chinese new year post
First of all, belated Happy Year of the Rabbit, everyone! Or, in a really funny Chinglish pun: Happy New Year 兔 You! (兔 is the word for "rabbit", pronounced "tu". It's hilarious, I promise.)
I had a great one this year! At first I thought I would be all alone, but it turns out that waxrose's group of Canadian friends were being pretty active, and since everyone else I know in the city had left it for warmer climes, I spent my time with them. There were two regular co-workers, C and Q - who I'd both met before - and Q's father who was over from The Sticks, Canada, and J, who taught at their school but moved to Korea last year. It was lots of fun :D
On the eve of Chinese New Years, I went to a restaurant down in Yi Zhuang, their suburb. We then spent some time watching the fireworks from Q's 13th-floor apartment, and then set off some of our own, which was loads of fun. Then we headed into the city to see what was going down at midnight near Qianmen (the south end of Tiananmen Square). Then we headed up to Houhai, near to where I live) and warmed up with some hot chocolate while fireworks went off right beside us. There's really no way to describe how incredible the fireworks at New Years are; they're everywhere, no matter where you go or what time it is, but the midnight ones were especially spectacular. Usually there are lulls in the fireworks and firecrackers, but it's pretty solid from ten minutes to midnight until about 1AM. It's really incredible.
The next day, I invited everyone out to a Temple Fair. Unfortunately, using English wasn't the way to go. I said "let's go to the old Summer Palace", and they went to the Summer Palace (颐和园), while Erica and I went to the Old Summer Palace (圆明园). In Chinese, they've got completely different names. Anyway, we all had fun, though I think the one Erica and I went to ended up being the better one. It was cold and we walked a lot but it was still lots of fun. So much snack food, mmm. That night we went back to the city and had dinner at a pizza place that is famous for its large pizzas at 19" diameter. So filling; I have been eating the leftovers since.
Then on Friday night we went to all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink Teppanyaki in the city. That's always a fun time. And sooooo delicious. om nom nom. Then we headed back to Yi Zhuang, where we all hung out at Q's apartment for a while, drinking and eating mandarins and talking about Canada a whole lot which is HILARIOUS. This is going to sound really dumb, but I never thought of Canada as being that different of a country from anything that I've ever visited, but just their views on winter are hilarious and I loved just listening to them talk about stuff like this brand of snow boot (the Havaianas of snow boots hahaha), it was great. Then at 1AM we decided we should get on the KTV idea we'd had, but the place closed at 2AM so it was just a short session. Still lots of fun, though. I stayed over at Erica's place and she and I made French Toast in the morning. It was also DELICIOUS
Last night was just Erica, C and J, since Q had taken his dad to Shanghai in the morning. J and C were getting a massage in the city, so we met up with them at Nanluoguxiang later on, where J introduced us to a great restaurant that has 麻辣香锅, which is like a dry hotpot thing that is amazing. But we didn't have that, we had their fried fish which was also great. We had some chuanr as well and it was a great meal. Om nom nom.
Today I woke up super late, showered, did the dishes, and packed for Osaka, which is TOMORROW MORNING. Erica's coming over in a couple of hours so we're probably going to Arashi it up, and she's going to stay over so that she doesn't have to wake up at 4AM just to get to the airport on time tomorrow. It's all pretty exciting but of course we've both been so busy that it's a bit like, oh, that's tomorrow??? We have no plans except to eat a whole lot and get to Kyoto at some point haha. It's going to be way fun!
That's all for now; catch you all on the flipside!
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
I had a great one this year! At first I thought I would be all alone, but it turns out that waxrose's group of Canadian friends were being pretty active, and since everyone else I know in the city had left it for warmer climes, I spent my time with them. There were two regular co-workers, C and Q - who I'd both met before - and Q's father who was over from The Sticks, Canada, and J, who taught at their school but moved to Korea last year. It was lots of fun :D
On the eve of Chinese New Years, I went to a restaurant down in Yi Zhuang, their suburb. We then spent some time watching the fireworks from Q's 13th-floor apartment, and then set off some of our own, which was loads of fun. Then we headed into the city to see what was going down at midnight near Qianmen (the south end of Tiananmen Square). Then we headed up to Houhai, near to where I live) and warmed up with some hot chocolate while fireworks went off right beside us. There's really no way to describe how incredible the fireworks at New Years are; they're everywhere, no matter where you go or what time it is, but the midnight ones were especially spectacular. Usually there are lulls in the fireworks and firecrackers, but it's pretty solid from ten minutes to midnight until about 1AM. It's really incredible.
The next day, I invited everyone out to a Temple Fair. Unfortunately, using English wasn't the way to go. I said "let's go to the old Summer Palace", and they went to the Summer Palace (颐和园), while Erica and I went to the Old Summer Palace (圆明园). In Chinese, they've got completely different names. Anyway, we all had fun, though I think the one Erica and I went to ended up being the better one. It was cold and we walked a lot but it was still lots of fun. So much snack food, mmm. That night we went back to the city and had dinner at a pizza place that is famous for its large pizzas at 19" diameter. So filling; I have been eating the leftovers since.
Then on Friday night we went to all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink Teppanyaki in the city. That's always a fun time. And sooooo delicious. om nom nom. Then we headed back to Yi Zhuang, where we all hung out at Q's apartment for a while, drinking and eating mandarins and talking about Canada a whole lot which is HILARIOUS. This is going to sound really dumb, but I never thought of Canada as being that different of a country from anything that I've ever visited, but just their views on winter are hilarious and I loved just listening to them talk about stuff like this brand of snow boot (the Havaianas of snow boots hahaha), it was great. Then at 1AM we decided we should get on the KTV idea we'd had, but the place closed at 2AM so it was just a short session. Still lots of fun, though. I stayed over at Erica's place and she and I made French Toast in the morning. It was also DELICIOUS
Last night was just Erica, C and J, since Q had taken his dad to Shanghai in the morning. J and C were getting a massage in the city, so we met up with them at Nanluoguxiang later on, where J introduced us to a great restaurant that has 麻辣香锅, which is like a dry hotpot thing that is amazing. But we didn't have that, we had their fried fish which was also great. We had some chuanr as well and it was a great meal. Om nom nom.
Today I woke up super late, showered, did the dishes, and packed for Osaka, which is TOMORROW MORNING. Erica's coming over in a couple of hours so we're probably going to Arashi it up, and she's going to stay over so that she doesn't have to wake up at 4AM just to get to the airport on time tomorrow. It's all pretty exciting but of course we've both been so busy that it's a bit like, oh, that's tomorrow??? We have no plans except to eat a whole lot and get to Kyoto at some point haha. It's going to be way fun!
That's all for now; catch you all on the flipside!
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.