anaroundtheworld

Why are all thos these lanterns up in the sky tonight?

is year March 3rd is also the 15th day of the 1st month of the lunar year which means : the end of chinese new year celebrations.

Traditionally, the date once served as a day for love and matchmaking. It was one of the few nights in ancient times without a strict curfew. Young people were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love. Matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples. The brightest lanterns were symbolic of good luck and hope.

The "228 incident" or "228 massacre"was an uprising in the Republic of China that began on February 28, 1947 and was suppressed by the Kuomintang government, resulting in between ten thousand to twenty thousand civilians killed. The number "228" refers to the day of the incident, February 28th.

The spark that set off the uprising occurred on February 27t, 1947 when an agent of the government monopoly police attempted to confiscate black market cigarettes from an elderly Taiwanese woman, Lin Jian-Mai. She resisted and then was molested. An angry crowd gathered around and a shot was fired, killing a by-stander.

This event is now commemorated in the Taiwan as Peace Memorial Day. Official government policy had repressed the education of the events until recently, for various reasons. Many of the details of the incident are still highly controversial and hotly debated in Taiwan today, as the largely conservative-controlled government often tries to stifle discussion on the topic. Some people point to Communist involvement as a "justification" for the KMT's action.

My dear Eloi want me to talk about our campus a little bit more... I will tell you about the dorm... I thought my roomate was going to have a break-down the 1st time we entered our room. Here is a picture :

You cannot realise how bad it is because the flash went off. But it is night all day and our only light is a 1950's neon.

Please on the right side, take notice of the bed : yes, this is wooden board. We had to go buy matresses made of bambou and a 3cm layer of synthetic coton (you can see it just behind the suitcase). The first week mine was smelling like vinegar, so did my PJ's... and my hair (yummy).

We had bruises on the hips for a week but now we are just accustomed to sleep on our back and NOT move.

AND we found Ikea!!! Welcome carpets, funny linen, dim light.

And as usual, you just get used to everything : shower with flip-flops and so on. The only thing which is not quite back yet is our sleeping hours... we feel ot is time for sleeping everytime we enter our room. We are napping a lot!

I missed Muse's concert in Lyon a few weeks before I left. Sold out! I already missed them a couple of years before,, I had to re-sell my ticket.

So I started dreaming and hoping, and in my wildest dream Muse would come to Taipei... what are the chances?

And yet here they are and I am going tomorrow at Taipei's stadium for a whole day of music festival with Muse coming up at 9PM...

Nananananeeeeeeeeeeere!

Welcome to Kaoshiung's night market, open from 5PM till 5AM. Lots of people and lots of things to eat, half of which are not recognisable.

Not all the night markets in Taiwan are food ones, today I went to one in Taipei which was heaven for shoe shopper. They all are, however, on pedestrian streets were the shops expand on the streets.

Whatever the food looks like you should certainly try it. It's what we have been eating for the past week and up until know I heard no complaints, and even more, you can eat for 2EUR/day.

There is one thing a little bit annoying though : it smells like stinky tofu everywhere... And only if you have smelled THAT smell once in you life you can understand how uncomfortable that is. I'm French and like smelly cheese, stinky tofu is just like smelly feet times 1,000. But what is even more annoying is that I have been willing to try stinky tofu for quite a long time now (it is supposedly good for the skin but in chinese food it is always good for someting, especially if it is repulsive) and despite the fact that you can always smell it, you can never locate the stand where you should buy it.

So night markets? A lot people, fantastic taste and dreadful smells.