Two days in one! [happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's!]

It's so coincidental that both Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day are on the same day this year. I think Chinese New Year overshadowed Valentine's a bit, which I think some people will be very happy about.

There's alot of bitterness towards Valentine's Day.
But... all you need is love, right?

So we went to Church for a potluck dinner. People should bring more fruits there, because I only got one clementine and by the time I went back, there were no more! But everyone was sitting in the room with the piano, and the drummer guy for praise team started playing all different piano songs. Everything ranging from classical to pop... Everyone started singing along to "Love Song" and "Do Re Mi" and it was so great. Too bad my best friend wasn't there, it's her birthday tomorrow.

The performances were really good too! There was this interview thing [in the spirit of Valentine's Day] where married couples had to see how well they knew each other. And the wife would write her answers and the husband was supposed to guess what she wrote. It was sooo funny, especially with some of the deacons and elders... "What's your strongest asset to the family?" "Hmm... weeeell, I have so many, it's hard to pick..." "Here's a hard one: when is your child's birthday?" "Uuuuh......" x]

There was also this skit performed by these two elderly grandmas, reminiscing about their childhood Chinese New Years'. And they put red paint [rouge] on their cheeks and forehead and ate lollipops and acted like little kids! It's really cool to see old people pretend to be children. It's like... they haven't lost that spirit, you know?

And then there were some unexpected perfomances by this guy who started breakdancing, and he was really good. Like... flips and cartwheels! And this girl wrote a song during dinner, which she performed [with her friend translating into Chinese after each line she sings! aha]. She has an amazing voice, so she'd be singing and right after, her friend would say the Chinese translation in a monotone voice... so amusing. And then this little boy started doing karate! We started joking that he'd be joining the 2020 Olympics and represent the U.S.

Finally was the skit we'd been all waiting for... by the youth group, of course! So it's based off the classic Chinese zodiac story, about how the zodiac order was determined on which animal met the god at the mountain. Except it was a race. And everyone dressed up like the animals! My friend [the tiger] had on face paint and wore a shredded orange shirt over a black one to simulate tiger stripes x] And his sister played the monkey, she was the only animal registered at the race and all the other animals kept dropping out! For example, the tiger shows up with a KFC box and is like, "Oh yeah, the chicken won't be showing up this year... or the year after that..." Aha. Poor chicken! And then the rabbit [drummer guy!] comes in and is like, "Gosh, I just finishing racing with the tortoise, I can't believe I overslept AGAIN!" But in the race, of course the rabbit oversleeps once more [does he ever learn?] and the monkey trips over the sleeping rabbit. So the tiger wins the race [but of course, since it's the year of the tiger!]!

All in all, super-fun night :)
And no school tomorrow, again!
It doesn't even come as a surprise now...

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day and/or Chinese New Year?




[photo credit to Jessica Lynn Chiang, my friend who does everything amazing. her photography simply astonishes me! she can't look bad or take a bad photo if she wanted to...]