Pre-Spring Break

A week later. And what an eventful week. Pictures will be posted soon, or whenever my laziness subsides enough to upload them from my iPhone's camera.

Friday was drageoke! Quite exciting! Two of the girls in our travel group helped me get dressed and prepared for my performance, then it began. My singing partner started singing, then I came out, singing, on stage to laughter and loud applause. We finished our song and were loudly applauded again. While we didn't win a prize, our performance was without a doubt the most entertaining one. I'm pretty sure that pictures (and video) can be seen on my Facebook.

On Saturday I went to the Taipei 101 tea shop yet again, for more delicious Oriental Beauty tea. I spent several hours there with a gay Taiwanese friend. It was really fun and relaxing. On Sunday the two of us went many places across Taipei, including an old theatre called the Red Building [紅樓] near Ximen, which is located near many of Taipei's gay bars. We wanted to go to an open-air market, but apparently it was not open. After this we went to the Taipei Modern Art museum in north-central Taipei. Modern art isn't really my thing but it was alright. There were a lot of photographs and not-very-realistic paintings. Perhaps I'm unsophisticated, but I prefer the paintings that look more like reality, as I think it's impressive to directly and accurately render a scene onto canvas. After the museum closed I parted ways with my friend and met with my flame dame. We met another gay friend of hers and went to the bars near Ximen. It was an interesting experience, and not all bad, but unfortunately I was the recipient of some undesired flirting.

On Monday evening I went out with a couple of the guys in the group to Raohe [饒河] night market, which seems to have an even larger selection of cheap (and male) clothing than do Shilin and Shida, the other two major night markets. While I only bought one shirt, it was a very interesting place that I intend to return to. Unfortunately, my clothing was not new when I first left America for Asia in August, and so it is wearing out even more here. Thus I have had to buy some inexpensive clothing already.

Nothing particularly interesting happened on Monday, or yesterday morning. Last evening, my flame dame's Japanese friends (who spent the weekend in Taipei) were preparing to return to Japan. So we went out to a combination barbecue-hot pot place. While I don't mind barbecue, I greatly prefer hot pot. So while the others ate barbecue and a little bit of hot pot, I almost exclusively ate hot pot. This turned out to be a very wise decision, because this morning I recieved two text messages from the others saying that they were suffering from food poisoning. At barbecues here, people cook their own meat. As many people may not be familiar with what meat looks like when it's done cooking, and as the tongs are used both to put raw meat on the grill and to take cooked meat off, it is easy for contamination to occur. While I am very glad that the hot pot system is much more safe, I hope that my two friends feel better very soon!

Today was the last day of class before the break, which is why I am writing this post this evening. This evening I ate mediocre vegetarian food with my flame dame, who is still recovering from her food poisoning, and met my classmate (an adorable Japanese girl) at the library for a language exchange. She wants to practice more English and I want to practice more Japanese, so we hope to be mutually beneficial teachers. After about three hours, I went to a bar with some of the other Americans and about four Taiwanese graduate students, for a last night out before everyone disperses for the break. After this, we returned to the dorm and here I am.

As far as I know, spring break is always held from April 1 to April 5, in observance of Qingming Festival [清明節], or tomb-sweeping day. This is a traditional Chinese holiday during which celebrants return to their families and ancestral homes, and sweep the gravestones of their ancestors. It derives from the strong influence of ancestor worship in China and areas it influenced. More information on the festival is sure to come, as I love learning and reporting information.

Many of the foreigners (and even some Taiwanese), who do not face these family obligations, use this time to travel around the island or to other locations. While there is much in Taiwan I want to see, I am also frugal and so decided to stay in Taipei and visit areas I haven't seen yet. So general plans include, in some order:

Going to the top of Taipei 101 (should be done on a very clear day or night)
Riding the Maokong cable car up to the top of the mountain, drinking and buying tea
Visiting the Taipei Zoo
Seeing Danshui (the area at the mouth of the river)

I am sure that I will come up with further plans, but these are the things that I want to ensure I get done over the break. Good news! There will be many more pictures this week, as this is a departure from "student mode" so I will be carrying my camera around much more often.