Fish sing for the camera. That is what this fisherman said to me (via translation from my friend Huimin) after catching many fish while I took pictures. This lake is actually located right behind our campus, who knew! It is quite beautiful, and you can also swim in it, but most Taiwanese people do not. Many think there are spirits in the water. Taiwanese also avoid the sun as much as possible.
The fisherman reeled in small silver fish after fish, carefully took them off the hook and tried to get them in the basket before they flopped off the dock. A couple lucky ones actually got away. Watching this whole event was really quiet and majestic. I imagine this is one of the reason why people enjoy fishing so much, there is a real peace to it. We talked very little. It seemed better just to absorb the beauty of the lake and the sound of water and crickets.
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| basket for the fish |
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| Thomas and Huimin talking to fisherman. They are grad students in ceramics, both here from Singapore. |
The next morning on my way to the studio, I discovered some creatures in the stream behind my house. Why are turtles so cool? They were sunning themselves on the huge lilypads, or perhaps waiting patiently for bugs. The lilypads are so big, they hardly look real to me. There are also a ton of carp (huge goldfish) that swim near the surface to catch bugs. The sound of it is lovely, like tiny splashes as they break the surface. This is especially appealing at night, when all is dark and quiet, except for their "blurp" sounds. If I wasn't so nervous about possible snakes lurking by (I saw a striped one in the street the other night, but was too slow on the camera), I would sit out there all night to listen to them.
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| plant? |
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| enormous lilypad |
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