Last Saturday I found myself waking up at 6:00 to go to school. I was more than skeptical about going to school on one of my free days. Still slightly sour at rising so early I found my school transformed into a carnival ground. There was a balloon entrance over the archway and tents set up in the courtyard. Classes were taking out their windows so they could sell food. The day started with a tug of war competition. After several nagging classmates convinced me I should try my hand at tug of war my mood did a one-eighty. I found myself more than happy to be in school even after our team lost in the competition. Our class was selling cold noodles, and other treats included ice cream, dumplings, cookies, foaming soda, sandwiches, noodles, and other fried delights. I didn't try my hand at tossing water balloons at a human target or invest in inflatable swords although both were available. After walking around I was greeted by a group of schoolmates I haven't met before. They were more than excited to talk to me but the conversation was limited by the language gap. The language gap did not stop them from bringing up R-rated material though. Soon after sampling some food and snapping a picture of them I moved on to my tour of the school fair. My home room teacher was kind enough to show me around after my self tour. I sampled some more food, including green bean noodles cooked inside a tofu shell. During my tour I bumped into exchange students from another district. After short introductions and an exchange of business cards I finish my tour with my teacher in the library and a cup of Taiwanese tea.
Sunday is double ten day, which is Taiwan's national holiday. The festivities include a parade and fireworks at night. All the exchange students have sewn a giant international flag together for the parade. We are also expected to represent our country in the parade. We meet at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall to line up for the parade. It's great to see the traditional dress of so many different nations. Some garb includes soccer jerseys, cowboy hats, Obama shirts, flags draped around necks, berets and kimonos. With plenty of face paint and some body paint the exchange students filed into the parade with our giant international flag. The parade was a blast and heavily covered by the Taiwan media. The Latin Americans in the group brought a tambourine and we're going crazy singing and dancing all the way. Germans were shouting songs at the top of their lungs and a chorus of The Star-Spangled Banner emerged from the Americans. With sticky paint on my body and a rain poncho for a t-shirt I returned home hungry and tired. My host father and I went to Domino's to order dinner and I watched the fireworks show from the apartment's roof. Whenever I find myself in a pizza place I always have an urge to point to the cheese and pepperoni pizza, but I resist because I've had pepperoni pizza my entire life and so far every pizza I've had here has been great even if its topped with pineapple, shrimp, peas, or crab. Actually most of the food here has been good if not great.Yesterday I was eating some delicious dark green treats at lunch and upon closer examination I concluded it was seaweed that I was forking into my mouth. My new discovery didn't seem to effect my appetite because I continued eating plenty of seaweed along with my clams, oysters, and snails.
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