The Beixin Chinese New Year Chronicles: Day Four

Links:

• I am back at school.
• Mama plays pool.
• The first video of Tony taken in the year of the Rabbit.  (Includes a house tour!)
• Mother-in-law plays pool.
• Tony wrestles his cousin.
• Cute photos of Tony and his cousin.
• Beixin Photos.
• A Chinese New Year Meal.

Day Four of the Beixin Odyssey was February 4, 2011.  Boredom is setting in.

• I watched some big-budget Chinese movie about a Tall Buddha being constructed during the preparations for an Empress's coronation.  I think it was called Tong Tian Dee Guo.
• Getting my Egypt news from CCTV9.  Why does every government leader of every foreign country have to make statements?  They are saying nothing.  I would love to hear someone endorse the violence for the sake of being contrarian.
• Tony was the first to get up.
• Breakfast: black bean balls and jube-jubes.
• Touristy commercials on CCTV9 show things I would see every day in Wuxi -- high-arched bridges, and people banging on drums.
• "China will win the future with soft-power." I am watching CCTV9 again.
• Tony does a happy dance.
• How's my Chinese New Year?  I can't complain.  Some would say it is dull.  But every one's been nice.  What much of the world thinks as excitement has a price.  Excitement draws us away from what is important.  Excitement brings out the asshole in many.  Excitement means hanging out with assholes.  Better to be stuck with simple souls... (I make a note to change "assholes" to base elements).
• Heat are beating the Magic by 21 points.  NBA basketball still seems like a big shooting contest.  I can't see the tactics being employed.
• Magic end up with last shot that would have tied the game.
• Wuxi China Expatdom idea:  Denmark criticizes WCE for tickling during interrogations and so not taking the war seriously.
• Tony and his cousin wrestle and embrace each other.  They think this is the funniest thing.  Why?
• I have to remind myself to see things through Tony's eyes.
• Nanxin is three stops from Beixin.  I read signs on buses and ask Jenny questions.
• Kung Fu hero uses baby fart, baby piss, and his own stinky feet to to defeat a gang attacking him.
• Jenny and Tony go to Taixing.  I nap and then go for a walk.  I see old houses and fields and garbage and slimy water and chickens and ducks.
• King Ming Dan: flying lanterns launched into air, rising up to a thousand feet.  The lanterns operate like manned balloons.  A flame is lit below the lantern heating and expanding the gas in the lantern and so causing it to float upwards.
• Should have taken photo of people gutting eels at the nearby open market. But  I was too shy to do so.  It was such a bloody scene I missed showing you.
• I read signs to pass the time and improve my Chinese.  I see the character that I know now is for tooth.  I guess I am about to pass a dentist's office.  I pass the sign and see a dental chair that confirms my guess.