At the moment has began the 12 months of the Rabbit in response to many Asian cultures, so I wish to want you all a fantastic new lunar 12 months! I hope it’s going to deliver you all luck, success, enjoyable, cash, good well being, high quality time with the individuals you’re keen on, intercourse (hopefully a high quality one, too), and no matter you dream of getting.
that this has been the primary 12 months I’ve really celebrated the Chinese language new 12 months in China, so I wish to take this event to let you know how has been my expertise. So sure, as we speak I received’t converse with you about fields of view or frames per second, however about enjoyable and meals… that are rather more fascinating. The lifetime of the journey blogger is rather more pleasurable than the one of many VR blogger, perhaps I ought to think about altering my career 🙂
Earlier than telling you about my expertise I simply wish to make clear that China is a gigantic and heterogeneous nation, so the expertise I lived might differ from the considered one of different individuals you recognize within the nation. I’m in Qingdao, which is on the East aspect of the nation, additionally fairly on the North, and I’m positive that issues in different cities like Shenzhen, which is within the far South, will not be completely the identical. So don’t take my expertise for instance of what occurs in the entire China… it’s simply my expertise.
My expectations for the Chinese language New 12 months celebrations had been the identical that years of American motion pictures gave me. In lots of motion pictures, the primary characters discover themselves within the China City of some large American metropolitan metropolis, in the intervening time 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 a whole lot of crimson 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 totally 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 laborious, or issues like that, it’s extra about returning house, making 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 along 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 simply 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 instructed that typically the town of Qingdao organizes some public occasions for the brand new 12 months, however it’s not yearly, and often, dragons don’t play a related function right here. Rattling, this shattered my desires.
Then, I bought that meals is essential, too. After I arrived on the home within the early afternoon, the dad and mom 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 selfmade 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 provides me some candy meals. So I used my secondary abdomen devoted to desserts to eat some fantastic desserts.
I used to be actually like a pufferfish, laying on the couch with my two stomachs exploding when the daughter of the household instructed me “now we make dumplings”.
No, critically, I wished to invoke the Geneva conference to keep away from making ready the dumplings. Nevertheless it’s a conventional factor of the households of Northern China, and saying no could be fairly offensive, so I helped them in making the dumplings. I hoped that we may simply make them and go away 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 had been fantastic. Yesterday I’ve so found that I’ve additionally a 3rd abdomen devoted to dumplings. Which is an effective factor and will show to nonetheless be helpful sooner or later.
Again to the couch, I believed that every one the meals I ate that day may very well be used to unravel world starvation. And after some time, I acquired a brand new query: “Do you wish to eat some fruit?”.
Seems to be that the one dragons I noticed had been those in my intestines for the entire night time.
One other factor that struck me was the fireworks. The entire night there have been individuals exploding firecrackers, fireworks, and different related stuff, in all components of the town. Trying exterior the window, I may see that in no matter route I seemed, there was somebody in that a part of the town exploding one thing. We additionally hearth up stuff to have a good time the brand new 12 months in Italy, however this was at one other stage: fireworks in all places, the entire night time. After I went exterior 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 instructed 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 up to now. I’ve been instructed that making explosions is a conventional 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 sort of paper to recollect their ancestors and ship some form of items to them. There’s a big day devoted to this celebration, however many individuals right here had been nonetheless doing this ritual on the New 12 months’s Eve as a result of it’s an important day. I’ve not taken an image to not disrespect this intimate second, however 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 a couple of 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 laborious for me to know Chinese language, and this present didn’t even have subtitles, so I used to be like completely misplaced. I seemed on the photographs more often than not, however even right here I did spot no dragons. Rattling, they actually wished to make it laborious for me. However in the entire present, I managed to get one joke, so no less than I had fun. 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 once we have a good time the photo voltaic new 12 months, we often have a counter of the time on a regular basis displayed on the display screen, however 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 have a good time.
At midnight I had a bit of cheer. I made a decision to style the Chinese language baijiu liquor, which I used to be instructed up to now by some pals 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 worth of the gasoline these days in Italy, I believe we must always think about it as a legitimate 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 nice expertise. Completely totally different from the one I anticipated, it was extra private and intimate than considered one of loopy enjoyable, however I really feel completely satisfied 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 note some dragons, too…
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