My camera is broken. :( I guess I realized it a while ago but didn't want to investigate and find out for sure. Thing is, I don't like posting without adding pictures, so that's partly why I haven't said anything on here for a while. I'm thinking of upgrading to a real camera, in case I decide to get serious about this photography stuff. I've certainly got enough time on my hands. Then again, I enjoy the discreetness of the tiny digicams. Any recommendations for a brand/model?
Moving on...
Today is the second day of Chinese New Year!
Joe F (from the program last year) is back in town for a couple weeks, and he came over yesterday. We all played lots of video games and visited the 10,000 Buddhas for good luck.
Today I went with Erica and Selena (Chinese girls from work) to Erica's parents' house and baked cookies and brownies. I failed to realize that the ovens are in Celsius here (OF COURSE). Luckily we corrected my mistake after about 15 minutes of bake time. Crisis averted, and the brownies turned out alright. Neither Selena nor Erica had ever had brownies (they're HK people). Can you believe that??
Then Matt came over and we chatted with Erica's dad in broken Cantonese with Erica doing a lot of translating, and then had a huge traditional dinner that her stepmom made. Everyone was surprised that we knew how to eat with chopsticks, as usual. I thought the food was pretty good, but then again, last year was a pretty rigorous cross-cultural-uncomfortable-dinner-scenario training period.
We got some red packets (envelopes with money in them) from the married people (Erica's Dad, stepmom, and sister) to sweeten the deal, though. There's a system of giving here that isn't entirely clear, but basically married people give red packets to single people, and bosses give them to their employees.
Erica took lots of photos so I should be able to upload them soon. More on the Year of the Ox later!
