馬來西亞志工第二週來台心得

This recent weekend I followed the school band to Taoyuan where they would be joining the parade for the Taoyuan Band Festival 2013. On the Saturday morning, I went to get chicken hamburger over at 7-Eleven before we left the school by bus at 8. There was a schedule planned in advance about what we're going to do for these two days. Our first stop was Miaoli Hakka Cultural Park, an exhibition centre which showcases the Hakka culture – houses and their interior, language and festivities. One of the exhibits there that caught my eye was the old telephone which requires one to spin the numbers to call. It made me think of how technology had changed our daily lives. After that, we had lunch at a restaurant nearby. Lunch was good; there were many dishes – about five or six different dishes not including soup. We then reached the parade destination (in Zhangli) at a little past 1 - took us one and a half hour to get there. There were many bands also participating in the parade and I watched quite a number of them from the side. One of the school bands, Chiayi Dong Shi Junior High School caught my attention. Their colour guards were impressive for their age; they did a good job at spinning and throwing the mock rifles. The parade ended at the square of Arts and Cultures District of Taoyuan where there would then be performances by some of the bands. I saw a Caucasian drum corps there too and thought they were just a random band invited to the parade. I was wrong; it was Blue Devils, one of the top drum corps in DCI. I watched the performances by other bands but sadly, did not have a chance to watch the Blue Devils perform as we had to leave for dinner right when they were about to do their routine. Dishes for dinner were surprisingly almost the same as the ones we had for lunch over at the other restaurant. Nevertheless, it was still good. After dinner, we went to our stay for the night, Park Hotel and took a rest. After resting for an hour or so, the two teachers brought me around the shops near the hotel. As this area is very near to the Zhongli train station, it was quite happening. They treat me to glass noodles with oyster and also the famous pearl milk tea. The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel before leaving at 8, heading towards our first destination of the day, the Cihu Mausoleum. It was where the previous late president of Taiwan, Ching Kai-shek's tomb was at. I went in, took a look and did a small bow to show my respect for him. I got really curious when I noticed that the two soldiers on each side of the entrance are able to keep their eyes open without blinking whenever there are any tourists around. I watched them closely but still did not see any of their eyes closing for even just a split second. Second stop of the day was at Dasi. There were lots of people especially since it was a Sunday, making the place even merrier. They also had a procession when we were there which had fireworks, statues of the gods and traditional instruments etc. Throughout the entire street, there were many stores selling different types of food and drinks such as tofu pudding (tau hua), thick sausages, glass noodles with oyster and a variety of ice cream flavours which the school students kept buying at every place we stop. One hour later, we went back onto the bus to have lunch at the same restaurant where we had our dinner the day before. The dishes this time looked different, but there wasn’t much difference essentially. We still had the same fish and vegetables. Then, we had a few more stops before going to a place in Hankou where we get to see people fishing. Walking across a bridge over to a swamp, we saw kids catching small crabs using a bait tied to a string that is attached to fishing nets. It was interesting watching them catch the crabs. As that was the last place to visit in our 2-day itinerary, we then began to head back to school. Some of the kids sang throughout the whole journey back, both Mandarin and Taiwanese songs. And so, that was how I spent my last weekend. I look forward to the upcoming weekends and the places and activities that I would be doing.