Happy October Days

October started out just as it should, with Mid-Autumn Festival and a typhoon. Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the three most important holidays in Chinese culture, the other two being Chinese New Year and Dragon Boat Festival. It's the most important holiday for family reunions, and people all over the island take trains back to their hometowns to meet with their extended families. Traditionally, little round cakes that resemble a full moon are eaten to symbolize togetherness, and gatherings take place outside so that everyone can admire the moon. In recent years, thanks to a barbecue sauce TV commercial that came out around the time of the holiday, it's become popular to barbecue as well.

I celebrated the holiday with Dajie (literally 'older sister' in Chinese), Peiwen's sister-in-law and family who live in Taipei. The last time I went to stay with Peiwen in Kaohsiung I met Dajie very briefly as we were dropping Yuki off at her grandparents'. They took down my number and called the day before the festival to invite me to celebrate with them. Peiwen and her family were still in Kaohsiung, and although I didn't really know Dajie, I was still super-excited to visit with them.

They picked Noah and me up the next afternoon at the MRT station and drove us to their home which faces a mountain. They had a small grill set up outside where they prepared thick strips of beef and scallops for the kids (I definitely snuck a scallop or two...they were so delicious!). They had also bought a mandarin orange and shrimp salad from Costco, as well as a Japanese seaweed salad with something untasty in it. Noah warned me not to eat whatever this slimy vegetable/fruit thing was, but I thought of my try-everything-once-policy and ate it anyway. It was not pleasant. Dajie prepared a variety of fresh mushrooms, scallions, and garlic, and we made vegetable pockets with aluminum foil that could also be grilled. The kids loved it. I made many a pocket with the youngest one, and I don't think he ate any of them; the fun is all in the making.

Dajie has three young boys, ages 5, 7, and 9. I think I have their Chinese names memorized but I tend to forget who is who. They are all very cute, but quite naughty from the stories she told me. We were playing tag in the back of the apartment patio where there is a pool without water (all year round), but it soon switched to sword fighting. Possibly my favorite part of the night was when the littlest came up to me as I was eating and said in Chinese "in a little while, I will beat you continuously." Dajie is a supermom, always planning activities for the three of them in attempt to keep them semi-quiet. That night's activity was a musical performance involving a few violins, a cello, a xylophone, maracas, and a recorder. My ears were ringing after, but it was precious. The boys also have a "laboratory" zone where they are allowed to keep an assortment of exotic animals (mini turtles, and insect that resemble a dung beetle, other beetles, etc.). As long as they stay in the little enclosed outside bubble that is off the living room, Dajie lets them do what they please with them. She's a very brave woman.

It had begun raining mid-way throughout the evening, and when we got back to the area around my apartment just around 8 pm, it was a cool, misty night. We stopped at McDonald's for Happy Meal dinners, and then at 85 to buy some jasmine green tea to go with the moon cakes Dajie had sent us home with. We watched Milo & Otis, a favorite childhood movie of mine that I bought over this summer for $5 at Target, and had a very lazy evening. Around 2am there was an earthquake that lasted for about 30 seconds or so. It was apparently a 6 or so, but the epicenter was in the ocean, so it didn't feel quite that strong. It was much stronger than the baby one that lasted for about 10 seconds last year when I was in Kaohsiung. I had been asleep and when I realized what was going on, my first thought was "I hope Leo doesn't fall into the floor."

The next day was also a bit dreary, so we got some coffee and headed for the park near Shida. It's a pretty large park for being located in the middle of the city, and it was nice to experience something that reminded me of my time spent near the Cultural Center last year. The winding paths and layout of the trees also reminded me a bit of the Botanical Gardens that Shana and I visited in Sydney. The dress rehearsal of an elderly choir that struggled to dance in unison as they sang traditional Chinese songs and the light drizzle made it a perfect park experience.

I've been in need of a haircut and a retouch of the curls since I came back to Taiwan, and this week I finally found a place. I noticed that the bus stop near my work has quite a few surrounding hair salons, some that look more legit than others. I chose the trendiest looking one with the black marble staircase and different colored lights. I noticed there were TVs attached to each styling mirror, so I figured it was a higher-end salon. The price, however, is exactly the same as what I was paying in Kaohsiung, and although I love New Art near the Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Mentor, my new find, was quite impressive. They use the latest curling technology which is just so bizarre looking that I had to ask them to take pictures. Well, actually, I mentioned that I wish I had brought my camera and they volunteered to take pictures for me. Taiwan is photograph-happy, so it worked out nicely. The quality of the curls is better, and my hair is overall not so curly as it was before. They suggested that I keep some length (I had always just accepted whatever the stylist wanted to do before, and all of them chose to cute it quite short), and I really like it. I had a really nice time chatting with the stylist and her assistant, and it was a really relaxing experience. I always love getting my hair done!

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Halloween!

It's been a couple of weeks since I first began working on this entry, and Halloween has now passed. We had a costume contest at American Eagle, the school where I teach English, and all the teachers were required to wear costumes as well. I've always loved dressing up, but this year was even better because all of the teachers wanted to rent costumes! Kaohsiung didn't have much in the way of costumes, so I bought blank cat and butterfly masks, and painted them to my liking. I had brought my cat ears from home and made my own tail for the cat costume--it was really cute. In Taipei, however, there is an area called Ximen, often frequented by the teenage crowd, that has tons of costume shops. Connie, Ben, Emily and I drove there one night after work in search of the perfect costumes. Ben already had his heart set on being a Japanese samurai, and found exactly what he was looking for. I though I might be a princess although I wasn't sure which one. I had tried on a peacock dress with a matching headdress that was absolutely awesome, but it looked more suitable for a Halloween ball than an elementary school party. I turned out to be a perfect fit for the Alice in Wonderland costume. Emily was the sexiest Little Red Riding Hood I've ever seen, and Connie was the students' favorite, wearing a long black velvet gown, a black veil, and a lot of scary makeup. She remained silent for the whole night, lurking in corners, and walking around with her thin arms outstretched. The kids loved it! The director of our school wore a beautiful mermaid costume and covered her face and neck in aqua colored gems. I asked her how she had done her makeup, and found out that she used to do couture makeup in Canada! How cool! The kids also had their midterms that week, so when they were finished they went downstairs and watched the Disney movie Haunted Mansion. I took my class down since all of my students finished early, and it was so fun to watch! It reminded me of all the days I spent on my aunt's bed watching Casper and Prancer. Hocus Pocus was also a big favorite of mine--all of my roommate's watched it last year for Gered's birthday which also happens to be on Halloween. I missed Hocus Pocus this year, but it was still a great Halloween nevertheless!