I've been up all night with my students, helping to finish the tree demon lantern puppets. As dawn breaks, the last bit of paint detailing is completed so that they are ready to be loaded onto the trucks going to Neihu. The puppets seem very fragile, and we worry as they are loaded onto the trucks, but they all make it through the trip unscathed. We take a chartered bus to Neihu Community College, the parade site and other workshop area. We get lunch and Jennie and I give each other knee massages. It's very hot and humid. The teacher and [View Full Entry]

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Tis the night before the parade / Moon Show and all the creatures are stirring! Only several hours to go and so much has to happen. My students have only been able to get in a few days worth of work here and there and we will be up all night. And of course, we've had to make time for Moon Show rehearsals which cut dearly into building time. There's a lot of confusion about staging, and we're all kind of making it up as we go along. The students are really excited about being a part of the show and [View Full Entry]

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It's only a few days before the parade and everyone is working at a frenzied pace! The architecture students I'm working with are only here for a few days out of the week and have classes during the day, so the only time we can work together is at night, resulting in some very late hours. [View Full Entry]

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After Yehlui, we drove to another beach, sandier and less rocky. Then we drove to this seashell temple. The outside was very unimpressive, it looked like a large ramshackle warehouse covered with corrugated metal. But inside was a temple, with sculptures, bas-reliefs, and mosaics constructed almost entirely of seashells. There were a couple of small shops. I bought candy and ginseng liquour, and they served soup and a delightful ginger tea. Afterwards, we drove to a port area where we took a speedboat to a touristy place with lots of shops and restaurants. [View Full Entry]

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When we drove to the coast last time, we passed beaches with amazing looking sandstone and limestone formations. So I was really happy to visit Yehliu. I took lots of pictures, here are the best, and here's some more info: "Yehliu is a cape of about 1,700 meters long formed by Datun Mountain reaching into the sea. When overlooked from above, the place is like a giant turtle submerging into the sea. Thus, it is also called "Yehliu Turtle". Because the rock layer of seashore contains sandstone of limestone texture and it is subject to sea erosion, weathering and earth movements, [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday, we go to a parade rally in downtown Taipei. Several groups that will be in the parade also participate. On Sunday, we have another cabaret, and things get pretty wild! (I've also added a few pics to the two previous blogs!) [View Full Entry]

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The large floats and puppets are being constructed in another space. Here are some pictures from the activity that has gone on there this week. [View Full Entry]

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It's been a busy week for me at the Dream Community. I've been working mostly with three different groups. There's a dragon puppet for an elementary school. The teacher wants the body to resemble the Taipei 101 building. I've also been working with a couple of preschool teachers who have meen making insect masks and costumes for kids. Next they want me to help them make a hollow tree carried on bamboo poles that the kids can run in and out of. About midweek my knees are really hurting. I've not quite recovered from the Tsao Ling Trail hike. I seek [View Full Entry]

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Today we drove to the Northeast coast of Taiwan to walk the Tsaoling Historic Trail. We catch a bust to one part of the trail, that begins near a park, then hike up, up, up, into the mountains. We descend, eventually, and come to a temple, then have a great dinner! [View Full Entry]

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(So I'm back in Port Townsend, and probably have enough material to blog from here for the next few weeks! I had to take a break when crunch time hit, but hope to get everything caught up!) When we arrive back at the Dream Community, it has been turned into a surreal landscape. The architecture students are hard at work, and the place is littered by the remains of giant sea creature skeletons. The sodium lamps cast an eerie yellow light, and we feel like we are walking through an undersea graveyard. The jellyfish, manta ray, shark, squid, seahorse, lobster, and [View Full Entry]

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