Thomas F. O'Neill: A Chinese New Year celebration in Suzhou, China from 2014 ....... 🦅

Thomas F. O'Neill

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About Me

Name: Thomas F. O'Neill

Location: Shenandoah, PA / Suzhou, China, Pennsylvania / Jiangsu, China, United States

I am currently working as a certified ESL teacher at a private school in Wuxi, China. I have also taught Primary School, Middle School, and High school in Suzhou, China. I am now currently a High school Teacher in Wuxi, in the Jiangsu province. I am also tutoring older students who are planning to travel to English-speaking countries. Some of my older students that I am tutoring are preparing to take their entrance exam for various Universities. I also volunteer for our school’s summer camp program. It is something I enjoy doing and at the same time the students learn a great deal about the western culture. I also worked at the SMIC summer camp in Shanghai in July of 2010 and 2011. During the last nine years I have been a volunteer teacher for the iCity charitable organization in Suzhou, China. I also have been doing a lot of volunteer work to promote our School.

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

A Chinese New Year celebration in Suzhou, China from 2014 ....... 🦅

In February, back in 2014, I attended a Chinese New Year celebration in Suzhou, China. I want to share those experiences with you.

Many foreigners living in Suzhou enjoy going to Shiquan Street, and it is due to the many western bars and restaurants there. I spent a portion of the Chinese New Year in 2014 at a trendy place called Jane's Pub Bar, but unfortunately, she sold the establishment in 2017, it is now an Irish pub that becomes jammed packed on St. Patrick’s Day, but I will leave that for a different post.

I was not aware that on the Chinese New Year in 2014, a huge firework display would go off in front of Jane's Pub Bar to usher in the new year. I got more enjoyment from watching how excited the locals got when setting the fireworks off. I quickly pulled out my BlackBerry phone to capture part of the moment on film.

We Americans rely heavily on public safety, so seeing the fireworks going off while the street was still open for traffic was pretty amusing. No one seemed to mind, though, and we enjoyed watching the night sky light up with booming bursts of exploding energy.

When the show ended, and the smoke cleared, a beautiful Chinese woman ran up and gave me a big kiss and yelled, "Happy new year, Tom." That was quite exhilarating, too, and since that moment, I've become a huge fan of the Chinese New Year.

The year 2022 now marks the year of the water tiger, and hopefully, the tiger will scare away the COVID - 19 virus and bring some normalcy back to the world; we certainly can use more normalcy no matter where we live.