Chinese New Year in Austin

Who would ever know there was a Chinatown in Austin, Texas? Thanks to my friend Angela who is married to a Vietnamese, we know there is.

This weekend happened to be Austin's Chinatown New Years celebration. I won't pretend I know anything about the Eastern side of the world's culture or celebrations but it is on my list of things to learn before I die.

Lately I have been intrigued with other nationalities cultures. Both of my brothers are married to women of other cultures. Unfortunately, I have never had enough time with either one of them to learn much out of my realm of Americanism. No, I am not very cultured but I hope to make sure my daughter learns more than just her bubble of existence....one good reason I love to homeschool.

To be quite honest I don't even really know what the technical difference between Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. is....but I'm sure they know. :-).

So our destination for the day was Chinatown for the Chinese New Year celebration. I never knew there was such a population of Asian people in Austin. At one point I almost felt like I was in another country. Like always, that is a really cool experience other than I don't know the language.

The whole experience was really cool to both Toby and I. Neither one of us had ever witnessed a celebration outside of educational t.v. I don't think Summer was as enthralled with the experience as we were. Once she saw the rows and rows of firecrackers, the fun was over for her. She has always hated loud noises and likes to enjoy a safe distance from fireworks/crackers when somebody other than Toby is lighting them.

As usual, I got tons of pics but I think you will get a feel of the experience better by video. I uploaded a couple of videos that hopefully tell a better story than pictures:





After the celebration we were in the mood for some Chinese, so off we went to stuff ourselves full of Chinese buffett. :-)

Happy Chinese New Year!