Heya folks!
Been awhile...ahem...uh...hi.
Today is just my 2nd day back at Dong Chu branch and its been a little rough getting back into swing of teaching. Oh yea, I had ALL of last week off from work. Nine days in a row with nothing to do but whatever I wanted. Aha! Wonderful.
Friday the 23rd of Jan my vacation officially began. I'm once again taking Chinese classes and it feels good to be back in the class room. In light of the massive upcoming holiday of Chinese New Year (CNY) me, and the other foreigners in my class, tried our hands at chinese calligraphy writing. If you google 'chinese calligraphy' you will find a vast array of beautiful images; chinese characters with some artistic flair are really quite wonderful to look at. I wish I could say that ours came out just as well...
But I'd be lying.
Still, it was fun learning some of the techniques for brush strokes, grip, etc. I also learned that Chinese poetry is, well...crazy hard. Just imagine all of the work that goes into an English language poem as far as word choices for sound, meaning, etc. Now factor in that it has to sound right and have the proper TONE (there are 4 in Chinese), that will properly match the sound and tone of the other words. So, its not what it says but also how you say it, literally, that can completely change the meaning. I suppose I should mention quite frequently in Chinese words will have the exact same sound (sometimes the exact same tone as well) but mean different things because the written characters aren't the same.
Even Chinese TV shows that are in Chinese have subtitles.
But, I digress.
Sunday the 25th I spent over four hours on my scooter driving around the city. I brought my camera and snapped away, looking for any and all things CNY that I could find. And, lo and behold, I found a woman making Chinese calligraphy blessings for the holiday. It is common practice to hang blessings and the sort on your door and around your house to usher in the new year. What luck! Just two days after I tried the art myself I saw a professional at work. I had to stop.
I asked her if it was ok to take her picture and she was extremely cool about it. She made several smaller pieces and some locals bought them on the spot. I watched her for almost 20 minutes, completely engrossed in her skill. Yes, I have photos and they should already be on Facebook and they will be on Flickr for those of you that aren't on FB. Amazing, amazing stuff. Pretty incredible stuff to watch with a huge fruit stand right next door and scooter traffic whizzing by right behind me.
New Years Day. Monday.
I woke up sometime before noon and fixed a couple good old PB&J sammiches before heading out on the Duke again (my scooter :D). Monday was the actual New Years Day of CNY, even though the holiday itself is celebrated the entire week over. I decided to check out the sculpture/statue park on the far side of the city. Last time I tried to find it I went right past it and got lost for an hour or so. I had much better luck this time.
Much to my delight, though not entirely surprising, there was a market of sorts set up within the park and tons of people walking around. I strapped on my camera bag and waded neck deep into the festivities. Just assume when I mention something like this there are photos somewhereon Facebook or Flickr, because there always will be. I wandered around for 2 hours, snapping photos of people/things/the park, anything and everything. I got some snacks too: Taiwanese sausage, a bag of fried squid, and a bottle of fresh sqeezed OJ. Tasty.
Then I saw the fireworks table. Tehee!
What can I say? I like things that explode. Like bottle rockets. Especially if I can get them 30 at a time for .25 cents.
:)
I spent that night drinking beer in the park down the block from my apartment and shooting things into the night sky. Not that I was the only one, not by any means. Not a day went by the entire WEEK that I didn't hear something detonating or fizzing or sparkling at least once or twice an hour if not more. Think of the 4th of July x2 and stretched out over an entire week.
Lots of red. Tons of it, in fact. Red banners, red lanterns, red hangy-dangly things, red fireworks. Many places also had big paper-mache statues of an Ox in or on the premises. Others simply went for the big infatable variety. Things got pretty quiet here in the city, too. Too quiet, even. CNY is a really, REALLY big travel holiday. Hundreds of thousands of people hit the roads to return home or just to drive and be with their families. It was almost impossible for me to find chinese food to eat during most of the week because everyone was on vacation! I will admit I resorted to McDonalds more than once, but I had no choice! PB&J will only take you so far.
Overall it was a kickass week. Lots of beer and hang out relaxing time. Lots of things that go ka-boom, too. During my second or third trip to the park down the street, armed to the teeth with splody-things, I had an encounter with a police officer. Eek. I know. I'll get there.
I had just taken a swig of my beer before I lit the bottle rocket. Instead of putting it in a bottle or just sticking it into the ground I thought it would be more fun to just throw it and watch which way it flies (no I wasn't drunk, seriously, I'm just nuts). In a flash of sparks it zoomed away from me and towards a small brook that runs down the center of park before detonating in a lovely crackle-pop-POW.
Then I heard a whistle.
Oh, fuck.
Then I saw the cop walking through the smoke from the explosion.
Double fuck.
I grabbed my beer and yelled "Sorry!" in Chinese before trying to be casual about packing up the small arsenal of pyrotechnics I had brought with me. Not to mention the two six packs of beer my compatriots Brian, and Nate had contributed. Yet, something about this particular cop didn't worry me. After he whistled to get our attention he didn't walk any faster or say anything else until he got right up to us. He just kept mosing along at the same pace as if without a care in the world. When he reached us he said "It's kind of late guys, don't you think you should take a break?" Of course, he said this in Chinese but my friend Nate speaks awesome Mandarin and translated for us.
We agreed and packed up and went back to Brian's place and I shot bottle rockets off his balcony at surrounding buildings. Tehee!
Lots of reading, movies, explosions, food, night markets, scooter adventuring...what a week. Much, much too much to fit all in here, but check the Fun Facts at the bottom for a few highlights.
So, for now check out my photos and be jealous! Look for more posts in the coming weeks: I've fallen far, far behind and I'm going to work on making this a more regular deal. So, until next time my friends...long days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Fireworks are plentiful and deliciously cheap in this country.
-Playing pool until 5am is awesome.
-Dance clubs with bad ratios aren't that fun.
-Bottle rockets are versatile, providing hours of endless entertainment.
-There are two prisons and a drug abuse center half an hour outside Taichung.
-Prisons in Asia are just as sketchy looking.
-Happy New Year in Chinese is: "Xin nian kuai le!" (sheen-knee-ehn-quai-luh).
-Watered down whiskey is great to gargle to nip a cold in the bud.
-All cats have three names.