Today is the last day of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. I went to Chinatown yesterday to see if there were any special celebrations happening, but alas, there didn't seem to be much besides copious amounts of mooncakes for sale. Apparently, the moon festival is no longer that big of a holiday- not even comparable to Chinese New Year. My Chinese roommate, Tang, said that the Moon Festival has even been surpassed by Christmas in China!

I've tried a few bites of mooncake though, in honor of the holiday. That's an interesting story.... apparently mooncakes became famous because during the time when the Chinese were under threat from the Mongols they used the mooncake to smuggle messages to organize a rebellion to overthrow the Mongols. The mooncakes are a very rich cake made from lotus paste and other sweet fillings, and the Mongols didn't like them, so they knew the Mongols would never find the messages hidden inside. The rebellion was organized for the 15th day of the 8th moon, was ultimately successful, and led to what today is the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.

While on the topic of food, I did decide to try a local food while I was in Chinatown yesterday- peanut soup. Basically, it tasted like sugar water with peanuts in it, so I wasn't really that keen on it. Though it did have really yummy rice dumplings with a peanut butter-like filling inside.

You can also get toasted sandwiches out of vending machines here. It kind of scares me, so I haven't tried it....