Well we are now officially a few days into Chinese New Year, and surprisingly it has been a blast. Heather has been sad, because in recent years we've been out of the country for the 4th of July... but she said that this has made up for it all! We had heard that the Eve of their New Year's would be pretty crazy. We thought that it was going to start at midnight, but it really started at 7:00 p.m. For the better part of the 5 hours leading up to midnight there was constant fireworks. We took the girls onto the roof of our apartment and watched the fireworks, to say the least it was amazing! Our roof is 12 stories high, so we were able to see in most directions for a long ways, and in every direction their was an incredible display. In the States you have your 4th of July fireworks display which is this nice, neatly arranged area that has a firetruck and is totally controlled... Not so much here. At multiple times I watched people setting off fireworks in the streets and cars having to drive around them. And on my way to my brothers apartment I watched two guys shooting fireworks at each other. I feared for my life like I've never feared before. We went back up to the roof at midnight and the craziness had jumped up a few notches and the Chinese were in full party mode. I've never witnessed more fireworks in my life... and NEVER as close as I did. I got some pics, but it was tough to take them.
Also, another crazy thing has been the lack of people here in Xi'an. Before the celebration we heard that the city would clear out. But honestly how could a city of 8 million people clear out? Well I still don't know the answer to that question, but the streets were empty for about three days and it was really strange. For the most part our lives haven't been negatively impacted by the fireworks at night which is nice. The girls have apparently become totally immune to noise because they haven't woken up once!
Life's good right now, this week some friends of ours came home so it's nice to have them around again. I will be updating the site soon so check it out.
with much love,
Matt, Heather, Sydney and little Aubrey
"This was literally right next to our apartment roof"
