BAFTA red carpet:cold but happy

I never thought I could get a chance to see a red carpet ceremony. I mean, although I study at Regent and there are so many film premieres at Leicester Square, I never went to those things because I have too many classes. But this time it’s BAFTA, and the ceremony was actually on my birthday, so I did whatever I can to get that precious wristband. One thing I couldn’t understand is that some people queued for the wristband on Friday or even Thursday, but it wasn’t handed out until Saturday morning. I really can’t imagine how they survived in the night. I just queued for about two hours in the morning and I couldn’t feel my legs cause that was way too cold. Besides, I said it was raining almost every time I went to some big events, this time it was snowing! I guess I must be REALLY lucky…

But getting the wristband is just the beginning. The next day, Sunday, I needed to be there at noon to queue for entering, while the ceremony wouldn’t begin until 4.30 pm. A lot of people went there much earlier than I did, but I just couldn’t get up and I thought if let me standing in this weather for six or seven hours, I would be literately freeze to death. Even so, I still waited for four hours to actually see a star I could recognize. That was amazing. There were lots of Harry Potter fans, more than you could imagine. Eddie Redmayne, he came quite early, and he signed almost everyone, except me, cause fans next to me begged him to take a photh with them and then he just kept walking. That would be fine cause I’ve never watched or read anything about Harry Potter. But, then, I don’t think I will get another chance to get his autograph…sad.

Anyway, at least I could see all those actors and actresses I love and they were actually walking in front of me. I got the autograph of Luke Evans, Emily Blunt, Emma Stone, and Simon Pegg! That was a real surprise cause I checked who would attend the red carpet but his name wasn’t on the list. And I also got one from Lin-Manuel Miranda~ I could never afford the ticket for Hamilton but that doesn’t matter cause I met its creator! ~ This is the best birthday I’ve ever had:)

A rainy Spring festival

Celebrating spring festival in Britain is quite different that in China. Because no matter what, this is a different country with different cultural and traditions. Actually even in China we have various traditions to celebrate this festival, based on where you are from. For example, as I know in southern China, people don’t eat dumplings at the lunar new year’s eve. I’m from central China and we have something quite unique. People always think we will have a banquet on the new year’s eve to celebrate, but in my hometown, we have that banquet during the week before the new year’s eve. We invite all the family members, have a small ceremony to worship our ancestors, and we must have certain number of dishes, usually that magic number is 10. Among those dishes, there must be a whole fish and nobody is allowed to eat that fish. It serves as a token for happiness and fortune, because there is a Chinese idiom “Every year has enough things to spend” and in Chinese the word fish, “yu”, share the same pronunciation with the word for enough (I never know this is so hard to explain when you write in English). Anyway, we don’t eat that fish then but we will have it on the first day of the new year. We won’t waste it.

Here in London, or perhaps in the West, most people celebrate Christmas and New Year, January 1^st. I went to the Christmas carol service at St Paul’s on Christmas eve. That was amazing. For Chinese New Year, there was a celebration at Trafalgar square on January 29^th. I went there with my friend. We were so exciting before we got there, thinking there might be something special. But, it was raining, AGAIN! I mean, I went to see the New Year’s parade and it was raining cats and dogs. I basically saw nothing and I got drenched, thankfully in the end my friend came to save me with her umbrella. So I guess maybe raining is the best way to celebrate anything in this country. Maybe here we should do the water-sprinkling festival.

But rain means something good will happen in the coming year, especially rain in spring. Because it brings water to the field and water is crucial for farming. Raining in spring means in autumn there will be a good harvest in autumn. However, raining all the time may have some different meaning. In 2016 we’ve seen a lot of, disasters, that’s the only word I can use to describe. Hopefully, 2017 will be a good year for everybody, although based on what has happened recently, it feels like a wishful thinking.

My friends and I had a great dinner on the new year’s eve. Those dumplings were made by ourselves. Most of us never made dumplings before but we all thought that was the best way to celebrate. No matter what lies ahead, happy Chinese new year!