Happy Chinese New Year-Kung Hei Fat Choi

We want to wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year. There is a significant Chinese-Filipino population here in the Philippines, and there are many celebrations taking place here, especially in Chinatown. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. Various foods with special meanings are consumed, such as whole fish, to represent togetherness and abundance, and a chicken for prosperity. The chicken must be presented with a head, tail and feet to symbolize completeness. Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life.

Shooting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve is the Chinese way of sending out the old year and welcoming in the New Year. On the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, every door in the house, and even windows, have to be open to allow the old year to go out.

On New Year's Day, you are not suppose to wash your hair because it would mean we would have washed away good luck for the New Year. Red clothing is preferred during this festive occasion. Red is considered a bright, happy color, sure to bring the wearer a sunny and bright future. It is believed that appearance and attitude during New Year's sets the tone for the rest of the year. Children and unmarried friends, as well as close relatives are given lai see, little red envelopes with crisp one dollar bills inserted, for good fortune.

The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. Chinese New Year is actually a 15 day celebration with different people (such as family, ancestors, in-laws, or friends) or gods honored on different days.

Hailey's First Golf Outing

After many practice sessions at the driving range, Hailey had her first outing on an actual golf course on Saturday, Jan. 28. Ray, LeAnn and Hailey went to Tagaytay Royale, a par 29, nine-hole course about 1-1/2 hours from the house. Normally, this course and clubhouse is nearly deserted, but on Saturday, there was a private tournament going on the golf course and a wedding in the clubhouse. There were people everywhere. Fortunately, the last groups had already teed off for their second round of the tournament, so we were able to get on and play.

Hailey felt nervous as she teed off on the first tee, but that eventually subsided as she made good contact and stayed mainly down the middle. The caddies were a great help and really had a good time watching Hailey play and giving her some tips. She had some very nice drives, with a couple approaching 100 yards. Being a short course, she was able to make her way down the fairway fairly quickly.

As the day went on, she started to get under the ball with her irons on the fairway. She said it was so much different than hitting off the mats at the driving range. Her best hole was a bogey in which she was just off the green in two, putted the 3rd shot close and made about a 5 footer. She didn't try the sand at all as we gave her a free drop out, but eventually she will have to try to get out on her own.
We finished 9 holes with lots of smiles, so we asked her if she was ready for more, and she said she wanted to go on. We had about an hour of daylight left, and were able to get 5 more holes in. Normally, this course is lit for nighttime play, but the lights have not been working since sometime in December. We asked when they may be getting fixed, but could get no commitment.

After 14 holes, we called it a day and stopped at Yellow Cab pizza on the way home for dinner. She is already talking about going again. Kara had wanted to join us too, but she had too much homework and a group project that everyone could only get together on Saturday afternoon. So it looks like we may back to Tagaytay Royale next weekend with the kids.

World Pyro Olympics and Hua Mulan Acrobats

World Pyro Olympics and the Hua Mulan Acrobats

On December 26th, we had a special outing with our family and house staff. We took Ray, Tining, and Elena down to the Aliw Theatre to watch the Hua Mulan Chinese Acrobats put on a performance of magic and story telling. The show was very good, although not very well attended, but that was good as we got very good seats. This time, Ray B. did not repeat his "disappearing" act he performed into the orchestra pit in China, but he still made sure he took a picture of the group in their seats before the show.

After the show, we went over to the Esplanade on the Manila Bay waterfront to watch the World Pyro Olympics. The festivities went on for 5 days with two fireworks show each night. Each show was put on by a different country. The show we saw was put on by Australia. Although we had only heard about it a couple of days before, and had not heard or seen any advertisements, it was very crowded. Traffic was horrendous getting into the waterfront area, but Ray R. got us in close and talked his way into a new parking spot. Two and 3 lane roads ended up with only one lane passable as everyone parked on both sides of the only open lane. As a matter of fact, they delayed the fireworks by about 30 minutes to give more people a chance to get on the grounds.

The crowds seemed to overwhelm the facilities as very few vendors were actually on site, so the ones that were there were very crowded or out of food. There were 2 stages with live music, although there was no music choreographed to the fireworks.

We decided to leave after the first show, which was a good move. On the way to the car, a Filipino asked, "Where are you from, eh?" I said we were from Minnesota, and asked if he was now living in Canada, which he was. We had a nice conversation as we walked to the car. We beat the traffic and ended up stopping for a late diner on the way home and actually saw the second fireworks show from there.

Our trip to Australia

Our trip to Australia.

Our latest adventure brought us to Australia in late December 2005 and early January 2006.

We spent 5 days along the Gold Coast just south of Brisbane mid way up the east coast of Australia. The sandy beaches spread literally for miles around here. While we were there, we went to SeaWorld for a day. We found it interesting that SeaWorld and the other theme parks are only open from 10AM to 5PM--hardly enough time to take it all in.

One day we got up early and went up to Moreton Island. It was a 45 minute boat ride from the mainland to the island. This is a sand island with high hills made totally of sand. Some people go sand boarding on the steep dunes. This is very similar to snow boarding, only done on the sand hills. Our day was mainly spent on the boat, with time for snorkeling and swimming and boom netting.

We have pictures of the Gold Coast area at the Yahoo Photos site: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bloom2511/album?.dir=e9ff&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bloom2511/my_photos

The snorkeling was done in an artificial reef created by sinking obsolete ships and barges. The day we were there, the tide range was very high (about 8 feet), so the tidal currents were very strong. This made the snorkeling very difficult as you were pulled along the ships very fast. We all got cut and scrapped up a little. Mariah got a deep cut in her knee which hobbled her for much of the trip. Because of the high current, the water was pretty mucky, so we could not see a whole lot of the fish and coral.

The boat then went into the grasslands area to look for dolphins, sea turtles and dugongs (a manatee type animal), and we got to see all 3. They do whale watching on these cruises, but it was the wrong time of the year.

Our last adventure on the boat ride was something called boomnetting. A cargo net is dropped off the back of the boat and you crawl on this with about 4-5 other people. You lay with your back down and head towards the front of the boat while it starts to speed up. You are then lifted up on the wake and froth behind the boat. It is quite the experience as your feet dig into the cargo net and your hang on with your arms behind you.

On New Year's Eve, there were fireworks on the beach area at 8Pm, 10PM and Midnight. Australia does up their fireworks with great passion. Sydney (and all of Australia) is world renown for being one of the first to ring in the New Year with great fanfare down on the waterfront

One of the highlights of the trip was our day at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. This was a walk through Sanctuary full of Australian animals such as crocodiles, kangaroos, emus, and koalas. The kids got to hold a koala, which are very clingy animals. When we first arrived, it was feeding time for the Lorikeets, which are colorful green parakeet type birds. If you wanted to be swarmed by them, you could hold a plate of sugar water, and they would swarm you and the plate.

After 5 days of relaxation and mainly beach and water time, we went to Sydney. Sydney is a city of about 4 million people on the southeast corner of Australia. We used the public transportation system to get around the city with ease. From the airport, we got on an airport link train to take us to the central station, where we caught another train to the Kings Cross area and Potts Point, where our hotel was.

Here is a link to some of our other photos of the Sydney area: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bloom2511/album?.dir=1e70&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bloom2511/my_photos

When we got to the hotel, we went up and down multiple flights of stairs to get to our room, which was on the ground floor in another area of the hotel. This was an older hotel that had appeared to have been multiple other entities in the past. It was interesting that that evening, when we went out to dinner, we chose a restaurant call the Pig and the Olive, and it was run by Filipinos! They had been residents of Sydney for about 18 years.

The next day we got on the Sydney Explorer, which is a tour bus that runs every 20 minutes on a 2 hour loop through the city with about 30 different stops at popular tourist locations. You can get off and back on at any of the stops. It gives you a good overview of the city along with easy access to the places you want to see. Our first stop was the Circular Quay, which is the main ferry terminal. It is also where the Opera House, the Rocks area and the Harbor bridge are located. We had a good time exploring and taking pictures of the many landmarks that Sydney is known for.

Our one trip outside of Sydney was to the Blue Mountains and the 3 Sisters area, which is considered the Grand Canyon of Australia. Unfortunately, we had the only poor weather of our trip that day, and it was totally clouded over and fogged in, so we really saw nothing.

Another day of exploring brought us to the Darling Harbor area, and visit to the Sydney Aquarium. The tanks of the large aquarium taking are actually floating in the harbor. Their displays were wonderful and included a walk-through aquarium full of sharks and rays that would glide right over your head.

From there we went to Paddy's Market, which is a Thursday through Sunday market specializing in clothes, accessories, souvenirs, and food at discount prices and set up for bartering. It was set up in a former parking garage. Regular stores are still occupying the areas above the market area.

Our last full day was spent on another hop-on, hop-off tour bus called the Bondi Explorer which looped around the eastern side of the city and the beaches and coastal area. Most of the day was spent on Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the city. The waves were huge and many people were out surfing. Being from the midwest, we have such a good time playing in the waves at the ocean.

Happy New Year

Our World Wide Adventures

Our World Wide Adventures.

We have been very fortunate to have opportunities to see a lot of the world since we are living in the Philippines. Some of our travels have included the Boracay and Palawan in the Philippines, Phuket in Thailand, Sydney and the Gold Coast in Australia, and Beijing and Shanghai in China.

We have learned so much about how others live, work, and play.

Just a few pictures as we get started on our new creation.