at Jing'an Temple, the views of the city from the TV tower....

Question - What is your sign (Chinese or Zodiac)? Have you ever had a horoscope really predict your day or year? If you don't believe in horoscopes - what's the strangest horoscope you've ever heard?

Thanks to you who responded to my last post. I am glad you are still reading. Xin Nian Kuaile!