Ghost Festival and Buddhism Con't!

So.
I returned to the same spot with Esther and found our lady, who was ecstatic that her two foreigners (gawky and noticeable in the Taipei civilian crowd) had returned. She hurried us off to the tables, where at least 30 volunteers were rolling out mochi (again explained, rice gluten flour-dough that is eventually boiled) balls. They must have made HUNDREDS before we arrived. Turning the corner I could see more clearly that the prayer tables were set up on the grounds of an elementary school. Unlike our own schools, the halls of most Asian schools (Japan, China, Taiwan, not sure about Korea) have sinks outside in the corridors so kids can clean up before and after school. After washing our hands, we immediately got to work. Rolling out the dough in our hands, I started breaking off pieces and quickly got reprimanded: "太小了" and then "太大了 - 人吃不下!” ("too small" and then "too big- people won't be able to swallow them!"). After that, it wasn't too difficult! Just roll the dough, and pick up the next piece. It was at that point that I decided to strike a conversation with the ladies next to us with my savvy Chinese skills. It went something like this:

me: "There's a lot of these" (pointing to the mochi balls)
lady: **doesn't glance up**
me: **re-attempting, embarassed** "There's a lot of these - how many have you all made?"
lady: **blank stare**
Esther: (to me in English) "I don't think they understood...."
me: **what if they speak Taiwanese.....** "Are you all from Taibei?"
ladies: "Yep." **smiling**
me: **contact made! woohoo!**


It was quite a bit less daunting after that initial barrier of miscommunication (or lack thereof). However, that didn't stop me from not understanding quite a few words that they used....
After an hour and a half or so, we decided to clean up and walk around to see what else was going on. It turns out that this was quite a large event with quite a few 表演 (performances), not in the least including a dragon dance. They also had elementary kid setups with shime drums (small, beat-keeping drums about the size of a snare drum) for a drum performace. Some monks were preparing for a festival speech, while elementary girls in leaf ballet costumes were complaining about the heat. I do not blame them - it was hot. Not wanting to wait 30 minutes for the performances to start (we had other places to go), we decided to head out. On the way, we grabbed some of the mochi soup (the mochi balls were now cooked an in a very sweet syrup） and fish noodle soup. Both were delicious. We then left, and by the time we came back that evening all the tables we taken down and the people had all gone. The festival was over.