Teacher Getting Hit By Culture: I'll be Home for Chinese New Year

Hi Blog readers,

Well here comes the next entry in the list of backlogged travel adventure entries. 4 short weeks and one set of report cards after the Christmas break, school was off for yet another break. This time it was the East Asia version of Christmas, Chinese New Year.

This sentiment leads to the title of this entry. In a parallel relationship with the custom of coming home for Christmas, there is a mass shifting of Chinese citizens back to their hometowns for about a week for Chinese New Year. Christmas presents are replaced by red pockets (money given to children and the unmarried), and Christmas trees are replaced by mandarin fruit bushes and firecrackers.

This year was the first opportunity for me to go back home for Chinese New Year. Previously, having lived in Canada for most of my life I did not ever had the opportunity to "go home" for Chinese New Year. I skipped out going to Shanghai for CNY the last 2 years and thought I'd better try it out this year, especially with my mom still hanging out in Shanghai.

This was the 8th trip I've taken to Shanghai and most of the photos are simply repeats of the Shanghai post from last year. We hit up the old usual attractions and old favourite eatery places. The Shanghai trips I enjoy simply because I like the familiar places and faces of a mostly unfamiliar culture. Really this time, the highlights of the trip was sitting down to a traditional Chinese New Year meal with the big family and reminiscing about the old days and how far along the "kids", my generation, have come along. In between eating endless amounts of food, the parental generation swapped storied about our younger years and just enjoyed spending the new year together. It was a very special experience for me, because we have a small family group in Canada and so Christmas festivities are usually a very low key affair. It was nice going back to my roots.

Next entry will be an account of the SCISAC volleyball trip. In the meantime, here is a blow by blow of how each of our teams did in the tournament:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/tis/43/tpod.html (This is the school's trip blog)

My post on this blog will just be about the feelings and reactions to this year's tournament. I'm also leaving later today for the Cambodia experience week trip so there will be an entry about that coming up shortly as well.

In the meantime the school has another travel blog for that trip too (both blogs of which I am the author):

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/tis/48/tpod.html

Check back soon for more entries!