The Chinese New Year's Eve

Note on this entry. I am not feeling the best so post will reflect my condition: Sick. I will try and leave out all "thanks, I didn't want to know" details, but some might accidentally end up in here.

This morning I thought I was feeling much better. I had some oatmeal and off we went to the market to get veggies and meat for the New Year's Eve meal with Jinpeng. I apparently wasn't feeling better and had to head back to the apartment early. I spent most of the day sitting on one of the chairs in the living room with an upset stomach. I didn't feel the need to be running to the bathroom, I just didn't feel good. When Matthew and Jinpeng got back I realized I had missed out on the killing of our fish. I can't say I'm upset to have missed it. Just seeing all the meat was enough for me.

I was able to enjoy the meal Jinpeng cooked us. We had four dishes. Eggs for luck. I really liked the eggs and ate lots of them. Fish for wealth. I only had a little fish, so my wealth will be small. Uh oh. The fish was a river fish and tasted a bit muddy to me. I guess it is a developed taste. Potato noodles for a long life. They are really long noodles. I liked the way they were prepared, it was my favorite dish. They had tuna, onions, and red pepper mixed in with them. At first I was thinking "not another noodle," but it was good. Last there were mushrooms, to cleanse the past and make for a new and fresh future. Those of you that know me well will know that I did not eat this dish.

After lunch I went to bed. I didn't think I would be able to sleep with all the firecrackers going off but I did. When we got up Jinpeng was preparing the dumplings we were going to have for dinner. Matthew and he made the dumplings. I was still feeling poorly and didn't really want to be dealing with raw meat. I did part take in the eating though. I was only able to eat about three. It wasn't the taste, though, it was just that I was not feeling well. I normally don't like dumplings, but these were good and if I had been feeling better I would have really enjoyed eating them. It was fun to watch Matthew learn to make them. You could definitely tell which were his. He did get much better as he made them though. It didn't change the taste though. They were just harder to eat with the chopsticks. Jinpeng told us that he would leave one in the pan for the kitchen god and put two on the floor, one for the Heaven god and one for the Earth god. I found that interesting. I guess at some point you sweep them up.

The fireworks were really going by 11:30pm. But I was just to wiped out to try and stay awake. I don't know how but I guess like rain the fireworks stopped being really annoying and I didn't notice them anymore.