Almost ten months since my last posting, wow… I used to enjoy sharing my China experience and the general going ons in my life but over the last year or so work has been lots of travel and blogging just hasn’t been high on the priority list.
About seven or eight trips to the States since August. Weight is about the same. One car accident, minimal damage and on the way to get my annual physical for my Chinese resident visa and had the lowest blood pressure in six years; we celebrated our anniversay in April; had our first trip to Toronto where we froze our tails; we wold our first house and are trying to decide whether to rent a place we really like or buy a place we really like and have to decide quickly and have enjoyed time with our friends when we are in town.
No promises, but am going to actively make an effort to spend some time on the site and making it something I am proud of and get back to sharing part of my life with any readers I may have left.
Guess I can’t very well say “Time Flies” since I titled my last blog entry exactly a month ago just that. We had a great trip to the States and were able to spend time with friends, family and coworkers from coast to coast. Unfortunately, Pei Lin had to fly back about a week before I did but having spent two weeks together was great.
Only a few minor blips as I updatetd WordPress and the K2 for the website. After the last fiasco I backed everything up numerous times. Though I have said it countless time, I really am going to try and start not only blogging but posting photos and keeping our websites current. That will provide me with plenty to do during my next trip to the States in just a few more weeks.
A lot has transpired in the five weeks since I last wrote something. The devestation of the Sichuan earthquake made us all realize how precious life can be and to value every moment we have with those that are an important part of our lives.
I had the opportunity to spend some time with family at the end of my last trip to the States in May and Pei Lin flew over to join me in celebrating a family reunion on my father’s side. It was the first time in 12 years that me, my sister and three cousins had been together. Even though we don’t keep in touch regularly we caught up like old friends do and reestablished our bond. It was also a great opporunity for Pei Lin to see just why I am the way I am…
We arrived back in Shenzhen to a week of rain before taking a long weekend to Sanya over the Dragon Boat Festival. Our departure was delayed and after what seemed like forever we finally took off and the next morning waking up and taking a walk on the beach made the delay seem like a distant memory. I realized how much I love the beach and the peaceful noise of the waves rolling in.
This past weekend was my birthday and a day of reflection. This year has been good to us and am hoping not only the next 6 months are but many, many more years.
All the thoughts I have for now…Am hoping to write more, especially since on holiday next week in the States followed by a week in the office, so some downtime to pen a little more.
As with many things in my life, I overindulged a bit yesterday. I really enjoy blogging and learning about coding and creating a website, even if cheating a little by using WordPress. Well yesterday I posted my first blog in a month and decided to add some features at the same time. A basic photo option and working on a more complex one; adding news headlines, changed header photo, updated behind the scenes program that I haven’t done in ages and tried adding the weather. Well one of those changes caused my website to crash and of course I hadn’t backed anything up. After spending a few hours last night trying to figure out what addition caused the crash I gave up and went to bed while transferring some files in an attempt to create a backup. This morning my site was back up and running! While the changes are all there for the most part, I don’t really like some of the fonts and lots of cosmetic changes need to be done - it is here!
Overindulging isn’t always bad, just need to learn patience…
About ten years ago, the Chinese government instituted three one week holidays in an effort to encourage Chinese to travel domestically and return to their hometowns to visit their families. These weeks were the Lunar New Year, May 1 or Labor Day and October 1 which is National Day. These weeks became known as “Golden Weeks”. Golden because of the money that the traveling Chinese spent and the boon to the economy these periods had not only in mainland China but increasingly throughout Asia as Chinese became able to travel easier. This year the government decided to break up the May 1 golden week into many one day holidays that would begin to reestablish traditions that had been frown upon and even outlawed during Mao’s reign.
The first weekend in Aprils was our first long holiday weekend in celebration of Qing Ming, which means clear and bright in Chinese. It is a festival to hold memorial ceremony for the dead and express one’s grief for his lost relatives. People often go to sweep and weed graves with whole family which are often in the countryside. Hence the English name, Tomb Sweeping Festival. Since Pei Lin and I weren’t able to make it back to his hometown for Chinese New Year this year we decided to return for Qing Ming and spend the weekend with his family.
It had been over a year since our last visit but the neighbors were as excited to see me as the first time I visited Pingtan. Or at least that is what I thought, actually they were excited because Pei Lin drove up and parked in front of his parent’s home. We had rented a car in Chongqing and drove home rather then take the bus and taxi route. Let me tell you, much much more comfortable!
The next day we drove further into the countryside and hiked a couple of hours to Pei Lin’s great-grandfather and grandfather’s tombs and while we didn’t do any sweeping we did give some offerings. We carried in fruit, wine, firecrackers and paper money that were ceremoniously left at each of the tombs. The paper money is burned so that the dead have money in the after life, to buy the things they need I suppose. The firecrackers are to scare away evil spirits. The fruit so they aren’t hungry and the wine to quench their thirst and have a good time. Several of the tombs were very similar to crypts found in traditional American cemeteries and several weren’t marked at all.
