This photo was taken when Aust & I went back to Taiwan & Hong Kong, May 2013
Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂！Chinese new year is, like, THE holiday in Asia. When I lived in Taiwan, the new years celebrations would include 2 weeks straight of eating delicous food until your eyes popped out. And people were giving me 红包 (red envelope) with money inside $$ (but I couldn’t accept it because I was a church missionary at the time!). It’s a great holiday; older family like parents, Aunts & Uncles, would give us red envelopes (hundreds of dollars!), but once we were married they said ‘Sorry! No more!’ So last year I gave my little brother the first red envelope I’ve given out, and it made me feel old.
This week I’ve been learning a new language, and you should too! When someone starts to learn a brand new language at 21, you’d think it was too difficult an endeavor and almost unachievable. Well I started learning to speak, read and write Chinese when I was 21, and somehow I achieved a basic grasp of the language in a short 18 months. Granted, I had God on my side (literally–missionaries are promised the gift of tongues!) because I honestly could not have done that on my own. But this time around, I’m picking up a language at 26 (did I say I’m old already?)! I’ve been taking free online courses from Code Academy and I HIGHLY recommend them! I’ve been able to pick up the basics of HTML and CSS and have been tweaking my new website aaaaallllllll week long. My eyes hurt, but I’m pretty excited to show you on Monday!! (Thanks for all the help, Ivan!)
Eat lots of good food , try learning a new language, and 恭喜发财 ‘congratulations on obtaining riches’!
hugs, hanalei
foggy dress 