February 7th, the school chartered a bunch of buses to take students to go to Pingxi, about an hour bus ride east, to participate in the Sky Lantern Festival. It is a rural township in the eastern part of Taipei county. I went with Jered, Nono, and a couple friends I know through them. After going with the whole school group to the spot in a field next to the school (where we'd later set off lanterns together) and being told to meet back at a specific time, we were on our own for a while.
We were a little hungry, so we did what everybody does in almost any part of Taiwan, we grabbed some street food. I remember getting sausages (on a stick with garlic) and takoyaki, something I've had a few times. Takoyaki (or octopus balls) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, green laver, mayonnaise, and katsuobushi (fish shavings), originating from Osaka. Always tasty, and chewy...
Jered and I decided that day would be a good time to try some Gaoliang, a Chinese/Taiwanese liquor made from sorghum. The first bottle we got was 33% alcohol, and it went down smooth. We also bought a couple of our own sky lanterns to let off. The idea with these is that people write down their wishes on the lantern for the coming year, then you light up the 'fuel' on the bottom (newspaper and kerosene?), hold it for a minute, and watch it fly away. People had written everything from health for friends and family, to getting rich, to getting a new job, to 'long live Taiwan'. I don't remember exactly what I wrote, but then again, I don't remember what I wished for the last time I blew out birthday candles, so...
When we got back to the field and it was our turn to set off the lanterns, we got a pleasant surprise. Ma Ying-Jiu, the president of Taiwan, gave a couple-minute speech about 15 to 20 feet away from us. It was pretty cool.
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