The world is my school. Today my classroom was at the Chinese New Year Parade and a Traditional Chinese Dinner on this, the first day of the Lunar New Year here in China!

POEM

Running, running, running.

We're rushing to Ikea.

Our bed's so hard, its bad.

Where is a mattress pad?

Now I'm serious. Our beds are as hard as board and were rushing to Ikea to buy a mattress pad. Were now in the MTR (subway) on our way to Wan Chai (by the way there is a Chai Wan stop as well on this same train line). When we get off I notice that there is no exit E, then we detect that we made a mistake and are actually coming here tonight, Ikea is the stop next to this one, Causeway Bay. We notice this and immediately get the next MTR to Causeway Bay. When we arrive there, we know right away that we are in the right place, because I can see exit E, and a sign that says Ikea. We follow what the map says and go out, have a short walk, then arrive and go down an escalator. When we get down we ask where to see mattress pads and dart there. We see about 5 then pick out 2 that look the best. Mom keeps on feeling these then someone comes by to lay them out on a bed for her to see it in action. There is an expensive one with three layers of foam, all with different softness. The other one though, was grey, and super comfortable. After a long debate we choose the grey one, and head down to check out.

Next thing you know I am walking down the sidewalk, staring back at everyone who is looking at the "westerner" with a big grey mattress pad, me. I seem even more popular on the subway back to Central. You know that feeling when someone is staring at you, and you don't want to stare back, well that's been bothering me lately, because almost everywhere I look this is happening.

When we get back we do some work and I found out why the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year. It is because:

1. It is the start of the new Lunar Calendar. That means the moon has gone all the way around the earth and is about to start again.

2. Apparently, there is an ancient tale of a village that was terrorized every Lunar New Year's Eve. A dragon called Nian did this damage. Nian means "Year". The villagers found that if they coated their village with red decorations, red clothing, and fired-off red fire crackers to create loud noises that Nian would be scared off and would not terrorize the village. This is also why the Chinese wear red on the Chinese New Year.

When we got home we cut open 3 strange Chinese fruit: a Dragon Fruit, a China Guava, and well, what I call an Apple Capsicum. I call it this because it is an apple but it looks like a red pepper which are called Capsicum here. They are also called that in Australia and New Zealand. What I found weird though, is that they call the red pepper a pepper. The orange pepper is a capsicum! Why is the red different? The Dragon Fruit was good, the Apple wasn't the best and the Guava was flagrant (I hope I used that word right. It was in the thesaurus as equal to disgusting). We had 30 more minutes of work before we started off for the Novotel Hotel to meet up with our group guide, go eat dinner then watch the parade. We kept on thinking we were going to be late but weren't. We actually had a 20-minute wait! With all that time we went to the bathroom then took the elevator back down and found our guide. We had another short wait til we headed off. When we arrived to the traditional Chinese restaurant called Serenade we got there early so went to walk around and take pictures, then got some water. When we were getting some water we saw lots of performers. Then we saw bunch of girls sitting at one of the tables and they had an American accent. I kept telling my mom but she didn't think so. Then she asked where they were from, and they were from America! One of them asked where we were from then she said that her group was from Seattle. They were the Seattle Sea Girls! We were able to sit down on their laps and get a picture; I held one of their pom poms! When we started leaving they said to stand up and cheer for them when they were performing. They let is know they are going to be at the end of the parade. Now we start heading back.

I'm in the restaurant listening to the adults talk and trying to learn everyone's names. The Chinese food is served onto a big, round lazy susan in the middle of the table made out of glass. There are many dishes and everyone shares. I like it this way! Everyone has a pair of white chopsticks, which you use for eating but there are only 2 black ones, which are used for serving. We had Cheesecake, Sesame Donuts, Lemon Fish Fingers, Noodles with Chicken, Egg Fried Noodles with Shrimp and Chicken, and many more yummy dishes! There was one dish that I didn't like! It was ham J wrapped in tofu L! I DO NOT LIKE tofu! The rest was exquisite! The funniest part about dinner was when the table next to us were all Chinese and when they got their beers they flipped them open together and it sounded so cool. We made so many friends at dinner and they were all from America except for one couple from South Wales.

Poem 1

Sitting, sitting, sitting

In the crowd right now

Waiting waiting, waiting

For the parade to make a sound!

I'm looking through a bag

That was given to me

Thank you Cathay Air

For the presents that I see

There I was sitting with a little green bag on my lap looking at the marshmallows, waters, flashlight, program, headbands, and bangers. I think to myself, "I can't believe we're here!" Well we are and the first float is of course Cathay Air who sponsored the parade along with the tourism board. Then we see Bolivian roller bladers doing a routine dance on their wheels! There are many floats plus around 30 different dances from 14 different countries! The Americans were 3rd to last and did an excellent show. At some point the song Greased Lightning came on. The golden dragon was last and came out with big drums drumming and symbols crashing and danced around by people holding sticks and waving them around. It's amazing how people were even jumping on each other's shoulders to make the dragon go higher. The golden scales looked beautiful when the lights shined on them.

Walking home was by far the worst, but at least we took the STAR FERRY for the first time. I sat in the very front with one of our new friends and Rosie. I felt a little funny when the boat rocked over because the bay was wavy! Before we got there we also saw a ferry called the FIRST FERRY and I said, "The FIRST FERRY looks much better than the STAR FERRY!" When we landed we walked back with our friend. I was exhausted and sweaty (carrying a giant balloon from the parade) because you have to walk up a giant hill. I was kind of scared when we were going down a road called Battery Path because there is usually a homeless man with no arm and his skin is all red like someone dropped a pot of water on him there but he was gone. We walked all the way to the apartment with our friend. She went to floor 24 and we went to 15, we said our goodbyes then were on our way. I fell right asleep like my life depended on it.

<3 World Rings Bell

Bibliography

http://luse.hubpages.com/hub/Why-Do-We-Celebrate-Chinese-New-Year