Jessica Liu
Rose Parade Interview Episode 1
I interviewed Mr. Charles Meier, an award-winning float designer for the company PARIDISO about their Rose Parade floats. I asked, “What inspired you to start designing floats?” Mr. Meier replied, “When I was little, I watched the Rose Parade and just fell in love with those floats. And, yeah, that’s kinda how it all started.” I also asked about lots of other things because I was so interested! But I do remember him saying his dream when he was little was to be the float designer he is now.
SO,
“Always Dream BIG!”
Hi, I’m Jessica Liu, a Lajaja Kids Junior Journalist and you’re here reading my summary of my awesome behind-the-scenes ROSE PARADE FLOATS experience. Keep reading, and HAVE FUN! After that interview, we got a tour led by Ms. Gwen Robertson. We saw SO much! Fun Fact: Did you know that for the Rose Parade, everything that’s exposed on a float has to be covered in something NATURAL? I didn’t! We learned SO much including that on a float there was a brown camel. Everything exposed has to be natural, so they glued green moss for the fur. Since camels are brown not green, they put glue over the moss, and sprinkled cinnamon on top! Isn’t THAT bizarre!?
They’re working SO hard to finish these amazing floats on time!
After the tour, we helped cut yellow flower petals off for the natural part of a yellow float. Sigh. Now I know what it feels like to be there cutting flower
petals off for yellow floats. I only did that for about 20 minutes. Volunteers have been there doing that ALL DAY! Can you believe that?!
Rose Parade Interview Episode 2
On December 30, 2015, I went to the Episode 2 of The Rose Parade floats. Guess what? The Fresh Off The Boat abc team were at the Rose Bowl too filming and episode for December 30, 2015’s night. We interviewed Kelly Hui, the Princess of Yuan Dynasty who’ll be on the Marco Polo: East Meets West Singpoli float. I asked, “ How do feel about being chosen to be on this float?” Kelly replied, “I feel very honored to be chosen for this float…”
We had 2 challenges about the floats, too. ( FUUUUUN!!!!!!!!!!! ) Number 1, was, Who’s The Dragon Artist? What you do was: There was 4 of us, so we got divided into teams of 2. We each get 30 seconds to draw the Marco Polo: East Meets West Singpoli float best as we can. At the end of 30 seconds, the Princess of Yuan Dynasty judges which team’s drawing is the best, and that team wins! Number 2, was, Who Can Guess The Flowers? What you do was: Same teams as Who’s The Dragon Artist? And each team gets a phone with photos of flowers on the floats. Rose, Carnation, Chinamum, Orchid. My visit was super-duper extraordinary, and, I’m so lucky to be in this experience because none of my friends at school have EVER interviewed anyone, much less Mr. Charles Meier. They never even got the chance! So I want to thank Lajaja Kids for giving me the opportunity to do this. This was super fun, and I can’t wait for my next interview!
