Do you remember in Tangled when Rapunzel finally is getting to see the lanterns and she is a little scared because she has dreamed about that moment her whole life and she isn't sure about what comes AFTER her dream comes true? Do you remember Flynn Ryder telling her she will have to find a new dream?
Well, that is pretty much our story. (We say that about ALL movies, I know, including ones that aren't remotely our story, but THIS time I'm serious.)
This past weekend was Taiwan's Independence Day (10/10). The celebration marked 105 years for them, apparently. AND apparently I didn't know my Chinese or Taiwanese history as well as I should because I wasn't too clear on what event happened 105 years ago.
But like most National Holidays, what we are celebrating isn't as important as the fact that it's VACATION from school and work!
For us (on semi-permavacation), it meant our friends had time to play, and play we did!
Sammi and Alan were kind enough to take us to Sammi's home town of JiLong (spelled Kelung) for the weekend. We stayed with Sammi's folks.
My men in the market.
But BEFORE we got there, we ate a FABULOUS lunch in Taipei (seriously, some of the best food we've had in Taiwan) and headed out, all 11 of us (4 adults and 7 kids) in the 6 seater car to stop off at the mountain town of Pengxi, where apparently it is all the rage to go on National Holidays. The place was PACKED! We took a short, very crowded tourist train ride, walked through a touristy market, and finally made it to the.... LANTERN SHOPS!
Here, Alan bought our group of incredible size (Sophia's 2 cousins plus 2 best classmates plus their parents and a sibling in one of the families AND all our family - 27 in all) a lantern on which we could paint our hopes and dreams, light it up, and send it heaven-ward where it would be noticed, at least, by God, and maybe even reach him with all our wishes.
Our group, ready to launch!
What that moment looked like for Rapunzel:
And, less calmly and less musically, what it looked like for us (and most likely, for the people in the village NOT privileged to hear Rapunzel's lovely duet):
Kai by his Chinese name.
So amidst the massive throng of our family, our group, and all around, I suddenly found myself wondering what it was that I wished for - what I wanted to paint on our lantern - and I felt almost moved to tears as the reality hit home that all of my wishes have come true.
JUST LIKE RAPUNZEL, I have wished for this Taiwan trip for as long as I can remember. By my calculating, about 18 years, or since I set foot in Taiwan for the first time. What DOES one do when one marries the kind of guy to support such a crazy idea, has the children who share the desire, has the health and wealth and (most precious of all) TIME to make it possible?
Well, I don't know what anyone as blessed as me does, but what I did is this: breathed it all in, tried to sink it into my memory deep to never forget the gratitude of that moment. AND I splurged on a $1.50 souvenir lantern to remember the moment. AND I bought the girls their own lantern lamp for their room because it was so pretty. Finally, as Flynn Ryder suggested to Rapunzel, I found a new dream too. I've found true love, and I'm having this amazing life experience, so my new dream is far less "romantic" sounding, but I'd like to pay off the house in a year or two. And given my blessings so far, I can't help but think, if this is truly the desire of my heart, that God will help me see it come to pass in maybe a less dramatic, but perhaps no less miraculous way, just as He has orchestrated the rest of life. How I love Him! How He loves me! So that was the Happily Ever After moment of the trip. And if this were a movie, we'd role credits now.
But since this is real life, after launching our lantern and watching it rise, and then smoke and fade, and slowly drift down and out of sight to litter some tree top, we piled back in train and then the car to finally get into Jilong and dinner with Sammi's parents. And this was MORE INCREDIBLE food. (Right: two of my new favorites. A veggie called Xuelian and a cookie made from something a bit like a sweet potato with a sweet, nutty flavor.)
We enjoyed more traditional seafood. It was SUPER yummy, and all of Sammi's family, less her older brother and his wife were there, but we hardly talked to them. This was due to a unique phenomenon of the Taiwanese dining experience.
From left to right, it's Alan, Sammi's parents, the daughter of her older brother, and her younger brother and his son.
We ate at a restaurant where the presentation of the food indicated this was dining in high class. However, there was no back-ground music, no sense of ambiance, and in fact, the din of the entire place was SO LOUD that we literally had to shout to be heard by anyone we were not sitting directly next to. This amused me quite a bit, and it was nice to consider that my own rambunctious children would hardly disturb anyone.
The most interesting moment of the meal was a dish actually served to another table. I posted earlier about our lunch leaping in the bucket after being selected to be cooked up for us. Well in THIS instance, to the other table was brought a plate of fish SO RAW that the lobster, which had only moments before been chopped in half, was STILL moving!!!!!!!! It wasn't actually eaten on that round. It was just cool decoration - the kids exclaimed that the whole dish looked like a pirate ship, which was what caught our attention in the first place. Alan explained that after they finished the raw fish, the lobster would be taken back and put in a soup.
Whoa. I was glad our own table's plate of raw fish was relatively small. My kids went to town on it - the cucumber fan part of it!
After dinner, we took a stroll with the kids to work off our full bellies and got back to Sammi's parents' around 10 and in bed after 11.
The next morning, Alan got up early and picked us up traditional Chinese breakfast. They were a little bit like green onion filled fried biscuits and they were THE best I've had. Alan said he had to wait in line because the place was very famous for being the best in Taiwan.
The little crew in a mining cart
After breakfast we headed to Toufen, which is a gold mining area developed during the Japanese occupation. More pretty mountain side we could barely make out for the throng in some places. In other places, for example the quarters of the Japanese prince, there was so little to see I could hardly believe so many thought of this place as a destination. Still, the kids were delighted to chase each other around, and I wondered if the parents were just delighted that the kids were so easily entertained by each other. Here we snacked on traditional snacks - pink potato gluten covered meatballs and gluten deserts served hot or cold. Q noted that of all the things our kids haven't really been into, it's been the traditional deserts and snacks, which is fine by us. (I never learned to like them either, so thankfully I was able to suggest we only get enough for my family to have a taste and thereby reduce the waste when they also concluded gummy, taro flavored gluten balls aren't as delicious as the long line of Taiwanese people waiting to buy them might suggest.)
One of the views we enjoyed over the holiday weekend.
Before we left the beauty and headed back to civilization, we stopped by a mountain side elementary school with ocean views to ride on a very fast, two story high slide the builders of the school so kindly installed for the use of the children. Needless to say when it was time to go, Arthur wept with sorrow that he would miss the slide. I could only agree that perhaps even when he was a grown man he might think of it as an amazing, faint memory and wonder if he only dreamed it.
Non-blurry pics were a trick to take, as you can imagine, because no one was still long enough in this entire area - certainly not MY kids!
Dinner was our first Thai food since coming and it was delicious, different, and served to all 27 of us (yes the whole crew was back for a glorious second day "reunion") in a little Thai food shop. At last, we all ate our full (or in Kai's case, left the meal early due to burning his throat with the green curry, or in my case, going to get papaya milk from the heavenly 7-11 to cool down Kai's throat) and went our separate ways. Sammi and Alan brought us all the way home before going back to their home to rest up for going back to work on Monday.
So once again, I am moved by the kindness of our friends. And delighted with the fun stories these memories are making!
What Blessings! I Can hardly wait for the pictures! Dream on young ones!
ReplyDeletePix didn't disappoint! Just wonderful!
ReplyDelete