Lantern Festival

So Chinese New Year culminates in the Lantern Festival. There are festivals all over Taiwan during the last week of the New Year holiday. And all of them are different. Some are sky lanterns that get released into the atmosphere, some are lanterns made by local students that are for looking at only, and some are public blessings.

Kay took me to a Lantern Festival of the student made variety. It was pretty cool. And I was really impressed with the quality of the lanterns. Mine would have looked like a tangled mess of metal and paper. And I found out later that one of my students, Lion, had a lantern in the display. There was also a crazy water/firework/laser show. It was cool.

Student lanterns 

Year of the Dragon

Kay and mini Kay

Water/light/firework show

Cut to Pingxi:
When I first decided, in May, to come teach in Taiwan, I looked up information about the country. I believe my Google search was "cool things in Taiwan". The first result was the Lantern Festival in Pingxi. And after spending 0.2 seconds looking at pictures, I immediately promised myself that if I did nothing else in Taiwan I would go to the Lantern Festival. Best promise I've ever kept.

During the past months, I persuaded some others (Alex, Josh K, and Rooney) to take off the day and go with me to Pingxi. I think it was my excitement that convinced them to come with me - it was literally pouring out of me. I don't think I've ever been so excited about something that I knew so little about. And so in the weeks leading up, I watched Tangled probably about 50 times. I told everyone to learn the song from the lantern scene and so prepared and more than excited we set off after the Superbowl on Monday morning.

We stepped off a very crowded train onto an even more crowded walkway. There were people everywhere. And to my delight, lanterns were already being released into the perfectly blue sky. I was in heaven. The weather was perfect and clear. The train tracks were lined with stores selling food, lanterns, fireworks, and much more. There were people writing on their lanterns and sending them off to the 'oohs' and 'ahhs' of many onlookers. The tracks were the best place to do this and instead of not allowing it, they had people with whistles who would warn when a train was coming. Then panicked people would dash to the walkway and smile and wave to the next wave of people.

We walked around and decided to buy six lanterns, one for each of us (Jack and Ting came with us). The closer we got to the releasing area, the more lanterns were visible. It is a really cool thing, to look up and see lanterns floating away.

We butted our way into a writing station and scribbled all over our first lantern. We were all giddy with excitement to see our hopes and dreams and wishes ascend to the heavens. Well all that went up in flames. Literally. We figured out why there was a fire truck - the fire brigade came rushing over to smother our lantern. And we found out what really happens to a dream deferred.

Cut to our second lantern. Tatted up and ready, this time pink, we took our lantern to the releasing point to the dismay of the fire brigade. This time we were determined not to have it catch fire - too demoralizing and probably a bad omen. So with reservation, we released it. The lantern drifted up a few feet, hovered and then flew sideways - not nearly high enough to be out of the danger zone. We took off running after it - shouting warnings and drawing everyone's attention. One of the fire fighter, who was no doubt watching us out of fear, caught the lantern. He did some voodoo and helped us re-release it. Again it hovered but then caught a drift and after barely clearing the trees, there was an eruption of cheers from all around. There were about 200 people watching that whole spectacle. You're welcome for the entertainment Taiwan.

We decided to keep the other lanterns until the night time, and so wandered over to the actual festival release area. And there, we got very lucky. A Taiwanese man came up to us and motioned for us to follow him. He then took off running. and not sure where we were headed, but very certain I didn't want to be left behind, I followed suit. The others soon joined in and we found out that he was giving us a ticket to the official release area. What a stroke of luck. And all he wanted in return was to take a picture of us! Good old Kevin. We said he could take all the pictures he wanted!

So we got three lanterns to let off in the official release. We wrote, drew and scribbled all over them and then awaited sunset. There was a constant stream of lanterns being released from the other area and as it got darker, it only got more beautiful. After a mini concert and the filling of a mondo lantern it was go time. Volunteers came around and lit everyone's lanterns. But we had to wait. So with our feet holding the lanterns, the lower half of our bodies became extremely hot. And Alex assured all of us this would never fly in the United States. But this is Asia.

Then it was time to step back and watch the lanterns rise. What an amazing sight. There were hundreds of lanterns all going up at the same time. And we were in the thick of it. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I don't think I stopped smiling after that. It is something that can't adequately be described - it has to be experienced. So if you get only one thing out of my blog - make it this: GO TO THE LANTERN FESTIVAL. You won't be disappointed.

We were told there were 100,000 people at the festival and so after the emotional high started to wear off, dread for our return trip took its place. And it was warranted dread. We raced down the tracks and jumped on an already crowded train. Then probably about 50 people crammed on after us. I will never understand how a person looks at a train that was as full as our and thinks to himself "oh yeah, there's definitely enough room for me and my 10 friends." No there's not. Not even close. I was sweating from the amount of body heat being produced. Dripping sweat. And for some ludicrous reason, the train waited there for another half hour. It was my nightmare.

Besides the train ride from Hell, the day was a complete success. One of my top five days in my life. And as I already said - make it a point to see this someday. It's remarkable.

Roon, Josh, Me, Ting, Alex, Jack

Kevin and his family

Buying lanterns

Schmidts, eggs + happiness 2012

Flames

Insert caption here

Roon and Josh: attempt 2

Victory

Cheers abound at our victory

Roon and the mondo lantern

Roon and our official lantern

So amazing

Our last lantern.

Excited about releasing them.

Chinese New Year

Q:How many people does it take to blow up a pear?
A: More than we had.

Roon and Dustin 

Having never experienced a Chinese New Year before, I had very few expectations. I had heard over and over how crowded places like Taipei would be and conversely, how empty places like Taoyuan would be. I was also warned about the terrible weather that would settle in Taoyuan for our nine day holiday. But I was fairly certain it would take more than unfortunate weather to ruin my work free holiday. And I was right.

My holiday started with an invitation to a Taiwanese friend's house with Rooney and Carson. She (Yolanda) invited us to the New Year's Eve feast. And a feast it was. I don't think I've ever seen so much food in once place. And that is including my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those of you who are a part of that or know us, knows that is quite a feat. There were easily at least 15 different dishes - probably upwards of 20. And most of them were delicious. Highlight most because, let's be honest, I am still in Taiwan. But I did broaden my dietary horizons to include a pork stuffed pig's hoof. No need to backtrack and re-read, yes I said pig's hoof. And I can safely say now, not a huge fan. But there were many more delectable delicacies to partake in. Throughout the night there was a lot of drinking, laughing, translating, and "I don't know"-ing. It was a wonderful time. And I felt so lucky to have been included in another family's celebration. It is always so nice to be around family, even when it's not my holiday.

The next morning I was due to head down to the south of Taiwan with a big group of friends but opted out at the last minute. I wasn't in the mood for lots of socializing and partying in the south so I stayed home. That being said, obviously my new year holiday wasn't filled with many noteworthy things. I'll just hit the highlights.

There were fireworks everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean they were incessant. And disarmingly and alarmingly loud. And literally everywhere. Let me start by saying you only need to be 12 years old to purchase and explosive of the Disneyland caliber. Yeah, so there's that. And obviously we are over 12 and so obviously we bought fireworks. A group of us set them off in the park. We had such amazing visuals in our heads of melons and other fruits exploding into brilliant fireworks. Well, visions they stayed. We failed miserably at blowing anything up. Rooney resorted to throwing the fruit at trees to satiate his need for demolition. And yes, Asian fireworks are as dangerous as they sound.

We also sent one of the sky lanterns into the air. Dustin had one and so we made our wishes and sent it into orbit. It got me really excited for the Pingxi Lantern Festival (blog to follow). They are so pretty and peaceful to watch.

Our park is also the setting off point for many fireworks. And being so, we had no more than a few moments of quiet (or at least it seemed like it) for the week. At one point it was so loud that we had to stop our show and wait for them to pass because we couldn't hear it, even at the loudest volume. At that point, we went out on our balcony and enjoyed the show. Or shows because each direction you looked, there were multiple "shows" being put on. It was actually quite cool and a firework lover's dream.

There were lots of darts played and I was the most improved player. I discovered that as long as I'm not aiming for the bulls eye, my accuracy is deadly.

We saw a few movies, had dinner and games night with Dustin and Carson, relaxed, slept a lot, ate a lot. It was a nice break from a pretty easy life. Haha.

Rooney the Obliterator 

This firework, very surprisingly, broke into two pieces and threatened serious
singeing and  required lightning fast reflexes.

Roon, Ryan, Ting

Firework group: Roon, Dustin, Ting, Ryan's mouth.