Pyros Paradise.

Lets face it, we all love fireworks. But god damn! Chinese New Year anyone?

It finally came around. Like a Christmas or a New Years. Well, technically, it was a new years. If things around here weren't leading up to the Beijing Olympics (didja hear!) they were leading up to the flipping New Years. Year of the Rat I should remind everyone. My only beef was that I was told I had to volunteer that night. Until 1am! Like wtf! But I didn't let that ruin my new years. ...Entirely.

We met the group at the front gate of Long Tan park to attend the opening Temple Fair ceremony. For the longest time, I was hearing Temple Fire, assuming they were going to light an altar or something. No. We went in and sat down, watching the rehearsal of the dancers and performers. We were sitting right in front of the world ambassadors I think! Now THAT's how volunteers should be treated! We watched the ceremony, chock full of kick ass dancing, martial arts, flowing ribbons, stilt acrobatics, children dressed as mice and the fuwa mascots, and dragons. It was very cool. However, it was quite frantic, with everyone running about. And the ambiguous style of our program was at full level. "What are we doing now?" "Waiting" "Then what?" "I don't know." "Where are we going" "Lets just go over here" I know some of the Chinese participants try, but never knowing what's going on is very frustrating. But we sorted out that we would just go do our own thing. I went with some of my group along the temple fair and checked out the booths. There were booths all around the lake, more then your average fair. Most sold food. And I love food. I wanted to try everything, or at least the really freaky stuff. I ate fried squid, silk worm, scorpion and some other bug looking thing. Don't try the silk worm. We walked through an amusement park and decided to check out the ferris wheel and get a high elevated view of Beijing. Quite neat. We were going to go go-karting (or go-karking as they wrote on a sign) and pit the Canadians, all who have driven, against the Chinese, some who have never. But we decided to leave that for another day. Everyone went their own way for supper, and I was kind of on my own with an hour to have supper before I went to my workplace. Fortunately, I ran into a co-workers of Gary's, who had a really cute daughter who spoke English very well. I told them I couldn't get ahold of Gary (I couldn't get ahold of Gary) and the woman phoned him, talked, and Gary told me to go with her for dinner, she'll bring me to the workplace after. Yay! I get shipped off again. But the cute 25-year old named Sunny was worth it. And the free dinner. So after, I went to the work place. I ran into Gary's supervisor, who handed me to another co-worker, who put me in an office, who then handed me over to the supervisor again. Not only this, I still hadn't seen Gary, whom I learned would be volunteering in another "community" Now, the community in this case refers to the hutongs. I guess it never crossed his mind that his counterpart might want to volunteer with him. So I walked with Gary's supervisor (as I don't consider her mine) for 7 hours that night. First, we went into a hutong house and delivered a small card, a New Year's gift I guess to a deserving family. It was my first time in a hutong house, which is basically a small room with a small stove, but large bed, and everything piled up on the sides. I guess the young girl slept in the same bed as her parents. But these hutongs don't really seem like impoverished. They seem less off, but happy and unique. You don't feel sorry for them as much as you might a homeless man laying in cardboard. With that in mind, although it was a brief visit, it still made me appreciate the box I live in at home here in China. After that, the night was about playing fireman. I would go around for 7 hours, dousing random dry areas with water from a pop bottle or empty detergent bottle. The intent was noble, but the act just seemed so disorganized. I told Gary's supervisor that it would be easier if we had one of those three wheeled bikes you see everywhere and filled the box with containers of water. She thought about this and decided it was a really good idea, and that none of them had thought about it before. I revolutionized this whole act right there. But she insisted no one had a bike like that or knew anyone that had one. I persisted they try to plan that for the next 5 days later where they would do this again. Luckily, they had planned shifts and snacks, so that was nice. Midnight came rolling around faster then I thought, and that's when all hell broke loose. I kid you not when I say this, the only possible way to describe midnight on Chinese New Year is a world war. Sure, for the whole day, there were fireworks, but this was when they lit off the biggest, brightest and most bad ass fireworks anyone had. And it's not just a city block, doing it for half an hour. It's the entire CITY! There's explosions everywhere, screaming, whistling, sparks, blasts from large ones that make you check to see if your arm is still there. Around every corner there's a light up from fire crackers, sounding like gun shots. This went on for at least a good hour before it died slightly. I was amazed and promised myself I would never forget that feeling. But despite the amazement, I was indeed tired, from being awake 18 hours and walking in the cold hutongs for 7. I asked the supervisor when I could leave, but she said the leaders haven't told them they could. I waited patiently, and when she made some phone calls, we went back to the office. I looked for Gary, but the other workers insisted I have eat jiao zi (dumplings, as per traditio) I humoured them and said just one, but ate a whole box so they would leave me alone. I finally saw Gary and told him I'd like to go home, but he too insisted I eat jiao zi. I was a bit frustrated and told him I already had. He said young people stay up late, but I told him I'm a foreigner and was tired from walking all day. He told me the same story, that the leaders hadn't said they could leave, including Mr. Li, my host dad who was volunteering as well, who would drive me home. I was fed up with the leaders and asked if anyone had tried to talk to them, contacted them. He told me they were in a meeting. I'm quite sure just hooting and a hollering from jiao zi, bai jiu and new year merriment. I idly-threatened Gary that I would take a taxi at 2am if I didn't leave by then. Well, 2:05am came by, and I did what I don't usually do; I said something! I told my counterpart I was tired of the beaureaucratic bullshit that had been plaguing us since we got to China and that he and Mr. Li had a responsibility that the leaders should be aware of. He had this goofy, clueless look on his face. "Me, Gary!" I think he seemed to have forgotten that. He might as well have had a joint in his hand and told me, "Just relax, maaaaaaaaaaan" Instead, what came out was, "Devon, haha, you need to be more tolerant." That just pissed me off. We went to get Mr. Li and were going to talk to the "leaders" but it turned anti-climactic, as we reached his office, he had his coat in hand; the leaders said they could leave. Gary told me I was angry for nothing, but I didn't back down. I insisted that I was still angry. Although it was an amazing night, that still bugs me and will be circle check material in the incoming weeks.

Althought street cleaners came out around 1:30am to start cleaning, there's still bits of fireworks debris everywhere. My first thought before all this was "Who the hell is gonna clean up this mess?" Thoses guys have a big job ahead of them; kudos.

The days after have been going by fast and full of friends. I've visited my host family's aunts house for dinner and almost every day, have went to a different temple fair with friends. They are everywhere around the city, at parks, at actual temples. Most sell the same stuff or foods, but some sell something unique or have cool performances you don't see elsewhere, so it's nice to get out and explore, never knowing what you're going to see. Although yesterday, I took a break and took some me time. I received money my friend lent me, as well as her remaining calling card minutes to which I used to call my previous host mom, Brenda! She was so happy to hear from me, which makes me wonder why they haven't called me! That day, I also had dinner with a CWY alumi ex-pat living here in Beijing! I brought some of my group along and we had a great night, talking about working here in Beijing, the differences in programs, and the New Year's here. And today, we're celebrating our own Canadian Chinese New Year's party at our supervisors house, who, ahem, left us the key to feed his turtles. Should be fun!

GONG XI FA CAI! It means make lots of money or something.