Stopped my 'boring' phase in my job!

Stockholm is experiencing winter when it is almost March. It is snowing none stop for a few weeks now. People have been expecting snow the entire Nov, Dec and Jan because it lits up the city. Now we are expecting spring! =)

I am currently reading 'The Three Pillars of Zen' and following sitting practices at the Zen Centre here. I guess once again, I am having a challenging experience which very much exposes who I am and how I am able or not able to deal with the most important things in my life, I appeal to Zen sitting so much. I do not think I have been diligent and dedicated enough to the sitting practices. However, the reading itself is increasing my faith to follow Zen Buddhism.

For those who have heard from me that I did not like my internship, you should be updated once again. I had an evaluation meeting with the 2 managers I have been working with. Open, candid and constructive. I really felt easy to say how I felt and how I want things to be improved. I also felt comfortable receiving feedbacks from them. Since then, I started to get more workload and more interesting projects. I have also started to be more active on my role. Let's see how things will go. At least, I will feel comfortable to tell them how we can make the internship better!!! Quite proud of myself.

Tomorrow I am going to Cairo to travel with Aron for 6 days. First time to the Arabic World. Like many other times when I was about to land in a country - donno what to expect. I will write about my trip and hopefully, for the first time, upload some pictures!!! Stay tuned.

Gong Xi Fa Cai?

First of all, this does not mean 'happy new year' in Chinese (not in Mandarin or Cantonese or any dialect). Gong Xi Fa Cai means - hope you will get a lot of fortune! Cantonese people say this at instead of Happy New Year. (Just would like to clarify here because the expats living in Chinese speaking countries might get confused.) Strange enough. God bless those in despair of money. =)

The LC here organized a lovely Chinese New Year dinner on 16th evening (which is 'little Chinese New Year eve' because 17th is the real Chinese New Year Eve). The music they played really made me feel like celebrating Chinese New Year in China. Sadly, there was not much Chinese culture presentation to give people a taste of China, apart from the westernized Chinese food.

So I can make up for that by talking a bit about what does new year mean in China. Year (in mandarin 'nian') is a ghost. He comes to each household once a year (according to our lunar calendar). Nian is afraid of: 1) Red color; 2) cracker sound. That is why we dress up everything in red and fire a lot of crackers during Chinese New Year. Then older generations give out money wrapped in red envelopes (called 'red package' or 'hong bao' in mandarin) to younger generations. This recently became a new bribery tool unforunately.

Chinese New Year is a whole 15 days of celebration. Day 1 is obviously Chinese New Year which we call 'Spring Festival'. Then Day 5 is the day to welcome the God of Fortune - the real moment for 'Gong Xi Fa Cai'. God of Fortune is supposed to visit whoever fires the loudest and largest amount of crakers. (When billion people fire crackers altogether, you might think North Korea has lit their nuclea weapons.) And then we have lanten festival on the 15th when you are supposed to eat a special type of dumpling (with sweet filling) and go out to watch different lamps people bring to the street.

I love Chinese New Year celebrations. Because it is a lot of shopping, especially for yummy food. Then it is a lot of cooking and eating. It is always a huge gathering with families of mum and dad sides. (I used to avoid meeting relatives cuz I could not explain what is AIESEC.) The entire country is in a festival spirit. I have not been able to spend a full 15 days New Year at home for quite some years. I would also with to take Aron to experience some intense Chinese culture over a new year celebration.