10/10
After about a week of feeling miserable and eating virtually nothing but rice gruel I’m back in top form. I reckon I ate some street food which disagreed with my inexperienced North American belly. Hopefully I’ll build up a tolerance to whatever it is that made me sick. By the time I get back to Canada I should be able to gnaw on diseased pig carcasses with no ill effects.
This weekend is a long weekend in Taiwan, as in Canada. Monday is National Day here. The Taiwanese commemorate the fall of the Qing dynasty and “triumph” of republicanism in China. The PRC acknowledges this date as important, but uses the occasion of the triumph of communism in ’49 to celebrate their national day.
I have no concrete plans. I wanted to go and watch some missiles and tanks get paraded around, but apparently they’re all tied up defending the island from the threat of commie invasion. I could go watch a bunch of army boys march around which may be entertaining. I’m not overly familiar with martial displays. I’ve seen a few official guard changes here and there, and period demonstrations of historical military drills, but I’ve never seen a contemporary display of military might. I would be interested to know more about the development of displays of military might. Many countries have a deep desire to let it be known to both their citizens and those abroad that they have large, well trained, and well equipped military machines. It is traditional when heads of state visit one another to inspect the troops. It is just like when you go to that next door neighbor’s house for the first time, and she insists you look at her Royal Doulton figurine collection. Except the collection is of men who are trained to kill other men, and the next door neighbor is a head of state. So I guess it really isn’t that much alike after all. Unless the troop on display are limited edition special forces troops, with cute little rifles disguised as parasols.