Happy New Year
Happy New Year!
Last night, at midnight, marked the beginning of the year of the Rooster. At midnight I was in a cab with Monica, Lisa, and Xiaokui, weaving around firecrackers (lit in barrels in the middle of the street) and through clouds of heavy smoke, on our way home.
The night began when the entire research group plus two math students and Andy's daughters went out to dinner at a (chinese version of a) thai restaurant, the Banana Leaf, located in a hotel on the waterfront of West Lake. There were so many of us that we had to take three taxis to get there. My taxi got there before the others so Monica and I waited outside the hotel while one of the math students (whose name I can't remember) went to find the others.
The hotel staff was all dressed up in thai costumes so while we were waiting, Monica took a photo of me with one of the staff.
(I've cut myself out of the photo because, in my long gray wool coat and long baggy gray wool skirt, I look like a large gray sheep next to her)
The bell boys were running around in the driveway lighting firecrackers (not just cherry bombs, mind you, but roman candles and those big fireworks you see on the 4th of July and at disneyland-- the ones that explode into giant colorful spheres in the sky). They ran over to us and gave us sparklers to hold for the photo. I then gave my sparkler to Monica and took this picture.
Do you see that?!?
While she was enthusiatically waving around her sparkler, it released a fireball that hit me in the shoulder, lighting my HAIR and SCARF on FIRE. We quickly put the fire out and I was ok-- not at all burned. I ended up with a finger size hole in my scarf
and a horrible burned-hair smell that followed me around for the rest of the night. The hair on the left side of my head is now slightly shorter than the hair on the right but it isn't too noticeable and the bad smell washed out.
The rest of the group showed up and we all went inside and ordered. While we were waiting for our food, the staff came over and entertained us by singing and dancing (making us join in).
Two of the staff members took a particular liking to Aaron and Josh, saying that they prefer white guys over all other guys.
The food was delicious-- curry was a wonderful break from my weeklong diet of chinese food, caffe lattes and peanut butter sandwiches. We all enjoyed watching Lisa eat: she is an enthusiatic carnevour who enjoys pulling the meat off the bone with her teeth and eating strange and exotic things (chicken feet, frogs, etc).
She was an expert with the giant crab legs in curry sauce which left the rest of us covered in sauce and bits of shell.
By the end of the meal, this was the only thing left on the table. No one wanted to eat it.
After dinner we decided to walk along the lake and look at the fireworks. I should tell you that the fireworks here are nothing like the US, where the big ones are by permit only. It doesn't even compare to Texas where people light off a lot of fireworks for hours on end on the 4th of july. Here, everyone is lighting off fireworks, great big ones, everywhere. All over the city, all night long, the sky was full of giant exploding globes of light and loud noises.
We walked down to a gazebo-like structure which sits right on the water in the lake.
In the middle of the gazebo is a circular engraving of three archers shooting arrows. The story is that there used to be ten suns and they caused a lot of mischief. An archer (whose name I forget) shot down nine of them, leaving one (which was afraid to cause trouble). Here is a pic for Rupa.
Walking further down the lake front, we found the third (out of five) Hangzhou Starbucks. There was much rejoicing. And hot beverage drinking.
Then, tired, cold, and a bit scared (of the fireworks, which were lit off by ordinary citizens in the streets and sometimes exploded on the ground instead of the air-- I'm glad everything was wet but I was afraid of getting hit again), Xiaokui, Monica, Lisa and I hopped in a cab and went home. When we got to our apartment, the driveway was a sea of cardboard firecracker remains.
Last night, at midnight, marked the beginning of the year of the Rooster. At midnight I was in a cab with Monica, Lisa, and Xiaokui, weaving around firecrackers (lit in barrels in the middle of the street) and through clouds of heavy smoke, on our way home.
The night began when the entire research group plus two math students and Andy's daughters went out to dinner at a (chinese version of a) thai restaurant, the Banana Leaf, located in a hotel on the waterfront of West Lake. There were so many of us that we had to take three taxis to get there. My taxi got there before the others so Monica and I waited outside the hotel while one of the math students (whose name I can't remember) went to find the others.
The hotel staff was all dressed up in thai costumes so while we were waiting, Monica took a photo of me with one of the staff.
(I've cut myself out of the photo because, in my long gray wool coat and long baggy gray wool skirt, I look like a large gray sheep next to her)
The bell boys were running around in the driveway lighting firecrackers (not just cherry bombs, mind you, but roman candles and those big fireworks you see on the 4th of July and at disneyland-- the ones that explode into giant colorful spheres in the sky). They ran over to us and gave us sparklers to hold for the photo. I then gave my sparkler to Monica and took this picture.
Do you see that?!?
While she was enthusiatically waving around her sparkler, it released a fireball that hit me in the shoulder, lighting my HAIR and SCARF on FIRE. We quickly put the fire out and I was ok-- not at all burned. I ended up with a finger size hole in my scarf
and a horrible burned-hair smell that followed me around for the rest of the night. The hair on the left side of my head is now slightly shorter than the hair on the right but it isn't too noticeable and the bad smell washed out.
The rest of the group showed up and we all went inside and ordered. While we were waiting for our food, the staff came over and entertained us by singing and dancing (making us join in).
Two of the staff members took a particular liking to Aaron and Josh, saying that they prefer white guys over all other guys.
The food was delicious-- curry was a wonderful break from my weeklong diet of chinese food, caffe lattes and peanut butter sandwiches. We all enjoyed watching Lisa eat: she is an enthusiatic carnevour who enjoys pulling the meat off the bone with her teeth and eating strange and exotic things (chicken feet, frogs, etc).
She was an expert with the giant crab legs in curry sauce which left the rest of us covered in sauce and bits of shell.
By the end of the meal, this was the only thing left on the table. No one wanted to eat it.
After dinner we decided to walk along the lake and look at the fireworks. I should tell you that the fireworks here are nothing like the US, where the big ones are by permit only. It doesn't even compare to Texas where people light off a lot of fireworks for hours on end on the 4th of july. Here, everyone is lighting off fireworks, great big ones, everywhere. All over the city, all night long, the sky was full of giant exploding globes of light and loud noises.
We walked down to a gazebo-like structure which sits right on the water in the lake.
In the middle of the gazebo is a circular engraving of three archers shooting arrows. The story is that there used to be ten suns and they caused a lot of mischief. An archer (whose name I forget) shot down nine of them, leaving one (which was afraid to cause trouble). Here is a pic for Rupa.
Walking further down the lake front, we found the third (out of five) Hangzhou Starbucks. There was much rejoicing. And hot beverage drinking.
Then, tired, cold, and a bit scared (of the fireworks, which were lit off by ordinary citizens in the streets and sometimes exploded on the ground instead of the air-- I'm glad everything was wet but I was afraid of getting hit again), Xiaokui, Monica, Lisa and I hopped in a cab and went home. When we got to our apartment, the driveway was a sea of cardboard firecracker remains.
posted by Michelle at 3:16 a.m.
1 Comments:
Damn, being a theoretical physicist is exciting and dangerous. Maybe experimental biophysics *isn't* where it's at.
-Andrew
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