Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

For those of you who don't know, Chinese New Year is an event that goes for 15 days. YEAH. The Eastern Hemisphere knows how to celebrate. The way it was explained to me was, "Chinese New Year is what Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve is to Americans, all in one." This year it started February 10th and ended February 24th.

Doug, Alex, Ashley and I traveled to 4 different cities, first south and then north of KL to visit different friends and their families. On that trip we got to participate in the tradition of Lao Sheng, where a special kind of salad (it looked like confetti but tasted like sesame) is brought to the dinner table and everyone helps toss it, lifting as high as possible and simultaneously shouting what you want that coming year - WEALTH, SUCCESS, PROSPERITY! We got to see embarrassing baby pictures of a couple of our friends; that's always a good time. Mostly, we ate huge meals. To me it felt like Thanksgiving 4 days in a row, and seafood instead of turkey.

The Riverfront In Ipoh, Perah

Lao Sheng!

It is an old tradition in Malaysia for the last day of the Chinese New Year to be a sort of Valentines Day. A much more fun Valentines Day, in my opinion. We got a group of about 20 University of Malaya students, and 5 visiting Americans, together to participate in a community celebration. As part of the tradition, single ladies write their name and contact number on an orange and throw it into the lake everyone is gathered around. Guys stand around with nets and try to fish for these oranges in hopes of finding their soulmate. For the more proactive gentlemen, there is the option of writing their name and phone number on a banana to hand to that one, special girl they've admired from afar. Oh, it happens. A girl standing near me got two.

Some of you may recognize our visiting friends!
It was so good to see them all. Margaret in the center is a fellow
U of A alumn!

Hopeful girls! ....
Kidding. But we did have fun :)

After the orange tossing and banana receiving, people wrote wishes on lanterns and let them float up into the night sky. Even though it made me a little nervous every time one bumped a tree branch, I was overwhelmed with the gratitude of being there. It was beautiful.

Photography by Poh Kai Sin