Dearest Auntie Tam

At a beach in/near Su-ao

Is the suspence killing you yet? Have I delayed writing long enough? Or should I wait longer next time I post?

I have no suitable excuse as to why I havent written. I could say it was because I was frightfully busy, or that I fell of the face of the planet, but that would be a lie. Nor can I say that I had nothing to write about because truthfully, I have more than enough writing material and a plethora of stories to share.

I guess its just a matter of sitting myself down and forcing whats in my head out through my fingers and into this computer. Haha

Ready?
Set!
Go!

*****

So...

This last weekend was the Moon Festival. It's one of the three most important festivals in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival hold the other two postitions as most noteable.

Me and my Baba

From my understanding, this festival is basically an excuse to have BBQs with friends and family. The family part is important, so important that my host dad came over from Mainland China to be with us for this festival. Up until this weekend, I'd never met him. It was really cool because his presence added a certain livelyness to the family. You could tell that they missed him. He went back to China yesterday and I can't wait until he comes back.

Even though we spend the entire weekend "partying", Monday was the actual festival. My family went to Leanne's house. (Apparently my mom and her mom are cousins.) It was a fun gathering. I tried my hand at BBQing and I failed miserably the first time around. It wasnt meat, it was charcoal on a stick, no joke. Everybody there was making fun of me. Hell, I was making fun of me it was so bad. I had to bully Leanne's brother into teaching me how to do it so I didnt further shame myself as an American. I mean, Leanne and I were competing for goodness sake.

Honestly, I didnt care that much about shaming myself. I just wanted to know how to do it without charcoaling everything on the grill. Haha

Anyway...

BBQ at Gustavo's house

Taiwanese BBQs arent anything like American or Canadian BBQs. They don't have big grills like we do in the US. They use little portable BBQs. They're acutally kinda cool because you can only do a small amount of food at one time so multiple people can cook throughout the night rather than just having one cook. They also cook very different things. (Big suprise there). Chicken heart and pigs blood are the most...exotic.. of all the choices. There was also corn on the cob, fish, pork and shrimp. The main differences were that the shrimp still had their heads and it was the full fish rather than just a fillet.

Im going to another BBQ this weekend in Luotong for one of the exchange student's birthdays. I'm super excited for that. I went to a BBQ at his place last friday night and it was falling down funny.

Drunk Uni students + Kareoke = The best night of my life. Just sayin.

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Hope that satisfies your curiosity Auntie. :D

Until next time!!

Kathryn