Poor Damn Monkey-Chinatown was just not giving any love at all to the symbol of this New Year!  When we were in China and it was Year of the Horse, there were ponies and stallions everywhere…big, small, red, gold, etc. decorating all the shops and homes.  Horsey party to the extreme and very festive.   So, we were missing the real Chinese New Year celebrations and decided to check out Seattle’s version this year.  What a disappointment!

 

Now, true the egg tarts always delight from the Chinese bakery there, but the first weekend we went, right before the official 2/8 holiday, there was nothing going on at all.  Boring.  We went back this weekend and finally, there were some dancing dragons and firecrackers going off to a small degree to welcome the New Year and the gods of wealth.

But really the crowd was there to feast on the $3 bargain food offer where you could stand in line to get select bites at the various food places.  Not really our cup of tea and not a cultural event but it seemed popular with the gorging masses.  Meh.

Still, I was really seeking out even a few crazy looking monkey decorative items in the shops.  Can an expat get a little selection of monkey-themed decals or anything really to celebrate???  After shopping at the local grocery, Uwajimaya, for some salmon for our Valentine’s dinner, we grabbed our egg tarts and headed home, monkey-less.

Now, in Shanghai, I hear that having monkeys as your in-home pet is all the rage.  Illegal, of course, but it’s probably not enforced and I’ve seen articles where folks are putting leashes on their monkeys and taking to the streets for a stroll.  We saw a few monkey pets on the streets while they were there and they did turn heads.  I’m sure in this Year of the Monkey, it’s very high status to actually own one.  I am the Year of the Rat-wonder if the Chinese locals will leash up their rats and parade them around too?  We didn’t really see rats over there too much-any small creature like that is considered food and served up as a lunch protein selection.  Yum!