CNY

Chinese New Year has come and gone. It was interesting to see it on this side of the border. It lasted a full week. Everything was very quiet. Shenzhen is a migrant city. The New Year Celebration is a family gathering time so everyone goes home. The foreigners usually take advantage of the time off work and take a trip as well. We decided to stick around. It was a good thing because Colin ended up having to work almost everyday. It was bad because we ended up with a trip to Hong Kong with Jared and his broken arm (see below if you want that story). Anyway we heard the fireworks and firecrackers for the whole week.


I'm not sure how they put the prints on the apples and I don't think I want to know, but I thought it was fun. It has to do with the new year, but I actually don't know what it says.






There was a big dragon parade at the school. Each class came up with their own version of the dragon dance which is very traditional for CNY.

Jared's Arm
I was having a very lazy morning. I was planning to reorganize our play room and my closet in the afternoon. I had all the kids home and no car to go anywhere. Finally by 11:00 I got off the couch to get busy. As I went outside to take a load of laundry downstairs I saw Jared on his way up our front stairs. He was very obviously hurt and holding his arm. We had spent the first three days of our time out of school cleaning up scratched up knees and elbows. I first thought Jared had wiped out on his bike, but that he would just need some band-aids. Once I got him inside I had the feeling it would be more than that. I had him sit down and asked him if I could look at his arm. I only needed a quick glance to know it was broken. We went to the clinic in the neighborhood and they told us he would most likely need surgery. Around here if someone needs surgery they go to Hong Kong. We caught a taxi crossed the border. Caught another taxi and went to an orthapedic sergon's office. He looked at Jared's arm and sent us to the hospital. At 7:30 he went into surgery. He is doing pretty well now, but will have to go back in March to have the wire removed from his arm. It will mean another night in the hospital. Wow, that should be fun.