It is interesting to live in a country where the traditions and the culture differ so drastically from your own. The Chinese base their traditional holidays on a lunar schedule (Americans base ours on scoring a three-day weekend, but that's a different story). Whenever the full moon is, that is when the holiday is celebrated.

Saturday we witnessed one of the most magical and amazing visual spectacles I've ever seen in my life. A big group of friends gathered and made a two hour journey to Ping-xi to attend the Lantern Festival. It is difficult for me to exactly portray the beauty of what we saw as our bus twisted up the mountainside to this remote town. The sky was filled with tiny glimmering dots of orange, scattered like glitter across the night sky, the only other illlumination the full moon showing in and out between the clouds. The dots were floating and rising, some fast, some slowly, some having reached their apogee and simply hanging in the air.

What we were looking at were sky lanterns. They were not tiny at all. They were actually about four or five feet high, and four feet or so in diameter. Vendors at this very crowded and jubilant festival were selling these giant paper lanterns, folded up around a large wire ring. Along with the lantern you were given "money" soaked in kerosene, the same paper money used for offering up to the gods at temples, homes, and businesses. This money is actually beautiful paper, some with shiny gold on it. Soaking it in kerosene allowed it to be used as fuel for the lantern, which, in turn, became a giant hot air balloon.

Amidst the crowd you did your best to find an open area where you could unfold your lantern and lay it flat on the ground. The lantern has four sides. The tradition is that you write your wishes on the lantern, on each of the sides. We scribbled in English, not beautiful Chinese characters. But wish we did, again and again, filling the four lanterns we had.

We made our way through the crowd and found a side street. The street climbed the side of a mountain, and brought us high up above the crowds. We could look down without the crush. And crowds there were. It was a sea of humanity along the one street, the connected tents of the vendors snaking illuminated down the way, the crowds bending alongside them, a tight fit.

At the junction of a road we set upon our task - taking the kerosene-soaked money and attaching it to a clip inside the lantern. Some people crumple it so there is more air space between the sheets, allowing for a hotter burn and a faster rise. Others leave them stuck closer together, so the lantern rises slowly and burns more steadily.

We lit the money and held the ring against the ground with our feet, the paper sides apart so they wouldn't burn. The crinkle of paper, the eerie illumination, the soft puffiness of the lantern; the moment was arriving. We shouted to each other, attempting to do a united lift-off. We sort of did. Stepping back, up they lifted, the gold flames illuminating our faces as the lanterns passed. And they kept on going, joining the hundreds of other lanterns, rising, rising. It was as if we were making stars and filling the sky with them. It was really quite incredible.

Here are some shots from our trip. Some are almost abstract, as I was shooting at night, often without a tripod. It was hard to capture the full beauty. But take a look for yourself - click here!

It is in the middle of our Chinese New Year Break, and, even as I type this the firecrackers are going off. When they are in the distance they sound sometimes like rain falling. When they are nearby they can sound like a giant bowl of Rice Crispies. I like firecrackers. We did buy one string of them and lit them off on Friday night. The guy said "no paper", and he was right - as they popped and snapped there was no paper left to clean up! They sounded great.

Megan and I had gone down to Di Hua Street with our friend Jennifer. They had firecrackers, and much much more. We had a great time skinnying our way through the incredibly dense crowds, seeing and tasting all kinds of dried foods, candy, sweet wine, and just about anything you can or can't imagine. It was a lot of fun. I didn't think there could be so many people in one place. Being a westerner, it was amazingly easy to spot each other in the crowd when we got separated. This is one of the many benefits of being here, along with people taking one look at you and KNOWING you don't speak the language.

I also bought a scooter! A very red, very euro-looking Italian Vespa. Actually, it was manufactured on the island, but not so many people have Vespas here. What I like about it (did I say it was RED?) is that Vespas just seem to have more body on them. The general scooter style seems to be sort of star-trekky with a pointed nose, and a lot of the engine showing. Most of them are black, or generally dark colors. The Vespa has so much more paint on it, as the whole body is pretty much enclosed. When I park it in a long row of scooters, it stands way out.

I am now in the process of re-learning Taipei by roads. Traffic is a bit crazy, but you adapt fast. Scooters get to move to the front of the line. There is a box painted on the road at the red lights just for scooters, so you weave through the lines of cars and get in front of everybody else. The light turns green and the buzz of scooter motors begins. It's quite fun, although it has been a little chilly (ok, 15C/58F, not THAT cold...) to ride. A windbreaker is a necessity, as are gloves. We bought our helmets in the States, where they are much better made. The helmets here are like the helmets you get on Helmet Day at the ballpark - the ones with the sticker that says "Not For Regulation Play". The Taiwanese helmets are really just a plastic shell with nylon stretched across the inside - my bicycle helmet provides more protection. So, needless to say, we are happy with the USA helmets.

OK, I'm doing this instead of grading stuff at school, so I better get going. If you click here you can see some pictures from Di Hua Street, and if you click here you can see a couple of pictures of my nifty new Vespa!