It was so happened that the Chinese New Year of 2006 was last weekend. I thought I was going to spend it on a day full of lectures. Well, it was a normal weekend to people here, but to Chinese people it was the biggest thing of a year. And this is how I spent mine.

New Year’s Eve dinner

Just like Christmas Eve, in China families gathered together and have an especial and delicious big dinner at New Year’s Eve. I called my dad’s mobile on Saturday while the whole family was having dinner there. I talked to almost everyone in my family as they passed the phone one by one around the table. It was good to hear their voices, but it would be better I could had been in that table.

But, I had a big meal with a nice family on that night as well. I mentioned I made a local Durham friend, Scott, in a Xmas parties last term before. We kept in touch and now became good friends! He is living in London now, but came back to spent a weekend in Durham. He invited me for a dinner with his families in an Italian restaurant. It was very nice and I would say that was very meaningful to me as I felt I was in a family for New Year’s Eve dinner.

Actually before that night we went out with his friends and some of mine as well. We were brave enough to go clubbing in north road as students on a Friday night, because we got some local Durham friends to take us now. I learned a lot about how is normal life in Durham and how do Durham people see students here, very interesting.

‘Bai nian’ over Skype
The Chinese word ‘bai nian’ means ‘visit friends or relatives and give good wishes for New Year’. I can’t spend a few hundreds pounds to flight back home just for a Chinese New Year’s weekend, but certainly I could still effort to top up my SkypeOut and call friends in China. They were so surprised and excited when hear my voice, because nowadays people tend to send text message to ‘bai nian’, but I rather prefer talking over the phone, as I feel much closer and genial.

It’s good to know what they have been up to and all doing well. It seems our conversations now get more on plans after graduate or future careers – we are not kids any more.

Chinese New Year celebration in Durham
The local Chinese community held a New Year celebration and performances in Elvet Methodist Church. My housemate Jay was invited to be one of the presenters of the show.

It was good to see not just local Chinese communities and students there, but also many Durham people too. I am always happy to see this kind of well culture mix, we do need that! Many Chinese families live here and their children go to either local school or a Chinese school. I was surprised when talked to them after the show. Although they were wearing traditional Chinese clothes and performed Chinese dancing, but their English is not different to an English kid. Actually Ian, the friend I went with, is the same as those kids. There is a term BBC (British Born Chinese) which refers to their special identities, so as ABC (American Born Chinese). After all, it’s a good thing, I like cultural mix.

New Year’s Mood
It’s very weird when you are in the mood of having parties for celebrations but people around you just acting as usual. On my way to the Chinese performances, I saw other students were walking to the library carrying books, talking with friends or dress sporty for weekend training. Scott told me he had the same feeling when he was working in Japan. On Christmas day, he still need to dress his working suit and went to office said ‘O ha yo go za i masu’ to his colleges. Yes, after all, it was just my mood of New Year, life is still normal. There are load of work to catch up for this week, as I just indulge myself with this New Year’s mood.

I have mentioned before about we have a ping pong table in our department, so we are holding a tournament among a few keen guys this week and I just had my first game this afternoon.

Actually this had been discussing around since last term but didn’t put it into action. We have three groups of different levels, I am put into the tough one. This afternoon I had a game with Hiro – an exchanged student from Kumamato this year. It was a very good game and I was so lucky that I won. But to be honest I have been playing at that table for a long time so got used to it already, whereas Hiro rarely played with us before. I’m sure if he comes down more often and gets used to that table and people, we could have a better match.

Each of us put one pound in, and of course the winner take the money at the end. And after that we are going for a big social. After all, the main purpose of arranging such a tournament is getting people together rather than a competition, isn’t it.

Just came back to house now and my housemate told me there were seven GROUPS came to look around in our house today, and there is another one coming tonight. When I passed DSU this morning there was a long queue outside the building, not to mention how many were inside.

It’s the house hunting time now. I didn’t experience this as we were required to live in college for first year and I was in Japan in second year. Thanks to my housemate Arata who did all the hunting stuff for us while three of us were in China and Japan last year. But the house we are living now is inherited from my friends who were living here before. We had quite a few house parties here and found it is a really nice house, so we took it, haha!

Living out is definitely recommended! Although you have to solve problems like billing and maintaining by yourself, but you enjoy more freedoms and, more important, with good housemates you can have a good family! Right, here is a thing. Good friends doesn’t always mean good housemates. In my case, I am very lucky to have four nice housemates, but I’ve heard quite a few stories about ‘housemate nightmare’. Sometimes your college mates or friends met in a bar could be very interesting and you just want to hang out with them all the time. But, living together is another story. One of my friends almost went crazy when his housemate keep ‘borrow’ his food without asking. So, think carefully when choosing housemates, especially for first year students. You just met them since last October and you are going to live with them for the next whole year? Think carefully!

There will be more people come over next few days, we’ve already got quite a few bookings, and the phone keep ringing. Sometimes it’s quite interesting to guide strangers in your house.

Ps. you can click the photo below to view some pics of our house & mates.