I never knew it was possible to be this lazy

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Happy Chinese National Day! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Finally, after the horribleness of September, the first holiday of the school year has arrived. Thank goodness! I may have gone a bit crazy otherwise. (Although, some people here might argue that I did, in fact, go crazy.)

During the 1990's, the Chinese government decided to boost the economy by establishing three "Golden Weeks" throughout the year. These weeks were declared official holidays and all the government offices and most Chinese companies shut down for 7 days at a time. It's a chance for everyone in China to travel and (the government's true goal) to spend lots of money. The three Golden Weeks are May 1-7 (Labor Day), October 1-7 (National Day), and the 7 days surrounding the Lunar New Year. (Random interjection: I recently read an article in one of the English language newspapers here bragging that Chinese citizens now average 23 vacation days a year, which apparently is similar to most developed countries. I would argue that it isn't really something to brag about when 21 days of those are government mandated vacation days. And, technically we don't really get 7 days off. Two of those days are weekend days, which most of us wouldn't work anyways. Plus, the whole country works two weekend days before or after the holiday to make some time up. Therefore, it's only technically 3 days off, but somehow we all still convince ourselves it's a 7 day holiday.)

If the idea of traveling and shopping with 1.3 billion people doesn't appeal to you (which, after 3 years, it doesn't to me and many of my China Vet friends), you can just stay at home and be absolutely lazy. Shenzhen is great during these holidays, because 60% of the 10 million people who reside here leave the city for the week. (Shenzhen is an odd city with only about 1.5 million permanent residents and 8.5 million temporary residents. The temporary residents tend to travel back to their home towns during the holidays, leaving the city vacant and blessedly quiet.) I decided to take advantage of the vacatin to it's fullest extent and have managed to accomplish absolutely positively nothing during the past 7 days. I've read a couple of books, watched a couple of movies ("Bring it On 3" is horribly wonderful and "Fearless" is wonderfully wonderful), and went to the beach once, but that's about it. I couldn't even muster enough eneregy to update this journal until today, the last day of vacation.

I did host a Housewarming party at my new apartment on the 1st. It was great fun to squeeze 13 of my closests friends into my tiny living room. (Except April who was sick - We missed you April!) I invited everyone, thinking many of them would be out of town for the holiday. Imagine my moment of giddiness when almost everyone RSVP'd and I realized I only have one couch that sits 3. Luckily, we're use to small living conditions here and everyone else camped out on the floor for the evening. Even with the air conditioner set to the coldest temperature possible, we were still sweating out the liquids as fast as we were drinking them. All in all, it was a fabulous night!

But, not quite as fabulous as the Mid-Autumn Day party at Susan's place last night. Mid-Autumn Day (also referred to as the Moon Festival) is a traditional Chinese holiday where the primary activities seem to be looking at the full moon and eating moon cakes, which are the Chinese equivalent to American Christmas fruit cakes. I'm sure the holiday began as a celebration of the harvest, but today it is a celebration of little fruity or nutty or eggy cakes. People buy them for each other and give them as a sign of respect. In the south, they like to put egg yokes in the middle. Susan's Aunt had given her a bunch of moon cakes so Susan and her roomate Alissa hosted a party to share the moon cake goodness with all of us. It was fun, especially as their apartment is big enough for everyone to sit comfortably and even move, if the mood struck us.

Tomorrow it's back to work. Another holiday over too quickly.

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Photos

Welcome to my apartment
As promised, here are pics of my new apartment. This is the door.

The outer door
Many Chinese apartments have outer security doors. Usually they are metal doors with bars and a deadbolt, but mine is of the super-duper mega-security variety.

Ker-Klunk
That's the sound the security door makes when it closes and these three deadbolts automatically engage. Actually, it sounds kind of like a prison cell door.

The key
The key to the security door is completely round. I don't know how it works.

My living room
Once you get past the security door, you enter my living room. This is where I crammed 13 of my friends during my houeswarming party. Check out my lime green futon. I know you're jealous!

Laundry Room
The standard Chinese laundry room - Washing machine on the balcony and poles mounted near the roof on which to hang clothes to dry. On my "Top 10 things I miss about the States" list is a clothes dryer.

Looking down the hallway
My little hallway leading to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.

The kitchen
Yes, it's as small as it looks. But - look! - I have 2 gas ring burners. That's right, 2 burners. I can cook spaghetti and sauce AT THE SAME TIME!

The bathroom - Part I
Also quite small, but really, how much room do you need?

The bathroom - Part II
The standard Chinese shower - mounted on the wall in the middle of the bathroom. This provides the added benefit of being able to wash down the entire bathroom when you shower, thus saving 10's of minutes in "bathroom cleaning" time each week.

My bedroom
It's small, but the window makes it all worthwhile!

Sen
Testing out our cameras before my big housewarming bash

Party Peeps - Part I
Here's how to squeeze 13 people into my living room. Here is Erin, Sen, Josh, and Hayley camped out near the fridge.

Party Peeps - Part II
Freeman, Ramon, and Jordon were the lucky three who got the couch.

Party Peeps - Part III
Anthony and Elyssa, who both had to get up every time someone opened the door. For those of you counting, that's 10 people, plus me. Susan and Learn were standing behind me in the hallway, and that makes 13.

Catching some rays
...or not. Don't worry, I was covered in SPF 50 sunblock. Picture by Sen.

Susan and Hayley
At Susan's Mid-Autumn Festival Party. Picture by Sen.

Susan throws a GREAT party!
Eddie shows off how much fun he has at Susan's party. Picture by Sen.

This picture serves no purpose
I just like it. I look cute. Picture by Sen.