My Christmas in Taiwan

Christmas is over (and even New Years)  but I want to write about what I did on Christmas .
Did you know that in Taiwan Christmas is not a holiday?
Every has to go work or to school. This year even my Dad had to go to office .
Polish Christmas lasts three days, from Christmas Eve (Wigilia) to December 26 .
For Wigilia we prepare 12 different dishes. Among others there are: my favorite wild mushroom soup (or  barszcz - beetroot soup), fish, pierogi (dumplings with sauerkraut and mushrooms) and many cakes. We don't eat meat on Wigilia.

A HUGE salmon

Pierogi, I made them

Polish potato-egg salad, Mom's specialty. 

Walnut cake (no flour!)

Gingerbread cookies I made

 
But before we start eating we share Oplatek  (Christmas wafer) wishing everybody all the best.

Oplatek from Poland  

After dinner it's time to open presents. That's of course what I was waiting for.

What is it ?!

A Chromebook13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two Jazz CD's Charlie Parker an Current Hits In Bossa!

After all the presents are have been open we go to church for midnight mass fortunately in Taiwan it is at 10p.m.

I was serving at the Mass

On the evening of Christmas day we went to my friend Owen's Christmas party. There were many people, that we did not know, at the party. I played Wii with other kids.

On the second day of Christmas my grandfather and grandmother from Taiwan came.

All Saints Day at Powązki

Polish people celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st. It's a very important holiday.

While we were in Poland we went to the cemetery three times. Few days before All Saints Day we went to clean the graves in the Powązki cemetery (which is the oldest cemetery in Warsaw). Here are some photos of our family graves:

Before cleaning

After cleaning

My great-grandmother and
great-great-grandmother's grave

Most of the alleys in the cemetery looked like this:

On All Saints Day we went to the Powązki cemetery at night. It was even more beautiful than during the day. There loads of people. All the graves had candles and lots of flowers on them. There was the nice candle smell in the air.  It was quite cold, but not as cold as in previous years.

Look how nice it is now!

Graves of famous people, like this singer, had  l o a d s  of lights!

And more!!!!!!!

On November 2nd is All Souls Day. On that day one should also go visit more graves. We went to another cemetery, Powązki Military Cemetery. Many polititians, soldiers and famous people are buried there. 

I was most interested in seeing the graves of young people who died during Warsaw Uprising in 1944. I found the grave of the author of one of my favourite books "Kamienie na Szaniec", Aleksander Kamiński. There were also graves of those who were portrayed in that book, Alek, Zośka, Rudy and other  Warsaw Uprising heros.

Graves of those who lost their lives in World War II.

The grave of the author of the book.

The graves of Zośka, Alek and Rudy.

Polish cemeteries are so different to the Taiwanese ones and people visit them more often than in Taiwan. What do you think about Powązki cemetery?

On water and in air

A week ago we came to Poland. Before coming here we stayed a few days in Hong Kong. On the day we were flying out of  Hong Kong we went on a yacht cruise - it was so nice and warm.

The boat we were on.

Relaxing on a yacht

The next day we landed in cold, but sunny Europe - Zurich and later Warsaw.

So far in Warsaw we went to the Old Town.

We also went shopping. My Mom got me some shirts and books. One is about the history of Poland.
                                                                               

Yesterday we went to the Warsaw Rising Museum. It's a museum about Warsaw Uprising which took place during World War II (Aug.1,1944 - Oct.4,1944). The whole Warsaw was destroyed and many, many people were killed.

The divided Poland

The uniforms of Polish army pilots.

The plane that dropped food to occupied Warsaw.

Thursday in photos

Today my Mom, Ania and I went for another walk. We walked near Bitan bridge. I had my camera with me and these are the photos I took:

Ania run run!!!

This kind of grass is not very popular in Taiwan, but in Poland it's everywhere.

We saw workers putting a gargoyle on a freeway bridge.

The three gargoyles are in place.

Bitan Bridge, not far from our house.

Black-crowned night heron

Bicycle/wheelchair ramp

Back home I took more photos:

View from our balcony

Birds gathering for a meeting on a tree in front of our house.

 

Grey Treepie lives only in Taiwan.

 

Another grey treepie

 What do you think of my photos?

Jak Ci się podobają moje zdjęcia?

Learning about Xindian

Last Sunday was quite special. We usually don't go anywhere (except  for church) on Sundays, but this time was different.
Zozo left home very early to go to Foguang Shan 佛光山, the largest Buddist monastry in Taiwan. And the rest of us stayed in Xindian 新店. We went to places, that I didn't even know existed.

We first went to the Xindian History Museum. There were many artifacts and photos about the history of this city. The most interesting thing were the old money - banknotes and coins.
 

In the museum I asked Mom if there are any aborigines living in Xindian. Mom was surprised I did not know and she took me to the settlement by the river where aborigines live.

(photo by Mom)

(photo by Mom)

(photo by Mom)

After that we went to the airforce cemetery. There were many graves of pilots who died in action, in training or were shot down by Chinese. The oldest graves were from the 1940th and the newest from just a fey years ago. We were the only visitors at the cemetery, Taiwanese people don't like going to cemeteries. I think it was very interesting .

(photo by Mom)

It was a very interesting Sunday.

All the photos are by me (unless other specified).