Feastival

Today is, of course, the hardest day of the year for us to be away from our friends and family. Feastival--the most important holiday of the Roman calendar--is passing us uneventfully here in China. Somehow the thought of eating enchiladas until you throw up, wearing three completely different, elaborately-made costumes, and knocking on strangers' doors begging for candy (or toilet paper or ramen) seems just as foreign to the Chinese as putting raw meat into a shopping cart and eating golden retriever seems to us. We are trying to put together a celebration for this weekend with our international friends (hopefully even making enchiladas with the tortillas Bijou and Will sent...thanks, guys!), who I think will be game.

But for today, we keep all of you in our hearts. It is the best day of the year. I will introduce the traditions of Feastival to my students this afternoon, and as I ride through the streets of Shanghai with my asthma mask on I will at least pretend to be dressed up as a bird flu-paranoid Asian traveler. Wish you all were here or that we were there and that there would be dancing and wine and way too much food.

Incidentally, today is also the day Peter and I celebrate our anniversary. Seems like just yesterday a nineteen-year-old Incredible Hulk bench-pressed a twenty-year-old wonder woman into the air in the middle of a crowded room. Actually, it seems like a very long time ago. That was my first Feastival, back in the last millenium, and it has been a nonstop party ever since.

Eat, Drink, and Be Sweaty in Your Costumes!