Chinese New Year: Round one- the city is going to explode! 2010

A lot of what I have been posting has been from over the last year. Since China blocked facebook and every other social networking site I wasn't able to share my experiences. Last Chinese New Year, we celebrated the holiday with our friend Cindy at her grandparents home.

Cindy's grandpa was so cute. Apparently he is the chief of the house and prepared our entire Chinese New Year feast!

                  Me, Chris, Cindy, and her grandparents.                      Always being silly


Chinese New Years was cool the first day but I couldn't stand 2 weeks of non stop fireworks. After the third day I was fed up with the non stop noise and smoke. I am going to have to vacate the country before this Chinese New Year. Oh yeah, it's my year, the year of the tiger. According to tradition, if I don't do anything successful this year I am going to be a failure the rest of my life.

Bike Basket Baby

This one day when Chris and I were going to the plant market we saw this cute baby in a bike basket. She was so happy and little.

Tea Photo Shoot

Our friend Seven was gracious enough and agreed to take tea photos for the website. http://teaparadigm.vendder.com/ He has superb skill and an impressive portfolio.

Sarah is re-vamping his portfolio but for now you can find his work at:

http://www.moko.cc/post/shangwen/indexpost.html 

 And I present the tea photos.

And I present you Seven in his two forms.

Lucky to have my Sarah with me in China

After some convincing, my friend Sarah made her way to Beijing from Berlin last Chinese New Year. Thanks for coming! Some of my pictures will come from her skill with her handy lumix. Because of her, I started this blog, without her inspiration this blog would be non-existent. thx!

You can visit her @

www.sarahcolobong.com

Oh yeah, she has a font obsession.

China DIY: Halloween

Living in China brings out creativity to another level because of the lack of resources a.k.a Michaels and Jo-Anns (my favorite craft stores). We have to be resourceful and think way outside the box in our creation process. Halloween always pops up quicker than anticipated. This year I decided to be a lion. I made my mane out of recycled material from a local taylor. 

                             Prepping the Mane                                                 Does it fit?

 Photo courtesy of Sarah Colobong

-http://www.sarahcolobong.com/sarahcolobong/home.html

         We decided Chris should be a zoo keeper since we were all dressed up as animals. We made his hat and bow tie out of cardboard and I painted his face in different colors. His costume came together very well.

Sometimes Being a Foreigner = FREE!

The great thing about China is all the free stuff that is pushed in our direction because of our passport status. Free ( 免费) with a question mark is a good word that translates into an expression to know. Also, thanks to my boss who is awesome and treats us to lovely dinners and nights out. Sarah and I realized we had a free week last week and didn't have to pay for a single thing.

 

Thanksgiving with my boss at Mr. Wu's private wine club

These boxes from the white house were in the wine celler.

(photo's courtesy of Sarah)

Night out with Happy Robert- Entrance and Drinks on the House 

Our friend Robert invited us to his friends club, Bobomee. It was nothing special, just a normal super Chinese club. 

                                            

                                           Cheers Sarah!                                    Drink Prep time