Pingxi Lantern Festival

A dream come true! Before I came to Taiwan, I heard and read a lot about a lantern festival in a little village outside of Taipei called Pingxi. The festival occurs during the week of Chinese New Year celebrations.

My friend Lauren, another RYE  student from California, and I headed by train up to the village of Pingxi. The train ride was beautiful. The weather was kind of rainy, but it made the lush green mountain hillsides, the waterfalls, and the small villages we passed on the way up all look like a beautiful painting.

When we arrived at the village, we each bought our own lanterns and began painting our wishes on each. Lanterns are four sides, with a huge opening in the middle for the fire which fuels them into the sky. Tradition is to write or draw your wishes with black ink on each side. We spent about an hour painting and finished just at dark. The village of Pingxi is located smack dab on the train tracks!  Everyone lets their lantern go on the train tracks. With the help of a fire expert, we lit our lanterns, and released them into the sky. Many people are releasing their own at the same time, so the night sky is filled with beautiful floating lanterns. After our lanterns disappeared into the sky, we explored the village of Pingxi some more.  We then headed home to Taipei. I am so glad I was able to experience the lantern festival in person!

 

Southern Taiwan - Tainan!

When I arrived home from Kaohsiung, I stayed one night in Taipei.  The next night, I headed back to the south of Taiwan with my host family. We stayed in a city called Tainan which is a bit north of the other city!

On Chinese New Year's Eve, we had a huge dinner with some of my host family's extended family. So much food! They also exchanged red envelopes this night throughout the family as a symbol of happiness, luck, and the start of something new. After cleaning the house, we left for Tainan.

Tainan is my host grandma's hometown and is the oldest city on the island of Taiwan. It is surrounded by agricultural landscape and very traditional. During my short trip, I was able to see the most famous site in Tainan - The Chihkan Towers and a huge Buddhist temple. The Towers are a great place to see the entire city of Tainan and learn the history. Much of Taiwan's history relates to the dynasty's and also the war that they fought. The other location I visited was a large Buddhist monument.  This monument was absolutely incredible! It was so large.  With a huge Buddhist at the top of the hill, beautiful pagodas lining the pathway, and the amazing blue skies.....the view was great. The monument also had a Chinese New Year celebration. I experienced the dragon dance, the drumming parade, and the dynasty's parade. All very unique!

I also had the opportunity to indulge in many of the traditional foods for the Chinese New Year. I had a black sesame and cashew nut candy, dou hua - tofu with a sweetened soup, and shrimp chips!

Thank you for including me on this family tradition in Tainan. I enjoyed seeing another part of Taiwan!

Southern Taiwan - Kaohsiung!

Recently I traveled to Kaohsiung, a city in the south of Taiwan for a week! I spent this time with a Rotarian friend of mine named Lovely and her extended family. Lovely has two sons.  Wayne is a former RYE student who spent time his time in Pueblo, Colorado with District 5470.  The other son, Mason, is still in middle school. My experiences and memories created during this week were priceless.

We traveled by car to our destination - which takes about four hours. It was neat to see the landscape around and how it changed as we moved south down this island of Taiwan. We stopped in the most middle city in Taiwan - Taichung. The National Museum of Natural Science was hosting an exhibit about the movie  Life of Pi. I had seen this movie with Lovely and her friends back in January. The Taiwanese really are passionate about this movie as the director Ang Lee is Taiwanese and the tiger is also from Taiwan. We were able to see the boat from this movie.  It was neat to be able to see this exhibit.  After the museum, some ice cream, and gas we were on the road again!

On our first night, we visited the historic Dragon and Lion Pagodas location on the big lake. The pagodas have certain Buddha's who the people pray to during special times and the lake surrounding it is famous for it's dragon boat racing in June. Later we visited her father's home. Most people in Taiwan will travel to their hometown's over the Chinese New Year to spend time with family. Lovely's father is a war veteran and is quite the character. I don't think that there was one conversation over the course of the week that left me without a smile or some laughter! In Kaohsiung, we were staying with Lovely's younger brother and his children at their nice home. A great first day!

The next day, we visited Kaohsiung's harbor called Xiziwan. It was a bit of a hazy day, but the view from the mountain top towards the sea and towards the city was still good. We ate traditional ice cream at their favorite spot. Traditional Taiwanese ice cream is made of shaved ice, regular ice cream, green beans, and red beans. It is really tasty, even though ingredients sound a bit out there! That same night, we visited the Kaohsiung Rotary to listen to RYE student speeches.

 In the morning, we went to a tomato farm and picked fresh tomatoes. Such a cool experience and they were so crunchy, yet soft, and sweet. So good! Tomato picking was calm and enjoyable and I guess a good relaxation for what was to come in the afternoon. Paintballing...paintballing! This is family tradition for them. I have never paint-balled before and it is not something that I will say was on my list to do either. I guess for some people, this is their excitment.  It is so scary. Being around all the boys and seeing the family compete was fun though and I am glad I experienced this for my first time with this group! We let the adrenaline calm down by playing cards in the park. Then, we got cleaned up for a big family dinner at a Hakka restaurant. Hakka is one of the three languages spoken in Taiwan. Dinner was good and my company was great!

Sunday we spent the day practicing Chinese and English, playing endless games of cards, the game of Sequence, and also playing Badmitton at a local arena. It was really fun to play Badmitton with the Taiwanese who take this sport serious, and  who are very good. At night, we rode around the Love River on bikes and went to the Kaohsiung night market. We tried new foods and engaged in some fun games that the family likes to play at the night market!

On Monday, the boys at the house had the T.V. on.  Usually the screen consists of American basketball games. Preferably Jermey Lin. But, I sat down and the Super Bowl was on! The boys thought it was so cool that the Super Bowl was on, although they didn't really understand it. I explained what I could about the game and then the halftime show with Beyonce started.  At this point, football didn't matter anymore! In the afternoon, I went to see a famous cathedral on bike with the family. It was a nice day for a bike ride. We went for Japanese food at night and it was delicious! It was so nice to be with Lovely's family.  They really know the ins and outs of the great food places here in Kaohsiung.

On Tuesday, we all went to an art museum to see Salvador Dali's art work. His artwork is very interesting and very hard to understand when explained in Chinese. I learned many new Chinese words this day and felt I improved my language skills. After, we all got some exercise by playing some basketball. We went to dinner after for beef noodles. When we arrived home, we decided to walk to a nearby night market. All night markets are different and have different foods to offer depending on the time of the year and their location. During this Chinese New Year time, markets have been selling lots tomatoes, strawberries, oranges, apples, bananas, as welll as other Taiwanese fruits.  They also sell chestnuts, sweet potatoes, red bean, fish, chicken, lots of vegetables, and a few other traditional items.

On my last day in Kaohsiung, I spent the day with Lovely's niece and her classmates. They showed me around and we were able to speak Chinese all day, which was so nice. That  night, we had a big family dinner at a Veteran's Restaurant. Dinner was enjoyable. The adults gifted the children with red envelopes. Red envelopes are given throughout the Chinese New Year and they contain money. It is a symbol of good luck, a way to start new, and happiness for the next year. I have heard so much about this tradition.  To be included in it was so special. Thank you!

This entire week, I really felt like a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. Being with Lovely, her son's, and her extended family, and sharing endless connections through Rotary was so cool. From Colorado to Minnesota to Taiwan, and many people in between, the relationships I was able to create with these wonderful people was exciting. I am so grateful for Lovely and her family for welcoming me into their lives for a week.  They shared everything about Kaohsiung and their friends with me,while we lived under one roof speaking two languages. We really brought the world closer this week by creating friendships that will last  for a long time to come!

Thank you to Lovely, Wayne, Mason, and to everyone else who made this week so memorable!

Mahjong, Dumplings, & Pottery

During my break from school for the Chinese New Year, I have engaged in three traditonal Taiwanese activities - Mahjong, dumpling making, and pottery.  I spent two days learning how to play the game of Chinese Mahjong. Many in Taiwan play this game over the break celebrating the Chinese New Year as well as throughout the year. Mahjong is is a game of  four people sitting at a table, and is a game of strategy, a bit of skill, and luck. Learning the game was difficult, but I  have the hang of it now. My fellow exchange students also engaged in this fun day with me. The next day, we had actual competitions. I don't have too much luck with this game and didn't win one game, but am glad I had a chance to learn it.  We all laughed alot while learning and playing Mahjong!

Dumpling making! Yes, it is about time that I learn how to make these.  I smell dumplings every day as I move around the city, and eat them at least once a week. I learned and made all different kinds of dumplings, and different ways to design them. The Taiwanese take their dumplings serious.  I was learning from a few host moms, who seemed like professional dumpling makers. I have not quite mastered the twisting and stuffing.  However, they looked good and tasted like a dumpling. I will surely cook a batch when I am back in the US!   

One day during break, all of the RYE students traveled to a little village outside of Taipei called Yinghe - which is known for it's pottery. We created and designed our own bowls and vases out of chunks of clay. We learned different techniques on the machines to create these pieces of art. It is a lot harder than it looks. We visited the famous pottery street in the village as well. The street is full of beautiful pottery that the Taiwanese enjoy having in their homes.

All of these activities were a fun way to spend time with my fellow RYE friends over the break and learn more about the culture.  Stay tuned for my next blog with more about how I spent my month long break!