Waiting to Be Told

After a long hiatus, I finally managed myself to dig into the data I had spent 6 months collecting. When reading through the scratches of interview notes, pieces of memories returned. I reminisce how this little girl told me her mother emailed her everyday so she learned how to read and use the computer; and how that boy was completely restless through the session, jumping up and down, also the exhaustion after talking with 5 kids in a row, climbing stairs up and down figuring out schedules with each classroom teacher. At the end of the months, I was able to greet almost every second grader on campus. I was the semi-foreign figure who talked with them and gave them stickers. Hehe, Those days in Taipei:)

And now all that work presents me in the form of a big pile of pages, waiting to be entered to a software program to run numbers to produce graphs. Activities and words are to be quantified and then transformed back to words. A story is waiting to be told.

East Hampton, NY

ChingMin Festival

ChingMin literally means clean and bright. The arrival of ChingMin marks the Spring season. The day of ChingMin is honored as a national holiday for paying respect to the ancestors. People usually go sweeping the tombs of their ancestors on this day.

My family already went for tomb sweeping of the year earlier, so we worship the shrine at home and make the traditional food- Spring Roll for the day.

Below is the very delicious spring roll I know of. Assorted dishes including sugar, peanut powder, seasonal vegetables, shrimp, and caviar are presented on the table. Everyone makes his/her own roll and enjoys it fresh. The little crunchy brown rolls in the Chinese restaurants called spring rolls were totally American to me :)

Flying Lanterns

Photography courtesy of HLs.

Lantern Festival

Pei and the lantern

The Lantern Festival takes place on the first full moon after the lunar new year. In this day, kids carry lanterns and stroll around the neighborhood.

When I was little, we carried various homemade lanterns lit up by candles. Lantern making was usually a big school project during the winter break. On the night under the full moon, walking, talking, and playing while keeping the flame away from the lantern shell was quite a challenging task. However, every kid likes to play with fire, and it's exciting to look at a lantern burst into flame- as long as it's not my lantern. After all, we always make new lanterns for a new year.

My goddaughter just started walking, and I brought her a little lantern. Battery charged with a bulb though.

Homesick and Nostalgic

What's the difference between being homesick and nostalgic? They are both a sentimental longing for something. Only the former something is unreachable due to geographic space, and the latter longing is for the past, something unreachable because of time.

The clock is ticking- all the time for the poor and for the rich, for the happy and for the sad. No one can freeze the happenings in a place. Things pass. Wonderful moments pass, so as horrible moments. Every moment rises and goes away. Live is perfectly equal for everyone in this sense.

Over the weekend I went hiking and rock climbing with my uncle and his friends. I was walking on the mountain ridge and thinking that you always see the most breathtaking scenery when without a camera. My mind had been a little disturbed these days, but physical activities and mother nature always provides soothing comfort.

Today was supposed to be a working day at the school, but a series of allergic reactions suddenly waved in. It's like having a bad flu with raising heartbeats. Too familiar with the acute outbreak, I gave up fighting and stayed in bed through the day- it's a learned helplessness. The symptoms finally eased after dinner. They said it rained. No wonder. The humidity was killing me.

I miss California, where I could live a life allergy-free. And I miss my friends there. Am I seeing it home?

Dinner was as lovely as usual, and before bedtime there were random chats. At that moment I knew I'd forever love the time spending here with my loving family. It's happy time, and before it passed, I knew I will not be able to escape from nostalgia.

The southeast, TaiDong

Taking the early morning train around the south and to the east coast. Cycling through the county, staying overnight, and flew back Taipei.

End of the new year vacation.

It was a rich trip, in terms of the scenery and of the travelers.

Going to Kaohsiung

HenChun

HenChun literally means Infinite Spring, referring to its tropical weather. On the very south tip of the HenChun peninsula is the Kenting National Park.

I spent the summer of my 20 year-old in the national park as a nature interpreter, which was definitely one of the most memorable summers I ever had.

More than a decade has passed. Three of our old folks and a new friend reunited and decided to pay the park a visit before the lunar new year.

Kenting has changed some, with more hotels and shops in sight. We met up with our former supervisors and local friends. Everyone had a story to tell. Episodes and conflicts between local aboriginal people and the national park officials, like the famous winter sunshine and wind, have never ceased.

This is where I met with the purest hearts of human beings, and all beings.