Hello all!
So we decided to at least be observers of Saturday's march against China's anti-secession law, but we ended up being part of the rally with pins and flags! I don't know what the coverage has been media wise back home, but basically China passed a law saying it was ok to use military force against Taiwan if it formally declares independence. China claims it's a break away province, but that's stupid because Taiwan is pretty much it's own country anyway. (Some background: It was considered a province of China during the Ching Dynasty, but really losely governed, lots of history, then Japan got it, then Chiang Kai-Shek made it his headquarters after WWII to try and retake China from the Communists, so the mainland really hasn't had the island for a long time...) It has it's own gov. with a legislature and president, it's own currency, it's own economy, it uses traditional Chinese characters for writing while China has switched to simplified Chinese characters, its own school system.... You get the point. So the pro-independence people of Taiwan wanted to send a big message to China saying, "take this law and shove it." They were hoping for 1 mil. to show up in Taipei, I don't know how many people actually showed up, but from what we saw, there were a LOT of people. (There has been bickering between the political parties here, placing the estimates from 240,000-500,000.) The march stretched on for as far as you can see with babies, dogs, old people, you name it, holding some kind of flag or wearing green peace ribbons. Most of the signs were in Chinese, but there was one group carrying "FUCK CHINA" banners. I thought that was slightly ironic, a little funny. We were walking on the other side of the street for most of the march, taking pics and observing. We followed the march to the converging point at the presidential park, where the 10 different protest marching lines were supposed to end. They had big tv screens set up to see the main stage where they were giving speeches and singing patriotic songs.
Suddenly everyone started sitting down, so we sat down with them and we were handed stuff to wave during the speeches. I could understand about half of it since they were talking in Mandarin and Taiwanese, Andrew understood nothing. So we just waved our peace sticks when everyone else did. I have never been part of something so large, it was crazy to see soooo many people standing together for one common message. It was so refreshing to see something so politically huge, with little violence. Everyone was really nice, they were all smiling, no riots, just out walking through Taipei to show they cared and weren't going to get pushed around.
We left after an hour or so of sitting (the original plan was to just be observers) to head over to our old stomping grounds in Neihu, to check out the Miramar entertainment complex that has one of the biggest ferris wheels in the world and an IMAX movie theatre. They were showing Space Station 3D at the IMAX, it was something that I wanted to see in the States but never got around too. It was a good movie, and afterwards we went to TGI Fridays for some comfort food. The line was sooo long for the ferris wheel, we figured we will try to get on it some other time, it was getting pretty late.
Other than that, not much new. My kids took a practice KITE test, and most of them did really well, so I'm not as worried anymore about how they'll do in May. (See previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about.)
Andrew's parents fly in on Thursday (tomorrow!), it will be nice to see them, and nice to have a 4 day weekend! April 5th is a national holiday, it's tomb cleaning day, and I asked for the 4th off so we can go to Hualien with Andrew's parents and check out the gorge. (The Chinese culture is one of ancestor worship, so every year at this time, you are supposed to go back and clean the tombs of your family members, give offerings, prayers, and the like. There is also the custom of cleaning the bones and arranging them in an urn with the skull on top and leg bones at the bottom, fun!)
Other than that, I am having fun with the kids, not sick for once, and hoping the weather continues on its upward trend of warmth! Although yesterday a cold front came in, and we were hit with torrential rains and a massive thunderstorm. This evening is shaping up to be cold and dreary as well. Andrew made the comment that I must not have been a farmer in my previous life because of my intense dislike of the rain. It's not that I HATE RAIN, I just don't like being cold and wet. And walking in windy, damp, rainy weather is absolutely miserable.
