Happy New Year!
{Yes, you read that right}
It is the time for Spring Festival! Chinese New Year!
First, a Chinese Lesson:
This is the character Fu. 福 It means Good fortune, luck, happiness. It is a sort of blessing/well wish. Did you do a double take? Yes, the photo is upside right. The 福 in the photo is 倒了{ dao le/upside down. } This is because the word for upside down or being placed upside down sounds a lot like 'dao' 到 which means to arrive. So, when you say that the blessing of good fortune and happiness is upside down, it sounds like you are saying that this blessing is arriving. Cute, eh?
Ok, That's enough for now.
This week is the Golden Week. Chinese New Year/Spring Festival, the biggest holiday in China.
It causes things to be rather quiet,dead,deserted,...and dark
Not sure why, but the Holidays have just not felt like Holidays to me at all this time around. Even Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Jan 1st New Year were kinda 'eh' for me. Its not like they were particularly bad, or somber. They were different, the feeling not as much there. {This is not a slam to anyone I spent those days with! I had a great time spending each day with everyone!}
Due to my back still being in a state of ow at times, I have stuck pretty close to home, save for one trip downtown Monday for some more groceries. {I went by myself this time. It went ok, but carrying the bag still hurt more then I would like it to.}
The streets, though a tad lonely with no cars, are dressed up with lights for the occasion.
My winter break did not go like I planned. {Wait, one of my plans not going according to plan? That has NEVER happened....right? Oh. right. That's pretty normal.}
I had a big list of things I wanted to get done during this time. Very few of them happened. Though, I did start work on my first short story,and I did have some pretty Epic Skype sessions!
Work has still not begun on the project I want to have finished in time for camp this summer. I didn't even touch my CQD story. I have not learned how to cook any Chinese dishes.
And yet, with that said, I didn't plan to go to three Embassies, or see some of my friends who have graduated and go out for pizza, or go to winter camp, or spend a week falling in love with a little boy. I'm ok with my plans not getting accomplished for those reasons!
I also didn't plan on hurting my back and spending so much time in bed.
My phone decided to try to be all artistic. {in other words....it glitched.}
That unexpectedness was not as welcome. However, because of it, I have had the chance to do things I always say I want to do during the school year! Such as stay in bed for the ENTIRE day, never changing out of my PJ's. Read a whole book in one day. Read three books in a week!
And then there is the immense blessing I have had of being able to watch religious debates on youtube. You know it is a good thing when it has you searching through your Word to look things up! Or when you start to think about how to memorize the information to be able to use it later.
Starting with the new semester, I have decided to begin a new 'series' of blog posts.
'It's The Little Things'
To be very honest, very often it is the littlest things that make me happy. Getting a text out of the blue from someone, just to tell me they were thinking of me. Finding something I thought I had lost. Eating a great salad that I made myself in my 'window sill kitchen'. A SUPER hot shower. Hitting that note I can never get in a song.
I am sure there is a little thing in every day. And since I am being honest and blunt, I am dreading this next semester! Not looking forward to it at all. If I could, I would skip it all. Summer can't get here fast enough. But I don't want to have that attitude. Winter break did not go the way I wanted it to and had I known I would spend weeks in pain I would have dreaded it too maybe. And yet I am thankful for so many of the little things that happened during this time.
This will force me to find something to be thankful for and happy about in everyday. That might be a smile from someone, a break through in an assignment, or food. {Lets face it, a lot of my little things are going to be about food.}
The semester starts Monday March 2nd.
Here's to the little things.
No comments:
Post a Comment