Shellshock!

Trip Start Jun 03, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Friday, February 22, 2008

We've been in Qingdao just a few days and everything is a bit weird and my eyes and ears are open wide trying to take in as much information as possible to help me learn about and adapt to my new home. It's not really conscious, but there's a hypersensitivity, which is a bit exhausting at times.
 
Nonetheless, nothing could have prepared me for the arrival of nightfall today. All hell let loose and you could have been forgiven for thinking there was a war on. I knew that being the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, it was Lantern Festival which traditionally involves hanging lanterns to worship Buddha. However, it seemed that everybody in the city was letting off firecrackers and or fireworks anywhere they felt like it. Firecrackers get an awful lot louder when they are let off in residential gardens and the explosion reverberates between the buildings. They were hung on trees, lampposts, climbing frames or just dropped on the floor. It was slightly unnerving, but not a touch on people letting off rockets between houses. Maybe I'm too nervous, but having seen what happens when fireworks fly horizontally towards people, I figure I've got a right to be.  The next morning was unbelievable - debris literally everywhere. I'm not sure who cleaned it up.
 
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