School Holidays and the lead up to Spring Festival

Alex was only back at school for two weeks before she had four weeks of holidays that included the Chinese Spring Festival and Chinese New Year. So down with the Christmas decorations and up with the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival decorations. Alex bought these herself at the alleyway near our apartment - she had to ask for a particular one "Wo yao zhei ge" (or ones as it turned out) and ask how much they were "Duo shao qian?" hand over the money and thank them "Xie xie". Very proud of herself - and we were proud too.Even our apartment complex had bunting and lights up.Typical everywhere were the red lanterns (red equaling luck or fortune). The gold material wrapped columns are there all the time and are meant to indicate wealth (usually they are outside jewelry stores and higher-end restaurants and hotels. There were also these small mandarin trees with red envelopes (hong bao) on them stationed all around. The signs on the sides and on the top of the door are various chinese couplets that usually have some sort of fortune meaning.As it will be the Year of the Ox, various Oxen were in shops and on the street.Chinese New Year is another time when ancestors are venerated. People burn hell money, paper houses, paper cars etc to ensure the afterlife is good for their ancestors. They do this either at a temple incinerator or in their own one at home. Here is one outside one of the apartments in our complex. They seem to be either red or silvery/gold coloured.
Before Alex finished the school year, Mummy and Daddy had homework. We had to look at her report book and write a response...oh boy! At least the report part is typed (nciku plus google translate equals adequate understanding). Our ability to read handwritten hanzi (chinese characters) is severely underdeveloped and requires us to ask a friend for a translation. Here is our response effort - Daddy having been the one to actually write the hanzi. It also makes us really simplify our replies that otherwise might have been much more complicated. For the record, the only area that needs work (and isn't adequate) is her ability to communicate her feelings and needs to her teachers - really?! - and everything else is either ok or excellent. On the last day of school we arranged to visit to ask about the nursery school that they administer - especially to find out whether Sebastien would be allowed to enrol in the following year. Such a change in Sebastien since the last time we were at Alex's school to enrol her - almost five months have passed and he is so much more interested in the playground items. Alex was very excited to show us "her school". Unfortunately Sebastien will be just a little young to enrol in the nursery school but we are working on an alternative - we hope that his understanding of Chinese will be better than Alex's to help ease his (eventual) way into the preschool.

What to do for four weeks of holidays...hmm. First we had a week of doing fun activities together which really helped highlight the no-playgroup issue here. I have extremely fond memories of the very many playgroups I attended in C-U and appreciate them all the more now. We did have some fun times with Ellie and Sam visiting his favourite Mian place and the Children's English Library which helped mitigate some of the boredom. We also visited a large park that includes a small children's amusement park - Alex loves the jumping castle (and it isn't un-typical to find Santa Claus somewhere)and here she is what Mummy lovingly terms "The Alex Face Series". Sebastien was a fan of the "bashing" game - go figure! You can also "fish" for goldfish and the first sign I've seen that talks about "emergencies".We also ventured into the University twice a week to join Daddy for lunch at one of the student cafeterias (the "cafe" as Alex calls it). Here is Daddy standing next to some advertising for a seminar held at his work - we passed it on the way to lunch and Mummy couldn't resist :)Each floor is slightly different - the ground floor is basically a "choose a bowl of rice (large or small) or noodles (hand stretched in front of you), choose a plate of 3-4 different foods, get your chopsticks and spoon if you also got the soup", the second level is more complex than that but the same principle and better quality ingredients (maybe) and the top floor has practically restaurant quality meals. Each floor also has a water trough with cold water taps outside the door for customers to wash their hands. We almost always go to the ground floor for convenience. Notice that the top two levels are shuttered due to New Year preparations and a decrease in student numbers due to the New Year.
Daddy is more adventurous than Mummy when it comes to the food - if you know what this is, I'd love to hear your comment! Alex and Sebastien really enjoy the typical dessert of a stick of deep-fried dough (kind of like a straight donut or churro - not really - but without the sugar or icing).The following photos are typical of our visits there - especially if we are there towards the end of lunchtime when the flow of students has eased. Usually Sebastien will get scooped up by the staff and taken to play - occasionally given some treat such as fruit or candy...

Then inspiration hit. We have friends (the other half to the duo who used to live below Brett in Orchard Downs) who are currently working in Bangkok, although our discussions with them have led us to believe that they are not enjoying their experience and are likely to leave at the end of the academic year. So we thought that we'd take the opportunity to visit them in Bangkok whilst they were still in residence. We chose to visit just after the New Year. In the meantime, Sebastien was sick again - why is it that children choose the middle of the night to vomit? I'm sure I wasn't nearly as inconsiderate!