Aw Rats !! Groud Zero in Beijing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's the year of the Rat Happy new year and Gong Hei Fat Choi
Gong XI Fa Cai

恭喜发财！！
恭喜白菜！！

I hope everyone is having a great year of the Rat. Now that the year has begun in every culture Lets get crackin!!

Lets scurry about and re-distribute the wealth.

I hope you are all well.   Last night we went around blowing up the Neighborhood!! City On Fire!
Every Chinese new year the city of Beijing becomes a happy war zone.  It was amazing, Mortors are going off everywhere, and one rocket tipped over(not placed by me.)  and falls right in line with my friend, and her mother father and sister.  Her sister's husband and I had just set off some ordinance and we looked on in horror as the rocket fired right at the little band of sisters.

Then for a second nothing happened, everyone let out a breath of relief, and no sooner had that breath left their mouths that the rocket exploded right under the feet of my friends father.

He is a somewhat portly fellow and moves in a pleasant lumbering manner, and after a few Glasses of Mou tai this quality was just properly enhanced, almost reminding one of a panda bear.

    So in his pleasant way he looks back and fourth  and waddles a bit as the embers engulf him in red green and blue flames.  Then he slowly walked out of it and brushed himself off. just simply saying "ooh"
at the same time my friends reaction to the explosion was decidedly different, She caught the draft of the detonation and carried it's power up 3 feet into the air, with her legs kicking and fluttering the whole way up not unlike a tom and jerry cartoon.
While her mother was spinning around screaming, and her sister simply dropped down holding her ears, all the while the charge sending off it's Multi colored report around them.  It was quite a sight to see.

When my other friend and I got back we checked them all, luckily they were all fine however rattled, and then we all broke out into uncontrolled laughter, as well as all the other people around us. Partly nervous laughter, but it was also an incredibly comical thing to see
We were lucky but, some other fellow lost his eyebrows.    He was strangely happy about it though. 
Bodily harm and maiming abound, but people had a great old time.

I think the key is to look death in the eye and join 'im for a good laugh, 
We walked through the fire and didn't get burned.
a great way to ring in the year that promises to test us all.

After that we went back inside and had enough Dumplings to sink the titanic.
But they were great.  I have never felt this much of a family feeling in all my years in China, It's great to have finally found my place. 2007 was a year to be celebrated, and it looks as though 2008 will rock even more(knock on Wood)

I hope everyone has an awesome year!!