Right this moment has began the 12 months of the Rabbit in response to many Asian cultures, so I need to want you all an ideal new lunar 12 months! I hope it would convey you all luck, success, enjoyable, cash, good well being, high quality time with the individuals you like, intercourse (hopefully a high quality one, too), and no matter you dream of getting.
You already know that this has been the primary 12 months I’ve truly celebrated the Chinese language new 12 months in China, so I need to take this event to let you know how has been my expertise. So sure, at present I gained’t communicate with you about fields of view or frames per second, however about enjoyable and meals… that are far more attention-grabbing. The lifetime of the journey blogger is far more satisfying than the one of many VR blogger, perhaps I ought to contemplate altering my career 🙂
Earlier than telling you about my expertise I simply need to make clear that China is a gigantic and heterogeneous nation, so the expertise I lived could differ from the one in all different individuals within the nation. I’m in Qingdao, which is on the East facet of the nation, additionally fairly on the North, and I’m certain that issues in different cities like Shenzhen, which is within the far South, might not be completely the identical. So don’t take my expertise for example of what occurs in the entire China… it’s simply my expertise.
My expectations for the Chinese language New Yr celebrations have been the identical that years of American films gave me. In lots of films, the primary characters discover themselves within the China City of some massive American metropolitan metropolis, for the time being when there are celebrations for the brand new 12 months. And in these sequences, I may at all times see many individuals cheering within the streets whereas there have been numerous purple lanterns within the sky and performers creating lengthy dragons that transfer round, whereas some ritual songs play within the background. I used to be particularly curious to see the dragons’ present. And I’m nonetheless curious as a result of nothing of this occurred.
The celebrations right here have been a lot completely different than I anticipated. To begin with, I understood that more often than not, it’s nearly spending some high quality time with the individuals of your loved ones. It isn’t about partying exhausting, or issues like that, it’s extra about returning house, getting ready the celebrations with your loved ones, cooking with them, consuming with them, and simply having fun with your private connections. It isn’t even about doing loopy issues with your loved ones, like bungee leaping, it’s nearly being collectively. It’s a bit like Christmas for us Italians: you keep together with your beloved ones, you eat quite a bit, and also you make items to one another. I gifted some good meals to my hosts, they usually gifted me again the beautiful rabbit toy that you just see within the profile image. And precisely like in our Christmas, public actions should not tremendous essential. I requested concerning the dragons’ present and I’ve been advised that generally town of Qingdao organizes some public occasions for the brand new 12 months, nevertheless it’s not yearly, and often, dragons don’t play a related position right here. Rattling, this shattered my goals.
Then, I obtained that meals is essential, too. Once I arrived on the home within the early afternoon, the mother and father of the household began to make me style some Chinese language meals that’s often not accessible overseas. I do know a little bit of Chinese language, however I’m not expert sufficient to have the ability to maintain a complete household dialog, so wherever I didn’t know what to say, I simply ate stuff. Since they spoke quite a bit, and I understood little or no, I simply spent the entire afternoon consuming quite a bit. I had already eaten sufficient when then dinner was prepared, and it was stuffed with scrumptious home made Chinese language meals, that I ate till my abdomen was exploding. Whereas I used to be recovering from this effort, somebody requested me “Would you like some sweeties?”. I used to be actually exploding, however I’m Italian, and I can’t say no when somebody presents me some candy meals. So I used my secondary abdomen devoted to desserts to eat some fantastic muffins.
I used to be actually like a pufferfish, laying on the couch with my two stomachs exploding when the daughter of the household advised me “now we make dumplings”.
No, severely, I wished to invoke the Geneva conference to keep away from getting ready the dumplings. But it surely’s a standard factor of the households of Northern China, and saying no can be fairly offensive, so I helped them in making the dumplings. I hoped that we may simply make them and depart them on the desk like ornament, however the steps after have been cooking them and consuming them. I’ve so been given a full dish of meat dumplings, which have been fantastic. Yesterday I’ve so found that I’ve additionally a 3rd abdomen devoted to dumplings. Which is an efficient factor and will show to nonetheless be helpful sooner or later.
Again to the couch, I believed that each one the meals I ate that day may very well be used to unravel world starvation. And after some time, I obtained a brand new query: “Do you need to eat some fruit?”.
Seems to be that the one dragons I noticed have been those in my intestines for the entire evening.
One other factor that struck me was the fireworks. The entire night there have been individuals exploding firecrackers, fireworks, and different comparable stuff, in all components of town. Wanting outdoors the window, I may see that in no matter route I regarded, there was somebody in that a part of town exploding one thing. We additionally hearth up stuff to rejoice the brand new 12 months in Italy, however this was at one other stage: fireworks in every single place, the entire evening. Once I went outdoors to mild some sparkles myself too (to keep away from consuming for 10 minutes), there was a relentless noise of explosions… it was like being in a warzone. I’ve been advised that really, the extent of fireworks was nonetheless underwhelming if in comparison with 5 years in the past… and if that’s underwhelming, I can’t think about the bombings occurring prior to now. I’ve been advised that making explosions is a standard factor to repel evil spirits for the brand new 12 months, so it’s all a part of the celebrations.
One thing I wasn’t completely anticipating was the individuals turning on fires within the sides of the road and burning a particular type of paper to recollect their ancestors and ship some type of items to them. There’s a special occasion devoted to this celebration, however many individuals right here have been nonetheless doing this ritual on the New Yr’s Eve as a result of it’s a vital day. I’ve not taken an image to not disrespect this intimate second, nevertheless it was anyway one thing fairly distinctive for me to see, particularly as a result of the taxi that returned me house needed to dodge just a few of them.
The TV was set on CCTV 1, which is the primary tv Channel right here. There was a TV present devoted to the brand new 12 months, with some enjoyable sketches, some conventional songs, and ballets. The issue is that it’s already exhausting for me to grasp Chinese language, and this present didn’t even have subtitles, so I used to be like completely misplaced. I regarded on the photographs more often than not, however even right here I did spot no dragons. Rattling, they actually wished to make it exhausting for me. However in the entire present, I managed to get one joke, so at the least I had amusing. This was a web constructive, as a result of I’m afraid that laughing an excessive amount of my stomach may explode, so not understanding something saved my life. In Italy after we rejoice the photo voltaic new 12 months, we often have a counter of the time on a regular basis displayed on the display screen, nevertheless it seems that on the CCTV present they begin counting down solely when it’s -10 seconds from midnight. I used to be completely chill when OHMYGODITS10SECONDSNOWWEHAVETOMAKEATOAST. It was like when firefighters hear the bell they usually should rush and go to extinguish some hearth. Emergency mode activated: I needed to put together instantly to rejoice.
At midnight I had a bit of cheer. I made a decision to style the Chinese language baijiu liquor, which I used to be advised prior to now by some mates of mine that tastes like gasoline. Ingesting a sip of a bottle of it purchased on the grocery store, I can verify that it tastes like gasoline, and contemplating the value of the gas these days in Italy, I feel we should always contemplate it as a sound substitute to place in our vehicles.
On the finish of day, I can let you know that spending the lunar new 12 months right here was a pleasing expertise. Completely completely different from the one I anticipated, it was extra private and intimate than one in all loopy enjoyable, however I really feel completely happy of getting lived it. And with this heat in my coronary heart, I want you once more an exquisite new Chinese language 12 months and a contented Sunday! And I hope you will notice some dragons, too…
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