Hello, and welcome to Asako’s 6th blog!
This month has been packed with fun activities and new experiences. One of the highlights was celebrating Chinese New Year with my friends in the boarding house.
A Colourful Chinese New Year Celebration
In Japan, we don’t usually celebrate Chinese New Year since we follow the solar calendar, but because many Chinese students live in our boarding house, we had a big celebration this year. It was a great opportunity to learn about Chinese culture and traditions.
We decorated the boarding house with festive decorations, and for Fun Thursday, everyone enjoyed homemade dumplings. It wasn’t just the Chinese students who participated; students from all backgrounds joined in, which was fantastic. Some of my friends who weren’t fans of soy sauce or Asian food before even managed to enjoy it this time!
There was some light-hearted complaining among my friends about the red pockets, a traditional Chinese New Year gift. They didn’t receive any because they couldn’t meet their relatives. I felt lucky that Japan uses the solar calendar because we have a similar tradition of giving money during the Christmas holiday, and I had already received mine!
I also learned that some of my friends had to eat vegetarian food for the first meal of Chinese New Year due to their religious beliefs. This was the first time I had heard about the religious aspect of Chinese New Year, and it really sparked my interest in learning more about Chinese culture.
The day before Chinese New Year, we went out for dinner. Unfortunately, all the Chinese restaurants were fully booked, so we ended up eating Korean food instead. I was initially worried that some of my European friends wouldn’t enjoy it, but they did, and we all had a fantastic time together.
Badminton Challenges and Determination
On the 9th of February, I played in a badminton match, competing in mixed doubles. Since I’m more comfortable playing at the back, I found the differences between ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles challenging. I made several mistakes and felt like I let my partner down, as we lost half of our games. However, I believe some of the games were winnable, and I’m determined to improve. I’m going to practice mixed doubles more, and with another match coming up next Saturday, I’ll do my best to perform better!
A Rare Sunny Weekend at the Beach
One weekend this month, we were blessed with unusually good weather, which is quite rare in England. We decided to take advantage of it and headed to the beach to watch the sunset. We took lots of photos and had a blast striking silly poses. One of the photos made us laugh uncontrollably—it was definitely the best one of the day!
This weekend was also special because it was the penultimate weekend for one of my friends, and I’m glad we could create such wonderful memories together.
Exciting Countdown to Germany
Finally, there’s just one more week until my trip to Germany! I’m so excited and can’t wait to spend a fantastic time with my friends there. I’ll be sure to share all about it in my next blog.
Thank you for reading!
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