(In case you're wondering about the title, that's the sound I make for shooting things off. If any of you have played Desktop Defender, it's pretty similar to some of the sounds for towers shooting.)
A belated happy Chinese New Year to all of you (or Spring Festival as it's known over here. or just New Year, which would make sense, since they don't call it 'Chinese' food over here, just, well, food). I'm feline a bit tigered of all the tiger puns, but they're not nearly as bad as all the "Happy 牛(niu) year" jokes from last year.
The video backstories:
Our friend K, who lives in the next building over, threw a party for New Year's (since we'd be up anyway with all the fireworks going off), but since it didn't start until 8pm, M and I decided to take the plunge and make dumplings from scratch. And since I was already halfway there with the dumplings and potstickers, I finally tried to make Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) from scratch too. Both of which are deserving of their own post, so you'll have to wait to hear about how those turned out.
Our fireworks adventures from last year were sufficiently lacking in death and dismemberment that I still wanted to set off a few this year just to join in the revelry. I paid $6 for a small box, exactly the same as one that we had set off last year. Halfway through the New Year's party, a few of us (including DC, who has already posted an excellent write-up of the festivities over at BBQGrapies) headed downstairs and out onto the street right in front of K's 27th floor window. We set off our friend Jeremy's $12 box (which happened to shoot just about 27 stories up) and were so pleased with ourselves, we decided to walk down to the fireworks store on the corner and buy some more.
After some haggling, we decided to get the same $12 box and a significantly larger $24 box. Still feeling that giddy boyish thrill prompted by fire and explosion, we decided to stay in character and treat ourselves to Mcdonald's ice cream.
When we got back, M and CC broke away from a game of scattergories to come set off the small box we'd bought, at which point, our friend John decided to jump over it. Needless to say, he was shot in the butt by a low-grade explosive, thankfully to no permanent harm. Cue my hysterical giggling.
The next video is us shooting off the big box, which was actually really exciting to watch. My favorite part of the whole experience is the bits of cardboard and ash that rain down into my hair.
Where I grew up in California, fireworks were banned, so I didn't have the privilege of doing all this as a kid. I've got to say, other than the whole "Oops, we burned down a billion dollar hotel" fiasco, the odd firework for New Year's is a total blast. At midnight, thousands of families around the city set off similar (and even bigger) fireworks, ostensibly to chase away evil spirits for the year. It was quite a sight to behold.
Surprisingly enough, we didn't have any trouble falling asleep, even with the explosions continuing late into the night and starting up again around 7am. How's that for native street cred?
A belated happy Chinese New Year to all of you (or Spring Festival as it's known over here. or just New Year, which would make sense, since they don't call it 'Chinese' food over here, just, well, food). I'm feline a bit tigered of all the tiger puns, but they're not nearly as bad as all the "Happy 牛(niu) year" jokes from last year.
The video backstories:
Our friend K, who lives in the next building over, threw a party for New Year's (since we'd be up anyway with all the fireworks going off), but since it didn't start until 8pm, M and I decided to take the plunge and make dumplings from scratch. And since I was already halfway there with the dumplings and potstickers, I finally tried to make Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) from scratch too. Both of which are deserving of their own post, so you'll have to wait to hear about how those turned out.
Our fireworks adventures from last year were sufficiently lacking in death and dismemberment that I still wanted to set off a few this year just to join in the revelry. I paid $6 for a small box, exactly the same as one that we had set off last year. Halfway through the New Year's party, a few of us (including DC, who has already posted an excellent write-up of the festivities over at BBQGrapies) headed downstairs and out onto the street right in front of K's 27th floor window. We set off our friend Jeremy's $12 box (which happened to shoot just about 27 stories up) and were so pleased with ourselves, we decided to walk down to the fireworks store on the corner and buy some more.
After some haggling, we decided to get the same $12 box and a significantly larger $24 box. Still feeling that giddy boyish thrill prompted by fire and explosion, we decided to stay in character and treat ourselves to Mcdonald's ice cream.
When we got back, M and CC broke away from a game of scattergories to come set off the small box we'd bought, at which point, our friend John decided to jump over it. Needless to say, he was shot in the butt by a low-grade explosive, thankfully to no permanent harm. Cue my hysterical giggling.
The next video is us shooting off the big box, which was actually really exciting to watch. My favorite part of the whole experience is the bits of cardboard and ash that rain down into my hair.
Where I grew up in California, fireworks were banned, so I didn't have the privilege of doing all this as a kid. I've got to say, other than the whole "Oops, we burned down a billion dollar hotel" fiasco, the odd firework for New Year's is a total blast. At midnight, thousands of families around the city set off similar (and even bigger) fireworks, ostensibly to chase away evil spirits for the year. It was quite a sight to behold.
Surprisingly enough, we didn't have any trouble falling asleep, even with the explosions continuing late into the night and starting up again around 7am. How's that for native street cred?
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