(Another) Happy New Year!
Feb 14, 2010
How do you effectively celebrate Chinese New Year as college students? Definitely not through exchanging the few precious dollars we own in crisp red envelopes (we need those bucks for bobas and textbooks)! Instead, all of us did the incredible and actually worked for our dinner: by making tons of jiao zi, aka dumplings!
The senior sisters hosted the few lucky freshmen (and sophomore!) who still remained in Berkeley with tons and tons of good home-style Chinese food. Esther and I went a little nuts at 99 Ranch (along with the other hundred Chinese families in El Cerrito) buying not just dumpling-making materials but nian gao (sweet rice cake), cong you bing (green onion pancakes), lo bo gao (turnip cake), fried rice, and almond jello, which all turned out delicious! …Though we’re not sure if anything had any traditional significance for this holiday, haha.
Our delicious finished product!
After feasting on our mighty meal, we all busted our belly even more through multiple rounds of Imaginiff! Through this game, we found out what we all REALLY think of each other…
Brandon contemplates whether people see him more as a piece of broccoli or a gallon of milk (broccoli).
Some notes and observations from the night:
- Do not be deceived! Brandon and Carol are master dumpling masters, able and proficient at creating dumplings that look pre-packaged!
- Amy is the most ambiguous character to try to guess for. No matter how many times we tried to guess what Amy was more like (brick or glider? cheerful or tired?), we continuously ended in a tie. Enigmatic…
- Jane was unanimously 1950s film The Ten Commandments (Sorry, Jane, not the Greatest Show on Earth) while someone else who shall remained unnamed was for some reason hands-down a “microphone.” Apparently, these were really easy guesses…
- Gina to Brandon: “Hey man, we’re like on the same wavelength!” Daniel: “UV?”
- Here’s a question to Wilson (and everyone else): if you had to choose to go to any of these events, what would you go to? World Figureskating, The Indy 500, the Masters, the World Series, X Games, or the National Spelling Bee? Because apparently, we don’t know you at all.
Anyways, hope everyone else had a fun Chinese New Year like us! Xin nian kuai le!
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ooh wow! it sounded like a lot of fun. and yummy!! you lowerclassmen are lucky! the sr girls are great cooks!
Hmm… tough call. Definitely not World Figure-skating (sorry, I think it’s pretty gross…), and not Indy 500 (car exhaust fumes), or the Masters (boring) or X-Games (watching people endangering thier lives has no appeal whatsoever). I love watching baseball live (such a good ol’ American experience!), but as a Regional Spelling Bee champion back in 1993 (were any of the freshmen born then…?!?), I would have to say the National Spelling Bee. Not only is it suspenseful, but I get to play along!
And for those who are wondering, I was 6th place at the District Spelling Bee — one word away from going onto the California State Spelling Bee. The word I got wrong? Quintessence: Q-U-I-N-T-E-S-S-E-N-S-E. Ouch!
oh man! too bad wilson! lol
wow, sounds like it was a feast (ooh esp. the nien gao) and a ton of fun! wish i was there!