We had dinner with her mother, father, and her brother Pelky. Pelky spoke some English, but Cherry had to translate everything that her parents said. I took a picture of the food just to show how much was made for us. During the New Year, it is good luck to have even number of dishes, so her mother made 8. The chicken was all together, even with the head, because the whole chicken together is a wish/luck for the whole family to stay together forever. And let me say this, Cherry's mother is one damn fine cook. I feel like I gained weight just from that one meal. I tried 2 different kinds of fish, sea cucumber, (I think), and lotus root. I really liked one of the types of fish she made, baked all light and fluffy. I know I've said this before, but I will say it again- I love love love the food here! After dinner Cherry showed us around her home and we took pictures with her family. She explained all the alters in her house, (for ancestor worship), and we spent a little time with her family. Around 9ish we left her house to head over to the Yuen Long New Year's Fair. There are 20 fairs like this in all of Hong Kong, just for the New Year and these things are crazy. It is some of the biggest crowds that I have ever seen in my whole life. It was so packed that we couldn't even see over the crowd to the seller booths. There was also a band on one of the patios of an apartment building overlooking the market. Vira- you'll get a kick out of this- they played "Wig in a Box" from Hedwig! It was wonderful. I waved at them and the lead singer blew me a kiss. Cherry also was translating what people around us were saying. Mostly it consisted of comments like "I've never seen any westerners come here before" It made me feel cool, just a little bit. I also bought some snapdragons for my room. They were this beautiful shade of deep purple that I have never seen before.
Sadly enough, they have died by now and I forgot to take a picture. Oh well, next time. We spent about 4 hours in the Fair before Zuza and I decided to call it a night. By the time I got back to my room, I had done so much walking that day that I wore holes in the pair of socks that I was wearing. (Send socks!)Sunday, the first day of the Year of the Dog, was the day of the big parade. It gave me a chance to indulge my secret love of parades. (But don't tell anyone) And I also love marching bands and there were a couple of them in this parade. They have it every year just for the New Year. Cathay Pacific Airlines sponsered it this year. A large group of exchange students, myself included decided to head on down to Central to line up and see it. The parade started around 8:30pm and lasted until 10ish. There was every kind of performing group in this parade. My favorite was the Korean drummers with the twirling ribbon hats. They had to drum while spinning their heads to keep the ribbon flowing. And they also had Japanese laturn acrobats. These guys were carrying huge towers of giant candle lit laturns and when they would stop, they would balance them on their forehead, hips, shoulder, etc. It was amazing. This was one of the coolest parades that I have ever seen. And then the American representation came through and it was the Steelers cheerleaders. Could we not think of anything better to represent us? I hung my head in shame for that. I think that I really want to visit Korea now. I've added it to the list of places I want to go in my lifetime. It was really a fantastic parade. They really go all out for New Years here.
Sunday I spent with Shirley and her family on Hong Kong Island. Going to Shirley's apartment is about an hour trip from school in Heun Fa Chuen. She met me at the metro stop, and then we walked over to her apartment. Talk about swanky! Shirley lives in the beautiful 8-building complex right on the water. There is a resort-style pool and very nice facilities. It has doormen and a spa inside. I have never been in a apartment building that fancy. I might have to live with Shirley, and she invited me to come on weekends when I don't have anything else to do. Its a shame because I really could get used to living like that. She lives on the 6th of her building and it is a beautiful apartment. Everyone here has a great view no matter where you live. I met her mother, father, and younger sister Vicki. The first thing Shirley's mom did was cook something for me. That keeps happening to every house that I go to, they first cook for the guests before anything. I had a sweet red rice pudding/cake thing with a fried egg. I need to get some recipies before I leave so I can make this food when I get home. We had sometime to kill, so they decided to teach me how to play Mah Jonng, which I'm not very good at. Its incredibly addicting though. I won $2HK, which is less than a penny for me. After a couple of rounds, we took a bus to get to Shirley's uncles apartment for dinner and fireworks. We took a public bus there, and we just kept going up and up into the mountains of Hong Kong Island until we reached the top. This was the area where real houses are, not apartments, but they cost about 9 million HK to live there. When we showed up at Shirley's uncle's place, there were about 20 of her relatives there and they were pretty happy to see me! All the married couples gave me lai see money too. We played Uno witht the kids and some of her younger cousins taught me how to play Big 2, which is a pretty fun game. Her cousins were really cute and friendly to me. I managed to beat them a couple of times before dinner. They put out a huge meal for dinner. There were two large crockpots filled with all sorts of meat and seafood arranged. The other pot was all vegetarian. The food was piled about 6 inches high! Then they brought out several more dishes and everyone chowed down. I had some chicked and vegetables, and something that I thought was pork. I tired abalone, but I don't like it that much. I had about 3 plates of food, it was that good. When I asked Shirley's aunt what dish I was eating she told me that I was eating clams and started serving more onto my plate. I was so full of food that I had to stop her. They kept trying to fill me up with food, but I just couldn't eat anymore! We returned to our card games until it was time for the fireworks. It was rumored that the Hong Kong government spent about 2 million dollars on the fireworks and after seeing them I wouldn't be surprised if they had spent more. This was simply the biggest longest fireworks show that I have ever seen. I think that I got some really fantastic photos so you'll have to check them out and let me know what you think. It lasted for about 20 minutes, which I think is a little long for fireworks. When it was over, the smoke from the fireworks was so intense we had a hard time seeing the Kwoloon side of Hong Kong. After that, it was family portrait time. I stood off to the side at first, but then the family pulled me in and told me to consider myself as part of the family. That really meant a lot to me and I almost teared up when they said that. I got a nice picture with Shirley, her sister, and her mother. It was such a nice gesture of them to include me. I was really flattered. New Year here has been incredibly wonderful to me.
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