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Well it's finally the Year of the Sheep - 10 days in in fact! Time to do a little catch up before we get into the meat of our presentation today!
Ever since the start to 2015, many of my colleagues kicked off the new year with visits to China - the project is starting to heat up! And when colleagues visit, I tend to spend a bit of time in the tour guide business:
The Real Ronald McDonald (inside joke)
Derek's first visit to China was a broad experience, consisting of hotpot...
... and Karaoke, among other activities!
But our foreign guests left too soon, without getting a chance to experience the biggest holiday of the Chinese universe - Chinese New Year!
We started to really see the Chinese New Year spirit kicking towards the end of January:
Lots of Red, traditional garb, and sheep could be found all around town!
Perhaps the most spirit is experienced in the form of New Year Parties, of which there are often several one attends!
For example, there was one at Fifi's school:
At work parties, there are often activities and performances. I attended a New Year Party in Wuxi with our JV with such events:
I even got in on the action myself a bit, demonstrating some of my skillz that killz!
Of course, there was a party for my company too, where, as is typically the case for Chinese New Year parties, there was lots of drinking and lots of nice lucky draw prizes! (I didn't get one though...)
Lots of Apple products - like this iPad Air...
...And this Macbook Air!
The top brass drawing the final prizes of the evening...
Of course, any good CNY party has to have KTV!
Up next, we celebrate Chinese New Year... in China!
It's slightly belated due to date's proximity to the Chinese New Year activities this year, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to commemorate Baby Lukas' second birthday!
What a year it has been for Baby Lukas, too!
Less than a mere month after celebrating his first birthday, his whole life literally shifted to the other side of the world as we moved from Florida to Shanghai, China!
Celebrating Lukas' first birthday in Florida one year ago!
Not unlike big sister Fifi, Baby Lukas has obviously spent a large portion of his life living in Asia - in fact, almost half of his whole life so far has been on this side of the Pacific, and that ratio is only going to get bigger for the near future! Living in China seems to have made an impact on his development as well. He is chatting quite a bit these days and it's clear that he has a preference for speaking Chinese instead of English, although he will often mix the two languages, most notably using the English "No" in place of the numerous Chinese words for "no", such as "bu yao" (不要) or "mei you" (没有), while continuing the rest of the sentence in Chinese. For example, if he sees Cherry getting ready to go, he often assumes she is planning on leaving him behind (why he assumes this is quite beyond my comprehension, since this very, very, rarely occurs for real) and he'll start crying out "No zou (走)!" or "Don't Go!"
Meeting Maternal Grandma for the first time
And Maternal Grandpa
Baby Lukas' first walk on Shanghai's famous Bund
Besides Shanghai, Baby Lukas also got to experience other parts of China and Asia, too!
Going on his first large family vacation with Grandpa and Grandma to Jiuzhaigou
Having fun with Big Sister in Japan
Exploring Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan
Meeting Great Grandma in Taiwan
Meeting Great Grandparents in Taiwan
Of course, it wasn't all travel and fun and games, we studied too, as Lukas started twice-weekly toddler classes in the fall:
OK, I guess it's still pretty much fun and games!
We went through another Christmas season:
And experienced Chinese New Year... in China!
So here's to another great year for Toddler Lukas!
