Celebrating Chinese New Year in Cardiff

Today’s post is brought to you by guest blogger Jules Lo who writes about her recent CNY celebration together with other Bruneian students in Cardiff. Thank you very much for your heart-warming post Jules! I see some familiar faces from my visit to Caerdydd last year.

First, let me introduce myself, my name is Juliana Lo but everyone calls me by the name Jules. I am a Cardiff student taking MSc Hospitality Management in University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC). I have been in Cardiff for almost 5 years now since my undergraduate [BA (Hons) Hospitality Management] and I have missed celebrating CNY with my family for 5 years. Being away from home is really difficult for me as I am a very family-oriented person.

As this is my last year in the UK, I wanted to share CNY with my friends, so last Saturday (5 February 2011) I organized an event for Chinese New Year and invited the Bruneian students over for dinner. Estimated around 40+ students came for the event and everyone had a blast…as you know the houses in the UK are quite small so I had to convert my room into another living room so that everyone was able to fit into the house. The event started from 6.30pm up to 12 midnight, the event was called "RED RED RED CHINESE NEW YEAR" as everyone was asked to wear RED to the event.

Transforming my room into a living room for the guests

With the help from my housemates (Hjh Tity, Jimah, Munir, Isa and Amira), we cleaned and decorated the house, and the girls helped me cook for the event. We had Chicken Rice for dinner along with other side dishes and some desserts (as you can see from the pictures), Bubur Chacha was the most popular dessert of the night [it is a sweet dessert with sago, sweet potato and cassave (ubi kayu)]

Chicken Rice

At the end of the day, everyone was so tired but we all had great fun and laughters together. Eventhough, I couldn’t give away "ANGPOW" because I’m not married yet (a chinese traditional belief) but I pray for all, a successful, healthy and happy life to come 🙂 GONG XI FA CAI!

Wabbits

The girls enjoying the Bubur Chacha dessert