Happy Chinese New Year!

Hi!

First thing first, I would like to wish you a Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate it. Hopefully this year you will be given health, luck, prosperity and joyfulness.

Talking about Chinese New Year, I and my family have some habit that we do every year during the CNY, like cleaning the house, eat dinner with the whole family, and other things. Sharing angpao (red pocket containing money HEHE) is also one of the most important events during CNY.

This year, CNY falls on Monday, 8th February 2016, which means I've got a long weekend! I and my family in Bandung went to Jakarta on Sunday morning. The road was clear so that we could arrive fast in Jakarta. We stayed at my Aunt's house. It was so big that it was enough to be habited by the whole big family. When we arrived, everyone was already there. We took a short break and had a lunch. We talked and laughed a lot. There was an altar for us to pray to our family who had already passed away. On the altar, there were offerings that we gave for them, such as rice, vegetables, oranges, apples, cakes, sweets, and some clothes and shoes shaped paper that my family believed as new clothes and shoes for them. We had a lunch, and then we decided to take a walk to Central Park Mall. We bought some clothes, foods, and books, and then we were heading back to my Aunt's house. We took a bath while waiting for the rest of my family to come. When all of them have arrived, we went to a seafood restaurant. We ordered so many kind of seafoods like crabs, various kind of fish, squid, shrimp, and some vegetables with various types of cooking. The food was great! I like the sweet and sour sauced crab. After we had dinner, we went to Baywalk Mall. It was a great mall with sea view. There was a Baywalk Tunnel, which hidden underground the mall but had such an amazing view. There was a fountain with beautiful lights around it.

        Baywalk Tunnel

We went home because it was the time for an event that we had been waiting for. Yes, angpao sharing! Every married couple in the family will give angpao to each of the family member. There were lots of fun and joyfulness. We stayed up late and spent our time playing boardgames when adults drank wine. We watched beautiful fireworks from the 3rd floor balcony. At about 1 a.m, I went to bed.

The next morning, I was wakening up because we were going to Ancol Beach to lay a wreath there. My grandpa passed away on November 2014, his body was cremated and sowed in Ancol Beach. So I came there and I feel like I'm going to meet him again. We rent a speedboat to go to the high sea. After that, we went back home. Everyone was pretty tired because they stayed up late the night before. I and my brother were really bored, so we hanged out with my cousins. We went to PIK, ate Burger King and drank Starbucks, then played at Locked Escape Room. We chose the hardest level, Haunted School, and amazingly we escaped in 49 out of 60 minutes. Then we went to Pluit Village. Since we were hungry, we ate in Raacha. Then we went home. I packed all my stuff then put them inside of my dad's car, and then I went home to Bandung.