Valentines Day, Tomorrow

Valentines is honestly not much of a special day for me.

The only year I remember spending it with my significant other of the time (like actually physically together with someone, not skyping or whatever) was first year of uni. Thank god Valentines is in Feb before uni starts. My bf at that time was in uni down in Dunedin so we rarely got to see each other :(

And then there's that awkward year where I went out with a friend, having completely friend-zoned him, ON VALENTINES thinking that our outing purely coincided with Valentines....

We're ok now, but we don't really hang out anymore, and I will definitely remember that awkward day forever.......... _:(´□`」 ∠):_

In retrospect, the years that I spend Valentines communicating online with my significant other were always lonelier than the years I spent it alone, or with friends. I wonder if that is the case for everyone? Long distance relationships are hard :'(

Anyway, this year I don't even have to arrange an outing with friends!

Several groups are doing stuff that night, going out, getting drunk, partying, eating their face in, you name it. But this year, the Chinese Lantern Festival happens to be on the 14th Feb!

元宵节 the festival of reuniting with family and eating 元宵(the glutinous rice balls in soup). It's held on the 15th day of the new Lunar year, I believe on the first full moon of the new year? Whatever the case - it's a good reason to pig out with the fam!

New fillings are offered every year! It's like Japanese kitkats, sooo many random flavours!

My favourite is the (fairly) traditional black sesame filling :3

My home town is HangZhou (杭州), and we always have our 元宵 with dried Osmanthus Fragrans (桂花) which adds the most beautiful subtle scent and sweetness ~ 

Now there is also a peanut filling 元宵 that's commonly sold in Chinese supermarkets which is just as yummy as the black sesame!

Like Chinese New Year, and Christmas before that, my mom and I will probably be spending 元宵节 together with our family friends in East Auckland. It's gonna be a good- and sober- night! :)

I'm super missing Rainnie their chihuahua already! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

So yup, this is my entry for the (weekly?monthly?) gaijin-gyaru topics blog post! Link me yours!!! I need new people to follow~~ (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))