Lantern Festival

In China right now it is the Spring Festival (Although I don't really understand why they call it the Spring Festival because it doesn't feel like spring to me!). They set off fireworks all the time and many businesses  have been closed because of it. On Monday night Oliver took us to the Lantern Festival. One of the other teacher's, I think her name is Cathy, was telling us about it but I thought she was saying Latin instead of Lantern. I was much relieved to find out that they were not hanging Latins in the streets but Lanterns. We rushed over in Oliver's car (which I love by the way because the back seat has pillows and it looks just like a couch) and found out that it was cancelled because of the weather. We sent off some lanterns anyway and made a new friend named Janet. She wants to have Andy and I over for dinner one night!
The next day a boy named Evan met us at the school and took us to the Lantern Festival. Evan graduated from Yangzhong Senior High School 3 years ago. He is on break from school and wanted to practice his English. He was a very nice boy. When we got a taxi he made sure to open the door for me first. Of course when I slid in the taxi I slide right into another Chinese lady. That was an awkward moment. Good thing Evan was there because Andy and I don't speak very good Chinese. At the Lantern Festival the three of us sent off more lanterns. Let me tell, it is not as easy as it looks in Tangled. In fact it is very difficult. The first night I sent my lantern flying right into a group of people. The next night I had better luck and I even remembered to make a wish! Evan's lantern went off without a hitch but Andy's went flying into a bush.

After setting off lanterns we went to watch the dragon show. I was so excited to see a dragon! And they have so many! There was a huge row of them all dancing. There was a stage off on one side and we watched some Chinese Acrobats. That was amazing! There was a boy and a girl and sometimes it made my body hurt just watching them. At one point the girl had her hand rested on the boy's head and the rest of her body was in the air! We were too far to take any pictures.
It was so cold that night and we had a hard time finding a taxi back because everyone in Yangzhong wanted a taxi. I was so cold I couldn't really talk because my lips were frozen. We finally got a taxi and made it back home. Let me just tell you how many layers I wore to bed last night. I began with long john top and bottoms. Then I put on regular socks and tucked the long john bottoms into that. Then I put on fleece pajamas. Next I put on wool socks and tucked the fleece pajamas into those socks. I finished the bottom half of me by putting on my BYU sweats. For the top I put on a t-shirt I normally wear to bed and then a jacket. Then I quickly brushed my teeth while standing under the heater. I then proceeded to run to my bed wrap myself up in the quilt my mom made (The first night I didn't do that but every time I rolled over I had to reheat the bed and froze in the process. With the blanket on me it was always toasty) got in bed. I have two big quilts because there were two beds in my room so I stole the other one off the extra  bed. I pull those up under my chin, pull my mom's quilt over my head so that doesn't get cold and then try to get warm. After a few minutes it was so nice and toasty. I think that was the warmest I'd ever been since leaving Shenzhen. I plan on doing that again tonight.