Day 24
I tooke the metro to DaTong station to get to the Dragon Boat Festival in Da Jia riverside Park. I asked where I should stand to wait for the shuttle and I stood at one of the bus stops for half and hour and no shuttle came. I saw lots of groups with same team t-shirt designs and paddles in their hands for their race all get into taxi. It was already 9am and I decided to wait at the pay bus stop to take R34. I stood there among lots of people mostly foreigners wondering where was the bus. Then I saw people all leave one group after another to take the cab instead. At this point I decided to look at the sign for the bus route and I noticed the time for Sunday starts at 10am. The bus runs once every hour on Sundays. I have been waiting for an hours since 8:30am. I decided I would leave and head out for another event. Too bad, I was so looking forward to this, checking out boat designs, team t-shirts, and different drums. Maybe in the future I can talke some friends into forming a team and we can race too.
I decided I would skip the dragon boat races and head for another event that my friends were in and I didn't want to miss meeting up with them. They were volunteering at a Buddhist Monastery in Taipei for an event there. It was an anniversary of Ven. Hsuan Hua's Nirvana and so there was a celebration there. So I got back onto the metro and met up with my friends a little after 10am.My friends Yi Ru and Ya Hsuan were sitting at the desk greeting people. Good to see friends.
It's just nice to catch up. We see each other once very few years in US when they visit or in Taiwan when I visit. We all work on a shoe string budget so we don't get to fly and travel as often as we like. I do hope they can come and visit next year, that would be nice.
Jia Hwei was the engergizer bunny of do it all with setup and clean up. I also pitched in and worked.Things we have in common, enjoy good food, laughter, good company, and community service.
I was sleepy during lunch because I just haven't been getting enough sleep the whole time I've been here. But that's okay, I can sleep when I go home. I was starving actually and so I was totally grateful to have some food for lunch. Well, I fell asleep sitting on the floor for a bit after lunch and it wasn't for very long but I woke up refreshed.
