Lantern Festival

Chinese New Year celebrations end today, on the 15th day of the new year, also called the Lantern Festival . The children have gone beserk on the streets because its the last night their allowed to play with fireworks, and it's pretty much a guarantee I won't sleep tonight.
Here's a brief recap of the last few days for yall. My mom and I went to Guanghan again, because my grandfather finally came out of the hospital! Huzzah! I rushed to his side and didn't let go of his hand again for like, the next three days. It took him almost three weeks in the hospital to recover because he has diabetes, and surgery wounds take much longer to heal for diabetics. But the major obstacles are already overcome, and he's got the spirit of an 81 year old hustler foreals.
Gangsta Gramps got tired very easily each day but managed to squeeze out a few stories in the mornings, with promises to continue when I visit again in the summer. So far, I discovered some !!epic!! stories of my ancestry that I'm not sure is prudent to publish on this as the country I'm in is not exactly the posterchild for freedom of speech. So these stories will be saved for private conversations later on. But mark my words: EPIC with tongue clicks on both sides.
I also chilled with my 8 year old cousin. She tried teaching me to skateboard, but clearly wasn't a very good teacher, because I couldn't even get on the board. So we resorted to fob-posing for the camera instead.

I really need a crash course in fob poses before I head to Beijing, or I won't be able to keep up! Oh yea, a cute outfit with a Hello Kitty backpack are also essential for first day at school, in case anyone wants to send me a care package.
Later we went to the park, where the posing continued, this time with my zodiac sign The Phat-astic Bunny.

Then this morning, a couple movies and AN EARTHQUAKE later, I was walking through town looking for a righteous parting gift for the grandparents when I stumbled upon 'paint-it-yourself' plaster Boddhisatva dolls at a crafts stall. Perfect!

Notice the mouth agape in concentration retardation.
The finished product. BOOYAKASHA

I'm pretty positive I was the only participant at the arts and crafts stall over the age of 6. All the kids would watch said masterpiece take form and then look back at their own miserable attempts to colour in their Hello Kitty dolls, and hang their heads down in shame. Not my fault their amateurs!
Tonight we came back to Chengdu to have dinner with my mom's side. On the way home from the restaurant, we walked past a bridge where people were setting these paper gas fire thingies into the air, and paper lotus fire thingies floating off on the river. Because my descriptive prose is so vivid, I do not need to supplement your understanding with any photos.


Apparantly if you make a wish while setting one of these off in the stratosphere, it will come true.


This guy must not have very good luck, cus his lantern went on to land on a bicyclists head, and on his second try- yes he tried again- it got stuck on a tree.

Me with my paper lotus ball of fire thingie.

I was so scared of falling into the river that I forgot to make a wish when I dropped it in. Oops.

That's all from me this time around. Happy Year of the Ox for the last time!