full moon, full weekend, full heart

I'm getting worse at this writing thing... for one thing, it seems like I'm either busy or sleeping. And secondly, my English is on a downward slope. It takes me a while to form an intelligent sentence, after spending most of my time helping kids repeat very simple words, or hanging out with my (incredible and amazing) Taiwanese friends--they just speak a little English, so I have to say everything in present tense in it's most simplified form. So please forgive me if my writing skills start to take on a strange flavor of illiteracy!

Last weekend (the 12-14th), I went to Tainan, a city on the southwest coast of Taiwan. It's the oldest city in Taiwan--where people first settled, and boasts many historic buildings, temples, and relics from hundreds of years ago. In the 1600s, the Dutch controlled the island, until it was taken over by the Japanese, and then China, and so on. Anyway--enough about history!

On Saturday after my morning class (a one-on-one lesson with a 12-year-old girl who wants to "improve her verbal communication" but doesn't want to speak at all), I got my things together and took a cab to Taoyuan, to the High Speed Rail station. It's like a star-ship station of the future! Crazy. If you're really bored, you can watch a video of it here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=gb7UytuRXk4&feature=related

The trip only took an hour and a half! Taking the "regular" train is more like 4 hours. Jin, her boyfriend Tercar, and their two friends Stephen and Sorry (yes... her name is Sorry) picked me up from the HSR station in Tainan.

As Jin goes home once a month to visit her family, I assumed that me joining her this month would be just that--tagging along and hanging out with the family. I soon realized that the whole weekend had been planned around me--showing me the best sights in Tainan, feeding me the best food in Tainan, and showing me the best "Southern" hospitality. Her parents were precious--though they didn't speak English, they were amazing hosts. The first night, Jin's mother made homemade spring rolls, and we stuffed ourselves with them before a long night of karaoke (in Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English). Jin's dad is a rock star! I love that laughter and dance are universal and transcend language.

On Sunday night, our last hurrah was to go to the famous Tainan night market. There were some blind masseuses and I decided to get a 10-minute back massage (for about $3!) The idea was that these masseuses are very intuitive because they can't see. Sounded good! I wanted to have a good massage after my previous encounter with Taiwanese "therapy."

I sat down on the chair and leaned forward, resting my face on a pillow. My friends stayed with me in case I needed a translator to say "too hard!" The pressure was good and she was really working out some big knots in my back. However, every time she went over a certain point near my shoulder, I instantly felt queasy, and at another point closer to my mid-back, my throat hurt. I just assumed that the toxins were starting to move through my bloodstream... plus, it had been a few long, hot days walking around in the sun. When the masseuse finished, I stood up, thanked her, and immediately fainted.

When I woke up, I was surrounded by my friends and about 4,109 other people staring at me. Jin was shaking and crying and saying my name over and over. People were shoving things at me like chocolates, other sugary snacks, a cloth to wipe the cold sweat away, and a huge glass of tepid water. I tried to reassure everyone that I was fine and asked how long I'd been out. They said "less than ten minutes." Wow. I realized that my feet felt strange. I looked down and saw scrapes all over the top of my feet from when I fell forward.

After I had finished my warm water, I was whisked home--no more night market for me! By the time we arrived back at Jin's house, her entire neighborhood knew what happened. Jin's mom gave me more water and her family sat with me. They sent me to take a shower when I felt steady enough. When I was clean and calm, they called me in to Jin's brother's room for a "family meeting." Jin, Tercar, Jin's brother Jared, and her parents sat me down and presented me with a "notice" they had printed out from their computer. On one half were the words "faint," "need sugar," "need water," etc, and next to them, the Chinese translations. Next, they told me they had a short movie for me to watch, that Jin's brother made for me. We gathered around the large computer monitor and someone shut the lights off. The familiar "20th Century Entertainment" logo flashed across the screen in gold and black, spotlights swaying. And then... "Elly in Tainan: By Jared" in bold red letters. The film was set to music (a lot of Bon Jovi as Jared had asked me about my favorite music earlier that weekend!) and first, a picture of my family came up. I'd brought some pictures of my family and friends, as Jin mentioned her parents wanted to see some, and Jared had "borrowed" them secretly for this project! I had to fight back tears... I was totally exhausted from the weekend and the fainting, and overwhelmed by how kind everyone had been... and now this--seeing my beautiful family and friends splashed across the screen, fading in and out with Jon Bon Jovi singing his heart out in the background. After the shots of my family, the rest of the movie was pictures and video from the weekend. It was really incredible. Maybe one of the best presents I've ever received--and from a family I'd known for a few days.

Taiwan's tourism slogan is "Taiwan: Touch Your Heart." Now I understand why. *sigh*... yet another place has managed to wiggle its way into my heart and wrap warm arms around my spirit... how can I fall in love with so many cultures? I'm hopeless...




If you have Facebook, check out my photo album from my Tainan weekend!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33028&l=02c44&id=516480291