Today is Chinese Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, time for family reunion, appreciating the full moon, enjoying moon cakes, etc... It certainly reminds me the rabbit lantern I used to play when I was a little kid. My dad made a few for me, the frame was made by bamboo pieces, wrapped by thin half transparent white paper or colour ones, put four little wheels under it then I pulled it behind myself and ran as fast as I could. A candle was placed inside the lantern, children wait for the night, light the candle, go outside to the streets, drag their lovely rabbits happily. As far as I can remember, all those rabbit lanterns my dad made for me ended badly, either I burned it by the candle inside carelessly or I broke the paper outside. And when I asked my dad for another one, the festival was gone, I had to wait till the next year. Probably these days not too many rabbit lanterns are made by paper or even with a real candle inside, but plastic outside and lamp bulb with battery instead, somehow I always feel some joys are missing. I miss those old days.

But it has not too much to do with me anyway, just like other normal days, and it's cloudy tonight, hardly I could find the moon. How sad.
"The moon is always there, we could watch it anytime, who was so bored to invent this festival?" A gal said to me. Well, all those traditional festivals make ppl either happy or sad, that might be the purpose. On the mid-autumn festival of the year before last year, I still lived with homestay, and I told them the folklore about this festival. It has been two years already.. I'm a sort of free these days, I finished a few tests in the past two weeks, I bought the plane ticket and I'm going back to Shanghai on Nov. 14th, I'm pretty sure it's going to be busy as hell in next month, assignments, exams, and maybe some other unexpected shit.

Papers for 2005 are available now, I have to take one L2 paper, five L3 papers next year, the shitty thing is that the paper fee for International students has been increased again!! DAMN the school! Blood sucker! One L2 computer science paper is up to $3001 now, and it used to be only $2417 in 2003. But I still have to choose them. I'm going to take one L2 management system paper and one L3 management system paper, though I don't know much about management stuff, but... they're cheaper, only $2667 each, compared with the same level CS papers they're cheaper of course.. I'm coming back to New Zealand Feb. 28th next year, I'll stay longer than last time I went back, and I probably will not going back to Shanghai in next two years.

Happy mid-autumn festival!