Welcome to the Year of the Monkey

This 83-year-old Tai Chi teacher did a very athletic sword kata, complete with dips, one-legged stands, and a great thrusting and parrying of the heavy sword. It was the annual Chinese festival staged by the Chinese residents of my apartment building: dance, singing, Tai Chi demos, poetry, Chinese Opera, all in the Chinese language. And of course food: countless varieties of dumplings, pancakes, puff balls of various sizes with various contents, and sweets. It lasted over two hours.

Previous celebration and full context here.

Bella and I were given seats of honor, on the front row. After an hour and a half of being quietly engaged and clapping in all the right places, she fell asleep. (Extra.)