恭喜發財！

So, today is Chinese New Years day. :D The year of the rabbit has begun. :o gong xi fa cai! xin nian kuai le!

My winter vacation has gone well. One thing I've really enjoyed is spending more time with my host family. They're all really chill and I actually enjoy doing things with them. They're really different from my first host family in that my first one would have simply expected me to spend a lot of time with them, whereas this family doesn't expect as much from me and are happy if I choose to stay home. :) Different experiences. It also helps that I'm major crushing on my older host brother, haha. xD He's so cute and such a gentlemen! The open and close the door for you type. Yet, just my luck, he's already taken. His girlfriend isn't even pretty. Sorry, I know that's rude, but she's not very nice either. :/ Ah, well, I'll come back to Taiwan and steal him someday. ^.^ A girl can dream.

Hmm, I hope my host family doesn't look at this. Hah.

How my Chinese new year went down;
New year's eve I woke up to eat luobogao. Which is a type of turnip cake that's really good. I'll fry it up for you sometime, promise. My host mom then called me upstairs to see them hang up their good luck banners around their door. After this my host brother told me the story of New Years and the traditions behind it. The Chinese legend is that there is a big scary monster that comes out only on New Years and likes to eat people. This Monster is scared of red, fireworks, and a lot of people gathering. So on New Years they decorate with a lot of red, including the door banners, fire fireworks, and get together with family. It works! :) I then helped my host family prepare all of their food (more like carry the food Rinny, the maid, prepared to the shrine) to offer to their ancestors and to worship. They didn't have me worship because they think I'm a hardcore Catholic and I'm not gonna tell them I'm not. Oh, I forgot to mention to my mum that I've been going to church these last couple weeks! It's a Catholic church and the English masses have a different priest, usually from a different country, every week. It consists of a lot of foreigners, not just Americans. They don't have wine. It's not in a basketball court. We get free coffee afterwards. Taiwan Mass > Vista Mass. But yes, I watched them worship then had lunch with my host family. Chicken soup with rice cake type noodle things in them. Also good. After this I watched tv for a while. I then helped once again to bring food to another alter in the house. It was so much food. The point behind the food is that they prepare a lot of it and set it out for their ancestors to eat. So they put it out and wait as their ancestors eat the food. While waiting we just sat around and talked. Thennnn, came the money burning. Yes, money burning. They have a lot of this special paper money that they burn in order to offer to their ancestors. They go outside and burn it all in a metal trashcan like thing. They also burn money for the souls who have no children to burn money for them so that they won't steal their ancestors' money. After the money, dinner. So. much. food. It was all good, not extremely delicious, in my opinion, but good. They thought it was amazing, though. It was extremely expensive dishes. I know because they kept on telling me. xD
What we feasted on; jellyfish with cucumbers, beef and cow stomach, cabbage, this really expensive fish that was 5 thousand NT (170 US) per kilo (two pounds), more vegetables, shrimp, sausage, wine and brandy. Oh, and to finish it off, shark fin soup. :D hao chi, hao chi. I then went downstairs with my host brothers to play majiang with their friends. I played until about 11:30, then went upstairs with my host brothers to receive our hong bao, then went back downstairs. I played until 2 and with the assistance of my host brother won 2 thousand! Yay! Then slept.

Today I got up and ate another kind of cake for breakfast, don't quite know which type, but it was good. Then practiced my Chinese listening skills when my host brothers discussed how their majiang playing went last night. The younger one lost quite a bit so he was a bit upset. While dressing I tried my hardest not to put on black, which is difficult for me, because my Chinese teacher told me you shouldn't on new years. So, I followed this rule, only to go with my host mother and brother to longshan temple while they both wore a black something. Before longshan temple we went to a less famous one where I was randomly given a hongbao with 1200(40 US) in it. At longshan there were so many people my host mom & brother just decided to do their worshiping outside before we left. I then got a call from Arantxa who asked me to go shopping with her. I originally told her I couldn't because I was going to my Aunt's sister's house for the evening, but my host mom told me it'd be a good idea for me to go with her because I would be the only one there. I still don't know exactly what my host family did tonight if I was going to be the only one at her sister's house.. hm. So, I went shopping, then went to Arantxa's host family's house for dinner where I got 1000 NT more in hongbao! Yay! I lost 50 NT playing majiang. Oh, how quickly my luck left me. D; Hahah. Well, all in all it was a good Chinese new year. Not that I have anything to compare it to, haha.

Happy rabbit year!