Lantern festival fireworks

It occurred to me today, as I was buttoning up my ankle-length scooter raincoat, after eating a breakfast of fishball and noodle soup with a drink of warm soy milk, that it's been awhile since I've written about life here. So, here I sit on my bed, watching the rains that they promised would come in April, eating my new favorite fruit (sweetsop, or as it's translated in Chinese "Buddah's head"), attempting to describe how my life somehow transitioned from "still working on it" to "comfortable" in a matter of a month or so.

Raining lights

The Chinese new year came and went, culminating with the brilliant lantern festival on the 15th day of the new year. While I opted out of the event where fireworks were shot at you (braver individuals of my friend group chose otherwise), the festivities were still amazing. My close friends and I went to a local elementary school to watch a brilliant firework show, wander around huge lanterns shaped as rats (or mice- the year of the rat apparently also includes Mickey Mouse), and sent lanterns up into the air with wishes. These lanterns were huge- you purchased one and then wrote wishes on them, with the hopes that the wishes will reach the heavens. They were then lit from underneath and sent up into the sky. It was absolutely incredible, and watching our lantern float off into the sky is something I know I'll never forget.

Even bunnies like sparklers

Jeannie writing her wish

Steven lighting the lantern

You have to hold it on the ground to let it fill up with hot air before you can release it.

Some of our wishes

About to be released...

Another lantern being let go

When they were filled, the lanterns were really quite big. You can sort of see the size difference compared to this person... or maybe it was just a smaller person...

Up into the air

The death of a lantern

One of my Chinese new year resolutions (although not inscribed on the lantern) was to travel more, both around Taiwan and around Asia. I realize that time is rapidly slipping from my fingers (my return trip looks to be on June 29), and that I need to take every opportunity I can get. Jenny, Jeannie, Katie and I went to Taroko Gorge for an evening. The gorge is in a huge National park, complete with jade and marble. It was an amazing trip. In addition to the paved "hike" that the tour busses brought the masses, we went on another hike that lead us to a water fall curtain (imagine going into a cave with water raining down on you, barefoot and relying on a flashlight to make sure you don't slip into the "creek" below). Despite the fact that we only spent one night there, it was a great vacation.

First view of the gorge

The paved path

Suspension bridges!

Careful for killer bees! "Be careful" in Chinese is 小心 (xiao xin) or "small heart." Still trying to figure out how that translates to "caution"...

Hiking in the sun makes us happy

More traveling is in store. Confidence has been built since a scooter trip to Taipei, and Katie and I have been looking into some smaller trips around here. We're also thinking about venturing to Shanghai in May...

With the April rains also comes a change of scenery. In March, we began working at a co-school, splitting the week in half: 2 days in our main school, 2 days in our co-school. April is devoted completely to our co-school, and then we're back to the main school for May and June. I'm working at Tong-Le, which actually was a main school last year. My co-teacher's English is incredible, and I'm really getting to love the kids. It's taking some time to adjust to a new school- it's much bigger (ok, comparably...) to Jhongsing (my main school), and sometimes the unfamiliarity is a little overwhelming. But I'm really loving the newness and getting to work with new students- especially getting to work with 4th graders, which I don't do at Jhongsing.

Speaking of 4th graders, as some of you may know, I've accepted a job offer at Collegiate School as a 4th grade assistant teacher for the upcoming school year. I'm working with a teacher who I met last year, and I'm really excited to be in the school, and especially with her. So (although it wasn't really a question before), I'll definitely be moving to New York to work and start on my masters. Something to definitely look forward to.

This coming weekend is Tomb Sweeping Festival, which is more of a family festival. We're not doing anything for it, except getting off from school on Friday. Some of us were thinking of heading down to Kenting to attend a music festival, but it sort of fell through. I'm looking forward to being around here a little, though. Perhaps attempting some spring cleaning...