Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!  On February 10th this year is officially Chinese New Year and the beginning of the year of the snake!  This is time to be with family and friends!  Usually it is called spring festival and can last up to two weeks.  During the holiday people wear red, decorate with poems on red paper, and the adults give children "lucky money" in red envelops.  It is believed that each new year a kind of monster comes and the red symbolizes fire, which according to the legend  can drive all the bad luck and monsters away!  I had a two week break because of Chinese New Year so I was supper excited! But before break at school the Chinese assistants helped us celebrate the New Year!  We made sweet balls and dumplings!!

Candy the kids make dumplings filled with pork and green onions!

Lynn making sweet balls!  

Sweet balls are dough with chocolate in them and then bowled and ate as a sweet soup!

 The first week of my break I just relaxed!  It snowed!!!  I was so excited, and I felt like a kid!!

View from my apartment!

I also went to Teppanyaki Hibachi Grill with my co-worker  Nicole!

Then I was off to Taiwan with my friend Erin to celebrate Chinese New Year with her family!!! Taiwan was amazing and much warmer than Shanghai!!  I flew in to Taipei the capital of Taiwan.

When you to someones for new year it is tradition to bring fruit!  So Erin and I took a walk and found a fruit stand that was open!  Taiwan has a lot of great fresh fruit!  The best fruit I ate was a wax apple! It was my first time having one and they look funny but they are delicious! 

These are mini pineapples!!!  They are so cute!

These are wax apples or that is what they are called in english!  They look like tomatoes but a spongy and sweet!  

More to come!!!