That said, it was a fascinating experience. Our group went to a Chinese restaurant (more Chinese than you usually get in Westford – the waiters actually mostly spoke Chinese) for lunch, with traditional Chinese food and customs (drinking tea first, etc.). My first clash with chop sticks was probably amusing for everyone but me, but with a lot of practice I did get to the point where I could use them without spilling everything at once.

In the middle of the meal (which tasted fantastic, on a side note), it got loud. And when I say loud, I mean loud. Really loud. The parade had reached our restaurant, and as soon as the brightly colored dragons, red and yellow in this case, entered, the banging and cracking started. They danced around the room for a bit, and left again (later I saw that they did that to every shop, so they probably were a bit short on time).

Outside, more of these smaller groups formed a whole parade, moving through all of Chinatown. Dragon costumes in all colors, from blue to yellow to black to blue, everywhere and the two-man teams wearing them performing acrobatics as well as hopping in tune to the beats of the big drums constantly being hammered away on by at least two persons. A mystery to me, however,  was the throwing of lettuce and grapefruit, though. I have no idea what that was for. On the streets small stall vendors used the opportunity to try to sell to the excited crowd of people following the parade, and some were even lighting small fireworks. The only things marring the picture were the mounds of ice at the side on the street, which were liable to trip you, and the constant police presence – officers near the parade, and police cars in a perimeter all around Chinatown. Apparently they didn’t trust everything to happen peacefully.

Again the mixture of culture in the US was prevalent, it is an interesting thing indeed to live in such a multi-faceted country.