Camping III

During Chinese New Year (days after April arrived in Taiwan), all of us went camping in the inner mountainous region of Taiwan. The views should have been fantastic but sadly the trip was overcast with mist and rain and we couldn't see anything. This made a strange and often times eerie back drop for our adventures. Visiting a farm, for example, we found ourselves standing in the rain, with literally hundreds of other people holding umbrellas, standing on a grassy hill, looking at a stage that could not be seen, listening to a man and woman chattering on microphones and, apparently, shearing sheep(their words of course we could not understand), and all and all feeling slightly jilted (and the frequent thought of--"is this real?") In this and two other blogs, I have or I will post some video that I took at that time and just now put together. (I've already posted photos of the trip a while back.)

Camping II

During Chinese New Year (days after April arrived in Taiwan), all of us went camping in the inner mountainous region of Taiwan. The views should have been fantastic but sadly the trip was overcast with mist and rain and we couldn't see anything. This made a strange and often times eerie back drop for our adventures. Visiting a farm, for example, we found ourselves standing in the rain, with literally hundreds of other people holding umbrellas, standing on a grassy hill, looking at a stage that could not be seen, listening to a man and woman chattering on microphones and, apparently, shearing sheep(their words of course we could not understand), and all and all feeling slightly jilted (and the frequent thought of--"is this real?") In this and two other blogs, I have or I will post some video that I took at that time and just now put together. (I've already posted photos of the trip a while back.)

Camping I

During Chinese New Year (days after April arrived in Taiwan), all of us went camping in the inner mountainous region of Taiwan. The views should have been fantastic but sadly the trip was overcast with mist and rain and we couldn't see anything. This made a strange and often times eerie back drop for our adventures. Visiting a farm, for example, we found ourselves standing in the rain, with literally hundreds of other people holding umbrellas, standing on a grassy hill, looking at a stage that could not be seen, listening to a man and woman chattering on microphones and, apparently, shearing sheep(their words of course we could not understand), and all and all feeling slightly jilted (and the frequent thought of--"is this real?") In this and two other blogs, I have or I will post some video that I took at that time and just now put together. (I've already posted photos of the trip a while back.)

Spring?

This morning I woke to the sweet illusion of spring. A fragile white light upon my floor (after I slide our kitchen doors open). A grogginess that made me linger in bed, simply happy. These alone were enough to evoke in spirit and thought Coleridge, and his lines, "And winter slumbering in the open air, / Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring !" Or Mole who was in such an exasperation of white-washing and anticipation of spring that it required Mr. Grahame to make up several new words.

But I say illusion for a good reason. In Taiwan there is no significant Winter to make you think of Spring in such a way. In fact there is no capitalized "Spring" at all, only "spring," and that passes in less than a day. It quickly gives way to the un-joyful anticipation of heat and humidity. In those days (I live on the seventh floor) walking inside at five o'clock, my linoleum floor feels like hot sand under my bare feet. So...spring!

Yet illusion it was. After a week of dreadful wet cold weather and, because of it, tonsillitis (for the second time this year), waking up today, feeling better after my eleventy-hundredth hour of sleep this week, and the slightest of warmth in the air (my floor was still cold), then yes, today, I can celebrate spring, as I know all those folks in the states are.