Sept 4-14, 2006 Carol

September 4-14, 2006 – Carol

What an unusual sensation, I am sitting at my computer thinking about the absolutely experience-filled week we have just had, listening to the Leonardo DiCaprio/Clare Danes version of Romeo and Juliet, trying to get a few concepts to throw out in a meeting, and trying to reconcile the worlds, not easy!

On the sublime side of the equation, I insisted that I had been patient in the extreme, waiting 5 weeks to go to the National Palace Museum, so we took off early on Sunday, thinking to spend the morning there. I firmly believe that when one’s feet are in direct conflict with the brain, the feet always win, so 4-5 hours is the maximum for meaningful museum absorption! We had a wonderful English-language tour by a very skilled Chinese docent and the exhibits are very well detailed in both Chinese and English, so it’s quite user-friendly. We were absolutely dazed by the wealth and beauty of the collection. They have 650,000 artifacts which are rotated on a 3-4 month basis, which would still take a visitor years to view! The museum itself is vast, open and beautifully designed so that even though there may thousands of people there at one time, you rarely feel crowded except around the most famous artifacts. Speaking of which, the “jade cabbage” is their self-styled “Mona Lisa” and is a worthy nomenclature. The piece is about 8-9” long and has 2 insects carved on it as well, and looks for all the world like a jewel carved into vegetable, which is of course what it is! Jade is apparently hard enough to make axes and swords out of, but becomes more beautiful with wearing and touching and exposure to elements both in and out of the ground. There were carvings of ivory which took decades, but looked like the finest lace imaginable, concentrically carved balls, 17 within one ball, with no connection whatsoever. The miniature boats carved from a piece of stone the size of an olive pit with EIGHT figures inside, doors with screens, rudders, and other fittings were so tiny you had to use the thoughtfully provided magnifying glasses to see the detail! Our older eyes missed a few, I’m sure! Because they are renovating the West Hall, we have a free ticket to go back before Dec. 31—we’ll need several more than that, I’m sure! The gardens outside are really beautiful and also interesting as there are places for families to picnic, sit, and feed the koi the size of small dogs!!!! For once I am not even exaggerating a little. They are fed special food from vending machines and the children (and adults!) delight in the process. They are like a pile of squirming puppies piling on top of one another, with the larger ones generally winning out, their mouths gaping open to grab the goodies, and generally making an enormous fuss. Their colors are unbelievable, from true “gold” through red, orange, black, white like ghost fish and every permutation in between! All I could think of was John Belushi in “Animal House”!

Bill then kindly decided to try to assist the LARGEST snake I have ever seem not in a zoo, as it was trapped in a plastic protective fence near some of the renovation work along the path. It slithered across in front of us and was caught half-way. My earnest pleas to “just leave it alone and call the authorities” fell, of course, on deaf ears. The suggestions of the passersby ( by now, quite a crowd had gathered!) were also to get away,……I finally had to leave, as Taiwan has 6 deadly and 5 non-deadly snakes, and I was positive we were going to get some kind of information the hard way…… Finally, he took a picture of the problem and we showed it to the authorities. They were more concerned that he had a camera “No pictures in museum!!!” than the snake itself. I hope it was finally freed. As Bill said, even if it is a snake, one doesn’t want to see it suffer when it was only being a snake.

The experiences just keep coming, faster than I can write and live. My Chinese lessons have started and we have formed study groups for between classes to try to practice and review. Small children look very puzzled at me when I try to speak, but most folks are very patient and kind and don’t laugh right out loud when I make a gigantic gaffe which is about every other word. Four tones, one word, FOUR different meanings! So far my favorite is “ma, ma, hu, hu,” which with all first tones means “horse, horse, tiger, tiger,” or “so so”!

Next time, my amah, or how I lost control of my household, but gained a valuable and wonderful Chinese ally. One clue, Bill takes off his shoes before he enters the house EVERY TIME!.......

Love, Carol