LESSON PLANS, LINEN AND LANTERNS: I'M A BIG GIRL NOW (PART 2)
- higgsfiona
- Mar 16, 2015
- 4 min read
Okay, so since my last post I have actually returned to Dihua Street to get more curtains, and yet again Dihua turned up trumps with the produce. I'm really happily sitting next to laptop (it's still alive...) which is right next to my newest additions in the living room. I am also extremely grateful to Elvis (shout out to my new chums Elvis and Nina!) who helped me pick out the right materials for the curtains, and sorted me out with some cotton fabric that I will be soon be trying to tie dye as decorations for the apartment using indigo... I will report on that as soon as I have news.
So my problem at the moment is that I have been stuck in my apartment for the last two days trying to recover from a bout of fever. My cousin assures me that this is quite likely to be a syptom of culture shock... I think he's right. Although my trip to Taipei was tiring, and now the weather is warm and humid, it was pretty close, I think my physical response has to be due to more than heat exhaustion or dehydration from a walk around in the city. It was warm, but not that hot!
Fortunately, I had typed my part 2 of my initial Taipei trip a few days back (when the weather was much less inclement). Here it is:
As I sit here writing this blog entry, I should point out that I am currently sitting in Old Dasi town sipping on a latte in the local Starbucks (you can take a Westerner out of the West, but...). However, I have to admit that I don't really like Starbucks coffee... In the UK. But it really is worth noting that the coffee at Taiwanese Starbucks tastes pretty darn good, and the appearance is far from the often crumbling and weary looking Starbucks galleys that we Brits enjoy at home in the UK. In fact, this Starbucks is honestly the best Starbucks experience I have had since I was in San Diego 8 years ago... Awe, man! San Diego, where the sun doth shine! Speaking of sun, I haven't seen it for a while, as we are experience a rather wet and windy north typhoon spell. I hear the sun will be back this weekend, so until then, I will have to tolerate the 'wet dog' aroma that my jeans are emitting from taking 3 full days to dry... At least the view from the cafe is a good one, over the Main Street in Central Dasi, just a stones throw away from my new school, where I will be teaching English!
But moving back to my trip to Taipei...
It just so happened that I attended the lantern festival at Taipei Expo Park on the opening night. I was unsure how this might affect the turnout, as it was an ongoing event for several days over the Chinese New Year period, right up until the 5th March. As it turns out, it was pretty busy! The opening night is quite a big night, as this is when the central display is revealed to the press and public. Of course, the press got front row seats to the lantern show, which was repeated every 30 minutes at the feet of the main lantern in the central display, which was a gigantic glowing goat, perched atop a colorful column, perhaps twenty or so feet tall. The show incorporated dancers and flashing light displays across a stage which was obscured from my view due to the large crowds of city folk and tourists in front of me. Even as a relative giant (at least in this neck of the woods) I was unable to see over everyone to the front. This was due at least in some part to the massive concert style nature of the event. In fact, the row of press photographers that were elevated above the crowds on a metre tall wall smack-dab in the centre of the area certainly clarified to me the importance of the event in terms of media coverage, as did the row of news vans lines up next to the gargantuan goat!
All in all there was a real feel of festivity at this event that is much akin to the western celebrations of New Year. However, this is an exception, as Chinese New Year in Taiwan is in fact much less often celebrated at a shared event of this scale. Rather the locals prefer to invest their holidays at their family homes eating good food, and sharing their time together. This is more like Christmas.
After the show had finished the crowds dispersed to walk around the lanterns that had been scattered around the park. Of course there was an intended route for the visitors to follow, but this being Taiwan we all walked wherever we wanted. Hey! Look, if you have just stood gawping at life size lantern horses running over a lush green illuminated paddock among a crowd of over 1000 event goers, and looked over your shoulder to spot a 15 foot Transformer robot lantern 300 metres away, you can walk whichever way you like to get there. The rules are only guidelines. (N.B.: This is also very much how the roads work in Taiwan, which makes for a very interesting scooter ride I can tell you. And one day I will.).
So here are a few of the beautiful lanterns on display around the park... not that these images do any kind of justice to the detail and the scale. They were truly beautiful!
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