On Burning Boats and Root Beer Floats

First, let me say that you are completely free to skim, skip, or completely ignore my rather lengthy posts….

Last night, Susan took me to a nearby town for a huge festival they have once every 3 years. It’s an entire week of mayhem the likes of which I have never encountered before. My first experience of a festival last week was like a warm up show. It was like the band that comes on right before the headliner… entertaining but nothing in comparison to the big guys. We to the temple around 5:00 and I was immediately taken back by the massive crowd of people. That’s saying something since I’ve been in Taiwan for almost a month now, and massive crowds are a daily scene. Although this may seem offensive, I can’t think of a better way to describe the temple than that it was “pimped”. There were flashing lights all over the entrance and huge tables set up were people could get their fake paper money and food items to offer to the Buddha. People were grabbing handfuls of incense left and right, lighting them on these torches that stick out of the walls and going around to paipai at all the different Buddha statues.

temple lights = inspiration for carnival lights

Across from the temple there was a huge boat filled with miniature everythings carved from wood… stables, farm animals, dogs, bed rooms, tables, money, food… you name it and it was in that boat. I even spotted a case of Taiwan beer sitting among the offerings to go with the boat. Imagine that, beer for Buddha…. That should be a bumper sticker. At the end of the week, this boat will be dragged through every winding street of the town, capturing sickness and bad luck along the way, and eventually taken to the ocean, set afloat and then burned.

The boat- check out the case on the bottom right of the pic

I wrote a little about the Buddha “carrying cases” and how the Buddhas from different temples will travel to festivals…. Well I’m pretty sure that every single one in the country brought its entourage for this particular event. I even saw a group of "posessed" people who were following one of the Buddha processions, shaking uncontrolably and on ocassion inflicting physical pain on themselves. As night fell, fireworks could be seen in every direction often being set off by somewhere with maybe a 5 ft radius between set-off point and insane scooter/car/pedestrian traffic.

There's a woman and her son kneeling in the middle

I’ve found an interesting similarity between the little old ladies in straw hats of Taiwan who sweep the sidewalks (with the world’s most inefficient brooms) and the maintenance workers of JMU yielding high-powered leaf blowers that could Mary Poppins you to the next town. If nothing else can be found to unite these two different worlds, there’s always the shared distaste of having leaves on the ground in public areas.
As I sit here there’s a familiar sound making its way through the window, to my auditory nerve, and eventually to my cerebellum. It’s a happy little tune that I hear every day around the same time and it’s obviously coming from a vehicle of some sort that’s making its way through the streets very slowly. I know what you’re thinking- ICE CREAM! At least, that’s what I’ve been thinking. Every time I used to hear it I would internally debate whether I should throw on my shoes, grab about $60 (translates to < $2 USD) and run into the streets like any sensible child in America does. The thing is, this music doesn’t have the same effect on the kids of Taiwan. Something was amiss and I decided to investigate. You can’t imagine my sorrows when I found out that there’s no such thing as an ice cream truck in Taiwan… there is however a daily garbage truck that plays music so you know it’s time to take out your trash. At least I never gave into the temptation to chase it down.

~Love from the leaf and ice cream –less streets

Dancing Dragons and Mooncakes

Just when I thought I’d seen it all, the Moon Festival happened. This holiday takes place during the full moon of August (in the Chinese calendar) which just so happened to be last night. In a way it reminds me of our 4th of July where families get together for a BBQ and fireworks are going off left and right. That’s where the similarity ends though. I joined Susan’s family in front of her parents’ house for a BBQ which consisted of people sitting on mini stools around a little fire in what looked like a hubcap. Rather than hotdogs and potato salad I was stuffed full of noodles, squid, pork, chicken, sausage, and these gelatin peanut balls that I could eat all day and night…. And of course the ever present, ever changing moon cakes. There was a girl there about my age and talking to her was such a trip. I think she was amazed to be talking to an American because every sentence started with “WOW”. I think it’ll be a shock when I come home where for some reason people don’t seem as amazed by everything that comes out of my mouth.
After dinner Susan took me to the beach but on the way we literally drove into a Buddhist festival on the street so we parked and got out for a look. I didn’t realized the magnitude of the even at first because I only saw the first hundred or so people of the procession. They were dressed up, with about 10 people doing a big dance with a dragon costume and other groups were carrying a all sorts of Buddha’s. We walked past these guys only to find about 5 city blocks of people in the middle of the road waiting for Buddha to tell them it was time for their group to start. (I guess he actually lets them know when it’s the right time). There were people completely covered in ash lighting huge piles of fireworks in the middle of the road. The craziest part was that the roads weren’t even closed to traffic! So here I am standing in the middle of the road watching a dragon dance while there are piles of firecrackers going off and cars and scooters trying to maneuver through the chaos.
When we finally got to the beach, which is actually part of a college campus, we met up with Susan’s friend and her son. They were all surprised that I was so interested in the monkeys at the park behind the beach. I was joking that I was going to go hiking with bananas and lure a monkey home with me. I guess that’s not an absurd reality because this guy told me that while he was at the college a monkey snuck into his dorm room in the middle of the night and stole his chocolate and bread. The bunny problem at JMU definitely doesn’t compare to the monkey problem at Chungshan University.

Tonight I am going for a BBQ at a Buddhist temple with Susan's family.... not quite sure why it's there but i'm a happy camper as long as i get fed!
and
Tomorrow I have an interview at an English school. Hope the Tsunami stays clear!

~Love and fireworks from the streets of Kaohsiung!!~