"I'm sorry Mr. Shrimp, but you're just too delicious"

Last weekend Katelynn and I took another trip down south (I love it there)! Our Taiwanese friend Veronica is from a small community called Puzih which is about 30 minutes outside of Chiayi City which is a good 3 hour bus ride from Taipei City where we all currently live. We went to visit Veronica's family and to attend her cousin's traditional Chinese wedding.


While the north (mainly Taipei City) is dominated by global business and trade (and consequently, heavily influenced by mainland China, Japan and other countries), the south of Taiwan is where one finds the true, untainted Taiwanese culture. In the city we're surrounded by apartment buildings and high-rise buildings, but in the south families tend to live in traditional Chinese-style houses because there is far more space. I particularly like the south because the day to day living is much more relaxed and easy-going. In the city I feel the need to constantly be busy and not 'waste' any time; whereas in the south, taking a 2 hour nap after lunch is perfectly acceptable and in fact, the norm!

When we arrived on Friday evening, Veronica's family had a birthday cake waiting for us! They sang "Happy Birthday" (in Chinese of course) and we all feasted on cake, mangoes and watermelon! We were especially touched by this surprise because we aren't able to celebrate our birthdays (which are a mere 6 days apart!) with our own families this year. Once we met Veronica's family, it was easy to see why she is such a sweetheart. Even though we couldn't speak with her parents (beyond the simple Chinese that we can muster between us both), it felt so nice to be surrounded by a family again.

On Saturday morning, we biked into town. I had my first experience as a passenger of a bicycle (the true Chinese way to travel!) and let's just say, my knees were not very happy with the arrangement! When we returned to Veronica's house it was time to get ready for the wedding! Now, traditional Chinese weddings are not like weddings back home. In fact, they are basically just a big big meal (and by big I mean 14 courses! no joke). In the south, weddings often have over 800 guests, a stage with live music/karaoke and some even have exotic dancers! The wedding that we attended had 1000 guests (!!!) and a stage with live music... no exotic dancers though. We were the only foreigners there (in fact we only saw 1 other foreigner the entire weekend) and so we got more attention then the bride! Veronica's dad was so proud of us, he kept bringing his friends over to our table to "cheers" us. Many of them could only say "okay" in English, so most of the conversations went like this:

Chinese man: okay okay!
Kate: cheers!
Chinese man: chru..... (trying to say 'cheers' but can't...) okay! (raises his glass)
Laura: okay!
Kate: okay okay!
Chinese man: okay!
(we all drink)

The food was absolutely spectacular! You can see the pictures of all the courses if you click on the link at the end of this post. But for those who don't... this is what we ate:

Course 1: A whole chicken served in a soup/broth
Course 2: A fish (cooked fish here is more often than not served whole, eyes and all, and you scoop the meat off it's body and leave the carcass on the platter)
Course 3: lobster pizza (a lobster with cheese, veges and olives on top - looked like a pizza!)
Course 4: congealed fish eggs (I wasn't a big fan of this dish)
Course 5: radish and vegetables
Course 6: fish ball soup
Course 7: crab (the most delicious crab I'll ever have!)
Course 8: black rice cupcakes
Course 9: more soup (didn't have it... not sure what it was like)
Course 10: another fish/stirfry type dish
Course 11: lamb
Course 12: shrimp (legs, eyes and all - I love it, but I can't eat these shrimp without apologizing to them while I rip off their legs and faces...)
Course 13: fruit
Course 14: ice cream

There you have it. Now you can see why I had a 2 hour nap after lunch! Poor Veronica acted as a translator most of the weekend as very few of her family members spoke any English beyond, "okay" (see above conversation with Chinese man). Kate and I were asked some very funny questions about Canada and might as well have been applauded when we picked up our chopsticks to eat (they were so surprised to see that we could use them!)

On Sunday, Veronica's mom drove us to Tainan (a city about 45 minutes away from their home) to watch a spectacular festival/parade put on by a local temple. Most temples have this type of celebration (where gods are paraded through the neighbouring communities for about a month and then are returned to the temple with a big hoo-hah on the final day); however, this particular one is the biggest in the south of Taiwan. I'm told that many foreigners don't have the chance to see something so culturally-rich because they don't know where or when to find it. We were so fortunate to have Taiwanese friends to bring us there! The colours of the costumes, the sounds of the firecrackers, trumpets and gongs and the smell of the incense burning throughout the temple will forever remain in my memory.


All in all, the weekend was a refreshing and much-needed getaway from the city and a fantastic encounter with true Taiwanese culture. I invite everyone to take a look at my pictures of this weekend, just click here.