Chinese New Year in Chinatown, Boston

Hey hey, loyal followers! January 29 was Chinese New Year, and I went to Chinatown in Boston to celebrate! Here’s what we did.

When we got there, we walked around a bit to see what kind of shops & restaurants there were, and just to see the celebration. Soon, we could hear loud explosions in the air—firecrackers! Firecrackers were on of the 3 things left on a stool outside shops, along with oranges & cabbage. At first we didn’t know why, but then we saw two dragon puppets and some people with masks march toward a store! We followed them, and we soon figured out that the masked people & the dragons would dance around a bit, then go inside and dance around the store, and then come out again. Then, one of the dragons would pretend to eat the oranges and cabbage and then lie down for a bit. When it got up again, it would toss the oranges and cabbage out of it’s mouth and into the air! They would march away, and someone else would light the firecrackers and throw them onto the ground. And they were super loud up close!

After a while we got hungry, so we tried to find a restaurant. We didn’t find anything that wasn’t crowded at first, but then we found a place called the Empire Garden Restaurant. We walked up 2 flights of stairs, and then came to a little room. There was another room through a door, and when we got a view, we saw how HUGE it was! There are some pictures of it at the end. We sat down, poured ourselves some tea, and checked out the menu. Our order was composed of 2 different soups (hot & sour soup and wonton soup), a plate of noodles, and the Pupu Platter, which included on it crab rangoon, chicken wings, boneless spare ribs, beef teriyaki, shrimp lo hai & egg rolls. By the time we were done, we couldn’t eat anything else until the ride home!

When we came back out we walked around a bit more. Once, we heard some firecrackers, but they didn’t stop. They just kept going on for 5 minutes! We checked out a cool store called Chinatown Hit which sold things like Chinese fans, lucky cats, jade statues, and even an enormous bronze statue of the Chinese General Kwan! Then we walked around some more. Strangely, almost nobody was cleaning or even cared about all the cabbage, oranges, and firecracker wrappers just lying in the street. Near the end, my mother wanted to go to a bakery for some sweets. After we visited 2 of them to purchase some crispy cookies and a strange cupcake dessert, we visited the last one. And when we got inside, there was a stool with an orange, a head of cabbage and a roll of firecrackers just waiting to be lit and eaten! A picture is at the end. We stayed inside to watch the procession of eating the food and lighting the firecrackers.

After that, we headed home and ate our desserts in the car. It was quite a day!

I hope you enjoyed this post and the pictures that follow. Check out my other posts, and feel free to post a comment!

TreeHugger new science articles

Hey guys! Today’s post is about a website called TreeHugger.com. I sometimes like to go on it to find out what’s currently going on in the world. Well, today I have looked at a few articles on it, and I would like to share them with you!

snow-leopards.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smart.jpg

The first article was “Lab-grown clones could save species from extinction“. We all know that saving endangered species from extinction is quite challenging. You’ve got to capture males and females, breed them in a lab, them make sure you set them free in the correct climate so they can survive. But one university student may have found another way. His name is Rajneesh Verma, and he managed to harvest some tissue samples from some snow leopards. From these, he created special cells that might actually allow scientists to clone an animal! If the cloning experiments are successful, just imagine how that could help in endangered species conservation. Instead of finding a fertile mother & father and taking them to a laboratory to breed, all you would have to do is find them, take the tissue, make the cells, and convert them into sperm! That would be a huge leap in conservation. Read the rest of this entry »

Civil Rights Movement poem & picture

Hey guys! this is just something I did for school. It’s a bunch of small poems about the Civil Rights Movement. the picture i did on Adobe Illustrator. It symbolizes the end of the civil rights movement. Hope you enjoy!

ColorWonder: Red

Here is the next addition in my new art series, ColorWonder! each one will be a different color, and i’ll list the items used for them.

Red: 2 Kong dog toys, 1 “I love New Bedford” pin, 1 apple, 1 plastic spoon, 1 jar of bubble mix, 1 X-acto knife, 1 Human Torch action figure, 1 table tennis paddle, 1 remote control car controller, 1 Mediumstudio business card, 1 Play-Doh mold, 1 velvet bag, 1 pen, 1 pair of sea urchin scissors, and one novelty finger guillotine. Feel free to post a comment, and look out for the next ColorWonder color, yellow!

National Bird Day Contest Winners!

An update on the contest winners!

NATIONAL BIRD DAY CONTEST WINNERS!

National Bird Day Contest Entries

Below is a link Dr. Harrison has asked to pass along to all of our friends that discusses the importance of free-flight in parrots. It’s amazing how insightful even the youngest kids can be…

LINK: National Bird Day Contest Entries

“January 5th is National Bird Day! This important occasion was established by the international animal protection organization, Born Free USA in conjunction with The Avian Welfare Coalition. Its purpose is to honor the diversity of beautiful bird species world wide, to encourage us all to help preserve the natural places that support birds, and to embrace freedom as the right of all winged creatures.

To herald the event, Foster Parrots & The New England Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary has sponsored a National Bird Day Awareness contest for children in grades 1 – 6. The children are asked to do their best work, coloring a picture of a parrot, and writing a paragraph answering the following:

Pretend you are a parrot!  – Tell us why flying free is important to you!”

“It is important because it allows me to explore the universe and not just be stuck in a tiny claustrophobic space all day. Flying free is a feeling of independence and it allows me to interact with other parrots. Being in a cage is like staring into a wonderland while standing behind a pane of glass. It also provides good physical exercise from being locked up.

Zane – Age 10″

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