Chinese New Year 2012

The year of the Dragon has arrived.
Last year we had a warm day for CNY and made a trip to Lai Chi Wo
This year it was cold with rain. Lucky for the Chinese in their tradition but not so much fun for us who want to get outdoors and enjoy the holiday.

The Norwegian International School had a fair. The kids could play traditional games and buy snacks and other items.

The kids with their teachers- Jane- Ms. Chan
Elliot's Mrs. Nadia
Chinese teacher Song Laoshi (laoshi- is teacher in Mandarin and the proper form address for teachers in China)

Song Laoshi invited some girls from her class to come to her house and make traditional Jiaozi (dumplings) siblings and parents were invited to join in the fun.
She handmade the dough and filling and showed us how to make the wrapper and boil dumplings. The correct technique is to bring water to boil add dumplings,bring water to boil again then add just a little cold water you do this two times then the dumplings are done.
Angela is from the province of Liaoning- near Korea.
Elliot and Gabriel probably ate the most dumplings and kept asking for more.

Elliot took a turn at spinning the cloth. A traditional game from Song laoshi's hometown. The idea is to spin it and get it flat, he did quite well with it.

It was a great time and the dumplings were delicious! We are thankful for the kind teaching staff at NIS.

Buying flowers is also a traditional Chinese custom. Last year Nathan went out at midnight, like a lot of locals do and bought the flowers at half price. This year we attended the Tai Po fair and walked around with kids, let them spend some of their money and came home well before midnight.