Tuesday, January 24, 2012

the year of Dragon. rawr.

Chinese New Year is the biggest celebration for everyone in Hong Kong. A festivity of joy and love :)

Chinese New Year is sort of like Thanksgiving in America. Chinese New Year reunion all the family members together. The day before new year, families get together to eat a reunion dinner. At the dinner, people would eat food that symbolizes good luck in every way. For example, noodles symbolize a long life, fish symbolizes having money left by the end of the year (wealth) ... Additionally, there are a lot of fun traditions for Chinese New Year. Before the day of Chinese New Year, people clean their houses throughly and buy new items for the beginning of a new year. For example, new shoes, new clothing and all that all that.

The week of Chinese New Year, everyone wears red which symbolizes joy and happiness and brings luck to the start of the year. People will go visit families and friends to greet each other for a good start of the year and wish each other luck. In people's houses, you can find a red box full with candies :) It also symbolizes something - your house hold will be happy and sweet.

On the day of Chinese New Year, people won't eat any meat, so like everyone else my grandma made me a vegetarian meal :) I have been hanging out with my family a lot because they are all on vacation now. We saw beautiful fireworks and have been eating a lot of good food! I guess we all have had a pretty good start for the year of  dragon!

Anyway, Kung Hei Fat Choi - Happy Chinese New Year!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year, tutti!

happy new year, everyone :) a new year, a new challenge (part of the new challenge is to keep this blog going haha)! and so here comes more interesting things about my life - another study abroad opportunity and this time to JAPAN!

after my little adventure in Europe this summer, I am moving to this new challenge - spending a good amount of time in Asia. I will be working in Hong Kong for about 3 months and then studying in Japan for about another 3 months.

A little introduction on these two places that I am going to be at.

Hong Kong is a food paradise where you can find food from all over the world and good food that ranges from thousand of dollars to two Hong Kong Dollars (HKD). Oh in case you are confused, Hong Kong has its own currency! ;) And it really is a food paradise because I LOVE EATING a lot, and I swear to you, I never eat some alright food because I can't eat a lot. Only yummy to my tummy :) Also, Hong Kong where most of my family lives, so I am also visiting them and living with them this time. It is going to be fun and interesting after living on my own for so long and now having everyone to treat me like a little princess buying me dessert all the time and all that countless things. Whoopsies.

Japan is another food paradise. WHOOPSIES but oh well I can't complain too much. I guess I will just be more picky on what I eat - just some super delicious food ;) Plus, I will be exploring a lot of places in Japan and doing a lot of walking, so I will need some energy (food) to help me achieve that, right? I will be drinking their tea and learning their healthy life style. Maybe going to hot spring and all that? Japan is a country full of cultures, art and traditions. Somewhat like Italy. I will be taking Japanese and a course called "Comparative Culture: Japan & West"about comparing Japanese and western artists which will be kind of related to the art history course that I took in Florence this summer.

Anyway, I will keep you posted and share everything that I experience on here!