Culture Beyond China

It has really been a month since my last update?

I think BF has had more new experiences over the last month than I have. I will work with her to teach her how to blog some great stories she has on this site.

We are experiencing more than just the Chinese culture in Beijing. There have been two recent dates in November that are big to our Brit and Aussie neighbors.

The Brits celebrate Guy Fawkes day on November 5th. People out in the suburbs of China had a big bonfire party to celebrate. Co-workers went but the night was very cold and windy. Because of this celebration we did a little research and found it to be very interesting celebration. I can't imagine having a similar celebration in the US, especially being a Catholic. Check out the attached website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

On November 7th our Aussie friends were watching the Melbourne Cup on November 7th. "A day the nation stops". I was not at the apartment building during the day but BF told me people had planned a lot of celebrations around the event in and out of the apartment complex. When I came home from work people were dancing outside the bar in the apartment complex. They looked to be having a great time. http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/melbournecup/

You can see that our China experience is opening our eyes to other cultures as we share with each other in our multinational expatriate apartment complex. I had not thought about this aspect of living in China, A nice little extra.