Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing well and and had fun reading my previous post. Today I want to share something fun I did to celebrate my CNY.

This year is my first time to celebrate CNY in London. For the past three years, I was in Uni but I never had chance to go home to celebrate this day with my family. The reason for that is one the flight ticket is usually expensive during this time and two it is usually the exam period that I have to study for most of time. Evaluating the cost and time, I think it makes more sense to stay in UK and go home for easter and summer. Then you might ask if I am staying in the UK, how do I celebrate my CNY here? For me, I usually arrange CNY dinner with my friends.

CNY in Uni

In the first year, I joined the Taiwanese society and celebrated the new year with the society members. We had an event for dinner gathering, which we made the dumplings from scratch and cooked hot pot on the side. The process for wrapping dumpling was long, we started in the early afternoon and end up having the food late at night. But it was fun to spend the time with people from your country and sharing each other’s tips for making dumplings. For the event, we roughly had about 20 turn ups. The bustling atmosphere actually made me feel like I am back home in my grandma’s house to celebrate the holiday.

Second year, because of covid-19 restriction, I couldn’t host the event as I used to. But the CNY spirit never dies and I decided to have hot pot with flatmates at home. Unlike last year, which we spent so much time to make the dumplings, the process for preparing the hotpot is quite simple, which only took around 10 minutes. At the end of dinner, everyone was so full and happy, which is the most important and fun during the new year.

This year, I am not in Guildford anymore as I moved to London for the placement. It felt a bit strange for not being in the Guildford and surrounded by friends and students. This year, we need to look into the date and restaurants to meet up. This made me feel like I am an actually adult, and the scene. In the past, I have never been in the scenario that I can only go restaurant at certain time because of work. I used to be the one sitting in the back and just wait till I arrived in grandma’s house, and upon arrival the food will be ready to eat. But now, being the only person in my family to be in UK, I did everything myself. I guess I am going to gradually adopt to this differences and experienced what it is like to be a grown-up. Apart from realising I am in the different stage of life, the night was really fun. We went to this restaurant near Shepard bush garden, called Shikumen. The decoration of the restaurant is really on point, with laterns and wooden table brought you back to the fine dining restaurant in Taiwan. Regarding the pricing of the restaurant, it is more on the medium high, and the portion is relatively small compared to what you have for most of the restaurants in Chinatown. We end up spending £37 per person and after the food we decide to have a New Year drink in the nearby bar. I have to say the first time celebrating CNY in London is not too bad, I had fun and met some new people and hopefully this year will turn out better than last year!

I wish for those who celebrates a Chinese New Year and be 虎虎生風 in every area you want to succeed.

Until next blog, have a wonderful day:))