Saturday February 23rd, 2013
Notice how “Saturday” is labeled in the date. So heading off
to high school in the morning…hmm…doesn’t quite match up huh? Now it wasn’t
just my high school that had a school day but rather all of Taipei the reason
involving Chinese New Year vacation days in one way or another. It was fine
though because we could still wear normal clothing instead of uniforms (today
being the last day) and I only had half a day (to be explained later).
Even with only five hours at school (woah, that sounds weird
considering it’s close to a full American school day XD) I still fled for nutty
delicious coffee. In the first two periods the teacher had us watch “Planet of
the Apes.” About time I finally watched that famous movie! Fourth period was an
episode of “Ally McBeal” followed by lunch and nap.
This would be the lunch meal, a seaweed sheet rice wrapped
sandwich with beef, sausage and egg inside. You may remember this food but a
little differently. The previous ones I’ve eaten were 7-Eleven brand, which
were delicious. This one is Hi-Life brand, tasty but not quite matching up in
comparison. This one was 5/8 rice and very little contents inside (the picture
lies). I would’ve like it the other way around, which is what 7-Eleven is
closer to. Therefore if you ever want to try one of these rice sandwich
thingie-ma-what’s-it, I recommend the 7-Eleven brand. ;)
So I was able to leave school
after naptime because a Rotary event was planned, providing me an early
dismissal. The meeting place was nice and close to my school, about a 10-15
minute walk away. All the exchange students met up, took a local bus (so
crowded!) and found our first location of Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum.
Here we saw a traditional Chinese puppet show and viewed a short exhibition.
Andy, a guide at the museum, is
showing us a traditional Chinese hand puppet. The head, hands and feet are made
out of wood while every remaining part is clothing. When holding it, the
forefinger controls the head, thumb moves one arm and the remaining three
fingers team up for the other arm. It’s pretty cool how they can puppeteer with
such skill to make very human movements look real anywhere from sitting down to
dancing to fanning oneself. I have videos! *eyebrow wiggle*
This would be the Taiwanese
version of Chinese puppets called Golden Ray puppets. They are 2-3 times as big
with larger proportions such as the head. The clothes are more flashy have a
greater number of sparkly gems, all to make seeing the show easier from a
further distance. We didn’t see a show with these so I can’t say how their
movements are.
We were able to try out for
ourselves being a puppeteer. Lea (on the left) is trying to make her guy put
the sword back in the sheath with Will (on the right) as her audience and Erin
(in the middle) being Erin. XD
Nearby we briefly viewed a small
temple shrining the god of love. Pretty self-explanatory.
Next was a little tea place that
had a tiny display showing the overall process of tea making followed by a shop
where you could purchase different teas. Several small machines were there
along with these workers whom I think are shifting the tea leaves in search of
stems to take out.
Tea, tea and more tea! This just
reminds me of a candy cart and I feel like you could just pluck some tea off it
and eat it whole. XD
Our tour guide in a room of tea
baskets…
A sample of Oolong tea at the end
given to the exchange students. Fun fact, the percentage of fermentation for
tea according to a chart shown is as follows:
Green Tea: 0%
Wen Shan Pouchong Tea: 10%
High Mountain Oolong: 20%
Tei Kuan Yin Tea: 30%
Oriental Beauty: 50%
Black Tea: 100%
Lastly Rotary took us to Yuanshan
where the Taipei Lantern Festival had its display set up. I’ve been there
before with my host parents, if you recall, but that was in the daytime. Tonight
was on opportunity to both see all the displays completed as well as at night
when glowing in all their brilliant glory. Once we arrived Rotary took a group
photo then said to the exchange students “Do whatever you want here but be home
by 9:00.” A.K.A. the large group break up into smaller groups and go tour
around. Unfortunately for many people they took that as “YEAH! I can go home!”
Not many stayed. For all I know only Maxime, Mika, Shania and I stayed because
we didn’t run across any other exchange students the whole night. I think that
is a huge waste considering the Lantern Festival is a big part of the culture
not to mention beautiful. Throughout today, many students had a disrespectful
attitude to everything organized by Rotary. If the tour guide asked them to be
quiet, it didn’t mean squat for many. During the puppet show you could hear
jabbering quite clearly from the back. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Seriously?
Rotary is doing this just for us not to mention seeing these kind of things is
exactly what you signed up for as a Rotary exchange student, yet you have
this ungrateful attitude? That’s just wrong. *exhales* Whoo sorry about that.
XD Moving on, shall we? :P
Dinner amongst our little group of
four, was bought amongst a row of food stands nearby. There was giant chicken
steaks, tofu, sushi, pearl milk tea and much much more.
Maxime bought one of these squids
for his main course. Have you ever eaten a squid like this before? Would you
want to try one? *raises eyebrow in curiousity*
Still craving stinky tofu, that’s
exactly what I got but in a form I haven’t seen before. Two rows of tofu, each
mounted on a stick, had a small canopy of tofu between them with (fermented?)
vegetables resting on top. It was pretty tasty though somewhat scarfed down.
That’s what happens when you’re in a crowded area with no place to sit down and
savor the food.
Finding the dessert I’ve been
wanting to officially try oh so much, I found! Whoo-hoo! Just to recap its
contents: thin tortilla is sprinkled with peanut brittle shavings (which come
from scraping that wooden tool on the huge block of peanut brittle, the
shavings collecting on top of the tool as you can see) scoops of ice cream are
plopped on followed by a little more peanut brittle shavings. Duuuuuude! That stuff was so good I
nearly got a second one! We shall meet again delicious treat!
Lastly we all bought some yummy
watermelon drink, watermelon milk for me. From left to right we have Shania
(Arizona), Mika (Japan) and Maxime (Belgium).
The rest of the night was looking
at all the wonderful lanterns shining throughout the park. People flooded the
park, which made touring and taking pictures a wee difficult. Nonetheless I got
my camera shots and viewing in making it a successful night. Shall we see some
lanterns?
Taipei 101 on the left and the famous flying lanterns on the right
Remember this fellow? Made out of recycled plastic cans? Well now he's all lit up and had electronic screen eyes that looked around every which way, blinked and other stuff that brought him to life.
Yet another display made out of recycled materials. Most distinguishable is Taipei 101 on the right. Anything from plastic to glass was used to craft this art.
The cool aboriginal bow and arrow fellow from last time, but now lit up!
This was a hoot! It's Taiwanese astronauts making friends with aliens on the moon along with an alien-looking snake (probably for the year of the snake). Off to the right side was what I think was a night market food stand. That is adorable! A cute sight with the concept of friendship, peace and cultural exchange. Me gusta! ^_^
White flowers with a crescent string of aboriginal beads, inspired by the traditional glass beads they craft.
SQUIRREL! XD
A dragon dance. The dragon will follow the little ball which guides it down streets for parades.
Lion dance!
Zodiac lantern time! Each one presented in order. Find yours! ;D
The Rat
The Ox
The Tiger
The Rabbit
The Dragon
The Snake
The Horse
The Sheep/Goat
The Monkey
The Rooster
The Dog
The Pig/Boar
Fishies!
BIRDIES! <3
I had planned on working a bit
once back home but that ended up not happening. Andrea falling asleep is what
happened. XD The longest sleep I had all week. It felt good. ^_^
Y’all take care now and 新年快了！
(“Happy New Year”) Yes, we still say that here because the celebration is not
over though the feelings are not as strong as Time Square’s if you get my
drift. ;) Peace!
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