Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival

The Moon Festival 

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful lady called Ch'ang O.  Her husband was a famous liberator who received an elixir of everlasting life as his reward.  However, Ch'ang, the wife, stole it from him and swallowed it instead.  Soon after she had done so, she found herself floating up to heaven, where she became the goddess of the moon and has lived there ever since."  

The reasons Ch'ang took the pill from her husband are varied.  I have heard two.  The first, is that the husband's apprentice wanted the pill and was going to steal it away.  The only way to protect the powers of the elixir from the greedy apprentice was to take the pill herself.  The other version is that she was curious and wanted to test the powers herself, the "Eve" version.  

Cast as martyr or the greed the story of the Moon will be cheerfully on the 15th day of the eighth month, according to the lunar calendar.  This year, that day was September 29th in Taiwan.   The best ways to celebrate are: 

1. Eat Pomelo fruit! 

2. Eat moon cakes!

3. Have a barbeque with your friends and family under the beautiful, full moon! 

4. Give moon cakes away to friends and family! 

Meina and Kelin enjoying Pomelo fruit in Chinese class. 

Xiangsome and Hefen enjoying Pomelo fruit in Chinese class.  

Me and Zhenya with Pomelo fruit. 

Teacher Wang or "Wang Laoshi" with the fruit! (Laoshi mean teachers in Mandarin) We call her Wang laoshi.  She's the best! 

Class presentation on the elements of the Moon Festival: Look at moon, eat moon cakes, eat pomelo. 

Moon Festival Barbeque with International Student Club  Below: post BBQ entertainment.  A taiwanese students singing, "Call me Maybe" karaoke style.  

Barbeque on tiny grills!  

Playing Mahjong with International Student Club.  (not part of Moon Festival but the same weekend.) 

Blossoms dropping all around me.

“But listen to me. For one moment
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you.”
― Rumi

Dali Exposition Taipei

Taipei is the lucky host of a private collection of Dali's artwork.  My co-worker, Eva, met me after class and off we went.  Eva also studied Spanish in college.  

The Concert Hall, next to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall where the exhibition was held.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, upstairs is a memorial to this guy who like most political leaders seemed both good and bad.  He was leader of mainland China  until the Nationalists party lost the civil war against the Communist party.  As leader of the Nationalist he was forced to flee with his party to the tiny, beautiful Taiwan where he began to rule with the intention of "re-taking" China again someday.  

As far as I can tell he seems to be the founder of modern Taiwan.  Oddly enough, blocks away from his Memorial is another memorial remembering "white terror" and "228" incident where 10,000-30,000 civilians were killed in an anti-government uprising.  The government led under this guy.  

Inside the Memorial, there he sits. 

A soldier is always on guard here and cannot move.  So difficult in this heat! 

Sign reads, "Please be serious."  Done. 

After the guard change, we ventured downstairs where the Dali exhibit was.  This statue welcomed us at the entrance.  We saw many surrealist bronze sculptures that I was not allowed to take pictures of.  Sadly, sculptures are a form completely understood only in person, the intended 3-D form.   These photos are a poor representation of the exhibit but they are better than nothing.  

I don't do drugs. I am drugs. 
Salvador Dali 

National Taiwan University

                                                            Life @ NTU "Taida"

National Taiwan University has a beautiful campus.   In the cool quiet of the early mornings it is easy to forget I am in the middle of a bustling capital.  The main entrance of "Taida" and the rows of palm trees greet me M-F 8:00am.  The main road is nearly empty and I can swerve back and forth over the yellow line enjoying the freedom of being nearly alone on my bicycle.  At the end of the road is the library where two luxuries are guaranteed everyday; 1) AC , 2) quiet.

Last week,  I walked down the library steps to unlock my bike and ride home.  I flopped my backpack into the basket and was startled by a Taiwanese student standing behind me waiting to get his own bike out.  I replied with a friendly, "Ni Hao."  He responded, "I can speak English."  What a jerk, I thought.  Here I am half way across the world trying to learn.  Why are you making it more difficult?  So I said in broken words, "I want to study Chinese."  He then replied with something in Chinese, very quickly.  I had no idea.  "You understand?"  Darn.  "No."  "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."  "Yes," I nod in agreement.  When in Taiwan do as the Taiwanese do.

So far, this means biking, eating tofu, drinking milk tea, exchanging money with two hands instead of one, nodding in politeness a lot, learning efficient transportation routes and creatively using as much Chinese as possible.  This last point is made difficult by people such as the man in this story who respond in English.  Strangers greet me in English and assume that because I am white I speak English and prefer it over Chinese.   While in Rome, let me at least pretend to be Roman.  

Solution: I tell strangers I am German and do not understand English.  This has proved advantageous with cab drivers.

A)             B)

So blessed to have option A) now and not just option B) thought option B) was exciting for a while. 

Student Cafeteria

Delicious Meal @ NTU that cost me $1.58. 

In the Chinese language department there are students from all over but our book is in Chinese/English.  Taking this course in this context has really reminded me how English is the international language of study and how many people are exposed to English in school, media, etc. from an early age.  This does not mean they are fluent but it means they know more of a second language than most English speakers do.  For us, this is an advantage (convenience) and disadvantage (we are rarely put into situations that challenge our linguistic communication skills and rarely take the opportunity to learn a second language enough to achieve fluency.  That's why the growing Spanish speaking population is an exciting opportunity for our country to grow linguistically and challenge our minds to learn Spanish and help others learn/improve English!)  

Anyways, here are my classmates! 

(Zhe shi wo de zongxue!)  

 (Left to Right) Zhenya (Japan), He Fen (Thailand), Xiangshimei (Japan), Kelin (Mongolia), Meina (Mongolia), Me, Teacher Wang!