{Xīn Nián Kuài Lè!}

Because of the timing of our move out here, I don't feel like we really got to celebrate the holidays like we normally do, and I didn't think much of it. Last night, however, was a definite celebration with build up over the past month that lead to one exciting beginning to a new and unpredictable new year.
Jeff and I spent the evening with friends and experienced one heck of a firework show. I simply don't have words to explain what it was like... sufficient to say that 4th of July fireworks with your buddies is NOTHING compared to how the Chinese do CNY. We took pictures, but I still don't think they do the even justice, we took videos, I'll work on figuring out how to upload to the blog.
It's the year of the dragon, which seems to be a big deal around here. Symbolically dragons are auspicious and revered, and plastered all over the place. The new year is followed by the spring festival, which is a sequence of different events, time off for Chinese nationals to spend with their families and travelling.

My training group is an awesome bunch. We spent the evening catching up after being separated for a couple of weeks. We went to take a group picture, and all of a sudden cameras appeared from nowhere. I'll post the actual group photo when I get it, apparently our camera was the only one who DIDN'T get a group picture....

Happy New Year!
-Ashley