The beer had barely worn off by 6:30 when we went with my Aunt Ann’s family to have dinner. My Aunt is also one in a large family, so the scene was similar, but without the beer, lies, and teasing reserved for my immediate family gatherings. The food was mostly the same but in the style of Ann’s family, and included a questionable soup and delicious homemade “sping rolls” which are not deep friend and have meat and crab inside. So delicious! The dessert was a very sweet drink with lychee and pineapples inside.
Kelly is such a good sport and a champion. She ate more of the sea cucumber and stomach lining soup than I could manage.
Immediately after this meal my cousin William came to bring us to dinner II. I learned only at the gate that we were going to the apartment of his “best friend” and “business partner.” (No, it’s not a guy, but a divorced woman with two kids, 13 and 9). I’d been hearing about her for years, but never from him directly, and I never thought I’d get the honor of a first-hand meeting. There we were, chatting over steam boat, a couple of pseudo-couples/colleagues.
(Steam boat is a tradition where there is a boiling pot of water in the middle of the table, along with raw meats and vegetables that you cook as you eat. At the end, the water has turned to a broth, and is usually eaten with rice noodles as a soup to conclude the meal. This being my second dinner in a long day of eating, I merely did my best to eat what I could.)
After dinner Kelly and I watched movie that had Jet Lee’s teacher. The English subtitles were all but useless, either flashing too quickly to read because of the rapidity of the Chinese, or because the translations were too literal and filled with Chinese proverbs that don’t quite translate.
For example, one conversation said: “That be to kick restaurant.”
“Advise.”
What??
As I’m getting better at passing over language, however, I was still able enjoy the film. (As an unrelated note, while we watched the 9 year-old girl went on Facebook. What is this world coming to?)
The mother ran around cleaning until midnight, when the New Year officially begins, as she’s not allowed to clean for the first few days, or else she may sweep away good fortune for the coming year. At midnight we watched the fireworks from her balcony, which had a spectacular view of the city. The fireworks were the same as in the US, but the display was not like I’ve seen on the 4th of July, where there is one big show put on by a corporation. Instead, all of the fireworks are technically illegal (but as police-able as MJ in a Bob Marley concert.) Because of this, there are several different types of explosions in the sky coming from all different parts of the city, starting and stopping at different intervals. The year of the rabbit had begun.
After this day, I couldn’t believe that we had to wake up at 8 am to do it all over again, plus a family breakfast with Aunty Ann’s family!
(I should have packed an extra stomach….)
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