Last Wednesday during the Hochi Youth Group cultivation night I found out there was registration involved. I proceeded to promptly forgot about it as I tried to figure out how I was going to get to Taichung with Wei-chun who, at the time, was unsure if she could make it on account of her dad's unstable medical condition (which has improved, if I read the FB message correctly @_@). We decided to take the 通聯 (U-bus, an inter-city bus line) from Taipei Main station.
After some phone-Facebook-phone-text shenanigans, I arrived at Taipei Main station at 13:00 to find out that Wei-chun wouldn't be able to make it until later. So I had to take the bus by myself. Which is terrifying, because I am scared of missing buses and trains and planes like nobody's business.
Luckily, the bus system is pretty easy to navigate, and I secured myself a ticket to 中港鑽運站 (Zhong-gang Transfer Station, or something to that effect) without much trouble. It was NT$210! Actually, less if you used your Yoyo card, which I didn't, 'cause I never keep more than NT$120 on it, but the counter-lady gave me the discount anyway! :D So it was really NT$180, if I remember the extra change correctly.
There was also a thing where you had to take a ticket number when you got to the gate where your bus was supposed to be. I guess that was just for some of them though, 'cause the lady in front of me got a seat number and a set time, whereas mine didn't. I guess for the transfer station they just have buses show up whenever and if there's room there's room if not you wait for the next bus.
After two hours or so, which included a showing of "Little Fockers" (hilarious and terrible at the same time) noshing on giant carrot sticks and Duotti sandwich (PRO-TIP: bring your own food -- it will be more delicious and less expensive than anything you find at the bus station (alright, not true, there are totally really delicious things at the bus station, but I'm on a budget!!! And I shouldn't eat cake for second lunch!)), I arrived in Taichung and could not contact Wei-chun, who was supposed to get me a ride to the place. Luckily, I got a hold of Yvonne, who told me how to walk there from the bus station. It was really close (like 10 minutes).
I somehow managed to get the whole registration thing and where-I-would-stay-overnight and all sorted out, and spent the remainder of the day being delighted to see people and sitting through the rehearsals. Then I got looped into dancing for the rap song that Wei-chun wrote (I didn't even know she wrote one!! It was pretty good, IMHO), and had to learn the choreography, which was not that difficult, except I'm terrible at dancing TT____TT but not that terrible, I guess, just mediocre.
Finally Wei-chun showed up :D and then we had the aforementioned 7-11 adventure.
Since I slept at the compassion field, we had to get up at 4:00 to prepare. Since we had the 7-11 adventure I only got like 3 hours of sleep, but it wasn't that bad, considering. I had no idea what was going on most of the time, to be honest. I almost missed the kowtowing in the morning, since I was busy eating my leftover sandwich (I felt like such a glutton -- but I'm always hungry when I wake up!).
The event itself was indescribable. There were over 600 Chi-mates (THAT IS SO MANY) at this compassion field. THAT IS SO MANY. I also got hooked into being one of the greeters, which was pretty cool :) I got to feel way more useful than I did the night before. I also got to see a bunch of people I didn't get to see earlier this year 'cause I didn't got to the Youth Camp OR the 49-day class (which I am going to next year for absolutely sure. Seriously. They showed pictures and I want to go to there and do those things too.)
Due to the aforementioned indescribable quality of the event, I will just summarise by saying I came away from it way more motivated to cultivate myself and become the person I am supposed to be so that I may help the world become a better place. There was a particularly interesting 分想 by a Chi-mate by the name of Nin(g?) who is a famous artist. I hope I can find his website so I can look at his art. :3
Oh, and I got to see Patty's mom, but I didn't have a pen at the time to get her cell number T_T gotta remember to FB Patty and ask for it!!!
The leaving part was raucous! There were so many generous Chi-mates that had gotten snacks and things!!! I gotta say, the food at these events is always really really good. Tai disagrees, but I like it (most of the time -- the bittermelon was an exception this time). Also, there were some open seats on the charter buses that the Taipei Chi-mates reserved, so we got to ride back for FREE!! And eat lots of snacks!!! Check out this pastry:
I also got to meet Wei-chun's friend, who produced the rap track she wrote. He's a kind of quiet guy. We went out for noodles after getting 'cause he was hungry and we were all walking back to the MRT station together. Hopefully we'll see him on Wednesday nights at the Compassion Field ^u^
I really need to go to bed now @_@ Gotta get up at 6:00 tomorrow!!!
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