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February the eighth. If you ask me what this date is about, I would gladly tell you — It was the day in 2016 to celebrate Chinese New Year.

As I am an international student from China, I feel so contented to have an opportunity that I didn’t expect for to engage in the Chinese New Year decorations of our senior college, because it was my actually first time to put on lanterns. Just like the majority of students might have noticed, our senior college and canteen was decorated by all the traditional Chinese things, such as Kongming lanterns, couplets and lots of Chinese characters like ” 平”, “乐 “, ” 喜”, which meant peace, joy and happiness respectively. The great atmosphere did play a big role in contributing the best on this significant day. 

A very interesting ”detail” that I like to mention here is that when the lantern accidentally fell on the ground downstairs, a senior college boy came along and picked it up for us. Then what happened was when I thanked him, he said “That’s all right” in Chinese in return. I did feel moved that Chinese was valued and respected quite a lot.

Also, I consider that it’s been a special day that not only brings surprise to the Chinese students, but also to the local students and staff. Lots of people did swarm into the celebration at noon. Some people were playing the chopsticks, others were drinking Jasmine tea that was in those adorable pottery tea cups, and the majority of students and staff were trying their calligraphy very hard, holding the Chinese brush firmly, concentrating to write “龙 “, which meant ”dragon” . I was quite wondering if this character was easy for them or just because it was the symbol of China. Fried prawn crackers and Chinese candies were everywhere on the table, which made me a little bit homesick as they are the special desserts to eat on holidays; and I would love to mention that our Principal was eating the Chinese fried rice –It was one of my favourite foods.

I really appreciated that Tintern gave us such a magnificent opportunity to gather together to share our cultural essence and have fun, which formed a specially-linked internationalised community of Tinternites. In the end of this article, I want to quote some lyrics that was adapted a little bit here :

 you and me
 from on world
 we are family
 travel dream
 a thousand miles
 fated to meet
 in Tintern.

by Maria Ruan, Year 10