BECKY WAS HERE (part 5)

So, as promised, I will begin with the Guia hill monkey video from yesterday.

 So funny and bizarre.  I'm sure we watched him do this at least 20 times. 

I also forgot to include this photo from Guia Hill.  This colorful exercise equipment is located all over Macau in parks and other public places for people to work out on.  Becky was very taken with them and is going to try to get them installed in Minneapolis.  Here she is - workin' the hips.

After Guia Hill (or maybe the next day, I can't remember the timeline exactly) we paid a visit to Tap Seac Square.  It is very near my apartment, and we went to see the Lunar New Year arts and crafts booths, as well as a dance performance.  We didn't buy anything from the vendors, but I really wanted this awesome paper dragon.  (FYI, Lunar New Year is the same as Chinese New Year, they just don't call it that for obvious reasons.)

They had people dressed up as all the zodiac creatures, so Becky posed with hers, even though she doesn't think it's very impressive.  I tried to convince her to change her mind with this old cartoon from my childhood.

Ah, Sesame Street, how I love thee.  Becky was amused but I don't think she was convinced.

They have these big light-up displays in all the squares for every holiday.  They're often strange and lame, but the dragon and lions on this one are actually pretty cool.

What we really wanted to see was the dragon and lion dancing, and they didn't disappoint.  The little 2-person yellow guys are the lions and the big green one is the dragon.

Becky got a great video of them in action.  See how at one point they are jumping over it?  Waaaaaaa!

As with many other aspects of Chinese culture, there are a number of superstitions one must participate in during LNY to have a prosperous rest of the year.  Since this is my year, I figured I better play it safe.  The first is acquiring and displaying an orange tree.  Instead of buying one, I just bought some oranges and put them on our all-occasion tree, along with these red packets Becky received for completing a survey.  Looks pretty good, huh?  Beth contributed the dragon for the top.

Next, buy and eat these weird glutinous rice cakes.  (That's a date on top.)  I was told you can eat these fresh and gooey, or freeze them and then cut them up and fry them in egg.  (I'm assuming they mean like French toast.)  Because we ran out of propane on the first day of LNY and no one was open to provide us with more, we went for the fresh option.  Not bad, but nothing special.

I also had to purchase and burn some incense.  This was no problem because I love incense.  It took me a while to find a cool burner, and this one wasn't actually supposed to be for sale, but I got it anyway.  Carol thinks it's supposed to be for spitting in.  Nice.

Having fulfilled my LNY requirements I began to look forward to my lucky dragon year ahead.

It was quite cold and damp on the morning of the LNY parade, but we set out and got a decent spot to watch from in front of St. Paul's Ruins.  It was fantastic!

Becky and I waiting impatiently for the show to begin.

 Part of the reason it took so long is that they had to get all these VIPs up in place behind the lion dancers and in front of the people dressed up as the zodiac animals, Good Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity (the three funny men) for a photo shoot.

Finally it was time and the dragon started moving!

Becky got another awesome video of the action.  You can hear the firecrackers at the beginning and see that the dragon is chasing a ball on a stick.  My personal theory is that it's a cheeseball.

After departing from St. Paul's Ruins, the dragon took off for another part of town.  We followed it a little way, but we were too slow.  We decided to go find a place to warm up and lose money.

Government employees in Macau are only allowed to gamble on the first three days of LNY.  I'm not a big gambler, but I thought it would at least be fun to try it.  So, in honor of my grandparents, I saved the money they gave me for my birthday and Christmas just for the occasion.  $50 = 400 MOP.  We went to the Grand Lisboa - the biggest and gaudiest casino in Macau.  Just look at the ridiculous excess.  I lost it all, and it didn't take me that long.  Actually I think it took longer to figure out how the games worked.  I played slots for a while and had a hard time with all the buttons and combos, then switched to Sic Bo. 

Sic Bo is a Chinese game where you roll three dice and bet on the outcome.  I played a computerized version where the dice are popped for you in a bubble, kind of like Trouble.  Becky did most of the work in figuring out the rules - she only lost half of what she brought in.  I lost every pataca.  I'd really wanted to try bacarrat, but between the complex rules and me not knowing Cantonese I figured I'd just embarrass myself.  (I mean more than usual.)  We had fun, but Beth noticed how everyone else looked either bored or depressed.  Welcome to the world of casinos.

 Aren't these peacock statues incredible?  The Lisboa has all kinds of insanely elaborate art - paid for in part by gamblers like me.

In the evening we went over to Taipa because our coworker Chris had invited us for dinner.  (Actually, I kind of invited us over because he has such a great view of the fireworks and I thought it would be fun, and he was gracious enough to go along with it.)  He made lasagna and homemade bread, which were delicious.  I brought the wine I'd won at the Christmas party - that was good too.

During the course of our dinner conversation I learned that I had one superstition left to follow if I wanted to have a lucky year.  A huge one.  As it turns out, having it be your year is not lucky at all.  The evil spirits/bad fortune are actually more of a threat during your year and so you must protect yourself by wearing red - all year long.  As many of you know, I love red and so this seemed like kind of a fun challenge, but a lot of my best red stuff is in CA.  Apparently many of the Chinese manage this by stocking up on red undergarments, which I confirmed when I tried to buy same and there were none left.  I finally did manage to find some in HK and so far I've made it happen every day.  Only 11 months to go.  :)

For dessert I made bananas flambé.  Any excuse to light things on fire is a good excuse.  :)

Finally it was time for the show.  We were wondering, after the amazing fireworks we've seen already this year, how are they going to top it for LNY?  By having two sets that mirrored each other, of course.  Ridiculous, but great.

Ok, only one more post to go and then we're finished...