Chinese New Years! (Part three) 台中！Taichung!

So I did I a lot calligraphy during Chinese New Year Vacation. It was cool because my host grandfather came and practiced with me.  I will put more pictures up for this later.

Anyway, this character: Fu meaning fortune. Was my calligraphy goal. Because around this time of year, people hang this upside down on their doors to invite fortune into their homes. I want to give it to my host family.

These are my brushes. 

The next day we went to a Thai restaurant. I asked my host mother why we were eating Thai food on Chinese New Years and she said it was because we eat Chinese food all year and today is a special day. XD

But it was cool because I had never eaten Thai food before. 

It's a famous restaurant.

ANYWAY, that same day we went to a temple. Those of you who have talked to me off the computer will know, I LOVE going to temples. 

I told my host father I had never burned paper money and wanted to try. He seemed really happy that I took interest. He's very knowledgeable about Buddhism. So we donated some money, took some paper money and took some incense. We went around the temple praying at every alter and then I asked a question to the gods, and then I burned paper money. I love doing stuff like this. It's so cool. And it makes me feel so peaceful. 

You burn paper money for your relatives that are no longer with you. So that they will have money and be able to be happy where they are. And you burn money to thank the gods you prayed to. 

It just such a beautiful, healthy place to spend time at. 

You burn the money in here

This is the paper money

To light the incense.

I turned it on for you!

I love this picture.

People give food to their departed relatives and the gods.

ceiling

My host father found these things on a table and gave them to me. More about that later. 

Chinese Calligraphy!

Taiwan is really one of the best places to learn calligraphy. Why? Because in Taiwan they use the traditional characters, maybe it's not so practical to use these characters, but one thing is for sure; they are meaningful. When the Chinese government simplified the characters, yes they indeed became more simple, but they lost a lot of culture and meaning in the process. The characters are much more beautiful and complex here in Taiwan.

So if you come to Taiwan, I really recommend you accept anyone's offer to teach you this art. As for me, I have to pay for it, so that really sucks. But I wouldn't miss this chance.

Let's get to it:

This was the room I had my first and last real calligraphy lesson. 

As you can see, it looks cool, but it's not exactly a ritzy place. In any case, I have decided not to continue my lessons here because it's too much money for me. 

Another reason is, despite the teacher's kindness, he can't speak english.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun and really helped make my mind up that this is something I really want to do. In this picture, the teacher wrote my name. It's so nice isn't it?

Mou, Mi Xue

Teacher gives an assignment in orange, and corrects in orange.

It's harder than it looks. Circles mean it's correct.

My homework.

My host mother not only drove me there on her super cool motorcycle, but she stayed with me the whole two and a half hours, never leaving my side. She translated everything for me and helped me in every way possible. She really is great. She offered to have her dad or my host father teach me. And when we got home, she gave me these calligraphy papers. 

Actually this week I'm really sick, and she's a little sick. And my host father is away on business. But it's been really nice. I haven't wanted to leave the house so we just stay home and eat together and watch movies together. It's really nice. She's the nicest lady. I adore her. 

Oh and, Peggy is the one who found me these classes, so I big thanks to her. She spent a lot of time trying to find classes at night. But I wasn't expecting it to be over 7,000 NT, and the teacher not speaking a word of english, and having to pay for it all myself. 

I really need to buy winter clothing. It's the reason I'm so sick right now. And I have to buy shampoo and conditioner, and I just bought a chinese textbook (mandatory), and I need to get a haircut, and I have a lot of big purchases I've been putting off but I can't wait any longer for. 

Calligraphy

I'm getting really into calligraphy. Rotary did this culture class one weekend and we learned it for a couple hours. It's so fun; I love it.

My name and my boyfriends chinese name

My Chinese name

I really really wish someone here would give me lessons. I would get my own lessons, but I have no money for it. I'm dead serious, if I could pay for it, I would do it. It's so so fun. It's relaxing. I love it.

I decided to spend a little money because I want to practice, but I know I wont have the money to take a class. So I bought these two pens. They're calligraphy pens. Usually you do calligraphy with a brush and ink, btw. This is kind of nontraditional, but easy to use anywhere and much cheaper than the real stuff.

I bought a Japanese pen for 2 USD and a Chinese pen for 1 USD.

The Japanese pen works better, this one is also actually like a brush rather than a felt triangle tip thing. Although, I could have gotten a chinese one with a brush and a Japanese one with a felt tip. But, my Japanese friend Kiwako has this other Japanese one I like a lot better.

Japanese is left, Chinese is right

The Japanese one gives you more control of how thin and thick you want the lines

Felt tip

The Japanese pen came with only one ink thing, the Chinese came with one and a refill!



 All my other posts today have been on really old stuff. This post however, is on stuff that happened just today.

I'm also going to throw in a Japanese snack I tried today. At the Culture Fair (I will do a post on it) , KiwakoChan gave it to me.

It's really salty and good.

Okay, never mind, Blogspot picture editor wont let me show you.

I hope you're happy with all the pictures. I have been thinking about you guys. Lately there's been too much plan typing. I know. I'm going to keep doing a mix of both. It wont ever be just one. So stay with me.