Fluttering Flickering Fireflies

Wednesday April 24^th, 2013

Am I in Texas? The weather was quite hot and humid in Taipei so much so that I thought I was temporarily transported back to Texas. Random thought but with the pairing of country music from my iPod, I felt slightly like a cowgirl again. XD

Skipping some things, I’ll jump right to my monthly Rotary club meeting. The lunch was in the rotating table style and had a good variation of food for me to healthily pick from. Nummy meat, fish, vegetables, etc. What I can’t shake from my mind are the confusing, conflicting comments from a couple Rotarians. First I receive a kind invitation to go Chinese traditional dress shopping with Chen father (temporary host father/president of the club) but with it comes, ‘why would you want one? You have to be really slim.’ I let it be known I already have a short one but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Then my counselor, who seems to always like referring to my weight at every meeting, says it looks like I’ve lost some (which is true) but he won’t believe I actually lost the weight in Taiwan. I’m somewhat mentally immune to comments about my weight but I can’t seem to satisfy Taiwanese. Either I’m not fat enough or I’m not skinny enough (usually the second). It’s confusing to say the least but hey, it won’t matter anymore in a month ;)

Back at Tatung there was only one more class to attend by the time I returned. As I left for the day, one guy student in almost a sing-song voice called out my Chinese name followed with a friendly “bye bye!” After I happily responded with “bye bye” and continued on my way, the group of boys miscalculated my abilities. Not only could I hear them but also understood their Chinese of “so cute.” I kept tossing ideas around in my mind at how I could turn around and surprise them but nothing good came to mind. So I thought it best to avoid revealing a blush and just walk on. XD Little do they know that the foreigner can understand their words. They should beware. ;P

Rain began to come down just as I arrived at the house, which threatened to cancel a firefly watching trip my host father had previously planned. One minute it was ‘yes we can go’ then the next, ‘darn it’s raining! We aren’t able to.’ A short time after dinner the rain seemed to stop for good so host father and I quickly pulled on some outside clothes and headed for the car. A car ride later landed us on a winding mountain path. Stepping out, the first thing I noticed was how lovely the weather was. Not only had the humidity gone down considerably but also there was a slight cool breeze. Loads better than earlier in the day!

Then I saw them. Tiny white lights flickering along the mountain, immersed in the shrubbery. They were few in number but had the distinct quality of flashing their lights in an individual constant rhythm. Strange I thought since I knew fireflies to have a continuous glow. Even so, this type of firefly required careful eyes to trail all the lights because they were so faint. The two of us walked along the road for a short time to see more clusters of lights. We came across a plethora of these fireflies that gave me the impression of a dim but noticeable flickering Christmas display. It was quite pretty. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show because the night was too dark with the firefly lights too soft to capture anything. Still, I liked the lovely, soothing night firefly trip. Thanks host father! ^_^

Still really tired for some reason and I haven’t even done any work today. Oh geez. Therefore, nighty night!