It's the Year of the Rabbit! The Lunar New Year took place on 2nd February this time, and being in Hong Kong, I got to experience it with my roomie from Hong Kong, Nora Lai. Nora's parents wrote to the Head of House to let me go to their house for a night. Nora and her mother came to pick me up at 5 30 in front of block 2 (the block where I live in LPCUWC.) First we went to pick her dad up. Driving in a car on the streets of Hong Kong felt so strange as I had not done that since a very long time. We usually use the MTR here and go to specific places. I looked out of the car at the tall buildings, the vast harbour, the people walking, as the soft zephyr ruffled my hair. When I looked up I saw not an azure sky like the one above LPC, but a dull grey one. Nora told me it was like everywhere in Hong Kong except Wu Kai Sha (where LPC is located) because of the pollution. After picking her dad up, her parents dropped Nora and I to the biggest mall in the Western part of Hong Kong, and went to get gasoline. Nora and I ate some Western food and talked about various happenings in LPC. Then, we went around all the shops in the mall, including a Japanese stationery shop which I found very creative. After that, we went to see a brilliant show in the mall. It was a man doing various tricks in the air. His ability to move freely and yet keep such control of his body allowed me to think about the amount of control we have over ourselves. I could not but help feeling stronger after I watched the show. Then we went with Nora's parents to a Chinese Seafood Restaurant - where I met all her family relatives. It was great sitting in such a busy restaurant. It felt like Karachi - where restaurants are filled with people on special occasions and waiters are going crazy. The lights, laughter, voices all added to the atmosphere and it felt great. I had Chinese tea which was really soothing. I also ate some vegetarian food as well as fish. The Chinese buns which looked like peaches were the most delicious. Nora told me that in China when they could not grow peaches, they made these buns and painted them pink to make them look like peaches. After we had had dinner, we went to Nora's house. It was beautiful and comforting. After taking a shower and changing, we left for Victoria Park, where there were 6 stalls on New Years Eve and things were sold very cheap. When we got there, I realized how desperately we need to cut down on population growth. There was the biggest human traffic jam I have ever seen. At one point, we were stuck at the same spot for 6 minutes without any movement. The atmosphere was brilliant though. some of the stalls were throwing things in the air to the lucky ones who would catch it. I caught one dragon key chain. Nora and I both bought a few things. We also went to the flower market - a place in Hong Kong where flowers are sold according to the event at that time of the year. Walking through the flower market is always a wonderful experience as intoxicating scents alure one's senses. We went to Nora's house late and collapsed in bed after we were informed that we had to get up very early in the morning. The next morning, after we got dressed, Nora showed me the ritual of putting sweets on the tables for people. After that I learnt a few phrases that I would have to say to relatives that day like: "Kung hei fat choi" and "san thai kin hong." Then her parents gave us red pockets. Red envelope or red packet (Lai See in Cantonese) is a monetary gift which is given during holidays or special occasions.The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits. Then we visited various relatives of Nora who all gave me red packets. There were also some lucky draw games - where some envelopes were filled with money and others were not. I got the filled one, luckily. I got to see various parts of Hong Kong - from public houses to private, and rich. I met amazing people from Hong Kong who were all caring, generous and loving. Happy Chinese New Year!
