HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! wan shi ru yi! xin xiang shi cheng! without pineapple tarts and loveletters and kueh lapis it's hard to feel in the cny mood, but i have mandarin oranges! erm. they're clementines but i'm pretending they're mandarins. three boxes of it i have! i have already called home to bai4 nian2. and i called my aunt too - and got aunt, cousin, cousin-in-law and the two little ones. yen and i, while waiting for her train, were telling bob reeder about chinese new year customs - how you kneel down before your parents and bainian with mandarins. how you can't sweep the floor because that's sweeping away your good luck for the year (i wonder if i can vacuum the carpet) and if you break something you say, luo di kai hua (it touched the ground and burst into blossom) and you've gotta leave the lights on all night till dawn (though this is nothing much in these days of non-oil lamps.) particularly the four-character wishes. nian nian you yu! bu bu gao sheng! zao sheng gui zi! (and the one students always get, xue ye jin bu!)