A cat, not a tiger!

On New Years Day everyone in Beijing goes to the Temple Festival. It's this huge block of land filled with a combination of squares and open halls. Each has some activity for everyone: performances, arcade type games with prizes, good luck trees with lanterns hanging from every branch (for people to walk through and thus receive good luck for the next year), food stands, gift stands, everything! So many people were there, it was hard to stand at points. Especially at intersections when people were pressed shoulder to shoulder and trying to go in 100 different directions. I'm not sure how the strollers and wheelchairs go through without getting trampled.
One of our first stops was at an arcade type stand. I think you had to hit bottles off of a pedestal. Prizes ranged from Pink Panthers to Winnie to Poohs to Stiches (from Lilo & Stich). Pretty much any American cartoon character. I asked if I could try to win a stuffed Tigger. My host mother pushed her way to the front of the line to find out how to play, but then realized that people were receiving Tweety Birds with diapers instead so we kept walking. Not understanding that I was hoping for Tigger, not a tiger, my parents kept their eyes peeled for a tiger the rest of the day.
One vendor was wearing an Obama mask, others were wearing hats with ox horns on them for the new year. I tried to buy one of the ox hats later and my host mom was so confused. I tried to explain to her I didn't want to wear on, just show it to people, but she still didn't get why I'd want one of those furry things on my head.
A few spots were designated food stops where people could buy three foot wooden sticks of seasoned pork, chicken or calamari. When you were done, you just threw the stick on the ground. Some people walked through the crowd with entire handfulls -- 15 or so sticks.
As we were heading out of fair my host dad jumped up, threw his camera into my arms and ran towards an arcade stand filled with Garfield prizes. My mom started dying cracking up, "That's a cat, not a tiger!!"