CALLIE'S BIRTHDAY (also lanterns)

(All pictures are from Callie and her phone. Thanks Callie!)


Today was Callie's birthday. Ellen and I totally had plans. Totally. It was always our plan to take Callie out to a restaurant named Babella's and to take along Tatiana so we could have a great view of Long Ting at night.

It's close to the lantern festival, so we walked around the entrance of Long Ting park. There were dancing people (2 sets), bullwhip practicers, and people setting off lanterns. All four of us, Callie, Tatiana, and I bought lanterns. This is after a cake fight between Callie and myself and a joke that made Tatiana's day (there was confusion over a friend named Yvonne, because Yvonne sounds like Ivan in Russian, and I used my very limited Chinese to say in a creative manner that Yvonne was a woman).

Here is a picture of us, taken by Tatiana. It's Callie's 22nd, and you can see the Palace at Long Ting lit up in the background. There were red lanterns constantly going up and fireworks exploding- truly, it was a fun place.

As we walked around the entrance, we all bought a lantern and watched people light them. Some people were writing words and phrases on theirs, so we hauled our butts home to write on ours. The tradition is that the balloon takes your wish up to the sky, and if you're lucky your wish will be granted. Here's what mine looked like:

That's my tree, by the way. It's my symbol. I drew my wish (and spelled it out) and we all went outside to light our lanterns. Mine was first, and it took forever- the wind on campus was not with us, and constantly blew out my lighter or the fuel for the lantern. 

But it did fill up, and so I let it go instead of tossing it into the air. 

In no shocking turn of events, my balloon headed straight for a parked car.

We ran after it to keep it from hitting the car, but it decieved us and moved upwards quickly. I was so afraid it would somehow crash into the burning, but it continued upward, upward, until it was barely visible at all.

Next, we helped Ellen with her balloon. She tossed it up, no problems. Then came Callie's balloon, and she also tossed it up. 

Tatiana was another interesting balloon- it started dripping liquid fire drops from the fuel and then when she tossed it up, it promptly got stuck in a tree. We made sad noises with her, but the wind heard us and carried her balloon to safety, much to everybody's satisfaction. 

All in all, it was a good night. :)