Healthy and successful New Year to you!

Reunion dinner

The annual New Year's eve reunion dinner was a success. Besides the chinese who are studying or volunteering at my school, I invited 3 professors, Osvalda our librarian and 2 other students along. It was avery nice group - alot of chatting and laughs. The food was also great - all specially made. Soup, dumplings, lion's head meatballs, sweet and sour pork, steamed fish, sesame shrimps, vermicelli, tofu with mushrooms, spinach, noodles, rice, dessert ...

On New Year's morning, our sisters made paczki (jam filled doughnuts) for breakfast for me. And for lunch my friend's family made a nice arab meal of kousa maashi and warraq dawali (stuffed zucchini and vine leaves). Dinner time, Sr. Nimfa our filipina student gave me Phad Thai. So it was very international this New Year's day ... at least in terms of food.

At 5am on New Year's morning, I went to the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate the New Year Mass. Remembered you all in my prayer. Then this morning we got the shocking news that Benedict XVI is resigning as pope. Well he certainly is brave to make such a decision. Thus the Year of the Snake begins.