Since we were such a hit at our last performance, our dance troupe was invited back to dance again at two more events celebrating New Years. The first was a lunch event with faculty and just the seven dancers. The "lunch" consisted of traditional New Years foods such as tangerines and peanuts, but not a whole lot of anything else. We watched other performances (which included kindergartners doing Gangnam Style) and then did ours, left and that was about it. From there, we went straight to our next performance of the day at the campus we will shortly be moving to (the main campus at Minhang). This was a New Years celebration for all 40 of us, along with STJU faculty, students and some other international students. It was a great meal and we got to meet some Chinese students which was interesting. Our performance there included the whole group joining us after our dance to sing Hail Purdue (the Purdue fight song) and Pengyou (a Chinese song about friendship - think the Chinese version of the Barney song). It was a great hit again and all of the Chinese students joined in on the Chinese song at the end. The night included fireworks, food and lots of pictures being taken of us. It was a long day full of dancing and smiling like we knew what was going on.
Us and two SJTU students dressed as snakes for the year of the snakes.. you can't see but they have little tails on their costumes.
Our dance competition.. fully equipped with flaming pants and belly shirts for all. We suggested that Purdue invest in some for future performers.
Our dance troupe, wearing the SJTU sweatshirts provided to us by the program.
The whole group singing at the dinner, Joe and I hiding in the back after dancing center stage.
This picture didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but I had to include it for the story. One of the performances that night were some ethnic bellydance ish type dancers that pulled students on stage, including Joe. This is him attempting the dance while trying not to look like too much of a fool.
Group picture with SJTU faculty (including the President in the suit in the center) and our Chinese culture teacher, Weiqi, who was there to cheer us on (to my right).
A few days later, we had our program New Years dinner which was for just the 40 of us and our Purdue professor, Dianne. We went back to the restaurant we went to for our welcome dinner, but luckily this time the menu did not include goose feet. It was a great meal and we had lots of fun chatting about our plans for our time off.
As we left dinner, the fireworks for New Years started. It began at around 7 pm and didn't stop until way after midnight. We went out and watched some along the streets as they are all from families who buy fireworks and set them off themselves. Some students also bought fireworks and managed not to lose any fingers or eyebrows which was quite an accomplishment. We headed back to the hotel and ended up at a window at midnight to watch the real show start. When we realized that they were all over the city, we managed to climb to the roof of the hotel and get a full 360 degree view of the city lit up with fireworks all around. Joe and I weren't very smart and ran up there without shoes, coats or warm pants so we had to come back inside before we lost toes, but it was an amazing way to spend our Chinese New Year here.
Shot of the fireworks from the roof.
Joe and I on the top of the ventilation box on the roof. If you look closely, Joe is wearing a tshirt and shorts..
The box we all ended up sitting on.
This is inside one of the malls near to campus. From floor to ceiling of their main area are these lanterns. I thought it pretty much summed up the New Years decorations around here so I wanted to include it.
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