Ghost Festival and Buddhism

Held on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month (based on, obviously, the Lunar calendar as opposed to our Gregorian one), this is a holiday celebrated by both some Chinese, Taiwanese, and Buddhist monks (specifically the Mahayana sect). Offering food to their ancestors and surrounding a shrine with fruit, water, bowls of rice, and noodles, local Taipei onlookers and volunteers are swarming around in a elementary school near the bus stop I usually take. Having seen some of the preparation work the evening before, Esther (a friend I met in my housing complex) and I talked with some of the workers. After slowing down their rapid speech, we caught that if we came back the next day we could actually help make the mochi balls (rice flour dough that is boiled and usually very sweet) for the people who would be arriving to pray to their ancestors. We gratefully accepted, and returned the next day at 1pm.

Sick Day

Ah, yes, the inevitable (at least for me).

Yesterday afternoon I started falling asleep at my office. My eyes hurt. Everything else was fine, but then around 3:30pm - 4pm, my head exploded......I finished the day, and had to break it to my friend that no, I could not go to the Shilin night market. It was hard to walk.
I fell asleep (after Ibuprofen and some water) immediately. Still setting my alarm for the next day, just in case I was better. I was, but only a little. I called my boss and told her in very brusque Chinese that my head hurt and that my body was hot and that I didn't want to come into work today.....she agreed that it would be a bad idea. I fell asleep again and woke up at 10am feeling great and had miscellaneous thoughts of calling my boss again and letting her know I was okay! and then I fell asleep yet again and did not wake up until 4pm. I feel alright as of the moment. not 100% better, but my eyes don't hurt anymore, and I can walk.

Which brings me back to an earlier point - you will get sick in Asia. Be prepared. Don't get that silly notion that you are invincible, because when you are vomiting well into the night, you will not feel like it anymore AND you will have failed to bring pepto bismol (and they do not sell it here). ^.^ just a warning......

Ibuprofen, gastreX, and immodium are godly drugs! do not take them lightly when you pack....

Pinglin

Pinglin was great! Only about an hour's ride outside of Taipei city, Pinglin is has beautiful mountains and scenery. There you may find tiers/layers of tea leave plants on the slopes. Moving my eyes away from the scenery back to the exhibits at the tea museum, I read about how tea is picked, dried, rolled, dried again, tumbled, and pounded into its to-be sold form. Amazingly, the machines to do this kind of work have not dramatically changed over the years. Sure, they have gone from manual labor to manually operated, but the design of the roller and drying racks still hold onto antiquity.
After Pinglin, our crew of 8 headed out to Shifen's "Old Street". The town is divided in two by a train that passes through the center, reminiscent of the days when it shipped out Taiwanese coal to the rest of the nation. More famous than its coal mine, which is now shown off by its last work and his wife, is the lanterns. Standing about 3 feet tall, these paper balloons are fired by oiled paper and let go into the night sky, soaring high above. Ironically we are asked to calligraphize (is this even a word?) our hopes and dreams onto the balloon before it is released. Let dreams soar.

What can I say? I ate deep fried tea leaves and green tea noodles and watched my hopes and desires float away....