update: Danshui and visting the fortune teller

Yesterday, Jesse wanted to get out of town, so we went the Danshui River, where there is a boardwalk-type area.







We took the ferry boat to the other side of the river to the town of Bali. Here is a photo I took of the passengers seated in front of us. Looks like a grandpa and his granddaughter to me.








I saw some fortune tellers in the underground mall, so I asked my friend Charlene to help me to go visit a fortune teller. She was actually kind of ambivalent about this since she considers the fortune tellers to be leftover from the "feudal system," but she took me anyway because I said I was curious and she is a good friend.





There are about 20 different fortune tellers there. They work in these little booths. Strangely, you can also get your facial hair plucked here. ?! Charlene helped me choose a fortune teller who used a combination of methods: your birth date and time, your face, and your hands. There are other methods but she does not think they are as good. (Feeling your bones, for example) Actually, she does not think any of them are good, because the fortune teller has a very 'traditional' way of thinking. It was funny to listen to her translate my fortune because she said things like, "This is a very feudal way of thinking, but the fortune teller says you are a woman but you have the strength of personality of a man. She says you should be softer in your relationship with your husband." I could see the pain on Charlene's face as she translated this message to me. This - coming from the woman who was told she should give up her dream of earning a PhD and find a 'good husband.' She definitely did not follow that advice!

I think I will keep the specifics of what the fortune teller told me to myself, but I will say it was an interesting experience. I will remain a skeptic, based on Charlene's advice and my own understanding of the world. However, to hear someone else talk about your life provides a different point of view. What I mean is, the fortune teller allowed me to see myself through another's eyes and with that, the potential of thinking about myself in a new way. I will admit that I did not like all she had to say, and I hope some of it is wrong. However, by considering the 'fate' she predicted for me, it offers me the chance to even consider how I feel about it. She described my fate as being very good in certain areas of my life and not as good in others. She advised me, however, that this was something I should accept because I have such good 'luck' in the first areas. Its very close to what Americans mean when they advise to be "thankful for your blessings' in light of some misfortune.

Charlene says the fortune teller she saw many years ago told her she would die when she was 84 years old. The fortune teller I saw asked if I had any questions, but needless to say, I did not ask "At what age will I die?" If she were to actually give a specific answer to that, as was Charlene's experience, that would be too strange. I don't think I want to know that kind of information. Would you?