Saturday 9/28/02           Confucius Day Ceremony and a Fancy Dinner

 

Jonathan called at 5:10 to tell me where to take the cab to pick him up since he was on the way from me.  Amazing how quick and easy it is to get a cab around here, even at 5AM.  I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 30 seconds to hail a cab, ever.  They have some kind of spooky sixth sense; as soon as you start thinking maybe you need a cab, you turn around and one’s there waiting. 

 

Jonathan looked well-rested and alert; I was definitely zoned and needing some coffee.  When we got there, there was a huge line wrapping around the block from the temple.  I wondered how all these people were going to fit inside?  We stopped in a 7-11 for buns and drinks (canned coffee for me) and walked a long, long way to the end of the line.  We couldn’t even see the temple anymore from here.  At 6 the line moved relatively quickly into the temple.  It was set inside a rather woodsy area and I sensed I should have worn Off.  We were led down some paths to the actual temple where everyone packed in. 

 

There must have been a thousand people, lots of foreign faces, and I couldn’t see a thing no matter I stood.  Jonathan had a height advantage over me but in either case, we didn’t understand what was going on.  It was a lot of chanting/singing in the whiny nasally traditional way, clanging of bells, and people in robes/costumes in front arranging and rearranging themselves in supposedly meaningful ways.  The only good view we had was of the two boys in the back, one in each corner with big mallets; one was in charge of ringing a huge gong, the other of ringing a huge bell.  A couple times the crowd would part and a line of robed men would march through and out the back door, then after a few minutes they would come back in.  There was a scroll in front with the number and description of what item we were on in the ceremony.  Jonathan tried to translate them for me but they weren’t that descriptive.  After awhile we sensed a pattern:  the “emcee” would whine a few words, then the instruments would clang a repetitive beat four times.  Sometimes we all bowed three times in a row. 

 

I was getting bitten, zoning out from sleep-deprivation, and very restless and hot.  We were both pretty bored, Jonathan getting a little more out of this than me, but we kept sticking it out because we were hoping they were going to show an animal sacrifice.  Jonathan had sworn he’d seen in a brochure for this that they were going to burn an animal.  We looked over the program they just gave us and not knowing how to say “sacrifice,” I asked if he saw the words “cook animal” anywhere.  Finally it was over and obvious they weren’t going to cook anything.  We weren’t the only ones hoping; Jonathan overheard someone say, “When are they gonna bring out the cow?”

 

The crowd moved up into the temple area and people wandered around, then mayor Ma Ing Jo said a few words, in both Chinese and English—his English was pretty good—about the meaning of Confucius Day.  Apparently the rumor is that lots of women think Ma Ing Jo is handsome, and the only reason he was voted mayor is because his looks gave him the voter edge.  I didn’t think he was especially breathtaking, but relative to other Taiwan politicians I’ve seen, I suppose he is younger, taller, and better-looking.  Some groups of children were being honored for something and in robes holding long feathers.  I took some pictures while Jonathan tried to ask someone who the scholars were in the ceremony, how were they chosen?  We never got a straight answer.  I was itching (literally) to go and get some sleep, so we took a bus back.

 

I’d gotten four huge mosquito bites on my feet, right where the band of my sandal was.  How did it get there, and why?  How do you have a nice comfortable meal squished inside my sandal band?   I crawled thankfully into bed.  An hour later Mom called and reminded me we were supposed to go out to meet her sister and her daughter’s family today, and go up to Yangmingshan.  I was cranky and told her I needed sleep, and I’d been to Yangmingshan just yesterday, and to go without me.  She begged until I gave in. 

 

Her sister’s husband picked us up and brought us to their daughter (my cousin)’s family’s apartment, in a nice high rise overlooking the Keelung river.  My cousin who I called BiauJie (apparently I’m really supposed to call Juling TangJie.  But it doesn’t make sense because we don’t have the same last name since she’s married.  Anyway, when in doubt I can just call them all JieJie) is slim, pale and quite pretty, though a bit obsessive about illnesses she doesn’t really have and what she eats.  Her husband is a jolly large man three years younger than her, who heads a Bushiban (center for after-school classes that most parents pay for their kids to go to for improving their English) that was very successful.  However, his Bushiban published some students’ scores in their advertising to show their success and unknowingly published those of another Bushiban of the same name; that Bushiban sued them, and has since been on the rampage to take down his Bushiban’s reputation.  This I all heard from mom, but still he was a jolly guy who didn’t seem to have a care.  They had 3 kids, Melody (12), Thomas (7), and James (4). 

 

We walked around a part of Yangmingshan I hadn’t seen yesterday.  We saw stone tea tables, a spa with hot spring baths with a view of the city, little bridges and large stone sculptures, bushes trimmed in the shape of penguins, and some parrots that I thought were trained not to fly away until I saw that they were handcuffed to chains on the trees. 

 

We went back to Taipei for dinner at an expensive restaurant.  There were some delicate appetizers I didn’t like too much, shark fin soup, bau yu (abalone), crab, then I thought that’s it.  But more came and it got better, a large shrimp with side of chapche-like noodles, rice in a stone pot with sausages and bok choy and “special” soy sauce on top, shaumai dumplings, and for dessert, very flaky and fresh out of the oven dantats (small egg custard pies), the best I’ve ever had.  The husband (who I call JieFu) kept telling us he’d take us out tomorrow and next Friday and me all year until I got fat.  He kept telling me to call them anytime I needed anything, and if anyone ever treated me badly, call him and he’d come over and send over people right away and deal with them.  Mom laughed and said he sounded like he was in the mafia.  Cool!

           

I was stuffed.

 

            At home I was ready to just clean, watch TV and study some, then Jonathan called and sounded bored and we thought about going for a café or drinks, I called Ginger while he called Niclas but in the end we all decided we didn’t feel like going out. 

 

 

Sunday 9/29/02  Scratching and TV Movies

 

In church, my mosquito bites were in their itchiest and biggest phase, and I spent the whole time rubbing one foot with the other and vice versa.  We had lunch at a good Vietnamese place, then visited Juling and Meiling’s apartments (they live in the same building on different floors).  They were all so nice, modern and clean, and made me more depressed about mine, even though I knew I couldn’t compare. 

 

At home Mom tried to help me clean and kept asking what clothes I had to iron (her sister lent me an old iron that was rusty and had been unused in her storage for years) but I didn’t let her.  I felt badly because I knew she didn’t want to go back to Ama’s since it was so miserable over there.  We napped, then wanting to be alone to do my work I think I sort of rushed her out and felt bad.  As I did work on my bed I saw Great Expectations on TV with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, it was terrible just as I’d heard.  Stella called and was robbed at Plush.  They’d all been dancing in a circle and she’d put her bag on the floor in the middle, when a crowd of guys pushing and shoving passed through and immediately her bag was gone.  She ran after them but they didn’t have it.  She had their house keys, her wallet, and both her and Christina’s cellphones in it.  She called her cellphone and someone actually picked up, she cursed at them and said “At least give me back my SIM card!  I need all my phone numbers in it!” but they didn’t answer. 

 

After giving her my sympathies, we hung up and I saw most of a Hong Kong movie with subtitles.  The guy and his girlfiend who was madly in love with him were gangsters, but he left for several years and returned clean.  Meanwhile the girl had his son who showed up orphaned at the guy’s café so he took him in and promised to be a good father and never leave him.  But the girl came and begged him back to the gang world, he refused and didn’t love her anymore, her jealous present boyfriend thought they slept together so he kidnapped her and the son, they have a faceoff and he wins, but some crazy vengeful gang member watching nearby suddenly shoots him and he dies in front of his son and ex-girlfriend, choking to his son that he’s sorry, he broke his promise never to leave him.

 

It was probably one of the most overdone Hong Kong movie plot lines, but yes, I cried.