中秋節快了！
Hello from Taiwan!
So I have decided that I want to try to have some organization to my
posts, thus, for this post I am going to talk about the Mid-Autumn Festival festivities
that have been happening here in Taiwan for the past week or so.
First, I guess I should explain what the Mid-Autumn Festival is (also known
as the Moon Festival which I will be calling it from now on in this post since autumn
is incredibly irritating to type). The Moon Festival is a lunar harvest
festival celebrated in China,
Taiwan, and Vietnam. Since
I do not want to try and explain this festival for fear of sounding moronic,
please watch this short clip…. Mid-Autumn Festival There is much more to the holiday including many different stories
of how it originated, alas, I am not an expert on the subject and do not want
to tell you guys wrong. What I can tell you with certainty, however, is that
this festival is celebrated much differently in Taiwan. The video you just watched
showed how the Moon Festival is celebrated in China,
but, in Taiwan
they add a little something extra…………….BBQ!
Mehhhhh, you guys may have already guessed that since I already talked
about it a little bit last week. This weekend was the official holiday weekend
though and it was filled with even more BBQ, smoke, and excitement than I could
handle…(literally, the smoke was thick).
The first BBQ I had this week was with my Taiwanese friends/language
partners that I had become friends with last summer. One of my friends was part
of a ‘Roller skating club’ and she invited me to join her BBQ. Little did I
know that this BBQ was going to be a big production. I finally arrived to the
place where my friend told me to meet her (I was lost T_T ) and found out that
there were about 50 other people that were a part of this BBQ. I also found out
that we were all going to go by scooter to a bridge about 15 minutes away and
were going to BBQ under the bridge. Once we got there, I saw that there were about 10
disposable grills all lined up with folded up cardboard boxes (our seats)
surrounding all of them (I wish that would happen in America). We spent the rest of the evening sitting around these
grills and shoving our faces with food…. GOOD FOOD. We grilled chicken,
sausages, green peppers, mushrooms, string mushrooms with butter, etc. Guys, it
was so good and we ate for hours and hours. The cityscape was beautiful, the
air was filled with the smell of Taiwanese BBQ, and the moon was balla (you
didn’t think I would start getting all gushy, did you?) Long story short, it
was amazing. And I am going to give you guys a clip to show you all of the cool
people I was hanging out with that night. My friend is the one in the pink
skirt……Gangnam Style Flash Mob Yup,
this is where I live guys…jealous?
My next BBQ experience for this week was at my school. We had all heard
about this celebration a few weeks ago and had signed up for it at the school. Well,
little did we know, that it was a huge production. We all thought that it was
just going to be a little classroom filled with like 30 people (international
students) but no, no guys, it was a huge auditorium filled with hundreds of
people. So I walked in found my friends, luckily, and sat down by them. This
celebration consisted of a Karaoke contest and food. During the middle of the
show there was an intermission and then it got real. Imagine two long tables of
food on either side of the auditorium and then hundreds of people rushing
towards them at the same time, cramming in trying to get some food. Yeah. It happened.
At one point this French girl and I made a deal. I go for the salty foods and
she’ll go for the sweet foods. BREAK. Good plan, good plan. I am proud that we
are intelligent enough to think up ways on how to not starve for the rest of
the evening. After this celebration, a group of us headed back to a dorm room
and watched a movie. After that, I ran into two friends and went into their
dorm room and chatted. Once again a good night here in Taichung.
Then last night a German girl, Finnish girl and I all went to another
night market on the other side of town to go shopping. And since this post is
already going long I will just say it was a success and I bought an amazing
pair of shorts. Oh, and also, while ordering food the people loved that this
white, blonde kid could speak Chinese and then were hilariously surprised when
the Asian looking girl behind me in line started speaking English. WIN. They
literally couldn’t stop laughing.
Well, this is the end of my post and I am honestly going to put up more
pictures once I get all the ones transferred from my I-phone. For now, here is
just another random assortment of pictures that really don’t have a lot to do
with this post. Sooooooo, sorry?
Awesome post. Good thing you don't weigh a lot or your box would've collapsed;)
ReplyDeletebut they were already collapsed T_T haha :P
DeleteIMAX
ReplyDeleteeverything there looks beautiful and clean. I am really glad people here don't celebrate the moon festival. I can just picture hundreds of people sitting on their boxes cooking meth under the freeway.
ANYHOW looks amazing! be safe on the scooters.
haha ya, apparently the areas underneath the bridges are safe here and are in no way threatening to your life. so that was good...... you should come visit! whaaaaaaa?! oh I shall be safe, I have only been in one wreck so far haha...so I got THAT out of the way.
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