Sunday Update #3

Hello Lovelies!

Seems like I am only doing Sunday updates haha!
Well they are easy to write and I don't have to do a lot of picture editing to do haha! Lazy blogger, bad blogger...

Anyways. So I've just survived Chinese New Year in Beijing. In case you have been living under a Rock - I'll save you the work and give you Wikipedia:

Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese calendar. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".

So technically it's not over yet and there are still the occasional fireworks going off but generally it has calmed down a lot while most people returned home. In case you didn't know this either - CNY experiences the largest exodus on earth every year - pretty much everyone is going to their hometown to spend the holidays with their loved ones. In other words almost 1 billion people are on the move. Here are some interesting articles of this years crazyness:

So like everyone else I had a full week off. Because I have never been in China during CNY and tickets anywhere else were sold out or way too expensive I spent my time in Beijing. I had a lovely Chinese couple staying in the spare room during the holidays and experienced the typical way of spending CNY eve which was nice - and the food! OMG. During the next couple of days we went to a couple of Miao Huis庙会 （Temple fairs), horse riding in the neighboring province, worked out (tried my first parcour) and generally enjoyed a nice relaxing time. Don't call it quiet time though. That it certainly wasn't. If you are looking for quietness in China you are in the wrong country in the first place. And during CNY it's like you are in a war zone  Hey, after all fireworks were invented in China - and they take whole MAKE AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE business very seriously. I bet some of that stuff that exploded all around me would never be legal in any other country...   

Unfortunately China being China and me being employed in a Chinese company I also had to work two days during the last weekends to make up for the holidays (any other country do that??) so we just had a good party at my place yesterday after work. If I can manage to lift myself I'll be going ice biking later... wish me luck.

Saw -  more more more Pretty Little Liars – who is A???

Listened -  The sound you love - best remixes

Learned -   That Chinese people have an incredible tolerance for noise. And a love for explosives. And the combination is pretty much like being in a war zone but with lots of happy people and less injuries.

Ate – Jiaozi, Jiaozi, Jiaozi. And pretty much everything there is to try at a Miao Hui.

Read -  Too many articles on the Shanghaiist. 

Drank -  An interesting pear drink at one of the temple fairs

Thought – Next year I will book a ticket to Bali over CNY.

Wished -  That I could join my family on the skiing vacation they went on today to Austria!

Bought -  huge plastic flowers and handmade owl at the Miao Hui... everyone is buying useless stuff like crazy there - I couldn't help it!!