My fridge, my very small, very college sized fridge is overflowing with Pomelos and bananas. Pomelos for those who don’t know are like a green grapefruit. I had never heard of them or remembered seeing them so I assumed they didn’t exist in the US, but as I was explaining it to my Aunt who is around food immensely, I was sadly mistaken. I guess the US has it too sometimes and I just lived under a rock. Back home I refuse to eat grapefruit, I don’t know if my sudden love of Pomelo’s comes from me liking the fruit and never giving grapefruit a fighting chance, or that I have changed as I’ve tried to be more open to foods and changes. Either way the Moon Festival answered my love of Pomelos a little too much. All the teachers and people we come in contact with have given us pomelos. A teacher at my school even gave me a whole case of mooncakes as well with a card saying 祝你中秋節快樂，meaning Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Pomelos is the fruit of the holiday. The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a celebration of family under the moon. The backstory is that there was a archer named Houyi who was tasked with shooting down 9 of the 10 suns in the sky to save the plants that were dying from the heat. To thank him a queen gave him an elixir to take with his wife, Chang’e, that would make them immortal if they drank it together. If one of them drank the elixir then the other had no chance to become immortal as well. One day when Houyi was out shooting a bad man named Feng Meng attacked Chang’e to get the elixir. To stop him Chang’e drank it all causing her to become immortal and start to rise. Her love for Houyi was too strong so she stopped at the Moon, the closest place to Earth to be with him. Now on the holiday people eat mooncakes and offer them to the moon for Chang’e. I know a little too much about this ancient fairytale and all the variations as I created a kids book version to present to my school. I even coupled it with a cute bulletin board to pair with the lesson and holiday.
The Moon Festival meant a 3 day weekend, another trip to Taipei. I’m getting pretty good at the whole ticket buying extravaganza to get a seat of the long 3.5 hour trips to the city. I spent Friday, the actual holiday, doing exactly what is expected, barbequing. On all the street corners and little park areas families were surrounding small grills with fish, meat, and a limited amount of vegetables. I attended one such party with a group of Sean’s new friends studying at National Taiwan University. The people I met were all so interesting. There was a hand model from Germany, Ellie, who already knows and is fluent in around five other languages before trying to tackle Chinese. I also met Momo, Lee, and Stacy, three Taiwanese students at the school as well. Despite my limited Chinese skills, I was able to tackle a conversation with them and it got easier when we moved into common territory away from questions about what I study or have learned since being here. I bet my sisters’ aren’t surprised the conversation ended at movies and tv shows. Taiwan gets access to a lot of the shows that are big hits in America a little after their fame. For example, Friends had such a big impact that most Taiwanese people have watched the entire show. Like Friends, Gossip Girl is also quite popular. Despite being kindof old, there is a large group that are still watching it in Taiwan. Who would’ve thought that binge watching that show Freshmen year during finals week would help me make friends and network in Taiwan. Yes, I did say network. One of the Taiwanese students studies Theater and acting. We exchanged numbers and hopefully, fingers crossed, I may be able to assist on a commercial in Taipei. I wouldn’t get paid, but experience is experience.
The barbeque was nice and all the food looked amazing. I was a little apprehensive with the eating of the meat from the grill based on how often I have been getting sick in Taiwan, mainly down to not being used to the kind of food not at all related to the quality of food or cleanliness. As a result, I stayed at the party and didn’t eat any of the grilled foods. Instead I opted for a good humus brought by Sean’s friend Liam, some chocolate cookies, and you betcha another pomelo. I even tried a snail made by one of the Taiwanese students, Roy. In turn I helped introduce the Taiwanese students to the concept of s’mores which were a big hit.
With it being a festival and holiday and all I don’t know what Sean and I were thinking when we headed to a night market. Barely any of the stalls were open and it took one look at the seafood and went back to the hotel, grabbing a pizza instead. I’m not complaining, I’ve missed my pizza. Taitung city 台東城市has some pizza places, but the distance is too far, while Guan Shan 關山does too, but the restaurants are severely over-priced.
Getting up early the next morning around 6:30, I met with an old Villanova friend, Aubrey. I hadn’t seen her in a couple years, but seeing as she has since become somewhat of a world traveler it’s not surprising it was easier to get together outside of the states. I saw the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial again. This time I found that there is museum exhibits of fish, sharks, and human sculptures in the bottom which I found very interesting. The whole day was spent walking and taking public transportation. We went to another district of Taipei and visited multiple temples, a historical block that hasn’t changed, and later headed to a night market. The temples were very detailed and pretty, but the night market was my favorite thus far.
Shinlin night market is the biggest one in the city. Its two possibly three levels of food stalls, clothing stores, and games. You have to go their hungry because there is no turning away from a Michelin star pork sesame ball (I could turn away from the raved about sesame noodle concoction). I ate enough for three people. Eating everything from steak, mushrooms, sesame balls, mochi, cake, and a brown sugar milk tea which even for me had too much sugar in it. Sean even tried his hand at one of the games, an archery game where he actually started to get a crowd to watch him as he kept popping the balloons. The tiny balloon the size of a golf ball was the only thing that stood in my way from getting a stuffed animal, I was so close to living out my Disney movie dreams of getting a stuffed animal from a fair. Alas, I will definitely be going back there because after having spent almost two and a half hours there and eating enough to feel like I never have to eat again, I only saw approximately a half of the actual night market. Night markets are soon becoming my favorite part of my time here.
BTW Jelly Beans are very popular here and I guess it's not weird to question why a popsicle would ever be made out of Cheese, watermelon, and berries.