Happy New Year!

Xīnnián kuàilè! Happy New Year!

I think that is the correct translation… It may be different based on the dialects of the region you are in, but that is the traditional wording. This past week concluded the Chinese New Year, or CNY as many abbreviate it. Due to the holiday, I had last week free of any formal basketball practice and games. I was anticipating getting out into the city to sight see and tour around, but quickly adjusted my plans as there were not many places that were open. The only stores we could truly depend on were McDonald’s and 7 eleven, which occupies at least one street corner every block.

The street I live on is usually bustling and busy shops line both sides of the road. The sidewalks are usually filled with people walking and mopeds parked with very little space between them, but this week the roads and sidewalks were desolate.

The city was very quiet; in regards to traffic, people walking and general noise. This was the case the majority of the time until the firecrackers began shooting off at all hours of the day and night. Apparently this is a pretty big tradition, despite the fact that some people might be startled when awoken to machine gun-esque noise at 4 am.

Over the holiday I had to get around town without the assistance of my buddy, 200, giving me a lift on the back of his moped. I took to the MRT, or the Taipei subway system. As a foreign individual that towers over the majority of the people in this country, you can imagine the looks that are generated. Kids stare, parents stare and older people point. There is no awkwardness, apparently, in staring at someone (me) and having that person (me) catch that person. They continue to stare. Children are the most fun; some kids will walk up next to me and measure their feet against mine or when walking down the street a child walking towards me will notice how big I am at the last minute and then wait until I pass to turn and watch me. When this is about to take place, I take a step or two and turn to watch them. It usually results in a smile, a quick turn back or both.

Jason, the other foreigner, and I play a game when we are out in public. He and I stand out considerably, but most foreign people do. At first I wasn’t seeing too many other foreigners around where we live and then one day I came across a white girl on the sidewalk. I didn’t notice until the last second and I didn’t know what to say. I was speechless; stuck looking for the simple greeting, “hello.” I was surprised to finally see someone who I thought was from the states and my reaction and delayed “hello” showed that. Now anytime I see a white person, and Jason a black person, we have to say go out of our way to say hello to them; even if it doesn’t appear to be desirable. It usually results in a conversation that goes something like this:
“Hey, what are you doing here? Playing basketball?”
“No, I play mini golf. Are you teaching English?”
“Yea.”
“Ok, have a nice day.”

Throughout the holiday I was in and out of the gym to shoot and lift, but also got away from basketball to enjoy Taipei. I went out to dinner a couple nights for traditional Taiwanese food, my favorite being hot pot. Hot pot is a process of cooking all your food in a pot of boiling water that is placed in front of you. After selecting meat, seafood, vegetables or whatever else you would like to include (not sure what tofu is categorized as) you place the food in the boiling water and wait. It is great for large groups. In addition to dining out I found myself checking out the night life as well. There were a couple of nice lounge bars and a couple of clubs that although jam packed, were a lot of fun.

The last night of our break I spent at a teammate’s family’s home. There were dozens of people over to celebrate and the dinner of choice was hot pot! They had a normal pot and a spicy pot going, and I like’em spicy (la). After dinner I was exhausted; from eating. I sat on the couch and we began watching basketball. I was about to doze off when Jui-Kun yelled at me to get outside for the fireworks. After several minutes of fountains and bottle rockets, they were ready for the big stuff. Well, the big stuff evidently was a little too big and knocked the launching device to its side. The firework shot out, hit something, was redirected at me, spun downwards toward the ground with a trail of sparks, bounced back up and exploded about 10 feet from back of my head as I had turned, covered up and ran away. This was enough for me. I was now awake and had my firework fix!

That is all for now. My Parents arrived to Taipei to watch 5 games over the next 10 days. Updates to come!

God Bless!