Sunday February 10th, 2013
Back to the old paper and pencil method for jotting down
this Taffy, the reason being my laptop is about a 4-hour drive away. I’ll get
to why in just a second.
The year of the snake is here! Happy Chinese New Year my
peeps! Fun fact, since the snake is somewhat of a bad image in Asia, they will
sometimes refer to it as ‘little dragon.’ The dragon is much more beloved. But
don’t be mistaken, the snake is not disliked. My host brother Michael was born
in the year of the snake so this year will either be really good or really bad
for him and the other snakes. Let’s welcome this year with open arms and an
open mind! :D
The morning was simple. Slept in late until about 9:00, then
woke up for a breakfast of one warm Chinese cupcake. You know what I mean by
that right? It’s that condensed sweet bread that I’ve shown before. Until I
know its name, it shall be refereed to as a Chinese cupcake/bowlcake. XD
Next host father, mother, grandmother and I went to a temple
for “bai bai” (praying). I tagged along with camera in hand as they prayed and
explained things to me. The architecture and meaning for each item within the
temple was quite interesting. In this one it had three floors, all having
several different types of gods. The scent of incense was thick in the air and
sometimes overwhelming. When temple workers passed by you with 20+ lit incense
sticks, it becomes a little hard to breathe.
In spirit of Chinese New Years I wore the most red colored
clothing I had, a Hard Rock T-shirt and plain red socks. Host mother was
completely decked out in red from her sweater to her pants. It was surprising
to me that not many people at the temple wore the lucky color red. Some didn’t
have any trace of the color on them. Strange I thought. Though I’m still glad
to have participated in the red clothing tradition nonetheless. At the temple I
was the only foreigner and got twice the normal amount of stares because of it.
XD
Picture time!
This temple's Chinese character name
The food, paper money and other such things as offering for the Chinese gods.
A Qilin legendary creature, half horse and half dragon. Pretty ain't it?
How ironic is this? Right across from the temple (as you can tell by the forest of incense sticks) stands a Christian church. XD I find it great how they can exist so close together in harmony. Yay for world peace! ^_^
Beautiful dragon carving! ^_^
The god that helps with school, test taking, studying, etc. Students obviously visit this god a lot to ask for help.
Afterward we went back home, ate lunch and soon headed out
on the road. Still tired from staying up late, I slept practically the whole
four hours. It was a long car ride because host father, mother, Michael and I
were taking a trip to 台中(Taizhong) for about 4-5 days. Here we were
to visit host mother’s family. During Chinese New Years it’s tradition to visit
family usually on the father’s side first then the mother’s side next. I
believe host father’s parents are deceased therefore we went to the mother’s.
Upon arrival it was
a family reunion. More and more people kept coming to total in about fourteen
people in a petite living room. The amount of people and talking was a bit
overwhelming to me but nothing mind-blowing. An old lady, the grandmother of the
house, would offer snacks or tea to people who all received it and thanked her.
From what I’ve been told, you never refuse on old lady if she offers you
things. Truthfully I was still really full but this old lady kept passing the
snack box to me. I would take one piece just like everyone else did out of
courtesy. She didn’t give up though! She took the initiative to take a handful
of sugary snacks and place it in my hand. It’s sweet of her but hard when I
can’t decline. Really it is difficult.
Talk pursued for
some time until most everyone left. The remaining people were residents of the
place and ate dinner together (except one dude). It was good food, plenty in
amount and interesting to have another homemade cook’s creations.
Following up a
group of us drove downtown to take a stroll in the dark. The sights were
basically different building architectures. Weather in 台中
is really nice compared to Taipei because it doesn’t rain as much as well as
being less cold. All you needed was a windbreaker against the chill and that’s
it.
In this house lives
my host mother’s sister, the sister’s husband’s mother and two songs in their
20’s. Oh and three cats. ;) The living arrangements sorted to me sleeping in
one of the dude’s room by myself. It’s a nice house having several floors and
bigger rooms. Housing is a lot cheaper in 台中 than Taipei, at least
half the price. A city with more area and quite a fewer amount of people will
decreased the cost of housing, which is why these living quarters are bigger.
I’ll wrap it out
there and go become unconscious now. Night all!
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