What Chinese New Year Means to Us

We celebrated Chinese New Year just like everyone else. We welcomed the year of the pig (boar) with a meal of jaozi (otherwise known as pot stickers), which are good luck, exchanged hong bao (red envelopes with money or candy,) also for good luck, decorated the house and watched fire works.

The other side of the celebration is that business basically comes to a standstill. Shops are closed. Everyone takes at lease 3 days off and goes to see their families. School, for us, is closed for a week, the Chinese schools are closed for a month. The ayis and drivers and chefs all have time off and get a month's pay as a bonus. We gave ours 9 days off. I enjoy the peace and quiet and family time. I like when the boys are home from school and we can play games and do art projects and watch movies and we don't have to rush around. I'd rather not be doing laundry and cleaning toilets, but hey, it's only a few days.

I belong to an online message group of expats in Beijing. It's a place where you can post a message, ask a question or offer advice relating to life here. On the first day of the holiday time, a woman posted a message, saying as embarrassed as she was to post the message, she was desperate for a fill-in ayi while her usual ayi is away! I had to laugh. It's easy to get spoiled here, but I think it's important to remember all the help is a real privilege and to try not to get too used to it because it won't last forever. It's easy to get used to all the help, though.

Huck and Xing Ayi are very attached to one another. I feel I must preface this anecdote with a statement of the fact that Huck cries when I leave him at school or at home, sometimes even if I leave the room. This story is about him and his ayi, though. When it's time for her to go home in the evening, he always says "Ayi, stay." She finds it very hard to leave when he does this, so her departure always takes a while. Usually, by about 5:30, I get her to go home. On Friday, her last day before her holiday, I tried to get her to go home at about 4:00, so she could start early. Huck, of course, protested. Finally, at 6:00, we left to go to our friends' house for dinner and then she left. Huck was crying and, according to Tom, she appeared to be near tears as well.

I was worried we'd start each day with Huck crying for Ayi and have to endure him crying for her whenever we told him no. But, that hasn't been the case. I know it would be more fun for him if she were here since she plays with him whenever he asks, but he's doing fine. (and so are the rest of us but we will be glad when next Monday rolls around!)