Happy New Year, Hong Kong Style!

Our New Year's festivities were a bit more mellow this year than last, but on New Year's Day, we got to witness a Guinness World Record in the making!  That afternoon, we got to witness a Dragon and Lion Dancing parade with (supposedly) the most dragons a parade has ever had.  It was pretty cool to see in person... I had seen it on TV many a time.  There was such a variety of participants - everything from young men, running through the streets and moving the dragon in all kinds of crazy motions to young 6-year-olds, proudly walking with their pole and just trying to keep it up in the air.  It was a really fun afternoon, and we were glad we went.  Here are some pictures to give you an idea:

 

 

 

We tried to preserve our families' New Year's food traditions... my family used to eat pork chops and sauerkraut, while Brian's had black eyed peas.  Luckily, we had brought black eyed peas in our shipment, so we were covered there.  The sauerkraut, on the other hand... we tried to find at the grocery store.  We didn't see anything that looked the same as home, so we bought something called "pickeled cabbage".  Um, yeah, so that's not really the same, and smelled absolutely disgusting.  Hopefully this next year is still lucky for us.  ;)

Happy New Year to all!!  :)



PS - You might notice that my hair is remarkably not in a pony tail for the first time since I moved to Asia... I had a miraculous hair treatment called a Brazilian blowout this week which has changed my life... straight hair, no frizziness.  It is the best discovery I've had since I moved here.  Only downside is 1) it took about 5 hours and 2) my hair smells like a strange combination of bananas and chemicals.  :)