Today is the eve of Chinese New Year, which is equivalent to Christmas Eve in America (except everyone in China celebrates it and there are three times as many people in China as in America). I spent most of the day with a very generous family whose daughter goes to Wellesley college and knows my neighbor at home. She and her father came to pick me up at my dorm and from there we went to her apartment which is fairly near the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the Olympics. At the apartment, we picked up her mother and the four of us went to an very fancy restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is especially famous for its Peking roast duck (kao3ya1) which is a specialty of Beijing. All the waiters and waitresses were dresses in traditional Chinese clothing from the Tang (?) Dynasty and each table had a specific server who would linger and refill tea or take away empty dishes (or in my case, teach me to properly eat the roast duck). In addition to the roast duck (which is generally eaten in a type of small thin flour tortilla with cucumber slices and sauce) there was also fried rice, spicy duck tongue salad (!), fruit salad (cubed watermelon covered in mayonnaise), some sort of pork, duck hearts and so on... In general, the Chinese are very polite and will continue to give you more food until you strongly refuse. So, trying to the a polite guest I was cajoled into eating a duck heart (something I would never dare to eat in the US) and part of a duck tongue and of course the roast duck, which was actually quite good despite the fact that I try to avoid meat.
After the meal, we went to another of their apartments (I gathered that they were in the process of moving into this new apartment, because neither apartment looked completely furnished). There, Weiye (the Wellesley student), her father and I cleaned the place and put up New Year scrolls and decorations. This apartment seemed to be very newly built. It was on the 27th floor of a sort of apartment building village. Everything in the apartment was very new and shiny and modern looking. We also watched some of the New Year's celebration on CCTV. It was done by the same people who did the opening ceremony for the Olympics, so it was extremely bright and colorful and over-the-top and all of China's famous figures were there. After a few hours it was time to eat again. We drove back to the first apartment and ate dinner there. Weiye's mom had made a very large meal with fish, duck, dumplings (both fried and steamed), mushrooms, salad (which they made for me as an American dish), sausage, leeks, etc. There was also sea cucumber soup with live sea cucumbers in it(!). I did not know they were live until later (I was not brave enough to eat them, so I just drank some of the broth). Then we watched more of the New Year's celebration on TV. Then they drove me back to the dorm.
Fireworks are a big part of the New Year and since I've been here, I have been hearing them every night. However, tonight was the biggest display yet. Unlike the 4th of July where people all gather and watch the fireworks for an hour or so while professionals set them off, in Beijing, everyone buys their own fireworks and sets them off when ever and where ever they like. So, on the drive back to the dorm, the sky was lit up in all directions. On every street corner people were setting of sparklers and fireworks (real ones-the kind that launch 100 feet into the air and then explode). It was quite amazing. It has been going on for hours, and the biggest display is said to be at midnight tonight.