(#20) Happy Year of the Dog!

Gong Hay Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New years everybody!

I apologize right now for the misspelling of Happy New year in Chinese that I'm sure I did. But then again most of you probably don't know how to spell it either. Today I went up to L.A.'s China town with a friend to see the Chinese New Years parade. It was very interesting and they had lots of different martial arts demonstrations in the parade and the Chinese Lion dancers to scare away the evil spirits for the up coming year. They set off a million fire crackers and I think we were standing a bit to close. It was about an hour later that I fully regained my hearing. I think I also may have developed a smokers hack from inhaling smoke after they were set off (also to scare away evil spirits). They had something there for everyone, lot's of food booths and great stores. The Lion Dancers are what I mostly went for (although I've never been to a Chinese New years Parade before either). The Lion Dancers climb up on each others backs to make the Lions taller, sometimes 4 men high, and of course run around in unison with it's mouth opening and closing to appear like a living creature. It's very impressive to watch. China town has a lot of great bargains too! I found a store that had cloth covered flip flops for 2$, Wow! I'm in heaven, I bought one in every color :)

Well I hope you all have a great Year of the Dog!

Tomorrow is my next Latin dance lesson, Cha-Cha-Cha!

Have a great week, Sue