(This is the display out in front of our apartment building) It's Sunday, the last day of our Chinese New Year holiday and to switch things up a bit, Mark and I somehow traded places...I slept through most of it while Mark worked the whole time. Chinese superstition is that whatever you spend your time doing during the Chinese New Year, is an indication for the rest of your year, so Mark better watch out. All signs are pointing to him being the workaholic in 2008 while I laze around. Yipeee!Actually, I'm getting over a horrible flu which hit me the Monday I got back from Beijing, Jan 28th. I went home from work early with a horribly high fever on Tuesday Jan 29th and wasn't able to get off the couch until Sunday, Feb 3rd.
The Chinese New Year holiday was Feb 6-10th, even though I worked the first part of the week, I was still sick, so I spent my 4 1/2 holiday days off work drifting in and out of sleep on the couch for the 2nd week in a row.
Meanwhile, the voice mail system at Mark's office was being a pain, so he got called into the office 3 nights in a row and even worked 26 hours straight one day.
All that is in the past now and here's a few pictures of our uneventful Chinese New Year holiday.
Here's a group picture of all my office co-workers. We celebrated the holiday Tuesday, Feb 5th with a big fancy dinner at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant which is kind of a tourist hot spot, but its also a place none of the locals had gone to since they were kids, so it was fun to go and eat really fancy pancy Chinese food.
The only other interesting pictures I got during the holiday were all the little shrines and offerings along the street. The 4th and 5th day of Chinese New Year are the days people are supposed to visit cemeteries and appease all the ghosts floating around. So people put out their offerings, burn paper money etc. 
Most people put out oranges or fruit, but some put out a whole buffet of food. Mark saw a whole chicken left by a little shrine yesterday. 
For Bailey, this is HEAVEN. For me, it's Hell. This is because I have to take her for a walk with all these hidden little plates of food peaking around every corner and she's a quick little bugger. Fortunately, I've kept a tight hold on her because I can't imagine what horrible luck would fall on us if Bailey were to eat the meals left out for the ghosts!
The only Chinese New Year tradition we'll take part in is tomorrow. On the 1st day back to work, all the married folks and managers give red packets filled with money to people. Since I'm both married and a manager, I get to pass out red packets to pretty much everyone in my office and I get nada. Not quite the give and take gift giving tradition we have back home, but when in Rome....We also give red packets to the doormen and doorwomen at our apartment, my Mandarin teacher, our maid and anyone else that does nice things for you throughout the year. In the end, I'll spread about 400-500 US dollars worth of joy.
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