Holiday Festivities

Just came back from spending Mid-Autumn Festival with Sarah, Laura, Matt, & Sunny. We felt that since we arent with our families, we might as well spend it with our friends. We first ventured to a resturant near West gate that specialized in making MaPoDoFu or spicy numbing tofu. Besides ordering this speciality, we also ordered a fish dish, a green dish, a eggplant dish *which we just absolutely love*, and a pork dish. It was quite the meal! After everything, we were also given mooncakes and fruit. What would the Mid-Autumn Festival be without these "delicious" treats? Actually...not many people like mooncakes, including me. It's not that it's absolutely terrible...it's just not exactly the best dessert you can have. Some of my friends aren't exactly fans either...especially the mooncakes with the egg yolk inside. That's what we were given today: mooncakes filled with prune paste with an egg yolk inside. :) To keep with the old tradition, we ate it anyways.After dinner, we *Matt, Laura, Sarah & I* rode our bikes from West gate to East gate to visit the Jinjiang River. There is the tradition of floating paper lotuses with a candle inside on the river. We each bought a candle and set it afloat. The river was full of these floating lotuses. Chengdu being the cloudy city that it is, we weren't able to see the moon in its bright and glory. I tried to take the best picture I could of the moon...but this is the best picture I got. I snapped it at the moment it showed itself briefly. Here are a couple pictures of us buying our candles and then each of us sending it off into the still waters. We walked along the banks of the river just chatting about our tours and sightseeing. Matt, Laura, and Sarah had a great time on the Yangtze. Make sure you check out some of their photos in their blogs. They came back only this morning.



Well, that's it! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! Hope everyone had the opportunity to take a break tonight and look up at the moon. I'll leave this entry with a poem that I was reminded of tonight by looking at the moon. It is a Tang poem written by Li Bai. The translation is:







Night Thoughts

Before my bed
There is bright-lit moonlight
So that it seems
Like frost on the ground:

Lifting my head
I watch the bright moon
Lowering my head
I dream that I'm home.

In Chinese it is:Good night everyone!