It had been a long first day of walking around and seeing the sites, but now it was time to settle in for new year’s eve.
I helped her parents hang up the “dui lian” which are banners hung on either side of the door and above it wishing good luck and happy wishes. The characters on them are usually grouped into sets of four, and sometimes they overlap, where the last character of the first sentence is the first character of the next. They are left up for a while, or longer, sometimes all year, depending on whenever the people feel like getting around to it. Kinda like Christmas lights here.
I could at least feel useful doing that, because I could easily reach the top of the door frame without having to stand on anything.
But I wasn’t done yet, it was time to make some pasta! As the kitchen was so small and there was only two burners, we had to take turns cooking in the kitchen. Also, the utensils and such were designed for Chinese cooking, rather than Italian, so I had to make due with what they had. So it took me a little longer to cook everything up, but it all worked out fairly well. Rachel also made some shrimp, a hoisin sauce, they made fish, and some other things as well.
Unfortunately the pasta didn’t go over too well with her parents. Though they seemed to like it a lot better when they also added Rachel’s hoisin sauce to it. They prefer their food their food with a more Chinese flavor.
Her dad opened up some wine, and I guess it was pretty expensive. It did taste good, and we each had a couple glasses and toasted the new year. I had researched the proper method of toasting in China, along with as many other etiquette rules I could find, before I went there. I figured that was more important than being able to say a lot of phrases.
Typically on new years eve, there is an all evening long program that most families sit around and watch, featuring all the major stars, with music and skits. The next day it would also be replayed, for people who may have missed part of it.
I obviously couldn’t understand any of it, and some of it looked pretty funny, but the combination of trying to make sense of what was going on, plus the wine, plus a full day of running around was too much for me and I started dropping off on the couch, and Rachel suggested I go to bed.
I really wanted to stay up till midnight. I could hear fireworks going off outside frequently, and I had come all the way to China for the new year, and I wanted to stay up until midnight, but it was only around 9 or 10, and I was struggling to stay awake. There was no way I was going to make it, so I accepted my fate, and went to bed. It had really been an active first day, and there rest of the days would be like that as well. I fell asleep really quickly, and the next morning came in a blink of an eye.
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