Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This week is the celebration of the Lunar New Year. And in Asian cultures, that's a big deal. We were in Chinatown San Francisco on Saturday, the day before the start of the New Year. The streets were packed with shoppers and many vendors had red banners out in preparation for the week. On Sunday, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Mark and I were heading to our Farmers' Market when we heard drumming. Because we were on our bikes, we decided to follow the sound. We caught the end of a celebration outside a local Chinese business. The dragons were blessing the building and owners to ensure luck in the New Year.

 

With drumming and gongs and bells, the dragons bobbed up and down in front the the entrance. Once finished, the dancers packed up the dragon heads and instruments ready to head to another business. Mark says they will do this all day bringing luck to many stores. It seems that the dancers were young people who enthusiastically shouted Happy New Year to us as we watched. We continued on to the Farmers' Market where we ran into Ron-across-the-street. He said that our neighbor had company over early that morning and had even opened her living room blinds (apparently something she NEVER does)! He also suggested that we should get a pumelo (grapefruit-type thing) and put the peels in a bath and soak in it to bring good luck for the New Year. Mark wasn't keen on this idea. We have heard fireworks almost every night since Sunday. It seems that the festivities can last for up to 2 weeks. Hearing fireworks in the middle of the night made Mark dream that he was shot. Oh dear. Not very auspicious for the New Year. After the Farmers' Market, we decided to stop at the Asian Market on the corner to check out their char siu bao - a bread-type bun filled with a BBQ-style meat. The woman at the oldest department store in San Jose that is still operating (it is a Japanese store in Japantown) recommended them. We got pot stickers and a shrimp thing that turned out to be pretty bad - even to Mark. But the rest was quite tasty. So enjoy the year of the tiger and Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái!   

For more information about Chinese New Year, click here.

Big Adventure to SF

I must apologize to any readers for: 1. being boring lately (thank you Meredythe for telling me) and 2. for not posting very often. My excuse is that I was becoming a bit of a hermit - staying home most days knitting, sewing, reading...... very exciting blog material - NOT. So, with a long weekend coming up and an invitation to a Tribal Arts show in San Francisco, Mark and I decided to have an adventure. Our adventure was to go to the show at Fort Mason (near Fisherman's Wharf) and return home using only public transportation. We decided on this for several reasons - we wanted to check out BART (the rail system on the East side of the bay) as Natalie will want to use it to visit friends this summer, we wanted to start to learn the muni system (SF's bus/subway etc system), and parking is hard to find and very expensive. So my job was to research all the options and plan the route. Mark's job was to pay for it all. We left our house walking to the express bus stop (about 5 blocks) and took the bus to Fremont where we caught BART. We took BART to downtown San Francisco going under the bay (oh please don't let there be an earthquake right now!). We then took the #30 bus to Fisherman's Wharf and walked to the show. That is the basic route to the show. Now for the adventure part..... when we drive, I have the privilege of listening to Mark's commentary on world events - especially if they relate to bicycles.... like the tragic accident and death of a cyclist in Iowa with a blow-by-blow analysis of the how's/why's and, most important, should/should nots that relate to the story. Now, don't get me wrong. I DO enjoy listening to Mark. It's just that I know his bias and am pretty sure what will set him off. NOW, when you take public transportation, you get to listen to lots of new opinions..... especially when the person talking is talking so loudly from the back of the bus that the people in the FRONT of the bus keep looking back. I now know that "Obama is ungoofing what de last two presidents goofed up." And when we got on the #30 bus, which goes through Chinatown and PACKED with small elderly Chinese people weighted down with Saturday shopping, I thought I smelled something funny. As we were pushed farther back, I finally saw the source - a homeless man with his sleeping bag taking up three seats and with a HUGE amount of space all around him. So, I now know that if you don't ever bathe, you ALWAYS get a seat on the bus with lots of leg room. And, after passing the stop for the public library, I sureptitiously  photographed a young man eagerly reading an anime paperback.

The Tribal Arts and Textiles Show was in one of the huge buildings on a pier in Fort Mason. I have been there for the ACC (American Craft Council) show when selling jewelry. 108 exhibitors of fine art of native cultures filled the space with masks, figurines, rugs, jewelry, textiles...... it was a bit like being at a museum without the helpful labels. And I know very little about primitive art. The day was spectacular and we wandered through the park enjoying the beautiful vistas of Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz.

We returned via the #30 to the CalTrain station and took it back to San Jose Diridon station. From there, we took light rail and walked home. We left the house about 9:15am and returned home at 7:30pm. The transportation costs were $25.35. When I checked the same route on Google maps driving our car, the cost was roughly $63. So, not only did we save money, but we had a much better adventure.