"Can we deep fry that?"

So! We're back from Chengdu. I know I haven't really written anything about the Chinese New Year festivities but I will attempt to do so shortly. While I was there I dropped my camera. Sad, yes, but I am getting it repaired right now and it's only going to cost maybe 50 bucks. So pictures will have to be attached later.

But first, let me say this: when the ambassador's family left Beijing some of Will's roommates got to take some stuff the house that they were leaving. These acquisitions included a deep fryer. Will and I were going to make chicken and bake some sweet potatoes and broccoli. These plans were thwarted when we walked in and the other roommates were preparing for fried chicken. We commenced frying everything that we could find. Here is a list of what we fried:

• chicken wings/legs
• chicken strips
• beer battered onion rings
• sweet potato chips
• french fries
• dumplings
• oreo wafer bars!
  
• snickers
• Toblerone
• bananas

I think that is it. It was all so good but wow.

One thing you should know about Chinese New Year is that it lasts from January 25th to February 15. There are several days of celebration that happen. I'm not really sure what they all are or if there are more than I know about... but I haven't read any wikipedia on it yet. I do know these things:

• Everyone gets off from work for at least a few days. People go home. This is a time to be with family and eat and bring in the new year. This year we are leaving the year of the rat and entering the year of the ox. I am an ox, so this is supposed to be a good year for me! I'm supposed to always have something red on this year.
  
• The first big night of CNY is Jan 25th. This is what I was in Chengdu for.
• The night of the 30th is the dumpling night. more on this later.
• The last big night is the 15th, I'm not sure what we do on the 15th but I guess I will find out and have a whole separate blog entry.
  
• And potentially the most important thing: Fireworks are legal during this time period. I think the fireworks are supposed to scare off the bad demons and bring prosperity. This is probably in wikipedia too. In any case, it's good luck to set off fireworks, you are supposed to do it.
  

So. Chengdu. Will and I went down to Chengdu, which is in Sichuan province (famous for its food and pandas) about 40 miles away from where the earthquake happened. We went with two of Will's good friends, Katie and Adam, to visit a friend of Katie's from college at Stanford (Megan). She lives and works there with her boyfriend Eoin (pronounced like Owen) who is Irish and a Dutch guy named Sam. Our festivities also included one of their old roommates, Jord, also Dutch. They lived on the 6th (top) floor of their apartment building and had private access to their own rooftop garden. The rooftop was split level and it was perfect for the CNY party that they had on the 25th. Chengdu is a tiny little baby city compared to Beijing. I'm not sure what the actual populations are (the census is actually this year). But anyways, Chengdu is smaller than Beijing. It's also a little bit warmer. But where Beijing is dry dry DRY, Chengdu is so damp. There's mist and fog everywhere and it makes it feel colder.

Jan 25th:
We were pretty lazy during the day. We drank some beers, ate cheese and crackers, made brownies, played cards, ate oranges, played apples to apples, and snacked. This, apparantly (eating and gambling and drinking), is how CNY is supposed to go down. We also went shopping for fireworks. Fireworks were going off all day long (yes, even during the daylight). As it got darker and while we were decorating the roof for the party we could watch fireworks going off sporadically all around the city. The whole night people who had been around years beffore us were telling me that it was "nothing compared to what midnight will be like" but I had a hard time understanding because it seemed like a lot of fireworks were going off.

Finally around 7 we went to a restaurant called Blue Chair. Actually, it has a chinese name but Megan said they never really knew what it was. But it has really prominent blue chairs. So it's just known as Blue Chair to them, and now to us. The food in Sichuan is really spicey but it's soooooo good! I can't remember everything we had, nor did I ever really know all of the names or what they were. But I did have some spicey bullfrog. Honestly I did not think I would enjoy frog. But, I am so glad that I tried it because it's actually really tender and delicious. In the middle of dinner we all got up because there were some awesome fireworks going off (IN THE STREET!!) right outside of the restaurant. It was great! These fireworks that I'm talking about are NOT SMALL. So that was fun and we returned to finish our food and get back to the house to greet the party guests.

When we got back to the apartment we all got dressed in costumes. Eoin wore a red apron with an ox on it and a panda hat. Megan had a bathrobe and a blue curly wig. Will wore a thai chi outfit with a huge afro wig. I wore a fish hat (think finding nemo) and a lifepreserver. katie had some devil horns... there were some others and I'm sure there were pictures but I can't remember what they were. When the pictures come out I will of course post them. So now the party is starting... eventually there are about 30 people there. At 11:30 we all headed up to the roof to start blowing stuff up. We had music going which made it extra festive until we couldn't hear anymore because there were fireworks everywhere. And when I say everywhere I mean EVERYWHERE. I don't even know how I would begin to describe the intensity of this hour. But, luckily, Adam posted a youtube video that includes some pictures and some video of the night. It's amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiGALS-u2Fg if for some reason you can't see this link just search for RedChina66 on youtube and the video is called CNY2009.

Ok, that's all I can write for today, I'm tired and I need to drink some water or some tea after all of that fried food. More on the rest of the Chengdu trip, including the temple fair and the giant buddha coming soon!!