Chinese new year is coming up

so chinese new year is coming up. and how do the chinese celebrate? first of all by going to their home provinces (which means empty dorms for me!) and then with abundance. from what i can see. a great quantity of boxes of treats.. actually piled up in abundance, everywhere. in the metro stops, in any tiny little shop, or in shopping centres (above is Lok Fu plaza, the mall near our dorms). ferrero rocher seems really popular. boxes and boxes of yummy chocolates and biscuits, piled up like treasure troves. i love the chinese notion of wishing prosperity. Gung Hei Fat Choy!

after exploring the Lok Fu shopping plaza and not buying anything, i walked down the hill to Kowloon City district. which i loved. it reminded me of London actually, lots of little simple shops and millions of shoppers going about their business. a big difference from the rest of hong kong: buildings were only about 3 or 4 stories tall. this means it's an old area. another thing is that in areas like that there isn't a single sign or menu written in english, so i saw lots of delicious foods but didnt order any because i hate to present myself as an obnoxious tourist who wants to order food in english. so i'll have to go back with a local friend and sample some of the amazing things i saw.. the vegetables look really interesting, and all the different kinds of cured/dried meat. smoked sausages that look like salami... what i did buy though was a nice little bottle of chinese ink and one of those flower-shaped palettes which are supposed to be used for mixing ink but i'm using it for watercolours.

so then i did some ink-and-brush drawings. i love ink. this chinese variety is really, really black (the best thing you can say about ink...) and permanent, and water-resistant!

so what does water-resistant mean? it means you can go over the ink drawing with watercolours... (click to enlarge this drawing, it's worth it!)