The Year of the Cow
This past weekend has been double packed with special days. Friday was the Chinese New Year, which is actually an event that goes on for weeks. This year is the year of the Cow, which is supposed to be a more auspicious symbol than that of the previous year, the Rat. Given the events that transpired last year, the symbol of the rat seems to be quite fitting. I think everyone is hoping that the cow brings along better news.
Certainly China has been at the center of the headlines in the past year, with the unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19 appearing to have originated in the city of Wuhan. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province in the center of China. It is also the place where I worked as an English teacher. I met my wife there and got married there. We actually had plane tickets directly to Wuhan from Paris set for February 2020, but the rat of 2020 reared its ugly head and canceled those plans just a couple of weeks before our trip. With the coronavirus scare starting to be resolved with the wave of vaccinations currently underway, we hope that China will no longer be the source of bad news or negative attention.
In any case, we’re happy to have met other Chinese people in our town to be able to share a celebratory meal. One advantage of China being such a populous country, is that there are Chinese people almost everywhere you go. They are always a good source of friends for us, as we like to maintain links to Chinese culture for ourselves as well as our children. We had one such couple over yesterday, as well as a couple who are not Chinese. We all had a big meal together, and it felt great to see each other after so much time under quarantine.
Most of all, it was a fun time for our children. Our friends have children at the same age as ours, and they all have a blast running around the house together. Sometimes our son Daniel ends up following all the bigger kids around, but this time he was in luck, as there were other children his own age to play with. A lot of our friends have girls, so it was a real treat for him to get to play with a boy his own age this time. At one point, I looked over to the couch and saw four little legs sticking up into the air from a jumbled pile, which consisted of two small boys rolling around and laughing together. It was fun for me as a parent, as I usually only see Daniel play with his big sister.
For the adults, it was a time to eat. We must have sat at the table for an hour and a half minimum. My wife had spent the better part of two or three days preparing many different dishes. When our friends arrived, they helped by making dumplings. This involved simply taking the circular dough slices, putting dabs of pork inside, and sealing them, forming the dumpling shape.
Besides dumplings, there were many other dishes of beef, pork, Kung Pao Chicken, fried rice, and others that I can’t even remember. We ate as much as we could ever want, and there was still a table full of food. Everyone was able to take home their favorite dish, and even after that there was plenty of food leftover for us. Such is a testament to what a good host my wife is, and the amount of work she puts in to making others feel great when they are at our house.
Though we had a great time among ourselves, we were definitely missing our family back in China. We still haven’t been able to visit them and don’t know when the next good opportunity to go there will be. We want the best for them and them for us, but unfortunately we live on the other side of the world, and this past year has shown that catching a quick flight is far from a guarantee. We’re hoping the Year of the Cow brings better news for us all.