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Published: February 23rd 2011
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Tāngyuán
a sweet bean/ glutinous rice ball soup that makes you 1 year older ;) (pronounced "shin yien qwhy lu")... or Happy Chinese New Year! Chinese New Year began on February 2nd and lasted for 2 weeks. All of the schools are off during this time, so most of the foreign teachers went on vacation. If I were to compare Chinese New Year with a holiday in the States, it would be like Thanksgiving (only without the football and with a whole lot of fireworks instead). It is also like Thanksgiving in that ticket prices to fly anywhere are super expensive. Because of this, I decided to stay in Kaohsiung for the holidays. I did some things in and around Kaoshiung... my sushi friends taught me how to roll my own vegetarian sushi and I went with Marco and several of his friends to an outlet mall called E DA. On the way to the mall, we stopped at a day market that was located along a lush green path up a hill. It was great to wander around and have some coffee and delicious snacks along the way. After that, we made our way to E DA (which literally looks like it could be in Vegas). There is an indoor ice skating rink where many
of Marco's friends tried to ice skate for the first time. (I thought it was funny how geared up everyone got to ice skate... knee pads, elbow pads and a helmet😉 I decided not to skate because my back has been bothering me a bit lately and I thought I'd finally be able to find some pants that fit me (no luck there). After that we went to a delicious restaurant that served even more delicious beer.
The best part about not going on vacation was that I was able to experience a traditional Chinese New Year with Marco and his family. His grandparents live just outside of Tainan city (about 30 min. north of Kaohsiung). The first day, we drove up there, visited some family members and went to his paternal Grandparent's house for a big meal. The next day, Marco's Uncle and Aunt took us to a salt museum. Apparently the salt hill used to be white, but they let people walk on it so now it's more like a light brown. Then we went to see some migratory birds that come from North Korea this time of year, but the tide was too low so we
weren't able to see them. After that, we went back to his grandparent's house for another big meal. The next day we hung out, watched TV, did a puzzle and then went over to Marco's maternal grandmother's house for lunch (which is apparently the custom). After lunch, Webber and I walked over to a temple nearby and then we went back to his paternal grandparent's house for dinner... so much food! His family was really nice and welcoming (I just wished I knew a little more Chinese so that I could have gotten to know them a little better😉
The following Monday I went to watch the Super Bowl at an expat bar at 7:30 in the morning. I got there about 10 minutes before kickoff and the bar was packed! I couldn't believe it. After the game I hung out with some friends and that night we decided to be like the locals and set off some bottle rockets in the park.
A few days later, I woke up and realized that a mosquito had bitten me... on my eye! Worst of all, my eye swelled shut for most of the morning and was still a bit swollen
On the way to E-DA
Buying Sweet Potatoes when I had to sub that afternoon.
Over the weekend I went with some friends down to the Love River. There are many lights set up and they have a fireworks show every night during Chinese New Year (actually, CNY is over, but they're still going on... not too sure what that's about). The river is lined with vendors and there is an area where groups of people and students made giant, moving, lit up structures as some kind of competition. This year is the year of the rabbit and I must say that many of these things were pretty bizarre.
The Lantern Festival was on Thursday and it marks the end of Chinese New Year. I was expecting to go down to the Love River and watch as people make wishes and hundreds of red lanterns are let go. Instead, I decided to do something a little more adventurous. About 45 minutes north of Kaohsiung, there is a town called Yan Shui. Every lantern festival, people set up giant structures that hold thousands of bottle rockets. These fireworks are not shot up into the air, but rather out at the crowd of people that have circled around
the structure because getting hit by these firecrackers is believed to be good luck. I was under the impression that they would be shot in one direction and as long as I stayed in a certain area I wouldn't get hit. This was not the case... they were everywhere and within 10 minutes of being there, I was hit in the thigh by a rocket that exploded after it hit me. Luckily, I had plenty of gear to protect me... 2 pairs of pants, long sleeved shirt, jacket, poncho, gloves and a motorcycle helmet with a towel wrapped around my neck (if you don't have the towel, you risk having a rocket come up at an angle and get lodged between your helmet and your face). It was insane, but also a lot of fun after a few beers 😉
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