Chinese Flying Lanterns!

Saturday November 17^th, 2012

Ah, the weekend. A welcomed break from work and/or school days but even more anticipated when a Rotary event is scheduled. This one was to “Shi-fen.” I didn’t know where or what that was, which didn’t matter. When you’re in the hands of Rotary, you know you’re safe and it’ll be fun. :)

At home, breakfast was some garlic bread and ‘Nature Valley Oats & Honey’ bar. Wow, I feel like I’m promoting the granola bar because I rant on it so often. I think the company should pay me for it. ;P Pay with their own granola bars of course. XD They’re just so good and healthy! Good job America!

Lunch, wolfed down before the Rotary event, was a bit more Taiwanese. Bought from 7-Eleven, it composed of an Asian rice sandwich and coffee. What I mean by an Asian rice sandwich is a sheet of seaweed topped with rice that’s folded in half with meat and veggies in the middle. Delicious stuff. The coffee was a canned ‘Blue Mountain Blend’ from Mr. Brown Coffee company. I’ve come to love anything and everything from Mr. Brown. I wonder which country it originates from. That’ll be research I’ll have to do sometime. ;) After consuming both food items my throat was still thirsty. It was remedied with a quick purchase of mango juice from 7-Eleven yet again. Convenient stores are very nice. They’re so…well…convenient. XD

Outside of the meeting place there were two bear mascot things. As to why they were there, I have no idea. Do I care? Nope! It's because they seemed to be there for pictures. So I got myself a free bear hug. Literally, it was a bear hug! XD YAY! HUGS! A big old warm bear hug! Twas very nice. Can you see my happiness in my expression? ;)

As a whole, Rotary YEPs (a.k.a. Youth Exchange Program/exchange students) and Rotarians had to ride the train to Shi-fen. Note: train and not subway. Compared to the last train we took on a trip (Biking Tour), this one was much nicer because it had many more seats, allowing us to sit and not stand/wobble around everywhere. Wobbling isn’t too fun when you have to battle it for 60+ minutes. :P Actually I don’t remember how long the train ride was. We transferred once and I didn’t really kept track of the time. Too busy having a crazy fun time with peeps.

The whole morning and afternoon was filled with rain. Raining and raining and raining on. This is why you make good friends with your umbrella in Taiwan. XD All of us shuffled along in a huddled pack since some people forgot their rain protection friend at home. The street, if you can call it even that, was a thin slab of road alongside the train track with another one on the opposite side. Both were lined with small shops of mostly merchandise and food stands. There wasn’t really any time to go shopping yet because we were on a schedule. Yet I managed to snatch an opportunity to browse when we were waiting for everyone to get off the train and cross the tracks.

The little shop street along the tracks

The train tracks and mountain scenery

Ducking into a little store I was delighted at the stock. It had a more souvenir based selection which is a tad hard to find in Taipei city. Knick-knack what-nots are so cute and a must for me to purchase a few. One item in particular caught my eye just as Rotary was announcing to move on to the next location. Afraid we wouldn’t be able to come back to shop, I bought it on the fly for only 100NT (about $3.33US). Nice and cheap but more importantly preeeeeeeeetty. The item mentioned is a beautiful blue stoned necklace with wire elegantly wrapped around in a graceful design. In the middle are white speckles that could captivate someone in a trance. No it’s not very Taiwanese but it was just too pretty to pass up. Plus it slightly reminded me of Texas Ren-Fest which gave me a taste of the wonderful event even when so far away. Missing a Ren-Fest is regrettably sad but this beauty of a necklace can help with that a tad. ^_^

See what I mean? PRETTINESS! :D

First up on the itinerary was to visit a waterfall for sightseeing. The experience was a little dampened (literally) with all the pouring rain but it still was nice to view. Even when small, the waterfall still had a sense of splendor about it. Look for yourself. ;)

The trek both down and back up from the viewing area was filled with caution. The rain made the steps slippery and a discouraging Chinese sign with a looming skull on it shocked the YEP out of being reckless. That doesn’t mean we were reckless. It just suggests us being effectively warned to stay alert. :P

By staying alive we were rewarded with sizzling soup and a sheltered resting spot. Oh the soup was just what cold YEPs needed. Yet me and my sensitive tongue managed to get painfully burnt from the hot broth. Gosh darn it! I tried to soothe it with a purchase of an ice pop but it only helped a bit. Why? Why?! Why does my tongue burn so easily? -_- That’s life I guess.

Next up was a short film that introduced the area we were in. Twas fairly interesting but a big turn-off for YEP students was the fact that it was in Chinese. I was one of the few people who kept their patience and paid attention to the film. Many others just chatted away, ignoring the movie. Kinda sad but there’s nothing to do about it.

Following that was some craft orientated activities outside under a covered yet chilly area. All the YEPs were given a long stalk of plant with a slim base and a fully tip of shrubbery. In older times, a way Taiwanese kids had fun was by making toys out of things from nature. So we were mimicking that cultural aspect by building one ourselves. There was a teacher giving out Chinese instructions to 50+ people, being roughly translated by another man, for technical things in order to make the toy. It didn’t go well at all. What she was trying to teach was not something to do in a large group. That was way too hard and confusing when trying to follow along from far away with no close-up visual. The activity was better off being one-on-one. In the end, many YEPs just had the teacher make one for them while still unsuccessfully trying to follow the teacher’s rapid steps. I only learned the first two steps before constantly getting lost.

The goal of the toy was to form a bird-like creation with puffy tail feathers. But how the teacher made mine, seemed as if the tail wasn’t exactly a tail. More like the bird going No.1. Weeeeird. When the tail is correctly placed further back, the toy looks pretty darn cool with the best part of being free of charge! That is, if you know how to make the complicated bugger. :P

Finally the time for the last and most anticipated activity came around. The traditional flying lanterns! YES! Ever since seeing the movie ‘Tangled’ I’ve wanted to try these! Yeah that’s a dorky reason but it’s sincere! ;P Chinese flying lanterns are different from the featured ones in ‘Tangled.’ The ones we made were four large pieces of tissue paper glued together so it looked like a hot air balloon. Then we wrote wishes on it anywhere from someone’s health to world peace to hoping my husband would contact me. XD

Hold on, let me explain that one. Will (the chica from the Netherlands) asked me if my Dutch husband had contacted me recently. I replied no, assuming he was too busy with University to send an e-mail. An overdramatic, joking actress Andrea emerged and wept about her sorrowful loneliness. She was outraged that her own husband can’t even reply to her e-mail sent several weeks ago. He was on the edge of wanting a divorce! This was just unacceptable! Yadda yadda yadda, you get the picture. ;P Will extended the humorous time with a bright idea of hers by writing the wish of my husband contacting me on the lantern. As she put it, this act would be super effective as the wish was written in Dutch regarding a Dutch, by a Dutch. Dutch galore going on here! XD I couldn’t believe she actually did it but hey, it was entertaining!

The process to make the lanterns is 10 easy steps:

1) Glue

2) Fold

3) Repeat 4 times

4) Tape the top to prevent air leakage

5) Wishing Time!

6) Tape wire bottom on

7) Place oil soaked paper in the wire

8) Light the oil paper

9) Release into the night sky!

10) Watch in amazement

My other three group members! This is during the folding process.

Wishing up a storm

Step 6 of taping the wire bottom on

Finito! It's a masterpiece!

Nearly take off time! Rotary picture first ;)

That coloring comes from the fire and not just the paper. Beautiful, no? :)

All but one lantern had a successful lift off. An unfortunate group’s (4 people in each) lantern caught fire on the paper and sunk in burnt remains before it could be released. While the surviving paper was slowly being consumed in flames, people huddled arrived as if a campfire and took in the warmth a blazing. It was a chilly night and the small source of heat was taken advantage of. Nonetheless, it sucks that the lantern burned but the guys who made it were going on about the symbolism and meaning behind it. Maybe they wrote a ridiculous wish like ‘to be the king of England’ and the lantern flat out rejected it. XD

As for the rest of the flying lanterns, each had a beautiful lift off. The rain had graciously stopped and gave us a clear night sky to work with for our activity. Thank goodness for that! It was a sight to see as my group’s lantern flew up high. I could spot familiar wishes and drawings (like my bunny and birdie) for less than ten seconds before it reached such heights that it was transforming into a circle of light drifting in the sky. The lanterns were usually released in pairs so when two soared up it looked as if they were dancing, swirling both further and closer together in harmony. Really a gorgeous sight. I can’t imagine what it would be like to see hundreds of them being released all at once. Now THAT would be brilliant! Bucket list perhaps? ;)

Rotary provided an Asian lunchbox style dinner at the same facilities as the movie, grass toy and lanterns. Though the food was tasty, the warm fruit tea was a highlight as it seemingly melted away the cold. That didn’t last long because many YEP’s went to buy a frosty ice cream dessert. I was one of them. The sound of ‘taro flavor’ just pricked at my curiosity and demanded to be tasted. And I’m glad I did because it was pretty good! One flavor in particular caught everyone’s attention but we were too suspicious and afraid to try it. How does ‘lactic acid flavor’ sound to you? Sounds scary that’s what! I ask you, have any of y’all tried lactic acid ice cream before? Let me rephrase the question. Do any of y’all know what lactic acid flavor is and if you will not die from it? XD

Much to the YEP’s pleasure, there was some shopping time between dinner and the train back to Taipei. Most of the stores sold the same thing, miniature lanterns with wishes written on them. For their beauty and for memories, of course I had to purchase one. This one reads “peace,” fitting for what one of Rotary’s goals are. ^_^

In the night’s darkness, a delightful discovery was made. Both my necklace and mini lantern glowed in the dark! COOL! They just got twice as awesome! I’m in love with these things! DORK ALERT! Another reason I like the stone necklace is that it has a water bender feel to it (from Avatar: The Last Airbender). Out of the four types of bending I would definitely be a water bender, plus that’s always been my favorite element. But when the blue stone began glowing, it radiated a mystical feel about it almost as if the power of water bending resided inside. It was beyond cool and into the ballpark of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I visited the same shop I bought the awesome necklace from and had to get my friend Mariko to help me not purchase a green stoned necklace of the same type. Not kidding. I seriously asked her to drag me away before I did buy another because my fingers were itching to do so. My mind knew not to be greedy or to spend more money or not needing another similar necklace but that didn’t mean my body wanted to listen. XD So Mariko physically pulled me safely away and I went to another type of item.

CHOPSTICKS OF PRETTINESS! It’s a must to have a beautifully designed pair before I leave Taiwan so I figured to get it now and not wait for the last minute. They came with a nice bag as well so it became a requirement to buy. ;) No the chopsticks don’t glow in the dark. It would be scary if they did. No, I like them just the way they are…that being un-mutant. XD

The train ride back was fine. No explosion or crash. :P The transfer between trains was hectic though! We, a group of 60+ people, had 1-2 minutes to get off the train, give our tickets to one conductor, swipe our MRT cards, cross the tracks underground and fine the correct platform. The atmosphere felt like we were at the Olympics and someone said, “Ready…set…GO!” XD

Overall, today was oh so lovely. I have finally experienced flying lanterns up close and have brought back some wonderful little souvenirs! Until next time, have a nice day! 再見！ (Good-bye!) :D