I smell a rat

Some of you may be aware that the Chinese New Year is upon us and a few of you might be aware that this will be the Year of the Rat. I don't really know what that means other than this year mouse and rat related items are the rage as opposed to pig-tures last year and stuffed puppies the year before. And if there is one thing the Chinese can do it is make and sell goods.
With that in mind, Rufina and I well to a local flower market that has been set up in a recreation site to capitalize on the New Year's hype.

Just like people in the States do odd things to ring in the New Year like eating collard greens and fatback or black-eyed peas or whatever they do where you live, the Chinese have some traditions they do this time of year also.
One of them is to purchase these Japanese apricots branches in order to find love. I have seen more than a few people carrying a bundle or two of these from the markets.

Love blooms eternal or looking for love in all the wrong places?

Another common site are these little orange or tangerine trees. I don't really know why they have them, but they do and they are everywhere.

There were some really beautiful flowers at the market including some wonderful lilies.

Half of the market was for flowers and plants and the other have was for toys and carnival-like fare.

Many of these booths were run by local students as fund raisers. Here a few guys try to convince me to buy all the stuff I never really needed.

But they did have some takers as it's just to hard for any 7 year old boy to pass up an inflatable sword.


This last photo doesn't really belong with the other set, but I hated to create a separate post just for it. This is me cleaning my (new) shoes off after playing Ultimate Frisbee in the mud (sorry dad).
As it turns out, God is a Frisbee fan because after some cold and wet days, Sunday was warmer and sunny and so I got to play Ultimate with the local club here. Bonus: the field is right down the street from where I am staying.

I have already been able to play twice since I got here and I am looking forward to playing some more to get exercise and connect with some more locals and other expats here.


Up next: People, people and more people.