Kung Hei Fat Choi

It's already February 14 in Asia. Kung Hei Fat Choi... Gong Xi Fa Cai… Greetings to everyone who celebrates Chinese New Year.

In the five years when I was a teacher at Xavier School, I celebrated Chinese New Year. Now living in NYC, I intensely miss the people, festivities, souvenirs and FOOD associated with the Chinese New Year celebration in XS.

I have XS to thank for immersing me in the Chinese -Filipino culture. Xavier is a Filipino Chinese Jesuit school in the Philippines where I absolutely fell in love with teaching. (Sigh…I miss Xavier. Xavier will be a totally separate blog entry since it IS such a big part of my life… )

On to Chinese New Year lest I digress some more…

Chinese New Year 4708, or 2010 in the Western calendar, is the Year of the Metal Tiger. Like the houses of the zodiac in the Western astrology, animals of Chinese astrology are thought by many to dictate personality traits or, in the wider scope of things, even impact world events.

I was born in the Year of the Snake. Let's see if the descriptions are true for me.

Snake personality traits
Like a deep river, Snake people are usually placid on the surface, but their thoughts and emotions run very deep.

Quiet and unassuming, they prefer to work by themselves and are more often in the spotlight for their real and lasting accomplishments than for outward attempts at garnering attention.

Snakes hate to fail, and are very lucky when it comes to making money. With reputations for being hoarders, they are very frugal and careful about lending money to friends for frivolous reasons. However, they often show extraordinary sympathy when presented with an opportunity to help those who are truly in need.

Essentially loners, Snake people commonly keep their own counsel and rely on themselves to get ahead in life, mistrusting others' thoughts and opinions on matters of the utmost importance. Facts, too, get in the way of decision making for most Snakes, who prefer to use their own deeply held feelings and intuition in negotiating life's crossroads.

In matters of the heart, Snakes can be deeply amorous, jealous in nature, and do not handle rejection well at all.
And woe to those who betray the trust and affection of the passionate snake!

In business dealings, Snake people command respect for their accomplishments and can enjoy great success as teachers (:> yey!), writers or philosphers.

Snakes are most compatible with : Ox, Rooster
Famous people born in the Year of the Snake: Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, Dick Cheney, Bob Dylan, John F. Kennedy, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso

 ** Hmm… can I own up to these personality traits? (",)**
Source: http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/chinese-new-year-snake.htm