• Fireworks that go till the wee hours of the night, and then start again before the sun has risen. There is no way to get a decent amount of sleep when people light fireworks like this. People really have no respect for the sleeping habits of others. Classic mentality here: “It is 5am. I want to light fireworks. OK…good call. Let me walk out in front of the multi story apartment building where everyone is sleeping and set a few off.”
• Fireworks that have no purpose. The most basic firework out here is your long string of firecrackers. This long string of firecrackers also happens to be the most frequently used type of firework, which leaves me a bit confused. You see, these fireworks are not very attractive to look at. All they do is make a TON of noise and disturb everyone who happens to be close by. The people who light these fireworks also don’t really seem to care, as the frequent habit seems to be to light a string, walk far away, and then not pay attention at all. My question then is why spend the money to buy these fireworks!?!?!? Why light them off and disturb everyone around you!?!?!? You may as well just burn your money and blare an air horn at everyone in the surrounding area!!!
• Stupid television specials that EVERYONE watches and then complains about. OK. The Spring Festival Galas shown on Chinese T.V. are TERRIBLE. It seems that this is common knowledge out here. Every one sits through them year after year board as can be, yet comes back the next year for another dosage. I just don’t get it.
• Everyone uses the holiday as an excuse not to work. Your visa expired….no luck. You need to handle something at the bank….sorry buddy. You need a bottle of water…..no dice. Why is it EVERY business stops. I would understand if a good chunk closed up shop for a few days, but having every company close the doors for at least 8-10 days in NUTS!
• Transportation is so overbooked that you may as well give up before even thinking about traveling. EVERYONE in China seems to head back to their family home in another city. Train tickets get sold out weeks in advance. Highways become a trafficy mess. Plane tickets are overpriced and also sold out. It is basically impossible to get anywhere unless you are willing to pay through the nose and suffer through an uncomfortably overbooked mess.

John at Sinosplice created a similar post about why he hates Chinese new year, and I think it is right on the money. A good read if you have the time:
10 Reasons I Hate Chinese New Year

Anyway….sorry to put a negative spin on this as I try to wish everyone a happy new year. I wound up spending New Year’s Eve with Leo and his family. We ate dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, 浴园广场, and then lit fireworks at both Leo’s school and at 康丽. I always enjoy how chaotic 12 midnight is, and this year was no exception. It seemed like the city had become a total warzone as everyone was lighting fireworks at the same time. No matter what direction you looked, there were multi-colored explosions that filled the sky. Truly a uniquely Chinese situation

To wrap this up…..HAPPY YEAR OF THE PIG TO ALL

The Internet here in China was severely impacted by the earthquake in Taiwan. I still have tons of problems getting email, reading the news, etc. Things are better now, but they are still HORRIBLE compared to how they should be. I can’t believe that all the communications were so disrupted by a single earthquake. What a joke! I hope things get better soon and I can get back to regular postings.

Happy New Year!!!

Things here are going quite well and I will try to start posting to the blog regularly to fill you in on all the new stuff. Christmas has been…..ummm….painful. I detest the Chinese version of the holiday in which people do nothing but spend cash.  Many people think that the holiday in the states has been comercialized.  The holiday in China is at a whole other level.  I detest the shopping centers that have transformed the day into a spend-a-thon via dozens of sales and promotions, and I detest all the hotels that offer banquets at 10 times the normal price. Anyway, we are almost through the holiday season, and life will be back to normal (until Chinese New Year starts )

My love to all…..

Andy

My vonage box has been broken for about a month now (long story), so I haven’t been able to keep in touch with many of you back home. The new box has been shipped out and will hopefully get here soon.

Today’s quirky fact is this: My friend’s company had some workers go home for the holidays. He needed to find some part time workers to fill the night shift from 6pm to 10pm. He decided to advertise at the local university, and found many students willing to take the job at the offered salary. He was able to pick and choose the best of the bunch, and when one didn’t work out, he brought a different one in. The stated salary, however, is what cracked me up. For 4 hours of labor, the students were paid 5 RMB. That works out to be $0.16 US an hour. I was shocked when I found this out, and didn’t believe that there were that many students looking for that type of work, but I guess there are, and they were happy to have the salary!!!???!!!!

The flight was also not full and I had an aisle seat in the middle with no one sitting next to me. I was able to sleep a bit on the flight and we made it to Beijing right on time. I got my bags, and met dandan from my school and the drivers who were going to take me back to Shijiahzuang. I decided that since I was getting in so early and had sooo much baggage that I didn’t want to hassle with the train. Normally taking the train home winds up being 6-7 hours from the time you leave the airport. Taking a car made the trip a much more comfortable 3 hour ordeal, with no baggage lugging at all

I got back to Shijiazhuang and saw Shenqi after nearly a month and a half apart. It was the longest we had been apart since we met back in December 05, and we had a lot of catching up to do. My maid Wu Jie came by and cooked us a big lunch including my favorite shrimp dish. Being in the states, I didn’t get Chinese food anywhere near as good as the stuff she cooks.

I was shocked at how quickly I feel back into the Chinese language groove. During the first hour speaking was tough, but within a day I felt I was roughly at the same level as when I left. Sweet.

Since then, I have been busy catching up with everyone and getting back into my routine.  I am trying to get started doing some business out here, which has kept me REALLY busy. Things are just begining, and I am thus not going to post details here yet, but I will be sure to do a full write up with all the details once things get locked down

1. I accompanied my girlfriend to the hospital only to find the doctor in the examination room smoking
2. My friend Leo took me out to lunch with his family. There were 4 of us total. We had our own room and three waiters whose only responsibility was waiting on us. Leo still managed to yell at the waiters when they were slacking, barking out orders like he was a military officer, and the waiters all complied and didn’t even flinch.
3. In the changing room at the gym, Two guys smoked before starting their workout
4. I got a 3 hour massage at the bath house for 60RMB ( $7.50 US)
5. It took me 3 hours today and two trips to the bank to get my online banking activated, and it still doesn’t work well
6. I spent 4 hours haggling over the price of plastic monthly cards (like you use at a gym) to ultimately save 25RMB ($3.13 US)

The list goes on and on, but those are a few of the highlights.

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And by the way….I am back in China!!!

After the lottery, we made our way over to the Mirage to see the new Cirque du Soleil show, LOVE. I really liked the show. It had great music from the Beatles (of course) and excellent sound quality. The costumes, dancing, actors, and overall flow were great. Several of the members of our group thought the acrobatics were not on the same level as some of the other Cirque du Soleil shows like O and Mystere. I would have to agree with that, but that doesn’t mean that the stuff in LOVE was not quite good. I thought that they had a few acts that were on the same level, and that the whole show definitely held my interest.

On Saturday, the guys had the football draft which went well, even if no one really seemed to have a stand out team.

A lot of the guys hadn’t changed at all from last year, but the trip was definitely much less wild than it had been in the past. Several of the guys brought families with kids, and most everyone seemed to go off and do their own thing.

After the draft, we went to Cesars to see the Celine Dion show called A New Day. This wasn’t my cup of tea at all, and had the entire group not gone, I wouldn’t have bothered with it at all. I decided, however, to give it a try and see if I enjoyed it. Turns out my initial reaction was right and I didn’t like it too much. I guess I was the only one there who didn’t as everyone else seemed to LOVE it….go figure.

On Sunday, we went to a BBQ and concert at the house of one of my dad’s friends. It was great and everyone performed a little something.

On Monday, we flew back to L.A. The weekend on a whole was a great trip with some great company. We had wonderful meals and drank excellent wine. The gaming didn’t go so well and we closed out down a ton, but all in all, it wasn’t the end of the world. I now have two days in L.A. before I head back to 中国 (China).