Happy Chinese New Year!

From our family to you and yours....an abundant and healthy Lunar New Year, especially to those born in the Year of the Pig! :)

Our first CNY away from home was minimalist but nevertheless meaningful.

No mandarins were exchanged, nor did we get to greet anyone Gong Xi Gong Xi. However, Beth and Jordanne were privileged to receive hongbaos from their godma in NYC and also from our friends *aka Scottie's best friends* who visited over dinner and brought all sorts of goodies, like Bee Cheng Hiang fish floss! Thank You! :-)

A Chinese church (whose parent is based in Camberwell) shares our church premises and holds its services on Sun afternoons. As the first day of CNY was on Sun, we stayed for the afternoon service, along with several of our Ozzie brothers and sisters.

It was such a refreshing change to see so many Chinese under one roof. They hail from different parts of PRC, and exchanging greetings was a little bit of a challenge as each had a different accent and almost none spoke English. Following the service was worse, as the bulletin was printed in traditional Chinese and just reading it took forever. Was thrilled to be able to practise my flawed Mandarin nonetheless.

CA volunteered to take the baby outside for a walk, since he couldn't understand a word that was going on. Someone even asked if he's a Vietnamese! (This is the 2nd time he's been asked that question. The 1st time it happened, the person who asked it was a Vietnamese :-))

One of the ladies came to ask if Beth would like to attend Sun Sch while we were at service; we said yes! and sent her off. Later, that same lady (the Sun Sch teacher) reported that Beth was able to keep up with what was going on, though she wasn't sure Beth entirely understood what was said (we're pretty sure she didn't, since she's forgotten practically all her Mandarin since coming here!). Beth even joined the other kids in putting up a song item at the end of the service.

Interestingly, we had been researching Chinese language schools recently as we want Beth to be able to maintain her Chinese connection. We were even thinking of sending her to the one at Quantin Binnah run by the Werribee Chinese Association, which has classes on Sat afternoons. So now that the Sun Sch teacher tells us the church is starting language classes on Sat mornings in March, we plan to hold on and see how that works out.