This week has been another week of Taiwanese culture (and climate), but this time with a little twist of something more western and known.
It is obvious that we are getting closer to the Moon Festival (on Wednesday), as everybody enjoys the traditional Moon Festival food. The Moon Festival is the ending of the Ghost Month where the death ancestors return to our world to plague their descendants if they don’t offer them enough respect in shape of prayer, food and ghost money. On the Moon Festival day the ancestors finally returns to where they belong, and the families can relax again. This is celebrated with traditional barbeque and mooncakes. When I first heard barbeque I thought of some sausages on a barbeque in the backyard, but that is not the case. Barbeque here is eaten on formal restaurants as well as in the hones and consists of a lot of thin slices of different kinds of meat that you grill on the barbeque and eat together with delicious salad, different sauces and (of course) rice. It is very delicious and a good opportunity to get together with friends and family. I have already participated in two of those dinners all though we haven’t reached the Moon Festival day (Wednesday) yet.
The other part of the food (the mooncakes) are more…. special. I like the outer part, which often consists of some kind of pastry and then some chocolate, pineapple or other fruit stuffing. The special part is the boiled egg yolk in the middle. Well – I like cake, and I like egg – but together? That is weird. I eat it anyway (the taste is not bad, just weird), cause people get so happy when they see me eat the traditional food :)
As you can hear, the Moon Festival comes with a lot of food and celebration just as Christmas does in Denmark. Therefore it is perfect that I have finally found a place to dance. I join a dance club in Taipei city who dances the genres: Jazz, Hip Hop and MTV dance (they do also have some gospel and tap-dancing, but I am not joining them those days). It is great finally to move (!!!), and everybody there are very kind and devoted to dance. I also think that they the dance club might save my Christmas, as I have found out that the leaders are Christian and members of a gospel church. So this week has also brought some familiar culture (dance and Christianity) hat I warmly welcome.
Other updates of the week are, that I have had my first meeting with my music club at school – we are a lot of people but not so many vocalists, so that is just perfect. We went to a concert together on Friday evening (another schools music club was playing), and that definitely brought us closer even though I’ve just met those “music-club-people”.
I’ve also spent some time with the other exchange students. Saturday we all went to a water park outside Taipei – a great arrangement set up by my Rotary district.
And concerning Rotary, then I’ve met my second and third host parents. Both families are Rotarians (members of my club), and they seem really nice! The only drawback is that my next host family lives in Beitou (a part of Taipei), which means that it will take me 1 and a half hour to go to school! But as long as they seemed nice it doesn’t matter.
The last update has to be that the school camp on Monday to Tuesday has been cancelled (my class and I should have slept in a tent somewhere, cooked our own food, made a show and so on…). The reason? A typhoon. So far it though hasn’t been that bad here in Taipei – much worse in the central and southern part of Taiwan, but the school has cancelled the camp anyway, which is really sad… Well… At least I might get a day of tomorrow if the weather gets worse :)
I still love everything here, and now I can even eat without getting bad conscience because I have found a dance club – LOVELY!
Julia :)
