Week 2: opening the gates of Hell
of the ghosts to come out and re-enter our world for a short period of time. Literally this week was a vacation from Hell. Businesses and store fronts all around the city put out tables full of food, drinks, and fake money for their own ghosts. And then they would say something like a chant or a prayer where they would thank the ghost for looking out for their stores and for protecting them and would ask that this protection continue for the next year. Then they would light incense sticks, bow three times, and place them among the gifts on the table. In front of the table there would be a metal barrel where they would burn the fake money as an offering to the ghosts. (Imagine millions of fires burning all throughout this already ridiculously hot and sticky city). We were asked to participate in part of the ceremony for the school where the principal kindly asked the ghosts if they could also watch after their American friends for the year. (The above picture is us with incense sticks getting ready to bow before the offerings on the table). Its nice to know I have a ghost on my side. Then on Friday, while four of us were walking around the city, we came across a very big ceremony that took up half a block. They saw us observing them and invited us over for a traditional Taiwanese sweet soup and water. They were incredibly nice and one man, who was wearing a Boston Red Sox t-shirt kepts looking at me, pointing to his shirt and saying ‘numba one!’ I guess he could tell I’m part Bostonian.
We also had a few fun dining adventures this week. We went to a small Korean restaurant close to our apartments where they serve typical Korean BBQ, which you cook yourself on a small, personal grill, and a rice dish called bibimbap. It is a combination of white rice, vegetables, meat and raw egg served in a hot stone bowl. The heat from the stone bowl cooks the egg and the vegetables as you mix the whole thing together. It was pretty good, although a lot of the flavor comes from the ridiculously spicy sauce that you add on top, which I could not eat because of my incredibly low spice tolerance.
We also tried a local Thai place where we got 7 dishes and ate everything family style. We invited one of our visiting program coordinators to dinner in general, not a specific date, and I guess a suggestion is taken very literally in Taiwanese culture because the date was set for that very evening, even though it was going to be very inconvenient for him. We kept telling him we could reschedule for a lunch or something the following week, but I guess he thought it would be rude to turn down our initial ‘invitation’. Lesson of the day: be very careful with suggestions because before you know it, ‘maybe we could hang out this weekend’ can easily turn into a weekend full of activities and concrete plans.
Favorite Pics of the week:
I think that printer should be our next group purchase