Alasdair's zhuazhou (抓周)

At the beginning of November, Alasdair turned 1 year old.  There is a tradition that I think is fun called zhuazhou (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuazhou) that is done here to forecast the future of a child.  We did this with Ana in Yilan, but we had a more difficult finding a place that does it down south, which is strange because it seems more traditional here.  Doing it in a shopping mall is lame, so we were happy to find a very old house (also a mingsu, which is a relatively inexpensive homestay) in Anping, Tainan.  The place was right in the middle of Anping, next to the temple, and it was great to see Anping at night when the tourists had gone.

The zhuazhou starts with an excellent tiger costume to scare away bad spirits. Then he was handed a green onion (tsong in Chinese, which sounds like the first word of tsong ming, or "intelligence") to make him smart.   Then we started walking around the old house.  He sat at a scholars desk.  Saw an old bed. Jumped up and down in a crib. Played with a tiger.  The usual stuff. Finally, there is a room with a bunch of different toys on the floor.  He chooses three which are supposed to predict his career.  Alasdair chose an abacus, a ball, and a microphone.  So his future involves mathematics, sports, and performance.  Then he got distracted by a little girl and crawled over to smile at her for a while.

It was pretty fun for us.  When Ana did it she was scared and crying, but Alasdair is more relaxed and seemed to have some fun and got the chance to explore some new stuff, which is his hobby.  I like Tainan, and enjoyed eating seafood and looking at the moon in Anping.

Southern Skies

It's super polluted now.  The sky is thick with gunk.  My phone tells me every day that the air is in the red, dangerous to the general population.  I used to think that the little paper masks were useless and silly, but you better believe I wore one today.  My kids need to get out of the house and move, but I don't want them out in these poisonous clouds.  The south has a lot to recommend it - nice winters, good food, and some old culture and buildings remain. But the nasty traffic and air are really unpleasant.

Kaohsiung pt 1

I'm in Kaohsiung now.  It's the second biggest city and it's in the deep south.  The weather remains hot even now in November.  There are plenty of factories around and the pollution is nasty.  There are some nice parts, but too many cars and scooters.  Sidewalks are bad and people are not as laid back and friendly as they are in Chiayi.  It has an MRT, but it's quite a bit less convenient and more crap than in Taipei.  It's not bad here, but not great either. There are a couple of interesting places to visit (Cijin has a beach and some touristy street stuff. The sugar factory is pretty interesting if you are interested in the Japanese period, which I am.) The city is too big to get around exclusively on a bike, and the big roads and pollution make that less fun than it should be.  I guess it's all convenient and reasonably nice, minus the air.