Year of the Monkey

On New Year's eve, John and I had dinner at Ya-ya's parents' home in NE Shanghai. We celebrated the holiday with a huge New Year's feast, complete with jellyfish, cow liver, sauteed shrimp, scallops, mini-escargots, SH hairy crab, dumplings, soup, and some delicious vegetable dishes--celery and cashews, shrimp and edamame, and asparagus and lily petals. During dinner, we watched the SH version of Dick Clark's rockin' New Year's party, a variety show with Chinese acrobatics, song and dance.

After dinner, we had our first SH bus experience. Thankfully it wasn't too complicated. We just followed WJ and YY, and because it was New Year's eve there weren't many riders. We were on our way to YY's workplace-- a hospital near the Bund. YY is an emergency room nurse and she was on call that evening from 10:30 pm to 7:30 am. I guess she didn't miss all the festivities... while we waited to leave the station, all of the passengers were treated to a fireworks display right outside (put on by the bus' staffers). Some of flying debris even hit the bus... probably wasn't very safe but it was still fun to watch.

Around 11 pm, John and I met up with Anqian, Catherine, and Mike (whom we met a few weeks ago). We had drinks at the CJW (Cigar Jazz and Wine) bar on the 50th floor of the Bund Center. Hung out for a couple hours and watched the fireworks. Unlike the US where fireworks are essentially one big, orchestrated pyro show, in SH fireworks go off randomly all over the city-- set off in hidden alleys, people's backyards, business parks, etc. The result, when viewed from somewhere high, is a beautiful spontaneous performance of light and sound.