Special Days and Hot Springs

Me and Vicky at KTV for my birthday

In all the days that have passed since I last wrote, the world and I both became a year older. For my birthday, I went to a vegetarian restaurant with my classmates and friends, and then we headed over to KTV (karaoke!) like all good Asian kids do, to sing the night away. For the occasion, my Mom also sent me a "birthday in a box" (thanks Mom!) - with cupcakes, cookies, a new scarf she made, smoked salmon and napkins and plates, all direct from Alaska. The eatable goodies came in handy at KTV, especially the smoked salmon, which is famous even in Taiwan! With all of our different nationalities at KTV, we sang a few Chinese songs, and a lot of English and Japanese ones. One of my classmate's, Satoshi, has a birthday this Saturday, so maybe by then we'll have learned enough Mandarin to understand more of the Chinese songs... maybe...

New Year's here was a huge deal. I have never been that physically close to so many people before. First I went with a friend to DanShui, north-west of Taipei city, on the ocean. We took a boat along the coast, which was really nice and peaceful. Then we came back to Taipei proper to watch the fireworks at 101 - the tallest building in the world. We went to Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (from which you can see Taipei 101) around 10:30 and it was already packed. Everything in site of 101 was full of people, so we camped out behind a pole until 11 or so. Then it was up and squishing in for prime viewing positions. By the time midnight hit, I felt like my breathing was rather hampered by all the folks around me - but that it didn't really matter, because if I passed out, the pressure of everyone else would keep me standing.

When the golden hour finally struck, the building itself shot off fireworks. I'd never seen a building equipped to display fireworks before... Each floor could shoot off different fireworks, and the exploding colors would run up and down the building... definitely interesting... but perhaps not worth the population density. We show lasted about 3 min. and then folks were out of there, trying as hard as they could to get home...

The stream of people heading to roadside parking spaces was amazing. We filled the side-walks and the roads, and people jumped over cars and road barriers to wade their way to their chosen mode of transportation. Once that destination had been reached, everyone boarded their motor bikes and cars, or tried to get on the MRT... but mostly everyone just waited. Not that anyone turned off their engines or stopped trying really hard to move... it was an exercise in standing pollution generation. There were some token policemen in the intersections politely asking one lane or the other to please comply with the traffic signals, but people would ignore them and try to drive around. Not that they could get very far, as without obeying traffic signals, everything was just one big mess of people trying to go every different way all at the same time. It made me wish that I had purchased one of the handy, and stylish, face masks that people here wear to protect themselves from the cold and the pollution. I did eventually make it home however... it only took me four hours... :)

Last weekend, I escaped the madness of the city for the quieter, colder, sulphur aroma of the hot springs. My friend invited me to come along with her work-mates, and said I could invite my classmates if I wanted. So I did, making us an even 4 girls and 4 boys (my classmates are all guys) for the trip. We headed out on the MRT, then transferred to a bus for a curving, ride through the foggy mountains. When we reached the top of some mountain or another, we got off, with only Abe (one of my Japanese classmates) looking paler for all the twists and turns. Then we walked down the mountain (down a different road then we came, thank goodness) for about 15 min. to get to the hot springs... ahhh... and then warm water...

Boys and girls get divided for the hot springs here, as there are no clothes allowed. Seems strange in an otherwise rather conservative culture, but I hear that during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, they built lots of hot springs in Japanese style (hence the nudity). In the girls area, we also got special mud to rub all over ourselves, and then wash off again. Yay! I'm not so sure if all my illnesses are now healed, but it was a relaxing way to spend a few hours - talking and giggling in Chinese with friends in the warm, warm, water... Ian (my Canadian classmate) says that one of the pool's on the guy's side was so hot that he burned himself. Oops. I'm glad we didn't have that option on our side of the springs.

When we got out of the springs, dressed, and were about ready to head out, someone promptly told us that we needed to high-tail it to the bus stop as the last bus was about to arrive. So, we all ran (well, it started as running...) back uphill in the rain as a bonding experience.