February 24, 2007
Gong Xi Fa Chai again!!!
This looks suspiciously like Singapore, doesn't it? Red lanterns, crowds of people going up and down the escalators, glass and metal architecture... Could have tricked me too! But no, we didn't move back, neither we are travelling in Asia. You probably know that last week there was Chinese New Year (CNY) and Auckland has a significant Chinese population, so CNY could actually be felt in some places here. Besides that the highrises and the modern city architecture makes Auckland look very much like any Asian city to me...
We went to Sky TV Tower for dinner with Mae, the Canadian girl that I met at Tongariro Crossing few weeks ago. I've never been to the tower before, because I never really admired those urban landscapes too much and, of course, it would have been a terribly touristy thing to do. As I arrived to the tower, I was surprised to see huge crowds of people downstairs. It appeared that the Blues (the rugby team that regularly exercises in the stadium at Unitec!!!) were signing autographs for their fans. So we had a chance to take a picture with the Blues cheerleeders (unfortunately the small girl that took the picture almost cropped me out completely). But Mae really managed to position herself strategically!
Sky Tower is the tallest building in Auckland and it offers really stunning view over the city. You can do bungee jumping off this tower, but I think you have to have something seriously wrong with your head to ever consider doing that!!
The most shocking view was looking straight down and seeing those cars in the streets, right under your feet.
Sky Tower also has a casino that was patronised almost entirely by Asian customers! I guess Chinese New Year could explain something, or then there really must be something about Asian people being more prone to gambling. There was a huge Chinese restaurant right at the casino and it was completely booked out for the night!
The restaurant that we went to with Mae had amazing views and was revolving around, making a full round in 1 hour. It was nice to go out and I was lucky to have company, because I don't believe that I could ever drag out Kaj to a place like that.. I started realising though, that there's a connection between Chinese New Year and Uzgavenes/Laskiainen/Ash Wednesday. Its maybe a second or third year that I notice these festivals going together on the same week. Must be the lunar calendar. In Lithuania, you're supposed to eat really fatty food on Tuesday (lots of pancakes!!!) and then start Lent fasting on Wednesday. All in preparation for Easter, the rebirth. For the Chinese, I guess Chinese New Year already marks the spring... New year, new clothes, new hopes... It is interesting to see these things coming together, I guess there has been much more interaction and cultural exchange among far away places throughout centuries than we are aware of! I mean, Chinese and Europeans could have picked different weeks of the same Lunar calendar for their celebrations, couldn't they? Why this week? It must be some significant time for the whole of humanity then?!??!!?! I forgot about the pancakes on Tuesday, so I'll make some tomorrow, on Sunday.
I'm still quite busy at work, but there are lots of nice things happening and being planned for the future. Yesterday I went over to see the Interior Design students first project of the year. They had to design temporary huts and sleep overnight in them to prove the concept.
Unitec campus unexpectedly turned into a shantytown with all kinds of temporary shelters erected around the Design School. Apparently they attracted lots of different kinds of public - cyclists, joggers, homeless, etc, so there was a lot of interesting interactions going throughout the night. All the participants survived overnight and in the morning everybody joined for an amazing BBQ breakfast. I was happy to be invited. Nice way to start the semester!
Posted by gkligyte at February 24, 2007 09:21 PM