Fireflies in Neiwan

One of the interesting things about living in Taiwan is discovering the lengths that people will go to to see even the most seemingly sublime things. I have oftened marvelled at how the Taiwanese will travel for hours, fighting incredible traffic, with a car load of screaming children just to see a particular flower bloom. One side of me thinks this is a most strange activity while the other finds this absolutely charming. Perhaps after a life of growing up in Canada where these events seemed entirely ordinary and thus didn’t necessarily deserve “a pilgrimage to Mecca” like attention explains my mixed feelings.
Well last night a number of the 1 year students in my Grad. program made a short pilgrimage to view fireflies in the woods in Neiwan (I’m sure I have mispelt the word) — along with a multitude of tour buses and in total, thousands of others. Despite the fact that I spilled pork filling all over my shirt and it rained, it was a good laugh. After spending all your days in front of a screen in a artificially lit room, I think I am beginning to understand the mass atraction to these activities.
The above picture is a group photo of us all.