June 23rd was Dragon
Boat Festival in Taiwan. All Saturday classes were cancelled which
gave us a chance to go watch the races! We didn't even have to stray very
far to find some races as there's a lake in Longtan that holds Dragon Boat
races every year. Of course these probably weren't the best ones to
watch, but it was still something. I also found out that the races took
place over the entire span of the weekend, but it was still nice to get the day
off in celebration!
The Dragon Boat Festival originates
from a story of a long time ago. There was this man named Qu Yuan who was
a scholarly poet. Some political happenings occurred, and he drowned
himself in a river to prove his loyalty. Many people were upset by this,
and went in search of his body. The women were worried about the fish
getting to his body first, so they made these sticky rice balls wrapped in
leaves (called Zhongzi) and threw them into the river so the fish would eat
them instead. Every year people still go out in search of his body, and
eat lots of Zhongzi. Ok they aren't really still looking for his body,
plus the races take place on many many different rivers and lakes so that
wouldn't even make sense. But, that's the background of this Festival.
Anyone can enter the Dragon Boat
races, you just need a team of 12 rowers (that's how many were on the boats we
saw, it might be different in other places) one person who sits at the back and
one who's at the front and beats the drum or whistles to keep everyone in sync
and on track. The person at the front also must stand up at the end and
lean over the dragon head at the head of the boat and pull the flag up to
signify that they've finished the race. The flags are also used to see
who wins if it's a close race.
There was a Dragon Boat chillin' on the streets. I realize this is a terrible picture, I cut off his head and ass.
We got to the lake area in
Longtan around 9 30 am on Saturday, and after wandering around the lake-side
food tents we found a place to sit, partially out of the sun. Although it
was cloudy that morning, it was still super hot outside, and I was sweaty.
There were tons of races that were constantly going on. 2 boats
would race, finish, and then the next set would start immediately after.
Anthony and Abe amused themselves by placing bets on which boat would
win. Some of them were pretty close and came down to who could pull the
flag out first.
We searched for some Zhongzi to
eat there, but could only find a stand where you had to have signed up in
advance to make your own Zhongzi. They are now more of a dumpling type
food than a rice ball, but usually still wrapped in bamboo leaves of some sort.
The parent's of a student at my school made some and brought it for all
of the teachers the week before the Festival, so I got some, but you can buy it
anytime, especially at the Night Markets. They have many different types,
some of it's good, but the stuff I got was quite greasy (typical Taiwanese
food) which chicken and mushrooms inside.
Our lovely school branches also
gave us some Dragon Boat gifts of sweet cake and nut cookies.
Anthony got a box of nice apples :)
I don't understand why there's a picture of a baby on the
cake box, and it's all in French.
On Tuesday I went to see Jason Mraz in
Taipei. Abe is a huge fan, and when he was trying to find people to go
with a few months ago, I said no. However, Anthony wanted to go to a
concert, so Abe, Anthony, Patty, and another teacher got tickets.
Unfortunate circumstances arose and the other teacher couldn't go, so I
ended up taking his ticket. It was quite a fun show and I'm glad I got to
go. It was really jazzy and the music was good to dance too. I was
unaware of how homeless Jason Mraz now looks, google it and you'll see!
Once we arrived at our seats, we found that they had a big light stick
for each person waiting on the chairs. It was a long piece of Styrofoam
with like a string of Christmas lights inside, wrapped in plastic that marketed
to Jason Mraz, and had a switch that made it like a huge glow stick. It
was neat to see everyone in the dark arena with one waving them around.
Anthony accidentally hit the man in front of him like 3 times in the head
with his stick so he had to put it away. Then later the same man yelled
at us for being too loud. I'm not sure if I was more shocked at being
told to be quiet during a concert, or that the man spoke English.
After the concert we were going to head
back to Jhongli, but ran into one of our trainers from when we first arrived in
Taiwan and went to get some drinks. We went to a foreigners bar that
looked like it was meant to be an Old Chicago as the logo is pretty similar.
Our waitress was foreign, but we couldn't figure out where she was from,
so I asked her. Turns out she's German, and from Dusseldorf, a short 40
minutes from where my mom's from and grandparent's still live! I was quite
excited.
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