Fireworks in My Room

by Amy

When we first moved here almost 3 years ago, my boys were 2 1/2 years old. There were many nights where they would cry out an hour or two after they had gone to bed, "Daddy! There's fireworks in my room!!" At two years old, it was loud and scary! (Now they sleep right through them!) Fireworks and and blackcats can easily be purchased on any day of the year and lit at any location, any time, day or night. Locals believe (or, did believe years ago) that the fireworks scare off the "bad spirits." So, often, when a new store opens or someone gets married, fireworks explode! When people have a party, fireworks explode! When people are happy, fireworks explode! When someone dies, fireworks explode! And when there's a holiday FIREWORKS EXPLODE!!

As I mentioned in my last post, we celebrated the lunar new year at home this year. When it comes to holidays, this is definitely the BIGGEST one of the year. Everything (except for Wal-mart) is closed for at least 3 days, and many stores are closed for 7-8 days. Most workers have 7 days vacation and students have anywhere from 3-5 weeks off. So, I now realize that I thought I had experienced holiday fireworks around here since I had been in town for many other holidays.... I was wrong! It was absolutely insane! On the eve of the new year, in the garden area out our back window, there were a steady stream of fireworks from about 5 pm to 1am. They were so loud that we had our TV volume set at 56 as we watched ET with the kids. We usually have the volume set at 23-30. And, they still asked often asked us to repeat what was said! When I say fireworks, I don't mean little bottle rockets... Think downtown firework display on the Forth of July. That's what was happening in my backyard! Debris was hitting our windows!! Since we live on the 13th floor, we're at the perfect height! They explode right in front of us! It was cool...for the first couple of hours, then, it was just loud.... The kids and I slept right through it... Brad woke up all night long....

And, the next morning, we looked out our window and this is what we saw....

This picture was taken from the 13th floor. Notice the bench on the top right corner to help with size. All the red stuff is the trash/debris from the fireworks! Crazy.... I tried to take pics of the fireworks exploding, but between the window glass and the flash, I couldn't make it work!