Halloween and Buddhism

Halloween here in Taiwan was so much fun! We really had a great time! We started preparing for the party around 1030 or 11 in the morning on Friday. After we set up the lounge I went upstairs to take a shower. When I got out of the shower I walked to my closet, like usual, to find and it was right by the door so I did not want to go open it. When Hayley hit the door the scary spider ran into a huge crack in my wall. I finally let Hayley in, and I almost started to cry! Worst my clothes, I then went to my desk to check my email, still in my towel... then I saw it..... A HUGE SPIDER ON MY WALL! Now when I say huge I do not mean huge in America. I mean HUGE!!! It was the biggest spider that I have seen in the wild, or maybe even in a cage. It was the size of my palm, at least. I called for Hayley to come into my room but my door was locked way to start Halloween. But then Hayley, Carly , and I all took a nap together in Carly's spider free bedroom and when we woke up we were refreshed and ready for our Halloween party. We got all dressed up and then went to the preschool on campus and played with the little children. Even with the language barrier we had a great time! I was dressed up like the Head Elf from Santa's workshop. But most people here don't know about elves. After the preschool we came home and finished preparing the tons of snacks we had. So many people ended up coming. It was a great success and worth all of the time that we put into it. Dee did such a great job of planning it all!!

walked out to my closet, turned around and there he was AGAIN!! And even BIGGER than I incident. We woke up early on Saturday morning to go on our field trip. I took my shower, thought he was the first time! He was GIGANTIC and he was standing on my wall right over my bathroom door that I walked out of from my shower! He could have jumped on me! I screamed for Hayley, again, and she came in. I stood on my bed and almost passed out. Hayley went at him and started trying to kill him. He ran into my bathroom. She risked herself and followed him in and finally killed him. Then we flushed him down my toilet. One of his legs would not go down! It was so gross. I was flushing the toilet all day! After that I could finally get ready, but I have still been checking every corner of my room when I come in. For our field trip we went to Dharma Drum Mountain which is a Buddhist Temple. The public can go there to pray and learn about Buddhism. It was a really pretty place, it was too bad that we could not take any pictures except for by the pond outside of the small temple and outside where we were waiting for the bus. We were supposed to stay quiet through out the tripFriday night after the Halloween party I slept in Hayley's room with her because of the spider and create peace and a calmness inside of ourselves. As you all know I am not very good at being quiet. But I succeeded through this trip! :) I actually really enjoyed hearing about the religion and seeing some of the history of the Temple there.

This is a view of the northern coast that I took while we were on the bus headed to Juming Museum. It really reminded me of home!

After the Dharma Drum we went to Juming Museum on Jinshan (Jin Mountain). It was so neat. Ju Ming is the artist that organized the building of a huge outdoor museum where his work could be displayed. He made huge sculptures out of iron and bronze and they were spread out through out the 14 hectacres. It was fun to walk around. We had a great time!!

A gigantic zipper that creates a pond!This was one of my favorite pieces of art! It was part of Ju Ming's living world series. They are men made of bronze! It was really neat!

At midnight tonight we celebrated Hayley's birthday! We surprised her with a birthday cake and each ate a piece and laughed for a long time!! Yay for turning 21! Too bad alcohol is not allowed in the hostel!