Went to Jason’s house to celebrate with his parents, family friends, and lovely German Shepherd this weekend (2/9-2/10). It was very pleasant and I’m glad I got out of Berkeley for a couple days.
From an outsiders perspective, the dynamics at the dinner table were very interesting. Jason’s parents both have masters degrees in computer science, and his family friends had masters and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. Therefore, the nature and level of conversation were vastly different compared to what I’m accustomed to at the dinner table. We talked college, politics, the tech industry, and the stock market (in which I smiled and acknowledged my lack of schematic in that field).
It was also great speaking in Mandarin the entire day. Because they were all from Tianjin, which is right next to Beijing, they had Beijing accents and rolled their tongues. It was reminiscent of studying abroad at Peking University this past summer, and it felt great conversing in Mandarin. My accent changes drastically when speaking to them (and northerners) as opposed to people from the south, from Taiwan, or from, Singapore.
Dinner was delicious, and it was Beijing/Tianjin based foods! We celebrated traditionally with dumplings (to scare away ghostly spirits, so I learned), tangyuan to increase our lifespan, and I received a red envelope.
I had a great time. Very thankful for celebrating it with good people this year.
新年快樂！恭喜發財紅包拿來！
Andy Cheng 