Living a life lost in translation

Here I am! Did you miss me? Things have been the same here. I don't have much news to report, but I'll share my latest Taiwan adventure with you.

For some reason lots of parades come down my street regularly. I know that one of them was a funeral for a very important Taiwanese millionaire that died recently. Yesterday there was a parade setting up on my street and I thought, "What the hay? I'll go take some fun pictures." It was definitely a funeral. It was a very cool funeral though. I would definitely love to have a Chinese funeral, because no one seems to be mourning. Every seemed somber but they also seemed to be celebrating. There were a few traditional things that went down, such as a dragon on sticks, a warrior dance, and the "giants" as I like to call them-- which I think represent death.

The dragon was very cool. It was made of a bunch of people carrying sticks that attached to a huge dragon. They ran in circles and in and out of the circle-- even did a cheerleader-like pose with a few people on others' shoulders. Very cool. After the dragon came a band and then a whole buttload of firecrackers. A random lady warned me to "find a place to hide" but of course I didn't take her too seriously. Taiwanese women here tend to be squeamish. Man, was I wrong! I got a picture but only at the expense of my hearing! Haha. Next was the warrior dance, which seemed to represent a water-carrier weaving his way through life. I was very impressed by these guys. Last was the huge giants that took a walk around the hearse. That's right. The hearse was in the parade.

I took pictures of everything, so check it out on my flickr page. I am not quite sure if it was appropriate or not to take pictures. There was a man taping it, so I think it was okay. Although, this man came up to me and asked, "You know this is a funeral?" Uhh... duh. The hearse is a dead give away (pun intended).

Here's a teaser: