Holidays in Taiwan

Yes, Mom, they do have panetone in Taiwan...

Although we were a little apprehensive about celebrating the holidays without family and friends from home, the holidays here in Taiwan were memorable. Many beautiful flowers and light displays in the shopping centers around town. It is funny to see such western icons as Santa Claus and hear stories of Taiwanese Christians continuing this Western tradition with their children as well as celebrating the birth of Jesus. One colleague's daughter was Mary in the Christmas pageant at their church.


Christmas Tree at 101



 Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Dinner

We were invited by a friend to spend Christmas Eve with her Buddhist Tzu Chi group. We had a tastey vegetarian dinner, learned about the good work the group is doing world wide to assist disaster victims and received a blessing for a good coming year from a Buddhist master. It was interesting hearing the Buddhist elder speak, she alluded to "silent night, holy night" and the desire of all people for peace. It was a very different evening. We wondered how many priests in our own religion would have made this connection. It was a totally peaceful night and great to be spending it with friends who were so committed to peace and working to improve the environment.

Christmas Day

Prelude to dinner...

For Christmas Dinner we made a traditional Italian seafood meal - Cioppino.  We were able to even find prosciutto in Taiwan and had delicious Taiwan mellon spikes with prosciutto wrapped around. The chicken broth did initially elude us -- people thought we were crazy looking for "chicken water." In the end, Claude purchased a chicken and we made chicken broth from scratch.

The guests - Taiwanese friends, my teaching assistant, and a post-doc from Georgia in the former Soviet Union - seemed to enjoy the food. In the typical Taiwanese style, everyone brought something to make the evening special - we had a variety of dessert from the delicious pineapple cakes to special Alishan Mountain Tea served in a traditional Taiwanese tea ceremony by our friend. It was a great evening.


That steaming soup tastes good on a "cold" night!





New Years Eve

On New Year's Eve we were invited by students to eat a traditional hot pot with them at the Department of Social Work. This is sort of like stone soup Taiwanese style -- without the stone. Everyone brought something to go into the pot. Because we had vegetarians and omnivores eating there were several pot bubbling. As the evening went on different things were added to the pots that people brought. It was delicious and fun. We have not tasted anything that we really don't like.

All types of vegetables and meats -- sliced very thin were cooked in the hot pot. It made the broth very delicious. This is an important activity in the culture here and our Italian and Danish roots feed right into those important activities. All are equal in contributing to the goodness of the food and we all eat together. As you can see, we had a great holiday even though we were very homesick for our family and friends -- especially those grandsons!


Other events...

Susan and Red Heart Director

We know that you are probably wondering if all we are doing is eating. Actually, in addition to teaching, Susan has made a connection with a local NGO that provides support to families of people in prison and assistance in transitioning from prison back into Taiwanese society.

Red Heart
The Red Heart Association is a Buddhist organization that was founded  to assist disaster relief victims in China and was asked to take on this work with ex-prisoners about 10 years ago.

Susan is also hoping to find out more about a program in Taiwan that allows mothers to keep children with them in prison until they are three years old. Little research has compared outcomes of these women and children with women and children who are separated when the mother is incarcerated. From colleagues we understand that rehabilitation is becoming an important focus of Taiwanese prisons.

We hope that all of you have a good new year filled with blessings and the courage to pursue the road less traveled. It the words of Robert Frost, "it has made all the difference" for us this year. 

Claude and Susan