Happy Lunar New Year
Well, it's approaching lunar new year. The year 4705 officially begins on February 18.
Friend's blogs and such have reminded me of it, along with my parents saying we "MUST have dinner."
The timing changes every year, according to the 'moon' cycles. It's the year of the Pig, which are both my mother and brother. While this celebration has it's own rituals and lists of must-dos, I look at it as a second run at the New Year's resolutions I made more than 1 month ago--and that was to do everything bit by bit so as to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Take two :)
On the move:
I suppose I have come out of this last little while quite alright, having survived a move amidst demands that were anything but amenable to such lifestyle liminality. I made sure to do a little at once, have a checklist, and... and... and. But, when the time came to actually move, I was still in a state of OMG! My laptop had gone 'boom' and refused to turn on... so that was in the shop. Any grad student who has gone through this will know what an eye-twitching experience that was in itself. And the deadlines, the people across oceans who had no idea of the upside-down cake that was my life, were none the wiser. Ha. At least it was better than last year.
One could always say, "It could have been much worse," and one does. The actual day of the move was beautiful and sunny, and my piano didn't make a crunching sound while being jostled about. And I don't -think- I lost anything... it's just still in boxes and/or strewn about my less than "House and Home" looking place right now.
On customs:
It's normally taboo to do things like clean or cut one's hair while lunar new year is happening--on the premise that one could 'sweep the luck right out the door' or similar sentiments. Ideally, all your haircutting, new clothes, cleaning and other radical changes happen before new years. Like many customs, I can see why they exist--you want to get all that stuff out of the way before a celebration if humanly possible. But life overrules custom in this case (or should)!
Some lifestyle improvements since the move:
I'm being interviewed by some people for a documentary on video game players, so I'd best be off. More on that, this, and the other... you know where to find me.
Friend's blogs and such have reminded me of it, along with my parents saying we "MUST have dinner."
The timing changes every year, according to the 'moon' cycles. It's the year of the Pig, which are both my mother and brother. While this celebration has it's own rituals and lists of must-dos, I look at it as a second run at the New Year's resolutions I made more than 1 month ago--and that was to do everything bit by bit so as to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Take two :)
On the move:
I suppose I have come out of this last little while quite alright, having survived a move amidst demands that were anything but amenable to such lifestyle liminality. I made sure to do a little at once, have a checklist, and... and... and. But, when the time came to actually move, I was still in a state of OMG! My laptop had gone 'boom' and refused to turn on... so that was in the shop. Any grad student who has gone through this will know what an eye-twitching experience that was in itself. And the deadlines, the people across oceans who had no idea of the upside-down cake that was my life, were none the wiser. Ha. At least it was better than last year.
One could always say, "It could have been much worse," and one does. The actual day of the move was beautiful and sunny, and my piano didn't make a crunching sound while being jostled about. And I don't -think- I lost anything... it's just still in boxes and/or strewn about my less than "House and Home" looking place right now.
On customs:
It's normally taboo to do things like clean or cut one's hair while lunar new year is happening--on the premise that one could 'sweep the luck right out the door' or similar sentiments. Ideally, all your haircutting, new clothes, cleaning and other radical changes happen before new years. Like many customs, I can see why they exist--you want to get all that stuff out of the way before a celebration if humanly possible. But life overrules custom in this case (or should)!
Some lifestyle improvements since the move:
- It's now a steady 45-minute, one-bus commute into downtown from where I live. Really strange, when you consider that I used to live practically downtown but traffic made it a much more frustrating 30-minute journey to work (especially with the trench that used to be Cambie Street). Now, I get to settle in for the ride and get some book-learnin' done.
- Because the community is student-oriented, the transit is pretty good, with routes leading off the hill to almost anywhere in the GVRD.
- It used to be a real drag to commute -up- to the Burnaby campus for anything, but now that I live here it's great. Somewhat like an 'alpine getaway' now after a hard day slogging through work downtown.
- I'm now within striking distance of friends who do not live downtown so I get to see them more often.
- It's quiet, but not too quiet.
I'm being interviewed by some people for a documentary on video game players, so I'd best be off. More on that, this, and the other... you know where to find me.
posted by Florence Chee, PhD at 12:18 PM
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