Chinese New Year: Then and Now

Chinese New Year has always been my most anticipated holiday of the year. Not only that I get to dress up in nice red outfit, I can also get some extra money from the red packets that my relatives give me. But that's not the point, it is the togetherness that I'm looking for since I can only meet everyone in my extended family on Chinese New Years. 

I can still remember my Chinese New Year 4 years ago when I was still in primary 6.
I met up with most of my family members, including my favourite cousin, the one whom I used to play with almost everyday. At first, it was just another Chinese New Year. However, things change when my aunt came into the picture. She received way too many text messages from her colleagues. Then, she told my cousin and I to reply them. The exciting thing is that she paid us to do that simple task! As what normal kids do, we competed to get more money than the other. So far, that was my favourite Chinese New Year.

Last year, I didn’t get to go home for Chinese New Year. I was pretty much stuck in the boarding school. There was not much to do (besides the pile of homework that the school gave) and I didn’t have any intention to go out as no one would actually accompany me besides my roommates. However, they went home too along with almost everyone else. And to be honest, I envied them. Luckily (I don’t feel so lucky, though), my parents were on skype! We chatted for about 15 minutes (which is pathetic) then the signal became so bad that we had to stop.

This year’s is the most pathetic Chinese New Year that I’ve ever gone through. On Chinese New Year’s eve, I bought a dark blue dress (which is not a new years’ colour) when all families had their reunion dinner. What made me quite happy was that my mom promised to go on Skype today at around 1 pm.

I waited, but nothing happened. There were no incoming calls. Until my dad called me at around 3 pm, but he only told me to wait for the call. So, my waiting session continued. What I did while waiting was pretty pathetic too, reading an article about Taylor Swift’s sad valentine’s day plans, watching One Direction’s videos that don’t amuse me anymore, and daydreaming.

Now, I can tell you something: waiting sucks. I’ve been waiting for almost 8 hours and my parents haven’t called me, my mom hasn’t even read my BBM at all. Is this how a Chinese New Year goes?