Chinese New Year!

The Taiwanese follow 2 different calendars: the secular calendar (which puts today's date at 1/25/2012) and the lunar calendar (which makes today 1/3). The Chinese New Year is on this lunar calendar; this year, it fell on the secular calendar on 1/23/2012. We have now entered the Year of the Dragon!
The New Year involves several interesting rituals.

• This time of year is all about family getting together. Family members return to their home from all around the world, and regardless of where you are, travelling during this time is sure to involve battling heavy traffic.
• Most Buddhist households have a small shrine to their ancestors and a couple of their gods. In my host house, it is in the grandmother's living area, on the 3rd floor. 2 days before the New Year, everyone from my host father's side of the family began gathering, and we all cleaned the shrine together. After cleaning it, we covered it with offerings, mainly of fruit and bread.
• Another offering to the gods is made by burning special paper to represent offering money to the gods.
• When praying, each person holds three sticks of incense, and waves them in a small vertical motion 3 times. I'm not sure what the significance of the number 3 is, but it is definitely a recurring feature.
• Fireworks are set off for two reasons
• Scare evils spirits / ghosts away
• Celebrate the new year
• Red is the primary color of decoration for the new year, as it represents all good things.
• Elder relatives (parents, aunts & uncles, grandparents, etc.) give children red envelopes filled with money. I received 5 in total (containing anywhere from NT$200 to NT$1000 apiece; my total income was NT$3800, which is ~US$120), and 2 of these were very creatively designed. The one from my first host family was dark red / maroon and had the character 李 [pronounced 'Lee'] on it, which is my Chinese surname shared with this family. The second very cool envelope is gold in color, with 2012 in red felt on the outside; around these numbers, there is texturing in the pattern of a Chinese dragon's body.
• The foods are very special. There is bread made of rice, which is either brown or red, and very sticky. Fruits are also popular, especially cherries. My family also ate plenty of octopus with wasabi (mixed in with soy sauce, as is popular here), chicken (boiled), and red bean soup with gummy treats mixed in. 

A Few of Mandarin's Quirks

The Mandarin language has plenty of interesting little things to know.

• One of the most commonly used words in the Chinese language is pronounced "nuhguh" or "niguh"; it means "that" or "that one." Furthermore, it is often used as a stalling word, like "umm."
• Another good things to know about Chinese is that singular and plural nouns are expressed using the same word. For example, "go" means dog, but you don't change it to say "dogs" - it's still just "go." To indicate number, you can state a number, the measure word, and then the noun (for example: "ee jhi go" means "one dog"; "san jhi go" means "three dogs"). To emphasize plurality, you can add "men" after the noun (for example, "go men" = "dogs"). Here are a few examples:
• Wo --> women = I --> we/us
• Ta --> tamen =  he/she/it --> them
• Yes, the words "he", "she", and "it" all sound exactly the same. They are each written with a different character. 他 means he. 她 means she. And 它 means it, in reference to inanimate objects. There is yet another "ta" character (which I don't remember) in reference to animals. 
• Numbers are another interesting subject. There are different characters for the numbers
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 becomes: 一, 二, 三, 四, 五,六, 七, 八, 九 (pronunciation: ee, er, san, si, wu, liu, chi, ba, jo)
• 10 is 十 (shi); 0 is 零 (ling)
• To create higher numbers, one can combine digits, like this:
• 20 = 二十
• 25 = 二十五
• As you can see, this can cause numbers to become quite long; thus, it is relatively common to see English/Latin numerals (prices, phone numbers, math, etc.)
• Ten thousand has its own separate term, separate from thousands. Once you reach this number, you start counting by these. For example, one million is one hundred ten thousands. 
• And finally, a funny one. The term meaning "tall" is used to describe large noses (which are considered beautiful). Many people have complimented my "tall nose" ("gao bitzi").
• Eyes of more unusual colors (aka not brown) are also considered beautiful. A very high number of people (generally female students) wear colored contact lenses. Blue is the most common color, but I have also seen green and even purple. Several students have asked me whether my eye color was natural, and seemed quite impressed by my shade of hazel.

Alright, that should do for tonight. I must go to bed now, as I'm going to go with the other Rotary Exchange Students to see Sky Lanterns in Pingxi tomorrow. I have to be at the train station by 6 AM, so it's time to rest, and charge my camera so I can capture everything tomorrow!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday vacations. Mine starts next week - the Chinese New Year falls on January 23 this year, so my school vacation goes from January 11 to February 5. I'll let you all know what happens!

Love