2.

Yesterday evening we celebrated New Year’s Eve with a hot pot (火鍋) dinner followed by fireworks at Taipei 101, the most prominent building in Taipei. The hot pot dinner involves putting raw food into a pot of boiling water at the dinner table. At our restaurant, each person had their own pot of water, and the table was equipped with controls so each person could control the heat of their own pot. Some of the raw food included cabbages, mushrooms, imitation crabmeat, taro, and eggs. We could also choose between goat, beef, pork, and seafood as our main meat course.

After dinner, we went to Taipei 101 for the New Year’s countdown. When we visited the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in preparation for our trip, we learned that this year’s theme would be “I love you” because the year 2014—“二零一四 (èr líng yāo sì)”—sounds like “I love you” in Chinese. The lights on Taipei 101 did sometimes form hearts, which fit into the theme. We arrived about an hour and thirty minutes before the fireworks were supposed to start, so we were able to find a place to sit, but in the time before midnight, many other people arrived and formed a huge crowd that often threatened to fall over on top of us. After the fireworks, it was also an interesting experience getting home because we had to move through crowds in the streets and in the metro stations.

I had never previously spent New Year’s anywhere other than my home, so it was interesting to spend it in a foreign country. This was the first time I’d had a hot pot dinner, which was very different from the food I usually eat during the holidays. However, I think it would be a good thing to try at home because it would be really warming on the cold winter nights in Maryland. I also found the symbolism in Taipei 101 interesting. For example, the way the theme “I love you” relates to how 2014 sounds in spoken Chinese is different from in English, where the words wouldn’t be similar enough to make such a theme. We also learned earlier in our trip that Taipei 101 is divided into eight sections composed of eight floors each because the number eight is considered lucky in Chinese culture. The architecture of Taipei 101 demonstrates the spirituality that exists in the Chinese culture, which is quite different from that of American culture.

Tomorrow after Chinese class, we will be learning how to carve stamps. We will also be going to Tainan and Kaohsiung over the weekend to learn more about the history and religion of Taiwan.