Early B-day celebration!!

So, to the left here was a surprised b-day dinner that was made by my friend in the middle below. She is one of the first gals I met here in CN. Look at all the wonderful local dishes: fish (which is kinda rare to have here), green pepper with eggs, mushroom with celery, dumplings, and stir fry shredded potatoes. Yum! I was surprised that they know my b-day was coming up(although all our b-days are posted on our company's calendars); at any rate, I felt blessed and special that they took the time to celebrate my b-day with me. On the actual day, I will be attending work appointments in HK. So I won't actually get to celebrate till I see my family on the 23rd. I can't wait!!
To the right are the gals that I am gradually taking the time to get to know better and we are spending more time together so that I can practice and maintain my Chinese. They are also teaching me much about the local cultures. The gal on the far right with the glasses is one my Chinese tutors, she's only 23 and she aspires to go study abroad, that's like the local dreams of most Chinese young ladies. This evening they all came over for dinner and a movie, we watched 'Amazing Grace' together; it was good and it was an experience to watch it with Chinese subtitles...good thing I watched the movie before, otherwise, between the British accent and the chinese subtitles, I would've missed a lot. Leisure time like this is helping me quite a bit to better acclimate to the culture. I think we will make this a once a month gathering and exchange ideas on cultural exchanges. This is by far much better than classroom setting for me. But I know I need both. Therefore, times like these are what I enjoy most about language learning. A much more comprehensive way for me to experience life here.

By the time you receive this, we will be 13 days away from Chinese New Year! It will be an experience since my family hasn't really celebrated CNY since my dad passed away 9 years ago. Well, I'll be in HK for a conference but will be back in CN in time for the lantern festival. Will see how that will be like? At any rate, happy Chinese New Year! Everyone back home!! Gung Hay Fat Choy! or Xin Nian Kuai Le!