xin nien kuai le!

that's happy new year in chinese! the actual new year's day was a week ago now..but the holiday is still being celebrated here. well, not even celebrated really..everything is just closed!! haha, its getting a little annoying if you can't tell.. as of last wed, on the 6th, everything here has been closed. all restaurants and stores, besides the big chains like rt-mart and kfc, and thank god our supermarket across the street.

soo, i've been improvising in a the kitchen a bit. so far i've made fried rice a few times which turned out pretty good, and then i made the pasta i got in shanghai and had it with tomato sauce from rt-mart, and then leftovers as a burnt variation of macaroni & cheese, haha...it was pretty good though. oh, and yea..i finally splurged on the cheese at rt-mart, haha. actually, just realized it was only like $4, compared to everything else though its kinda expensive. so yea, i've also made some grilled cheeses in the toaster oven..and then of course there's peanut butter & jelly, lol.

since there's absolutley nothing to do these days, i've spent a lot of time watching, haha..both movies and tv. my latest tv show addiction is prisonbreak..its soo good. i actually spent 2 days just watching episode after episode from morning til night. sad, lol. anyway, if you get a chance you should watch it, especially the first two seasons. i've also spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to download movies online. and finally with a lot of time and effort, haha, i've found a pretty amazing method using veoh, which i think i mentioned on here before. so, so far i've watched juno-soo good!, i want candy- a funny british movie, brooklyn rules which was pretty good, reign on me-good but sad..and last night i watched eagle vs. shark with jemaine!! hhaha, so good. you should watch it.

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oh, ok..so i wrote everything above yesterday cause i've been waiting for candice's pics before i tell you about new year's but i just got them so here it goes!

so, had plans to celebrate new year's with fen shi jia, and she had told us that they celebrate on new year's eve like we do, so on the 6th we should come to her house. we had assumed that this meant we would go in the evening and have dinner with them and stuff as new year's eve is usually celebrated at night, but she called on the 5th and said she'd be there to pick us up at 10am! lol. soo, she and her dad came to pick up me, candice, and candice's mom who was visiting at 10am sharp, haha. on the way fen shi jia asked if we were hungry cause we'd be going to meet her family at a restaurant (remember, it was 10 in the morning! lol)..it ended up though that her family would be a little late or whatever so we went and hung out at her house.

They had platters of nuts and candy and clementines out on the table so we ate some and just talked. actually, haha. i had read online that they eat certain nuts and candies for new year's and that they all have specific meanings..so i asked and fen shi jia wasn't sure, but her mom knew..she told us about which one's will make you taller, and live longer, and that the oranges are for a prosperous life. After about an hour, we walked to the restaurant across the street. We were in a private room, which is very common here actually. most restaurants have several private rooms with just one table whether it be for 4 people or a huge table for like 20. Her grandparents, her mom's brother, his wife and their daughter who's 27, and her mom's sister and her son who's 18, all came which was cool and we ate tons of food including: a certain new year fish, fish head, raw lobster, squid, pumpkin, squash, potatoes, chicken soup, lobster rice soup, mushrooms, a beef dish, and a ton of other things.. oh, there was this one cool wierd sweet thing we had, haha. it was like little balls of dough, like the size of a golf ball, with black sesame or red bean filling, and they were served in a bowl of warm water! lol, weird..very good though, and very chinese, lol.

while we were eating, they all took turns toasting eachother. its more like a thank you or respect thing than toast though. the people toasting stand up and say who they're toasting and then those people stand up too and they say thanks or whatever, and then they "cheers" eachother, doesn't necessarily have to be with wine though, sprite or tea is fine too. first the 3 grandchildren toasted the grandparents, and then the parents toasted the grandparents and then the kids toasted the parents... Fen shi jia's cousins also toasted us in english, and then we toasted everyone thanking them which was cool.

After lunch, we went back to fen shi jia's house and hung out and watched some of the new years shows on tv. they're very big on random talents here, like a guy that balance a million things, or land in a split from a 5t jump, lol..so most of the show were different routines like that, and some comedy routines, like skits..which fen shi jia tried to translate for us. While we watching, and eating more nuts and candy, fun shi jia's mom made new year's dumplings. She said that, actually they eat those all year round, but on new year's you have to eat them..they're supposed to be shaped like the old money of china, and therefore i'm assuming they're good luck.

Around 4, fen shi jia told us that we'd eat dinner early because they had a long trip to her father's parents house the next day, and they wanted to go to sleep early. haha, we hadn't realized until her cousins started cleaning and setting the table though, that we'd actually be eating that second lol. so, we ate again, lol. the dumplings were soo good, and then there was a fig or date like soup, and a sweet rice soup which was also really good. oh, haha..and i tried my first chicken foot! lol, her mom had made them special so we went for it..lol, it wasn't so bad since i'm used to seeing them all the time, but its basically like all bones which was pretty gross, lol. i definitely didn't finish it, haha, and don't think i'll ever have one again but i can check that off! haha. before we left they gave us each a bag of nuts and oranges, and some other interesting white candy which was nice. :)

oh, and i almost forgot the fireworks that night, and for the next 4 or 5 nights were crazyy! since you can buy them everywhere here, everyone was setting them off..i just looked out my windows and saw fireworks in every direction! so cool, and dangerous, haha.

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