Yesterday was the first day of Chinese New Year, and I didn’t even have time to sit down and blog about it! Chinese New Year is my favorite holiday, and for long-term readers of my blog, you’ll remember that I spent last Chinese New Year alone and in the hospital during my time abroad in Beijing. Fun times, I can reassure you. This year, my new year festivities were a remarkable improvement!

I spent late Sunday afternoon and evening preparing dishes I was going to cook for the New Year. Dumplings were a given, of course; they represent wealth for the new year. I’ve never made 饺子 (dumplings) on my own before as my mom always made them when I was growing up, but they turned out really well and I was very pleased. I also made orange chicken, broccoli and chicken stir fry, and green scallion pancakes.

Come Monday (the first day of the New Year) I had some friends come over and we rang in the New Year together over good food and wonderful company. While nothing beats being in Hong Kong with my family for Chinese New Year, spending it with some of my “school family” is the next best thing.

Happy Year of the Water Dragon, everyone!

Mamihlapinatapai: A look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.

I think this just might be my favorite word.

Let’s take a look at my 2011 resolutions and see how I fared, shall we?

• Read more books
  SUCCESS. Mind you, this is only a success because I did read more than I did in 2010, which is a little pathetic because I really don’t remember reading much at all in 2010. But I did read a lot during breaks from school, and I even brushed up on some English classics. So, I’m chalking this up as a success.
• Incorporate Mandarin more into my daily life. Some of this must be tangible: keeping a Mandarin journal, finding a language partner, etc
  FAIL. Unless you count the few texts/snippets of conversation I have with my boyfriend that’s in Mandarin Chinese, although that probably doesn’t count at all because it’s always initiated by him. I did write an academic research paper in Chinese for the first time this year though, so that’s something.
• Maintain a daily happiness journal
  SUCCESS. Here’s proof.
• Keep an account of my finances
  SUCCESS/FAIL. I qualify this as success/fail because while I kept better tabs on where my money went, I didn’t stringently budget or account for every single expense. This needs to be improved upon.
• Gain more work experience in my field of study
  SUCCESS. Last semester I completed a internship in Amnesty International USA’s media relations department, so that’s a pretty big win right there!
• Live in the moment
  SUCCESS. For the most part, I definitely did this. I have become more outgoing and social over the years, and I’ve tried to capitalize on this. Especially as it’s my last year in college – if I’m not going to branch out now, when am I ever going to?!

Here are my resolutions for 2012:

• Read at least 25 books (I feel like my bookworm high school self would be laughing at this small number, but let’s not aim too high here)
• Budget my money more stringently (account for all expenses! build up savings! don’t buy useless crap!)
• Keep in touch with friends far away at least once a fortnight (texts, emails, Skype dates, smoke signals, etc)
• Work on outline for draft of novel THE MOST HAPPY (the last time I worked on this was so long ago I only have the foggiest details of what I’ve already written)
• Run a Twitter contest
• Try out at least one new recipe a week