新年快乐! Chinese New Year

Chinesenewyear_2_2012
It is already Chinese New Year in China (I got text messages overnight from people I keep in touch with-- glad I have the Mandarin keyboard on my phone so I could read and respond. Also glad I have that auto-silencer app** activated!) So, Happy New Year! 新年快乐！

My favorite message was from my cute friend Huang Xi who said, "You know the movie we saw 2012 showed many bad things, but it is the Year of the Dragon, so I think we will be okay." I love her sincere belief that nothing very bad can happen in the Year of the Dragon. I miss her. 

So, to all my friends wherever you live: it's the Year of the Dragon, y'all! Let's enjoy it! 

I'll be eating dumplings today to celebrate and buying some lanterns for my patio for Lantern Festival in two weeks. (Lantern Festival is the official end of the holiday. Gotta love Chinese holidays; they make the one day American holidays seem so stingy.) 

*GO SMS with the their keyboard, which has a Simplified Mandarin keyboard option that converts pinyin to hanzi. Apple has this built-in to their software-- yeah, Apple is better this way! I assume Android phones in Asia do, too. Android for North America-- get it together! 

**Smart Silencer. You set the time, range and days you want the phone silent and it does it automically. I use it for overnight and for set meetings at work.