Happy New Year, Happy Spring Festival, and Happy Valentine's Day!
Sorry for no posts lately, but I just got back to Qufu from six weeks of travel. Over the next week or so, I will post all of my adventures in Melbourne, Australia and throughout China. I took over 2500 pictures so I have to sort through which ones are blog worthy (there were many blurry ones).
Today was Valentine's Day and people were buying roses and other gifts. By people, I mean guys buying roses and huge stuffed animals. There were some couples out and about shopping and many of the guys looked miserable standing around whilst their girlfriends and wives went crazy buying things.
Tonight was the Lantern Festival so Jason, Makenzi, and I went to a nice dinner. The restaurant also gave us tangyuan which are balls with a sesame paste in the centre wrapped in a mochi ball and boiled. Mochi is pounded sweet rice, which is more popular and common in Japan than China. The tangyuan are round and eaten at the end of the Spring Festival to represent that even though the family will be separated again because people leave to go back to work, they are still a whole unit and connected.
Sorry for no posts lately, but I just got back to Qufu from six weeks of travel. Over the next week or so, I will post all of my adventures in Melbourne, Australia and throughout China. I took over 2500 pictures so I have to sort through which ones are blog worthy (there were many blurry ones).
Today was Valentine's Day and people were buying roses and other gifts. By people, I mean guys buying roses and huge stuffed animals. There were some couples out and about shopping and many of the guys looked miserable standing around whilst their girlfriends and wives went crazy buying things.
Tonight was the Lantern Festival so Jason, Makenzi, and I went to a nice dinner. The restaurant also gave us tangyuan which are balls with a sesame paste in the centre wrapped in a mochi ball and boiled. Mochi is pounded sweet rice, which is more popular and common in Japan than China. The tangyuan are round and eaten at the end of the Spring Festival to represent that even though the family will be separated again because people leave to go back to work, they are still a whole unit and connected.
Afterwards we were planning to go a bar, but we saw lanterns in the air. It was so pretty and like the scene in Tangled when all the lanterns were being set in the air. There were not nearly as many, but it was still cool. So we followed the lanterns and went to the river where there were some people lighting them. As we learned, the lanterns are actually illegal here, so there was a police officer trying to get people to stop letting them into the air. Some of them the police officer just snatched out the air and tore, which was sad because people had written hopes and dreams for the year on them. There was one couple that looked really upset that theirs was snatched down.
They looked so much cooler than what this picture conveys.
Since we could not find any to buy, we went to a bar that is built into the old City Wall. It is a nice place and us three had a nice time talking and catching up on what we have done during break.
As we were coming back, we stopped at a fireworks place and saw that they had the lanterns I wanted! So I bought a couple and about 80 yuan (13 dollars) worth of fireworks. Jason, Makenzi, hopefully Rowena, and I will have a fun time tomorrow with the lanterns and with the fireworks to celebrate the end of the Spring Festival.
As we were coming back, we stopped at a fireworks place and saw that they had the lanterns I wanted! So I bought a couple and about 80 yuan (13 dollars) worth of fireworks. Jason, Makenzi, hopefully Rowena, and I will have a fun time tomorrow with the lanterns and with the fireworks to celebrate the end of the Spring Festival.
There were also many doors and alleyways with candles. I will have to ask Beatrice about the meaning. I thought they just looked nice.
Bonus fireworks from the parking lot outside my apartment.
The Spring Festival starts on a new moon and ends on a full. Tomorrow is the last day of the festival and the moon will be full tomorrow. But tonight it is almost full and was such an interesting golden yellow color. I tried to take a clear picture, but my camera was not really cooperating. Can you see the rabbit in the moon?