More February

If you check them album February '10 again, you'll be able to see the rest of our celebrating during National Day weekend. Weighing the costs, we decided to go out to the streets, or rather, the main street where most of the celebrating takes place on the 25th. With Chris as our official male escort and armed with silly string and foam, we headed out into a street of mayhem.

It's only a block or two to walk there from our apartment building, so we were surprised to see how much noise and litter could be found from one block to the next! Because traffic was stopped on one side of the road and all the U-turns were blocked, cars were traveling in one direction clear up the Gulf Road- a good 12km or so long. People had vehicles decorated with stickers, emblems, and flags, and some even had special paint jobs for the occasion.

The game is, if you spray someone first, they will spray you back with water, string, foam, etc. Generally, if you don't look threatening or if you say you aren't participating, people will leave you alone. In some cases, boys will run by a car, open the door if it's not locked, and spray the person inside. Guys will crack the tops of their windows so that they can spray out, but no one can spray in. It's quite the game.

To paraphrase Chris' take on the evening, "What better way to celebrate your national freedoms than by throwing junk in the streets and violating people's personal rights." He was not interested in getting sprayed...and neither of us really were. Most of the adults we saw didn't have their clothes messed up at all. It was quite a sight to experience once, but I think next year we'll travel like last year.