Dragon Boat Festival

Today is Father's Day back in the U.S., but in Hong Kong, everyone is geared up for yet another Chinese festival which we celebrate on Tuesday, June 19th. Dragon Boat Festival is also called Tuen Ng Festival and it means another day off of work. Yippeee. It also means a day of fun activities if you're brave enough to face the crowds. I'm excited to see these famous dragon boat races, but every local I've asked said there's absolutely NO WAY they'll go watch them, it's just too busy. Must be crowded with all the easily entertained expats like me.

Why Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday
The dragon boat festival commemorates the death of a popular Chinese national hero, Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River over 2,000 years ago to protest against the corrupt rulers. Legend says that as townspeople attempted to rescue him, they beat drums to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body. People eat rice-and-meat dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves in memory of this event and everywhere I go, grocery stores, restaurants and convenience stores have these bamboo leaf dumplings on sale. I've tasted them and it's pretty good. Tastes like sticky rice with ginger, and meat in the middle.

The real highlight of the festival is the fierce dragon boats racing. Teams race the elaborately decorated dragon boats to the beat of drums. The special boats have "dragon" heads and tails, and each carries a crew of 20-22 paddlers. Sitting two across, with a steersman at the back and a drummer at the front, the paddlers race to reach the finishing line.

Mark's law firm has a dragon boat team and they have set up transportation shuttle buses, boat rides and viewing sites for us all to go so we can cheer on the team. In fact, when Mark was hired everyone in the office saw him and thought "Aha, a young strong male, let's recruit him for the dragon boat team." Little did they know Mark has a strong adversion to exercise and the fact the team practiced at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning meant there was absolutely no chance Mark would join. They pressured him hard, but he didn't cave and instead, we'll be spectators instead of participants. (I can't tease too hard, because to be honest, I wouldn't join either. Saturday morning practice? Are they serious?)

Kitten and Bailey update
The kittens and Bailey are doing well, but my allergies are not. The air purifier is just not enough and my only hope is if I can build up a tolerance to the cats. We'll see. They are really sweet and one of my co-workers wants to adopt 2 of them so it's nice to know they're going to a good home that I can visit as they grow up.