Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello guys! I'm writing another blog post-woohoo! It around that time of the year where all the Chinese people gather and celebrate, ITS CHINESE NEW YEAR! This year is the year of the goat/sheep. 

The program for the performances

Two days ago on Friday the 13th (:O), I went to a local Chinese New Year celebration. Technically, Chinese New Year is on the 19th, but whatever, it's close enough. It was held at the Nelson Atkins Museum, which is one of the prettiest museums you will ever go to. 

The front of the museum at night
I'm in love~<3

Obviously, I doubt you know this, but I'm Asian, more specifically, Chinese. The reason I went to the celebration wasn't just to go and have fun, but I was performing Chinese dance. They had a lot of performances going on during the day (sadly, I didn't get to see many), but I feel really lucky to be able to perform. It wasn't just me obviously, but my whole dance group, called Jasmine Chinese Dance. We have small girls in the group, like age 5 and 6, to full blown adult, maybe 40-50 years old? So yeah, we're pretty diverse. I love doing Chinese dance because it's different and I can embrace my heritage and culture. I believe that's a pretty important thing to do; learning about where you came from and incorporating it into your life.. 

I was performing a "Li" group folk dance, with these types of hats? They're kind of hard to describe, like two feet long circular hats with a point at the top? The costumes were hideous though... They had these sleeveless red tops with some type of pattern with the matching set of pant. Not only that, but we had to wear these gigantic silver "bib" necklaces that jingled every time you moved. Anyways, performing it was really fun :). I admit, we messed up a few times, but that didn't matter! I had tons of fun with my friends, Renny, Lisa, April, Angela, Serena, Lillian, Aleena, and Amanda. Overall, it was a great experience and a fun time!

Left-Renny Center-Me Right-Lisa
MY DANCING BUDDIES
Okay.....let's just ignore the costumes

Left-Lisa     Center-Me    Right-Angela
Getting ready to perform
We're so fabulous
Angela was doing a different dance than us so that's why she's in a different costume

Anyways.......well this is my first "real" personal blog post...hope you guys found it at least slightly entertaining...

later!

-elaine