as long as it's fine and soft

Some of the most awful Chinglish I've ever seen. This was taken in Beijing.

The new semester starts in less than a week. I still don't know my schedule, but given the nature of the school, it's only natural I haven't received it yet. I'm really excited to get back to work and meet my new students. I'm going to revamp a lot of the lesson plans that didn't work as planned and improve my organization which really fell apart towards the end of the last semester. Traveling to the south and east has really opened my eyes to new ways of looking and understanding Chinese culture and I walk around with a different but stronger confidence than I had before.

Enough about that though. The university campus is starting to open again and shops and stores that closed for spring festival are now up and running. The question I get asked most nowadays is if I went home for spring festival to which I respond, no I didn't, it's too expensive to go back to the US. It's easier than saying that I don't celebrate spring festival the way you do and I have different holidays where it is customary to spend time with family.

Spring festival was such a chaotic time here. I don't think there is another time or place in the world where so many people try to travel at one time. The commotion rose steadily from the beginning of February and then peaked around the 15th-18th. Train and bus tickets were sold out everywhere and Sigma and I ended up being stuck in Nanchong for the festival itself, which ended up being a great time in the end.

One of the greatest things about the Chinese new year is the fireworks. The story goes that fireworks are set off to scare the monster "Guo Nian" and increase your luck and success for the new year. Leading up to spring festival (the 17th of February this year on the lunar calendar), fireworks are sold all around the city usually in small shops that sell only fireworks and nothing else. Being a foreigner you get quoted a price that's much, much too high, but with some haggling you can them dirt cheap. The fireworks that are sold are not dinky little sparklers either. Many of them are big, bulky boxes that shoot off enormous explosions high into the air. Bottle rockets are one of my favorites also. I picked up a pack of 200 for 10 kuai ($1.25).

The night of spring festival was incredible. I called the other foreigners in Nanchong and met up at Peter's (an Australian teaching at a middle school) apartment. The sounds of fireworks and firecrackers going off started at around 4:00 in the afternoon and by around 8:00, there was no break in the noise. There was also a bang or an explosion that could be heard nearby. It really sounded like a war zone (or I suppose what I'd expect a war zone to sound like) Peter's apartment itself was relatively high and as a result, everyone had a good view of the rest of the city. Approaching midnight, it seemed like everyone in the city was lighting his or her mother lode stash of fireworks. It was by far the most spectacular show I had or ever will see. There was so much smoke that only few minutes after 12:00, it was nearly impossible to see across the city. The greatest part was when the security guards of Peter's apartment building lit their massive supply all that exploded within 30 feet of us. It was initially frightening given the size and sound of the explosions but it was too incredible to turn away from. Words and pictures can't do it justice. It was simply amazing to see. Everywhere you turned there were hundreds of fireworks going off in the air.

I'm certain people don't still believe in the monster "Guo Nian" or evil spirits and the lunar calendar is completely anachronistic now, but setting off fireworks for the new year is something that really defines spring festival. You take 1.3 billion people and each one of them literally starts the new year over with a bang. They start fresh. Wherever you are you hear the fireworks. It's more forceful than a ball dropping in Time's Square or a new year's resolution or Dick Clark's rockin' new year's eve on ABC. It's inspiring and unifying to say the least.
As much as China is so diverse with its millions of local dialects and 56 different races and ethnicities, there is a commonality that exists in the country and between the people that makes the Chinese society so cohesive. It's what makes the ideals of communism and socialism realistic. It's what makes China, China from Beijing all the way to Nanchong.