Chinese New Year Rounds 2 and 3

      The firecrackers continue for the second week and drums continue to bang at all unreasonable hours of the day in celebration of the new year.  Today was the second and largest parade and it took place in my little quartier of Paris.  It was like a giant block party with the streets absolutely packed shoulder to shoulder with people from all over the city who descended upon the Triangle de Choisy to see the sights, eat good food, inhale toxic amounts of firecracker smoke, get confetti in their hair, and take photos with the lions dancing their way through the streets.

This was taken right in front of my apartment building during the last stretch of the parade.  

The horse costumes were a definite hit and surprisingly realistic looking.

I have no idea what that says on the balloon, but a kid was holding it so it can't be too bad :)  

      Before all the parade festivities started, I met up with three other friends to go to our favorite pho restaurant.  I actually managed to step outside the box and ordered something that wasn't pho.  I forget the name, not like I could pronounce it even at the time, but it was this really good grilled pork, egg roll, vermicelli noodle, salad, soup, cucumber, lettuce, cilantro concoction that was out of this world.  It is a definite contender with the pho and at 7 euro is one of the best deals in the city.  We had so much fun at lunch that we decided that Sundays need to be our "try a new Asian restaurant" day.  

 Incense, McDonalds, and Paris...how can you not like that combination?

      After lunch we headed to a Chinese bakery to get some traditional desserts.  Two of them got these little roll looking things with red bean paste and a whole egg yolk inside, and me and another girl had these little balls of gooey, clear, tapioca-like stuff with sesame seeds and more goo on the inside and covered in little coconut flakes.  Yum!!!  How have I not had these magical little balls of yumminess before?  Needless to say I think from now on you will be able to find me each afternoon after class walking up to that little bakery with my 85 cents clutched in my fist and an air of mouthwatering anticipation in my step.

By far the best dragon troop.

      Our yummy food explorations complete, we went to find a good spot to watch the parade.  This proved quite difficult, but we found a spot and waited.   And waited.  And the parade never came.  We gave it an hour and then we decided to start making our way through the pushing and shoving crowd and back to the metro.  As luck would have it though, the moment we gave up our good spot, the parade started and we were left on tip-toes trying to see everything.  What we did see though was very cool and much better than the previous parade.  Forty-five minutes later and the parade was still going, but our energy was not, so we pushed on and finally parted at the metro stop.  

 This was seriously the cutest little Asian kid ever, and every time a lion would pass by she would get so excited I thought she would fall off her father's shoulders.

      I went home, but just for a bit as I hadn't gotten a chance to get any show-able photos as promised and it felt a shame to be up in my room above all the crowds and action just doing homework and piddling about.  So, I chugged my coffee, packed up again, and headed for a third round of festivities.  The energy in the streets was incredible and seemed to feed the tired parade performers as they slowly made their way to the finish after nearly two hours of walking, dancing, and banging drums.  The Chinese really know how to throw a good party.  The noise level was a good kind of deafening with groups of drummers and cymbal players going at with all they had and giant strings of firecrackers exploding at seemingly random times all around us.

In front of Notre-Dame de Chine 

      All the parents seemed to have decided to let go of their worries and let their kids have as many balloons, firecrackers, cans of silly string, and bags of confetti as they wanted.  All around kids were having confetti fights, using the incense sticks to light little red packages of explosives, and covering their faces and hair with handfuls of brightly colored cotton candy.  It was just a seriously fun time.  There was even a group representing Brazil with some amazing drummers that had a massive following of random people just dancing and jumping up and down behind them as they went down the street.  

In yet another display of odd cross-cultural interaction, this is a group of ladies from Colombia.  

So beautifully random and unexpected!

    I meandered a bit more and an hour later decided to return home to "do homework," "do laundry,"and "clean my room," but who was I kidding?  I've thus managed to spend an entire day doing absolutely no homework or housework.  I don't know if I should be proud or worried about how much is due still.  After such a colorful and wonderful day though I think I'll just revel in the pause and try and get my ears to stop ringing!
I love and miss you all and wish you luck in the new year.
-Kate Alice