Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！

Tonight is Chinese New Year and for the Chinese people, that means loads of fireworks, dumplings, and family celebrations.  For me it means a ridiculous cab fare, a deserted city, and operation hibernation  (AKA Preperation for all restaurants and businesses to be closed for the next 3 days... and I'm conveniently out of food and clean water).  Tonight I raced down to the supermarket an hour before they closed to stock up on water, ground beef, veggies, Chicken flavored Cheetos (dont laugh - they are AMAZING) and beer.  You know, just the essentials to replenish my survival stockpile.  I sit here now with both my wallet and stamina dramatically emptier than before; a 200% cab fare hike affecting my wallet and my physical wellbeing drained after the 200 yard (felt like 200 thousand) walk carrying my weight in groceries.  Note to self - bring a suitcase to the market next time.

Tonight I am going to try my hand at making traditional dumplings.  I have made them once before with a friend, however, this will be my first attempt without a culinary guide.  I can't think of a better way to spend New Years then with a bottle of painfully strong rice alcohol (Baijiu - look it up, its killer), a plate full of dumplings, the ambience of bajiillions of fireworks brightening the evening skies and bombarding my eardrums, and oh yes, 4 bags of Chicken Cheetos.   Happy New Year (again) everyone.

And check out my Photo gallery.  I have updated some pics from the Christmas Season and also my trip to Hengshui, a city near Beijing, to join a traditional Chinese wedding.  I'm currently collecting my thoughts to blog that experience.. its a dooooozy :P