Made in Taiwan: 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.