Another day which left me too exhausted to post anything last night before crashing. There was a lot though, I know that this is going to be a very long post.

The first thing that happened in the morning was something that promised to be a great experience. My roommates future in laws had told their two brothers that I liked photography. They also like photography and arranged for me to go with them to a car show with a press pass, or photographer pass or something so that we could take pictures of the cars. They were especially clear and told me repeatedly that we were going to take pictures of the car models.

Unfortunately I woke up with a stomach ache from all the hot peppers I ate last night, and I was exhausted, because we didn't get home until around 2 AM and had to get up by 7:30 AM. We went to the car show, unfortunately because it was the last day there were only a few models, so after taking pictures there we walked to a local park/zoo and walked around for a while. It didn't take long before my roommate and I were tired and wanted to go home. We spent the afternoon inside sleeping and watching a movie.

Tonight was a special night though, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, held in the exact middle of the lunar year, on the day when the moon is biggest and brightest. The Chinese have many traditions surrounding this holiday.

The traditional story is: A long time ago, there were ten suns that circled the Earth. The Earth was too hot, and so the Emperor commissioned the best archer, a banished immortal named Houyi, to shoot down nine of the suns. When he was successful the Emperor rewarded him with a pill that would allow him to return to the heavens and live with the gods. Houyi hid the pill in his home and began to prepare himself to take the pill. One day while cleaning, his wife Chang'e discovered the pill and took it. When Houyi returned home she ran from him and flew into the heavens. Houyi chased her, but was never willing to shoot her with his arrow to force her to stop. He returned to Earth, and she stopped at the moon. There she made a palace for herself. Eventually Houyi made a palace for himself on the sun, and once a year, when the moon is closest to the Earth Houyi visits his wife on the moon, that is why on that day it is so full and so bright.

The Chinese say that on this day when the moon is full (in Chinese you say that it is 'full, round, and complete') families get together full, round, and complete. They always eat. So we went out to dinner with the entire extended family, and it was delicious.

Another thing that families do is exchange moon cakes. These round cakes are mean to symbolize the fullness and completeness of the relationship between people and the roundness of the moon. Of course we had some moon cakes.

Then the family wanted me to go out and take pictures of the moon, so I went with the two uncles around the city and took pictures of the moon.

The best part of the night had to be the sky lanterns though. These sky lanterns are like little paper hot air balloons. They are very light and in the middle there is a little block that you light on fire, then they fly up into the sky. When you release the lantern you make a wish, if the lantern flies into the sky the wish will come true, if the lantern falls from the sky than your wish will not come true.

We got lanterns and all released them. It was a fun night.