Always an Adventure...

Happy New Year! (#21)

2012-01-01T19:13:00.000+08:00

This past year has been a lot about reflecting for me, which is good, and I still have 4 more months until my 30th birthday. I hope I can continue to work toward my goals in that time. In the meantime, life still happens, right? Christmas went by in a flurry of parties and events, and new years was kind of the same. There are only 11 more days until my trip to Thailand and starting new classes. But for now, it's time to think about what 2012 is going to bring.
One of my kindred spirits, Krystal shared this blog on Facebook, and I was indeed inspired. The blog challenges us to come up with a word (One Little Word) to represent your hopes for the next year. On the blog it says, You live with it. You invite it into you life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities.
Do check it out. A lot of people had some very nice sounding words, especially in the comments, like nurture, gravity, believe etc. And as I was reading a word came into my head. Not an especially poetic word, a short little word with a lot of possibility. So I have chosen the word ASK to guide me in 2012.
Why ask?
First of all, this year, I will begin to ask a lot of questions about the future. Who do I want to be in my 30s? What do I want to do after I graduate? But more importantly, I want to ask God. I want to be more mindful of His will in my life.
As a student, I will be asking a lot, and this coming semester, I'll be asking my big research question and completing my final thesis/project.
As part of my 30 before 30, I need to continue asking myself questions to better my life: Do I really need to buy that, keep that, eat that, do that?
I mentioned in my last post that I'm leading my small group through the book of James, and in there is a verse that reminds us to be "slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to become angry." As a teacher, and especially living in Taiwan, I've been trained to always have something to say, always be ready to give a speech, or talk about something with strangers. But this year I really need to take more time to ASK other people questions and listen to their answers.
ASK
So this year, I will ask more. I'm excited to discover how that will come to manifest itself in my life. So how about you? Are you interested in joining in? What's your word for the year?

Small Group (#20)

2011-12-27T21:56:00.000+08:00

Another AWESOME thing that relates to post #18 is: Eating the last piece of dessert somebody left at your house. Which made me think of my small group. I have taught different kinds of English bible studies throughout my years in Taiwan, and I'm even writing a paper on it this semester. But this year is the first time I've hosted a home group. The focus is bilingual and rather than an English class, it's more like a bible study/discussion. I have about 8-10 people, and I host it in my house, which is great for a few reasons. First, it forces me to keep it clean! Also, as mentioned above, people bring yummy things to share, plus some interesting items like two bags of disposable plastic gloves. Last week is a perfect example of this. We didn't plan to have a potluck, but ended up with a feast! I baked Christmas cookies just for fun. Debbie brought kiwi from her recent trip to the mountains in Taiwan. Andy brought organic "ugly" oranges that he grew himself. Lona came a little later and brought all kinds of yummy goodness from the shop she works at, including fresh onion pancakes which she fried up in my kitchen. It was a veritable feast!
The week before, we decorated my Christmas tree, which was also a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed looking at the different decorations I have accumulated over the past few years. Most of them didn't put up a Christmas tree in their own house, so it was really fun for them. Plus I didn't have to put it up by myself!
We've been going through the book of James, and so far have had some interesting and challenging discussions! Most of the group members are English teachers, but there are a few others as well. Our discussions take place in both English and Chinese, but I know they're really digging deep when it switches to all Chinese!
I'm really loving this group of people and taking this approach. I'm not sure whether or not next semester I'll go back to doing a second "English Bible study" but I'm definitely planning to keep this small group going as long as there are people interested in coming.

P. S. My apologies for the EXTREMELY crappy picture quality, I'm trying to figure out the problem. Until then, please DON'T bother to click for larger images...

P.P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ever feel like this?

2011-12-13T10:43:00.000+08:00

This is my last week to finish all my MA work for the semester..... busy, busy, busy

Awesome (#18)

2011-12-07T17:14:00.001+08:00

This summer I skimmed through The Book of Awesome during one of my lovely visits to Chapters. They have a pretty fun blog too, with entries like this:

#986 When you pull up to a red light and the guy in front of you nudges up a bit so you can make a right turn

Don’t you love it when you pull up to a red light in the right lane, and the guy in front of you notices and squeezes out into the intersection a bit, just so you can make your right turn a bit faster? What a great thing that is. Careful though — now it’s your job to give a sincere Thank-You Wave as you drive by, because you know they’re waiting for it and besides, did they just shave twenty seconds off your commute or what?

AWESOME!

Lately, I've seen a few awesome things around here that I thought I could share.
#1. A guy riding a bicycle while balancing two 10-foot bamboo poles on his shoulder. Dangerous, but AWESOME!
#2. A lovely sunny day today in the midst of all the winter rain. And finally being able to dry my clothes. AWESOME!
#3. An old man in his little electric scooter passing another little old man in his electric scooter. I literally laughed out loud when I saw it. AWESOME!
#4. Leaving my keys in my scooter in the parking lot for over an hour and coming back to find it still there. AWESOME!
#5. One of my students writing the sentence "I have my dad's eyebrow." I corrected her, but still secretly giggled at the mental image of unibrow father and daughter. AWESOME!

Oh and one more...#6 Chinglish on shirts! Like this one, about rocket salads. AWESOME!

Happy Thanksgiving? (#17)

2011-11-25T09:37:00.001+08:00

To all my American friends out there, Happy Thanksgiving!
I know Canadian Thanksgiving was awhile ago, but when you live in an international community, all the holidays kind of blend together. This year, Canadian Thanksgiving happened to be the same weekend as Taiwan's Double 10 holiday (national day) so both had a long weekend.
This weekend I'm planning a short trip to Taipei to watch The Help with friends and attend a Thanksgiving dinner with friends from many different countries :)
I was thinking lately that it's been more than 5 years since I've seen snow! It's cooled off enough that I've started to take out my winter clothes, and even wore long pants the other day, but it's still above 20 degrees here. It certainly doesn't feel like winter. In fact, because of the work I do, the seasons get quite confusing. At the moment, I'm writing tests for March, proofreading things coming out in February, and preparing teaching lessons for December. Plus I'm trying to plan my trip to Thailand/Singapore in January!

This is actually from 2006,
the most recent snow picture I have!

But before all that, I need to meet my deadlines for November/December.... sigh
But this is not a complaining post, I need to be Thankful!!

Today I am thankful for...

A couple of sunny days this week.
My new scooter.
My apartment that's large enough to host a weekly small group (more about that in another post).
Only being an hour away from Taipei.
The hot springs in Yilan.
The weekend!!!

First Toffee Nut Latte of the Season!

2011-11-09T08:33:00.001+08:00

Well email posting so far is rather disappointing... I tried to send this 3 times before it would show up...and then the text was missing, so I had to email the text to myself separately and then copy and paste it here. So much for that idea, but I'll try again sometime, maybe without photo?

This semester I'm doing a lot of my work from home, which is nice unless they're renovating the apartment next door all month. Fortunately the local Starbucks is nice and quiet during the day. They just got their long-awaited (maybe just by me) Christmas drinks! Note also that I come here so often that I have my own cup, which they pull out as soon as I walk through the door! I even get a small discount for using it. Time to plan my lesson for this afternoon which will be somewhat challenging since I lent out my textbook to a student who forgot his and just realized that I never got it back... Has that ever happened to you?

The Story of a Scooter (#15)

2011-10-25T09:57:00.001+08:00

Tuesday, October 18:

My poor little old scooter had a rough day today! It has been through a lot in the 3+ years I have owned it. Since I bought it from a teacher who was moving back to the U.S. for about US$200, it has driven me through rainy Yilan winters, made it all the way around Taiwan, and carried many guests, including my grandma, not to mention getting me to and from all the various schools I teach at. This semester, I need to drive almost twice as much and started thinking about upgrading a little, after all my little scooter was already 12+ years old when I bought it. Now 3 years later, I was thinking it was time to switch. But I was still a little hesitant, did I really need a new scooter? Was this a good investment? I’d been to look at some secondhand scooters last week, and still hadn’t reached a decision. Then two very odd things happened today. First, when I went to drive to school this afternoon, I found that my rear tire was almost completely flat. I ended up having to take a taxi to and from class. I was really worried about the extra cost, and didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on a new tire when I was thinking of buying a different scooter. Plus I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my scooter somewhere to be repaired. But I called the repair shop I’ve used before, and they came to get it from my house, found the leak, patched up the tire, and even tightened my breaks. When it was time to pay, I was a little confused, they told me it only cost one dollar. I was like one hundred? Five hundred? Nope. NT$1. That’s like 30 cents. Oh Taiwan, I love you! How much would the towing alone have been in Canada?

So then I drove out to my Chinese teacher’s house and on the way, it started making a strange, scary, but completely unrelated noise. I was just praying as I was driving (in the pouring rain I might mention) that I would make it. I decided that it really was time to say goodbye to this scooter. After class, we went over to look at scooters, and I drove mine over to get it checked out but it didn’t make the noise. After a test drive and some discussion I decided on a scooter that was about the same age as mine when I got it, but in better condition. The price? $10,000 (about $300 Canadian). But THEN they looked at my scooter and told me they’d take off $2500 for the trade in since it’s still in pretty good condition, which brought the price down to $7500, only $1500 ($50 dollars) more than I paid for my current scooter! What’s more, I could get it the next day! I felt at peace and you know what, my scooter didn’t make any strange noises the whole way home. I guess it was meant to be.

Update: The story doesn't end there! One of the reasons I was hesitating on buying the scooter was because I wasn't sure I could afford it, but some friends graciously offered to lend me some money to pay for the bike, and I could pay them back at my own pace later. When I found out the lower price on Tuesday, I decided to take them up on the offer and borrowed part of the money from them to get my scooter. What I didn't know until later was that the couple had decided separately to gift me the money, but didn't have a chance to talk about it until after I'd been there. So I was surprised by a text message later that day telling me! What a blessing! So many things working together for good!

7 Years! (#14)

2011-10-18T01:15:00.000+08:00

Our first week in Yuli

October 16, 2004 I arrived in Taiwan with no idea what I'd be getting into. I was originally only planning to be here for one year... but 7 years later I can say that I truly enjoy my life here. It still feels a little surreal that it's really been 7 years. They do all kind of blend together after awhile, there was the year in Yuli, the year I broke my leg, the year I started commuting to Taipei, and so much in between. A song that I've been listening to a lot lately is Never Once by Matt Redman, and part of the lyrics say:

Scars and struggles on the way//but with joy our hearts can say// Yes our hearts can say// never once, did we ever walk alone// never once, did you leave us on our own// you are faithful//God you are faithful

I've had plenty of struggles along the way, and one long scar down my left ankle, but it's true God has been so faithful in big and little things, and it is true, never once in these 7 years have I ever walked alone.

If you're still reading, I want to end this post with an excerpt of my first impressions of Taiwan, how things have changed!!

Arrival: I arrived at the airport at around 3:30 local time, which was about 12:30 am back home! I was met by a taxi driver with a sign that had my name and we drove through the city. My first impressions were that there weren't as many palm trees as I thought, and that the traffic wasn't as bad as it was in Brazil! Not to say it isn't scary to cross the street! The walk lights have this little green running man who runs faster when the light is going to change. It's really cute actually.

Danshui: We took the subway down to the waterfront, close to where the river meets the ocean, and walked around for a few hours, we saw both historical buildings and really busy marketplaces, where i discovered that you can buy almost anything on a stick, from chocolate covered bananas to squid! Neither of which I tried today... maybe i'm not that adventurous quite yet!

Shilin Night Market: This evening, we went to the night market, which is one of those things one must do in Taipei! It’s basically a lot of narrow streets lined with shops and filled with throngs of people. It’s almost reminiscent of a mosh pit, an impression which is aided by the music coming out of the stores! It is really hard to get used to being that close to that many people, or even seeing that many people in one place at once!

Learning Chinese: We have been learning a phonetic chart (lovingly called bo-po-mo-fo) which is definitely reminiscent of learning the IPA in linguistics, well except that there are sounds you have never actually made before with your mouth!! Today we learned greetings for all times of the day, food, clothes, key questions, colours, and self-introductions. I'm not sure how much of it I'll retain, but I guess we'll see! My Chinese name is Oh Tsai Lin which sort of sounds like my name (last name first here) and means "vibrant."

Sun Moon Lake (#13)

2011-10-15T17:11:00.000+08:00

Fun facts about Sun Moon Lake

it is in Nantou county in the center of Taiwan
it took us about 2 hours to get into the water after we registered
there were over 20,000 participants in the swim
I got kicked a lot
we had a group of 13
we were interviewed just before getting in the water and were spotted on tv by friends
we swam 3.3km
it took me 2.5 hours
I got a certificate, towel, and polo shirt for completing the swim
they had rest stations every 100 meters where you could get water, chocolate, rice and other things for free
we were required to wear the orange swim caps we were issued and bring a flotation device into the water
the two oddest things I saw people bring into the water with them were a basketball and an umbrella
maybe I should have brought an umbrella too, because I did get sunburned, and had a nice swim cap line across my forehead
it was a great time... will I do it again? maybe in another 10 years...

Before

at the starting line

the finish line

after woohoo!


soooo many people

Update (#12)

2011-10-02T18:18:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I kind of fell off the 30 before 30 wagon, but I still have almost 7 months!!
There are a number of things I was going to post about or wanted to post about... but it just didn't happen.
I achieved two of my 30 before 30 goals, going to Hollywood (see pics here), and swimming across Sun Moon Lake which really does deserve a post of its own.
I also had a very eventful trip home, which included a trip to Banff with my sweet nephew, my grandparents' 50th anniversary, and my great grandmother's funeral (she also has a tribute post all written in my head)
One of the reasons I haven't been posting is that I've been having issues with Chrome, which is the browser I normally use, not working, causing me to lose a couple of entries :S
But I just set up email posting, so if I can get that figured out, maybe you'll suddenly see a lot more posts!

This semester, I got a huge surprise when I found out I wouldn't be continuing my weekly commute to Taipei. Instead, I'm teaching twice a week at an elementary school, going to Hualian once a month, and teaching on the radio! This last one is really exciting for me, since I'm cohosting a bilingual program. It's taking my Chinese to a whole new level... this is very different from a speech contest!! But honestly, I'm just so thankful. God has continually given me opportunities to learn, often under the ideal circumstances, like the year I spent in Yuli. I believe that without the ability and motivation from him, I would definitely not be where I am today in my language. Doing an MA level course on second language acquisition last semester really impressed on me how difficult it is for adult learners to master a language, and while I wouldn't say I've mastered Chinese, (and will probably always struggle with characters in particular), I'm so thankful that I've been able to get to this point. With that said... you can listen to me here. At 8:00pm or 5:00am Taiwan time (add 15 hours for Pacific time). It is a lot in Chinese, just to warn you all.... but hey I make my debut tomorrow: topic Yilan!

Wordle (#11)

2011-07-21T04:26:00.002+08:00

I'm here in class this week, and my brain is going into overload, filled with words like rheme, prosody, and discourse semantics. But speaking of fun words, our prof (who was teaching at Briercrest last semester - small world!) shared this website as a teaching tool or just for fun at www.wordle.net
Here's a sample of what I got by inputting text from this blog, enjoy!

Back to North America (#10)

2011-07-16T04:12:00.003+08:00

I'm already 1/3 of the way through my 30 before 30 goal, that's good news!
I have a few more ideas coming up too, one of which is that this coming October will mark 7 years in Taiwan! But for now, let me share a little about my trip back to the cold west!
33-19 degrees - yes, it's a lot cooler here, which means all the pictures of me will be wearing the same hoodie since I only brought one!
24 hours of travel - including a very long trip to the airport. I booked a shuttle van to pick me up at home, and they arrived at 11:30am, to get me to the airport for 4:20pm??? I was thinking I'd get there quite early and could have lunch there, mail something etc. little did I know that after picking me up in Yilan, they'd go south (away from the airport) to Luodong, Nan-fang Ao, and then Su-Ao for other pickups! We didn't even leave Yilan until quarter to 1!! Then we hit torrential rain just past Taipei, so my ride was a little delayed. I flew to Hong Kong without incident - LOVE Cathay! It might just be my favorite airline. But when I got to Hong Kong I found out my transfer gate was WAY at the other end of the terminal, it was a bit of a walk, which was ok since I'd be sitting for so long, but the frustrating thing was that the WHOLE way down they had double sets of people movers (moving walkways) BOTH going the opposite way I was walking! But I made it to the gate just in time for boarding our very full plane, in which I was sitting in the middle seat, yes, for an 11 hour flight, fun times right? Oh wait, make that 13 hours because there was a malfunction with the airplane RESTROOM of all things which they had to call a mechanic to come fix, so we sat on the runway for another two hours! Actually it was a pretty good flight, and the seats were more spacious than I was expecting, with a new update since last time I flew - USB ipod chargers in the seatbacks! Travel is getting more convenient all the time. One of the guys I sat next to was really friendly, and told me he flies between China and Canada a few times a year for business. I was thinking I couldn't do this all the time!!!
When I got to Canada, I discovered yet another new thing in the airport - Canadian citizens can go through an electronic customs process that takes all of 3 minutes, it was awesome!! Today I've been booking my shuttle for LA and purchasing my textbooks. Off to school I go!

Kids! (#9)

2011-07-12T11:24:00.008+08:00

Last week I helped out at a kids camp for my church. We were out in the country at this little school, and the kids were sooo cute! Actually they reminded me a lot of the kids in Yuli, a lot of them were aboriginals. For me it was fun, but kind of a challenge. The worst thing about the camp was that there were these venomous monster mosquitoes out there, that left itching red welts on my legs, if I ever go back there, I'll definitely wear long pants, 33 degrees and no air conditioner regardless. Anyways, I was teaching the youngest age group, which is quite different from the high school and adult students I'm used to. They take a lot more energy, that's for sure!

Some ways teaching 7-year-olds is different from teaching adults:

You have to accompany your students to the bathroom
You have to worry about students putting their food into the hair of the person next to them
You use the word "xiao peng you" ('little friends') a lot
Your tone of voice alternates between sweet and authoritative, "Ok, come here everyone, I'm going to tell you a story, would you like to hear a story? Jim, get your hands out of the fish tank, NOW! Ok Ruby honey, you can sit next to me, but you need to give Jacki a turn next. Jim, I'm not going to tell you again!"
Your students take off, stand on their desks, and put your teaching materials in their mouth

I'm guessing this will sound very familar to my friends with kids... fortunately, I got to give them back to their parents at the end of the day! Oh but they were adorable. They loved learning, dancing, singing, and were generally pretty cooperative. There were a couple of super-hyperactive kids too, so all in all it was fun but challenging. But I was amazed at how much we were able to teach them in just a week. They mastered a lot of songs with actions, and even an English bible verse.

One thing I was reminded of is that kids have no internal censor yet. They say whatever is on their minds, whether it's telling on someone, announcing they have to pee, or sharing in great detail what they did the night before. It was refreshing to have such honesty, but a good reminder too that we are called to be wise in our words. We are supposed to have "faith like a child" yet, we are called to "grow up" in our salvation. It brought to mind Hebrews 5:11-13:

¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

Inspired by Nick (#8)

2011-07-04T17:48:00.002+08:00

"If you put your happiness in temporary things, your happiness will be temporary."

Last Saturday, we took about 30 students from Yilan to see Nick Vujicic give a talk. If you have never heard of this amazing man, take a few minutes to check out his website. Nick was born without arms and legs, and doctors could give his parents no reason why. He went through a very challenging childhood and at one point, even thought about drowning himself in the bathtub. But God turned his life around and gave him a purpose. Today, he is a motivational speaker who travels around the world sharing his message of hope, speaking against bullying, and encouraging people to "Never Give Up." Words can't describe how inspiring it was to see him here in Taiwan, and have him share with a sold out auditorium. He talked about the story of the blind man in John 9, who was born blind, not because of his sin or his parent's sin, but to give glory to God. Nick told us emphatically, that he would rather have the opportunities he's had to share with thousands all over the world than have 90 years with arms and legs. Are you missing out on greatness because you are focused on your limitations and obstacles?

Mango (#7)

2011-06-21T23:11:00.004+08:00

A few weeks ago I bought a whole box of amazing Taiwan mangoes. They are one of my favorite fruits here, especially for my morning smoothies! Today I put some in my fresh salsa (as a friend had suggested), and it was deee-licious! It's one of the easiest things in the world to make as long as you're up from some chopping. Incidentally, planning meals is one of my 30 before 30. I try to buy good fresh ingredients at the beginning of the week that I can hopefully use in a variety of ways. It is a challenge because it is so fast, cheap, and easy to eat out here, especially when you're cooking for one. But if anyone wants to try it out, here is how I made it today:

1 medium mango
1 medium red onion (you can use regular onion)
3 cloves of garlic
3 bunches of fresh cilantro
3-4 large ripe tomaotoes
Lime juice (or lemon)
Chop it all and put it in the fridge.
After about an hour the flavors will mingle together quite nicely, and it'seven better the next day! The proportions depend on your taste, so feel free to add more or less of what you want. Actually maybe I would add even more mango next time! When I've made it before without mango, I also sprinkle some cumin powder on it. Easy, right?

All grown up! (#6)

2011-06-07T22:06:00.000+08:00

My Taiwanese "little sister" Annie is graduating from elementary school this year! I took the train to Hualian to see her graduation recital on Saturday, where she played the flute and piano. I've known their family almost as long as I've been in Taiwan. My first year in Yuli, Hope and I went to their house for a weekly dinner. I also spent my first Chinese New Year with their family traveling around Taiwan. She was only 5 years old!! Sometimes it really starts to sink in that I've really been here for a long time, and I'm so thankful to have good friends like this family, who have really taken me in and made me feel like I'm not an outsider. I took a short video of her playing, I am so proud! She said she'd give me a few tips if I bring my flute back from Canada this summer...it might take a little more than a few pointers to make up for over 10 years of not playing though!!

Happy Dragon Boat Festival! (#5)

2011-06-06T22:00:00.005+08:00

I went to Hualian for the weekend to visit my favorite family and see their daughter's graduation recital (see upcoming post), and part of the fun was making rice dumplings, or zhongzi with some of their friends. These are one of the many foods that I didn't really like at first, but have now really grown on me, especially if they're homemade and filled with yummy stuff! There are actually a lot of steps to take in order to make them, and a lot of different ways to do it as well.

1. Soak the bamboo leaves and cook the rice

2. Cook the meat

3. Stir fry the mushrooms, dried shrimp etc

3. Fry the rice with peanuts

Then comes the part I was involved with: assembly!
4. Take 2 bamboo leaves and fold them

5. Put some rice in the bottom

6. Add the filling

7. Cover with more rice

8. Shape and finish wrapping

9. Tie up with string

The wrapping part is the most difficult, and I admittedly, needed quite a bit of help, but it was fun, and then we got to the best part

10. Steam the dumplings

11. Enjoy!

They are quite filling, but I managed to eat two. I have another 5 left for the freezer!!

After that I went to watch a few dragon boat races with my friend Libeck, I didn't take any pictures there, but it was fun.... also HOT. According to Chinese wisdom (tradition?) Dragon Boat Festival marks the true beginning of summer, and this year, that may be the case, since we have had a wonderfully mild spring...let the sweating begin!

beautiful things (#4)

2011-05-24T23:29:00.003+08:00

Here is a song (click if embedded video doesn't work) that I love by a band called Gungor that I've recently started listening to. It's a great band and a great song!
In talking about "beautiful things" or maybe colorful things, I went to the hairdresser today to get highlights. It's always a bit of an adventure to see what I'll come out with, with the communication gap and all, but this is one of the craziest outcomes yet. I decided to get blond and dark red highlights...but after the final rinse, the blond highlights turned bright pink! It's definitely a dramatic change...but I'm told it will fade after a few washes. Here's the result from today.....

driving in Taiwan (#3)

2011-05-15T16:21:00.005+08:00

Maybe this post should be entitled "You know you've become a Taiwanese driver when..."

I made a couple of observations last night about my driving that may interest or alarm you. Scooters are the vehicle of choice in Taiwan, and as you know, I have my little 125cc "old faithful" that gets me around Yilan. I remember thinking my first year in Taiwan that the main goal when driving here seems to avoid using your breaks if at all possible, which sometimes involves coasting to a stop, or more often, running red lights.

There are two main inconveniences when driving a scooter. The first is parking. You know those square puzzles with only one piece missing where you have to shuffle all the pieces around without removing them until you get the correct picture? Yeah, I've always hated those, but that's what parking my scooter reminds me of. Sometimes it takes quite a lot of maneuvering before you can get your scooter into a very small space, and other times, what looked like ample space when you parked has now become a maze. It requires a lot of lifting up back ends, turning wheels, and general difficulty, especially when it's raining, and all the scooters are vying for that one spot with a little shelter, which brings me to the second downside - inclement weather.

Last night it was pouring rain, but I wanted to go visit my friends, so I got my rain gear and flip flops on and rode the 15 minutes across Yilan. I've discovered that the best way to drive in the rain is to wear your long rain jacket backwards like the locals do with two buttons done up on the top which gives your legs more protection than wearing it the "correct" way. Unfortunately, no matter what you do, as soon as you have to stop, that rainwater all goes running down your legs when you put them down for balance. If you know the roads well enough, you might even be able to make it across town without having to stop once. It's been a skill long in the making, and the realization last night that I had managed to do just that, made me quite proud of myself. Yep. I have arrived at a new level of Taiwanese. In case you were wondering, my 67-year-old grandmother did ride on the back of my scooter multiple times without incident, and she loved it.

Easter Lilies (#2)

2011-05-09T09:29:00.006+08:00

Spring in Taiwan is really nice, and I'm glad it is finally here. This past winter was one of the coldest I've had here, and it seemed to last a long time. My grandma was here visiting at the end of March/beginning of April and she didn't get to wear most of the summery clothes she brought!

But anyways, spring is here, and on Easter, I went out and bought some lilies to make my house a little brighter. 3 weeks on, and there is still one that hasn't dropped its petals yet, ah perseverance. It reminds me to keep working on my papers (the next of which is due on Saturday). There are also some beautiful white lilies at my church right now, and my pastor cut two for me to take home last week. I love the dramatic flowers like lilies and orchids. And since I was too busy to blog about it at the time, here is a picture of me and my grandma at an orchid farm here in Yilan! We had a great time when she was here, and hopefully I can share a few more of the highlights as they come up.

30 before 30...

2011-04-27T15:10:00.003+08:00

It's my birthday!! Here is my best present so far, a picture of my new nephew, Derek!! In honor of embarking on my last year before age 30, I've decided that I'm going to try to write 30 posts in the next year, rather than what as been the norm of 1 a month!

Here are two verses I read this morning:

Psalm 16:5-8 Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine.

The land you have given me is a pleasant land.

What a wonderful inheritance!

I will bless the Lord who guides me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

I know the Lord is always with me.

I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

Psalm 29:11 The Lord gives his people strength.

The Lord blesses them with peace.

And here's one more picture just because he's SOOOO cute, only 3 months and a few days until I can hold him!!

Derek Levi, Born April 5!

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb

2011-03-08T23:27:00.002+08:00

I have been teaching my students this proverb this week because March has really gotten off to a nasty start this year. We had a wonderful long weekend the last weekend in February, and the temperature got up to 30! But this week, it's chilly again..... now I know my friends in Canada will be scoffing at me for this blog post, and I must admit, I haven't seen snow or been in below freezing temperatures since...2007! BUT this week riding on my scooter has reminded me of what WIND CHILL means..... brings me back to my Saskatchewan days...it's not -40, but hey my body has adjusted to a tropical climate now, cut me some slack!

If you haven't heard this song yet, to listen to it, it's one of my favorites right now, and fits well with the title of this post!

Lantern Festival

2011-03-05T17:43:00.003+08:00

For the first time this year, I went to Pingxi, a place near Taipei where the annual sky lantern festival is held. In past year's I've gone to see lantern festivals where the lanterns were in creative and sometimes quirky shapes.

These lanterns were much more traditional. The government gave out free lanterns to the first 2000 or so people who arrived, and then they released them throughout the night.

It's an amazing sight to see! Usually people write their wishes and hopes or blessings on the lantern and send it as an offering to the gods. I think it's a beautiful symbol of how our prayers rise up to God.

story

2011-02-22T15:11:00.002+08:00

so, in hopes of trying to revive my blog (once again, haha) but i have received a few comments from people who missed my random updates, which i appreciate, so here's a story one of my high school students told me today.

We were talking about pets, and I asked her if she had a dog.

She said, "We're not allowed to because when my grandpa was young he had a little white dog that he loved. One day he was going to take it for a walk but he couldn't find it anywhere. One of the neighbors had eaten it. So he won't let us get a dog. I think it's because he's still sad about that dog."

true story.

from Thai to Tai

2011-02-10T21:05:00.003+08:00

I returned to a slightly chillier and wetter Taiwan last night, loving Thailand but happy to be home!

In my 21 days in Thailand, here is a countdown of some of the highlights:

14 awesome cohort members - it was great to reunite and compare notes after 6 months away. We learn a lot from each other and have a lot of fun doing it!

13 fruit smoothies - the place across the way made delicious ones for about a dollar! My favorites were mango, banana, and strawberry!
12 plates of pad thai - well I wasn't counting, but I did enjoy my fair share of this awesome noodle dish.
11 red truck rides - the best way to get around the city, if they'll take you! The YMCA where we stayed was a bit out of the way, but we could usually negotiate the price.

10 bowls of mango sticky rice - I hadn't had it before, but it soon became my breakfast staple during class time. Picture this: fresh mango and sweet sticky rice with coconut cream poured over it....mmmmmmm
9 visits to the swimming pool - all of the hotels I stayed in had them!
8 thai massages - need to read 2 chapters? why not do it while getting a foot massage!!
7 shopping trips - Chiang mai has shopping malls, a night bazaar, and a Sunday market!
6 necklaces - varying colors and styles
5 phrases I learned - hello, thank you, delicious, goodnight, and beautiful
4 hours of reading per day, especially the first week when we had two textbooks plus journal articles!

3 baby tigers, OH so cute! I even got to hold one!
2 awesome flip flops (ok one pair, but I needed to get creative) from my sister that I wore almost every day!
1 thai cooking class - where I learned to make 6 different dishes!

For more pictures see here.

Happy New Year!

2011-02-03T18:36:00.003+08:00

It's the year of the Rabbit! I have now spent the years of the Rooster, Dog, Pig, Rat, Ox, and Tiger in Taiwan! Those are a lot of animals! Hopefully if I'm still there after 12 years, I'll know the right order! Here in Chiang Mai, we've heard a few fireworks going off and there is Chinese food for sale at the mall. But otherwise, it's passing without much notice.

I've been busy learning words like etiology, autochthonous, Dravidian, and endogamy. Now, I'm off to study for the QUIZ I have tomorrow :S

Same-Same?

2011-01-27T22:54:00.002+08:00

Inevitable comparisons arise for me, between these two lands that are often confused by others (on the bright side, I can now answer the question "how's Thailand?"). But what is Thailand like compared to Taiwan? As they like to say here, is it same-same? Or is it different?

Money - the exchange rate is almost 1:1 here making it really nice for me.
BUT in general, things are a little cheaper here than in Taiwan. For example, a plate of noodles is 25 or 30 (a dollar) where it might be 50 or 60 in Taiwan. Stuff in the markets is pretty cheap too, like silk scarves 2 for 100 (about 3 dollars). Taking orders now...

Food - I love Thai food! I've had pad thai 4 times in 6 days. Their food is often spicy, but with a little sweet and sour mixed in. One of the tastiest things here is the mango sticky rice, which has coconut milk poured over it. BUT I do have to say that Taiwan mangoes are better.

Transportation - People drive on the "wrong" (left) side of the road here, which has caused me to go to the wrong side of a taxi and look the wrong way before crossing the street. One nice thing that one of my cohort-members pointed out is they don't honk their horns here (like they do all the time in Taiwan).

People - People here are very friendly and sweet. My friend and I met a guy in Bangkok who drove us somewhere when we were lost, and even gave us silver bracelets that he had in his car for just such an occasion.

Classes - this isn't a difference between Thailand and Taiwan, but getting your MA is very different from getting your BA. First of all, the readings are much more difficult! I've been reading every day, and my brain is starting to hurt...this could also be an indication of my old age, but I've been going to bed around 10.... I remember the good old days when I could stay up til 2am, get up at 7, and be no worse for wear. I like my profs here, and have a Canadian one this week, a lot of the research cited is from Canada too, much to my enjoyment and my American classmates' puzzlement. But Shantelle is still the best prof I ever had. I wish she could see me now!

I had more floating in my head earlier, but it is after 10 now, so my brain is shutting off....

Thailand

2011-01-24T23:13:00.001+08:00

Here I am in Chiang Mai, which is in northern Thailand. Before coming here, everyone said to me, "Oh, you'll LOVE Chiang Mai!" and it's a nice place, full of delicious food, friendly people, and places such as "Golden Finger Massage" and "Washy Mashy Laundry"
It's quite touristy here, and very international, but it's always nice to see greater diversity. It's also been fun to see my cohort again (by the way, I love that word) after a semester in our respective countries. We are all enjoying a break from winter, though those from more northern countries even more so.
I've been finding some time for fun among my studies, and managed to get a pedicure and two massages so far (all good textbook reading activities). I'm thinking of taking a Thai cooking class on my last weekend here.
There are inevitable comparisons between here and Taiwan, one big one is that shops close MUCH earlier here. Taiwan is really the country that never sleeps. Most places are open til at least 10, if not 11, and there are a few 24 hour or late night places. I went to Starbucks here for a change of scenery to finish my homework, and found they were closing at 9, as did the mall, KFC and most other places.... so here I am in the lobby of the YMCA where I'm staying. It sure is nice to be warm again after 10 degree weather (remember: that's both inside and out).

One of my classmates came to visit me in Taiwan before we came here, and we had a lot of fun. We only had two sunny days, but still managed to go quite a few places. The internet here is really slow, otherwise I'd upload some pictures. Well, off to bed, I have an early morning again tomorrow!

Goodbye 2010

2011-01-02T22:53:00.001+08:00

What a year it was...it kind of seems like a blur now.

Jan: It all started with getting accepted into an MA program and scrambling to register for the first course (which I managed to do, only a few weeks late).

Feb: Jeanine visited me from Korea during Chinese New Year!

March: Watching the final Olympic hockey game at an insane hour of the day

April: brought a delegation to Yilan for my birthday

May: did a 3km swim in the ocean. 10 years since high school graduation.

June: yea I have no idea what I did in June, must have been stunned by the aftermath of the final season of LOST, but I do remember saying goodbye to Hope after a fun year of her being in Taipei.

July: first Canada Day in Canada in 6 years, began my master's classes in LA, discovered Target...July was an exciting month!

August: Kenting trip and said goodbye to a wonderful roommate, Ashley

Sept: Started the crazy schedule of work and school, plus found out I'd be teaching in Hualian this semester too

Oct: big typhoon and flood in Yilan, oh and I got an iPhone!

Nov: homework, homework, homework, and found out I'm going to be an aunt!

Dec: the usual Christmas and New Years fun

I usually ask my students to discuss what they think were the top 10 news stories of the year, and here are a few:

The good:

The Chilean miners rescue

The World Cup

The bad:

The Haiti earthquake

The Pakistan floods

and the Ugly:

The BP oil spill

Wikileaks?

2011 has some great things in store so far:

January: visit from a classmate and trip to Thailand

Feb: Carol is having a baby

March: my grandma is coming to visit

April: Sarah is having her baby, my 29th birthday

May: take a nap....

Starbucks

2010-12-16T15:30:00.003+08:00

Here I am at Starbucks again, which probably sounds wonderful to you, but I have to tell you, I've been logging a LOT of hours at local Starbucks and other coffee shops this semester. I just handed in my last assignment for one of my two courses, and boy does it feel good. I still have 3 assignments for the other class, which are due at the end of the month. So yes, my blog posts have been few and far between, but I am getting pretty good grades ;)
I have a 2010 reflection post in the works, but for now, a little on teaching with passion (from a book discussion in one of my classes)

I love the term “dynamism” on page 136. I agree that a passion for teaching is important. The writers note that this means not only an enthusiasm for their subject, but also a love of teaching itself. It’s true that “If you are not excited about teaching, then why should students be excited about learning?” (136) I find if I’m getting bored while teaching, then my students must be bored, and if they’re bored, they may not be learning. Some of the marks for a successful lesson for me are when the students are actually having fun, to the point where they forget they’re speaking English. I love it when I start to wrap up the class and students say, “It’s over already?” Of course that doesn’t mean that we can play games with our students 24/7, as much as they may enjoy that. But I think the suggestions given on page 137 are helpful: use a variety of strategies in class, change the pace of activities throughout a class session, and be flexible and willing to find out about what excited your students and use it in your teaching. I think a passion for teaching can encompass many of the other qualities of excellent teachers discussed in this chapter.

Christmas is coming!

2010-12-07T23:18:00.003+08:00

I decorated my Christmas tree tonight! Click the link to see pictures. I like getting into the Christmas season with friends and students. Most people here don't put up their own tree, though that is changing, and there are Christmas decorations all around the city now. And Starbucks has my favorite drink back: the toffee nut latte! It's still been quite warm out until today, when it finally dropped to 10 degrees. Now it really feels like winter! My updates have been quite scarce I know, but I did write in my Chinese blog last month. I've also been to two weddings this month, which was interesting. One was a Christian/international wedding and the other was a very traditional Taiwanese wedding. Weddings banquets are an extended affair with a 10 or more course meal. Sometimes there are interesting/exotic things like sea cucumber, intestines and the like. There's usually a lot of meat and seafood. And at the international wedding I went to, foreign guests were even served chicken nuggets and french fries! The second wedding, I attended the family engagement ceremony, which was kind of like a tea ceremony. The bride-to-be served tea to her future husband and in-laws, and they placed red envelopes with money into the empty cups when they were finished drinking them. It was really interesting!

Typhoon Megi

2010-10-25T02:38:00.010+08:00

I don’t even remember what day it started raining. I do know that it came down steadily, impossibly. Every time I looked outside, it was still pounding the same rhythm. The news reports came in, Typhoon Megi was devastating the Philippines, but would probably miss us and head on to China. We’d just get more rain. And more rain. And more rain. I kept looking for a break in the downpour, but it never came. Usually I leave Yilan for the (sometimes) dryer streets of Taipei on Wednesday nights, but not this week. This week I was scheduled to teach in Hualian on Friday. That meant working from home on Thursday.

I ran out for groceries in the morning, bypassing the underpass near my back entrance, as it was starting to fill with water. My friends had offered to pick me up in their car at 12:30, still pouring. I noticed a car stuck in the underpass, lights flashing. Too much water. We heard rumors of a typhoon holiday and school cancellations, but weren’t sure. At three when they were driving me home, we passed by my old apartment, and noticed water pooling in the intersection. Passed by the empty school, and headed down main street (zhong shan road), we started to realize that the weather was more serious than we’d imagined. Shop owners were sweeping water out of their stores. Water was splashing up to our windows. Scooters were stalling in intersections as their engines filled with water. It took at least twice as long to get home.

Looking out my back window, I noticed the small creek behind my house had tripled in size. The rice fields further back were turning into a large lake, their divisions indistinguishable. The unlucky car was being towed from the underpass, where the water was more than halfway up in just two hours. I turned on the news. There was the road next to the school I had taught at the day before, cordoned off because it was too flooded to drive on. The reports kept coming in, landslides on the highway, kids stranded in a kindergarten, trains stopped, water one story high in Su-Ao. I couldn’t believe it, Yilan is the second rainiest city inTaiwan. On the East cost, we tend to weather typhoons pretty well too. But something had reached the breaking point.

I went to bed wondering if the trains would be running again the next day. They started about 7:30am; an hour later, I was on my way to Hualian. We slowed to a crawl through Su-Ao, where the tracks still had water on them, and the area next to them was submerged. I was a little shocked to find that Hualian was dry!

I called Christine and Ivan and found out that their kitchen had been flooded, but their electronics and books on the first floor were spared. I heard that they were organizing some relief efforts among the churches. Saturday night, I returned to Yilan, and things had dried out significantly in the downtown areas.

At church on Sunday, an elder announced that in lieu of the scheduled “Outreach and ministries planning meeting”, he wanted to go and help.

Unsure of how much of a help I’d be, I decided to go along anyway. We passed trucks filled with muddy and destroyed furniture and other debris headed to a growing dump site. We got into different cars and drove to a church near the hardest-hit area. They were passing out gloves and bottled water to volunteers, as well as fitting people with rubber boots. Ivan told us that we’d have to park downtown and walk in, and that we were needed to help sweep muddy water out of houses, wash or remove furniture, and to encourage the people who’d already spent the last 2-3 days cleaning out their homes.

It’s hard to describe the scene that met us when we got to Nan-Fang-Ao. The streets were filled with people in different garb – the military in fatigues, the TzuChi Buddhist foundation in navy blue regiments, us in our yellow vests with “Jesus loves you” emblazoned across the back, and all manner of others come out to help. It was truly amazing. We headed down increasingly smaller alleys, not really sure where to start or how to help. I offered a “xing ku le 幸苦了” (maybe translated as “I see your pain”) to people who looked up from their work. We saw a lady trying to clear a path through the mud in front of her house and grabbed brooms to help. On the street behind us, the mud was piled up about a foot and a half, with soldiers shoveling it into trucks to haul it away.

Teresa got a call from a former classmate of hers who runs a small private school in downtown Su-Ao, and we headed over there to help. They were in the heart of it, and every store on the block was shoveling, washing, and discarding ruined goods. I saw a gutted 7-11 on the corner, along with pharmacies, tea shops and a restaurant. The school owner told us that they’d lost four computers and a DVD player. The muddied and ruined photocopier was the only thing left in the room, waiting for the next garbage truck to pass by. They’d been cleaning non-stop and were almost finished. They didn’t have anything for us to help with, but were eager to share their stories. We prayed with them. We only had about a half an hour left before we were supposed to report back to the volunteer center. We found a restaurant and helped them wash shelves, bowls, stools and tables. There was mud caked under every level of the shelving. I finally started to feel like I was helping.

Pastor Wang said that we were there also just to sympathize with them, to feel for them, to

better understand their loss. I agree. Taiwan has its share of natural disasters, including Typhoon Morakot (8/8/2009), but this time it really felt real to me, it happened right in my backyard. The images I saw weren’t just on the news. And the people I met lost a lot, some everything. They were grateful for the blessings poured out on them, no matter the source, and were overwhelmed by the aid coming from their fellow countrymen. I’m not sure how much more I’m able to do, except to ask you all to pray for my dear Yilan-ren as well. 宜蘭加油!

playing catch-up

2010-10-05T12:37:00.006+08:00

Ok, so it's officially been 2 months since my last post. I don't know if I still have any readers, but I know it's time for me to make a new post!

I've been working hard on my schooling, which means a lot of hours in Starbucks (not so bad, right?), but also means I've been even busier than usual. I'm enjoying the coursework so far though. I'm already looking forward to going to Thailand in January. In fact, part of me wouldn't mind skipping the rest of this year and moving straight into 2011. Here are some exciting things happening:

2 visitors (possibly a classmate in January, and my grandma in March)

A trip to Thailand (thank you APU for scheduling the classes right before Chinese New Year, so I can stay there for some vacation time too!)

2 new babies in my family! (My aunt Carol in February, and my sister in April!!)

Here are a few things I've been doing besides schoolwork:

Teaching a Saturday kids camp, fun but exhausting... but the kids were sooo cute. See here for more pics:

Getting my hair done, some highlights and low lights, and medium length bangs, nothing too drastic, but I like it.

Teaching English bible study. We have about 25 students this semester, and a lot of them are new! We're looking forward to a Thanksgiving celebration soon!

Finally, since I'm playing catchup, here are two pics i took with my cell phone last summer while I was in the states. One is a sign in a restaurant explaining what "boba" is, part of the ever popular pearl milk tea in Taiwan, btw MUCH more expensive states side.

The other is the front of a notebook one of my classmates bought in China. It speaks for itself.

worry and stress

2010-08-04T15:45:00.002+08:00

I just started reading this book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It's a great book, I'd recommend it!

Here's a quote:

Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

back to school..in the summer

2010-07-17T05:45:00.004+08:00

Well, it's time to resurrect a long-neglected blog! I'm here in Los Angeles right now and just finished my first week of Master's degree classes. I'll be doing another class next week, and will be back again each summer over the next two years. I'm back to my job in Taiwan on July 25 (and starting classes just 10 hours later on July 26....good thing i'm taking education courses, hopefully i can get some inspiration about what to teach my students while i'm all jet lagged...)

Anyways, here are a few fun pictures from my first week:

The dorm room, yes they are bunk beds, and yes, i felt old trying to climb on them:

A trip to the visiting Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit here on campus, great timing!

(My roommates: Morgan and Denise)

Our cohort: we'll be doing classes together for the next 2 and a half years! There are people who will be teaching in China, Korea, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan

We also had a potluck last night with our program director and department head. It was a lot of fun. So far, California is very sunny, and I haven't gotten mugged yet, so that's good, right? Haha

In other news, I LOVE being able to buy anything and have eaten Mexican food 4 times since Monday.

speeches, swimming, and a spiritual retreat

2010-05-19T23:36:00.003+08:00

May = Busy. It always has. I guess it's at that position in between holidays but close enough to summer that you start to realize how much you have to get done before the end of June. Anyways, May has been incredibly busy for me, especially with an extra, extremely time consuming project that came up at work involving proofreading/editing 80 stories and then working on the voice recording for some of them. It's been a challenge, but has been a good way to practice my Chinese, since the stories I'm editing have been translated from Chinese, and sometimes I need to go back and look at the original in order to figure out the intended meaning.

Speaking of learning Chinese, it is Chinese speech contest time again, but this year, I am NOT a participant. When I got the email in mid-April about the upcoming contest, I was torn. It's always nice to get some money if I win, but I have so many other things going on right now, including an online MA course. So I thought I'd give someone else a chance this year. Little did I know that one of those "someones" would be my friend from Yilan, Courtney. She's teaching there for the year and goes to my church. Well when I found out she was doing the speech contest, I was really excited, and went to cheer her on. I felt a little nostalgic as I listened to the speeches, and even a little regretful that I wasn't going to take the stage...but definitely not regretful of the hours of preparation and practice it would have taken! Anyways, Courtney made it to the final, which is this Saturday, so I'm going to go see her there. In the meantime, anyone reading this can go here to vote for her to win the people's choice award (determined by Internet Vote).

I'm too tired to write much about the other two "S's" from the title, so here's the short version. We had a staff retreat this past Monday and Tuesday, the highlight of which was hearing Jamie Taylor, the grandson of famous missionary Hudson Taylor speak. He gave both sermons in flawless Mandarin, having grown up in Taiwan. What an inspiration! Oh, the content was great too haha... I'll try to post a few notes from that if I remember.

And swimming.... this coming Sunday, I'm going on a 3km open water swim from Yilan toward Turtle Island, which can be seen off the coast. Hopefully there will be someone to tow me if I get too tired. Pictures to come after it's over!

interesting article about Chinglish

2010-05-05T11:15:00.003+08:00

From time to time I post pictures or signs of things like this that just got lost in translation. In the case "Earthnut slush" should have been peanut slushie or smoothie.

Knowing some Chinese, I can often see how the mistake came about. When Chinese-speaking countries host international events, a lot of time is usually put into cleaning up the English around the city.

According to this article (which also has a great slideshow), Shanghai tried to do just that because of the 2010 World Expo. By the way, the Shanghai expo looks SO cool! I was teaching students about it this week. If you have a chance, check out the 3D interactive website. You can visit the different pavilions and even enter some of them. The Canada one, though, not the coolest one of the lot. Some of my favorites are Iceland, Nepal, and Brazil. Taiwan's is pretty neat too.

Birthdays in Taiwan are fun!

2010-04-26T23:22:00.003+08:00

Here are my two favorite birthday cards! It's technically not even my birthday yet, but this week has been filled with birthday fun! On Saturday, some of my friends from Taipei came down to Yilan for an eventful day of Thai food, going to the beach, running for trains, hot springs, and the night market.

On Sunday I had dinner with my awesome friends from church and a special guest - my former Yilan coworker Tony came back from Taipei with his family to join us for dinner! Tonight at Bible study we also celebrated birthdays from Jan-June with a cake and some no-bake peanut butter marshmallow squares I made. As for the real day... well I have class for most of it, but it's ok, I'll bring some cake for my students and try to do things a little more laid back. In the evening I'm going to celebrate with my Chinese teacher and her family, who last year made a Blue's Clues treasure hunt for me! I love how birthdays in Taiwan seem to last a whole week!

Passover

2010-04-05T15:40:00.001+08:00

Last Tuesday was the second day of Passover, and Hope invited me to join in a celebration being held in Taipei. Since I've never experienced anything like it before, I thought it would be fun and interesting! I learned a lot. It has also really enriched my reflections during Passion week, especially reading about the Last Supper, where Jesus and his followers were actually eating a passover meal.

It was not a messianic service, but Hope did explain some of the symbols and how they relate. It started with a prayer meeting in a different room, and the rabbi sharing story after story. Then we proceeded down to the banquet room where each table was outfitted with the necessary things, including wine, matzah (unleavened biscuits), bitter herbs, and little books containing the liturgy and readings. The books were 126 pages long in Hebrew and English, and it seemed like we read every single page. Most of it was the rabbi reading at a rapid pace in Hebrew with us following along in English (in my case). Sometimes other people would read, or those that knew the songs would sing them. There were also times where we had to stop and all raise our wine glasses and drink.

The story of the Exodus was retold along with some other traditional stories, and readings from Psalms and other places. A lot of the food and symbolic actions are to remember the night of the passover, the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt, and the way God freed them. For example, the bitter herbs represent the bitterness of 400 years of slavery.

I think it is interesting that the Passover is so much about remembrance, and remembering what God has done, since Jesus also instructed his followers to do this "in remembrance of me". Freeing us from sin and death is an even greater miracle than when God freed the Israelites from Egypt.

Just when you think your Chinese is getting good...

2010-04-03T15:34:00.003+08:00

well I had my test, and it was really tough! It was an hour of listening and an hour of reading. I didn't get the results yet, but the listening section was ok. The reading, on the other hand, was horrible! I actually guessed at about half the questions, and even ran out of time... I think I can identify with my students a little better now who are taking various English proficiency tests. But anyways, the test was free, and who knows, I may have done better than I thought ;)

My Chinese was dealt another blow when I arrived back in Yilan last weekend. Something was different. The bus was turning down a strange street. It was a huge, newly-built bus terminal that I didn't know existed. Yes, the bus I take twice a week changed routes, and I had absolutely NO idea! You think there would have been signs... well there probably were, but I have no recollection of seeing anything to that effect. At that point it was actually faster to walk home than to walk to where I had parked my scooter in the relative safety of the church. From now on, I have to park in the big scooter parking lot, and then extract my scooter when I get home. I promptly invested in a big tire lock. I have had two bicycles stolen from a similar parking lot..... Anyways, I was just kind of shaking my head at how such a huge move could have occurred without my awareness!

Is my Chinese superior?

2010-03-23T00:12:00.002+08:00

I'm taking a Chinese proficiency test on Saturday, partly for fun and curiosity, partly to eventually fulfill the language requirement in my master's degree studies. I'm taking level 3 of 4 because I know I could pass level 2. The problem is that the gap between 2-3 is quite large, and I estimate that I'm right in the middle. For level 2 they suggest you know 1800 characters, and it jumps up to 5000 for level 3 (officially known as "Superior"). Thinking about this reminded me of how proud I was (documented above) to know 30 characters! Ah this language, it has been quite the journey. Now if they test words about education, the bible, or broken legs, I'll pass with flying colors...economics, on the other hand, not so much.

Easter is Coming!

2010-03-22T00:38:00.003+08:00

We have a long weekend on Easter this year, as it fittingly coincides with Tomb Sweeping Day. When I tell the Easter story, I usually say that when Jesus friends went to 掃墓 (sweep the tomb) they found that it was empty! This year, I'm not going to boil any eggs (whew) but have some interesting things planned. But for now, a great song that I heard in church today that really helps prepare the heart.

The chorus is my favorite part:

Living he loved me

Dying he saved me

Buried he carried

My sins far away

Rising he justified

Freely forever

One day he's coming

Oh glorious day

A little bit of patriotism

2010-03-08T09:02:00.004+08:00

When I visited Vancouver last summer, I could see that the Olympic spirit had already started to set in. In summer of 2008, I saw a lot of Chinese national pride in this section of the world, the Olympics were on TV a lot, and I happened to transit through Hong Kong during the summer where all airport employees were wearing Olympic T-shirts. I got my Olympic gear in a care package from my friend Shelly, and a coworker who went home for Chinese New Year brought back Quatchi plushies for all.

Unfortunately, Taiwan wasn't as interested in the winter Olympics. Even as late as December when I asked students where the next Olympics would be held, most of them were guessing London or Shanghai... it's understandable since Taiwan doesn't really get much snow, and winter sports are almost nonexistent here.

My Olympic updates came mostly via Facebook, with people counting down medals, cheering for hockey teams, and then silence when we lost the first Canada/U.S. hockey game. I could tell my compatriots were pretty bummed about it.

So when I heard about some friends planning to get up at 3:30am and go to a local pub where they would be broadcasting the gold medal match, I figured - why not! If it's the only Olympic event I get to see, well it will certainly be the one to watch.

So we did it, we got there at four am to find the place already packed! It seemed like some of the people just hadn't gone home from the night before... but fortunately, they served coffee and breakfast. Everywhere we looked, we saw Canadians in red and white, hockey jerseys, and even saw some flags. It seemed like every Canadian in Taipei turned out! There were Americans there too, but for some reason, they were all just dressed in their regular clothes. I guess the Olympics really does bring out a patriotic spirit.

As most of my readers should know by now, it was a great game. There was cheering and singing of the national anthem when we won. There were hugs and pictures, and a general feeling of euphoria. What a great day. (BTW I drank at least 5 cups of coffee that day to get me through four hours of class in the afternoon).

7 places to see in Taiwan when you only have 3 days

2010-02-22T22:18:00.007+08:00

I'm really glad I had time to bring Jeanine back to Yilan with me. She stayed in my guest room and got to try driving my scooter. We also did a whirlwind tour of some important Taipei sites with Hope along for company.

7. The Traditional Arts Center, we actually spent quite a while there and got lots of good pics, but here's a fun one. The little girl kind of just wandered into the shot, but it almost looks like she's supposed to be there.

6. Rice fields...ok maybe not a must-see, but you will undoubtedly see some!

5. The Grand Hotel

4. The National Palace Museum, we made it just in time for a 10 minute run through because they closed early for New Years' Eve, but got some good pics outside

3. Miramar, there weren't many people there so we waited for the clear-bottomed car, kind of cool, kind of overrated

2. Night Market, crowded, lots of food and cheap stuff to buy, i prefer to go at about 5pm on a Wednesday, but I guess it's kind of like a mosh pit without the good music.

1. Taipei 101

It had been awhile since I've been to the top of 101, since it's pricey to go up to the observation deck, but they have added some fun things since I was there last, including a projection onto the floor of Taipei city (pretty cool) and huge museum/gift shop you have to navigate through before you can exit (not so cool)

A Visitor!

2010-02-17T22:55:00.003+08:00

My friend Jeanine from college is teaching in Asia now, and decided to take advantage of the lunar new year holiday to hop over to Taiwan! She was my third visitor since I've been here. BTW I always welcome more! We had a great time and managed to squeeze a LOT into 3 days! But the trip started and ended with God's miraculous provision. On Friday night at about 11pm, Jeanine called me to say that there was a problem with her return ticket, and she might have to cancel the trip. We were both disappointed. She had been trying to call the airline, but couldn't find anyone who spoke English.

Finally she got her parents to call the office in Canada. Miracle #1 At about 1am (2am her time) she was confirmed on a Sunday afternoon flight, giving her about 30 hours in Taiwan. I went to pick her up at the airport the next morning, and we checked at the service desk. Miracle #2 There was a flight available for Monday afternoon, but the only seats open were in business class. She book it since she wouldn't have to pay the difference until check-in, and got put on a waiting list for a regular seat.

We spent Saturday in Taipei, and Hope met up with us. Then we headed to Yilan in the evening and stayed at my apartment. Spent a warm sunny Sunday (Miracle #3 maybe, as it has been pouring rain since she left) in Yilan, then went back to Taipei Monday morning for a bit more sightseeing before her afternoon flight. At the check-in she sorted everything out, and the clerk asked which seat she preferred. She joked to me that she preferred the business class seat at the economy price...well that was what she got! After a few phone calls, the girl said what most travelers dream of hearing: Today's you're lucky day, you got a free upgrade to first class! Well both of us burst out laughing. From an almost canceled trip to flying home in style - God is good!

baking

2010-02-07T12:35:00.005+08:00

My Taiwanese friends tend to be really impressed with my ability to make cakes and cookies. On the other hand, I'm always impressed by how they can make whipping together a multi-dish meal seem like nothing!

I had a lot of fun baking with my Bible study students, from age 10-50.

I taught them how to make cheese biscuits and chocolate chip cookies. Then we had a short worship and prayer time as we were waiting for the cookies to bake.

We talked about how God created each one of us, and just like a cook knows every ingredient he puts into a dish, God knows every part of us. As he's making us, sometimes the mixing and shaping process is painful, but in the future, we will become something beautiful.

This is the second time I've had such a large group of people over to my house, and thankfully this time didn't get in trouble with the neighbors! But I am again so thankful that I have a great apartment like this where I can host people.

There's a mom with two sons who come faithfully to class every week. A couple of times when we've had a potluck, they've brought their waffle maker and batter, and made fresh waffles for everyone. The boys are really sweet and sensitive. Their mom teaches them how to cook. They really liked baking, and even volunteered for dish duty. Someday, they'll have happy wives.

I wish the quality of the pictures were better, but hopefully you can get the idea. Here is our pastor and my co-worker getting their hands dirty!

P.S. I know my Christmas tree is still up. I might take it down this week after the second batch of students comes over to bake.... but then again, I'm having a visitor for Chinese New Year...maybe I should leave it up for her?

firsts...

2010-02-01T15:31:00.003+08:00

I don't have a lot of interesting things to blog about this week, but Chinese New Year is coming up! This year it falls on February 14th, Valentine's Day. Apparently that happens only once every 50 years. Next (lunar) year will be the year of the tiger.

Five years ago was my first Chinese New Year in Taiwan, and it included my first trip to a lot of places, including Taroko Gorge and the National Palace Museum, both of which I've now visited numerous times! It's kind of fun to look back and read my first

impressions of them. If you don't have time for that, here are a few pictures:

Look at the pretty sunflowers and the tank

2010-01-19T14:35:00.004+08:00

I decided to take advantage of the wonderful sunshine today at lunch time and took a walk by the river, which is less than 10 minutes from my house. Predictably, there weren’t many people out since Taiwanese people tend to avoid the sun. It’s such a beautiful green area with flower beds along the walking and bike trails. I once saw a woman posing her dog among the sunflowers for a portrait. But my favorite part of the river park is the bridge (I’ve always been partial to bridges), and especially the adult-sized swings underneath. I’ve always loved swings, and usually stop for a swing before I turn back to go home. Today I had company though. There was a group of about 6 business guys in their early 30s in suits, perhaps looking for a little levity, who had come down on their lunch break to swing on the swings. It was actually kind of amusing to watch them. I wonder if it’s a regular thing for them.

On the way back I saw one more very random thing. A large flatbed carrying a tank. A real-blowing-things-up-in-war-tank. And then another one. I know there’s a military training facility in Yilan, but I was weird to see them nonetheless. I only wish my cell phone camera took a little better quality pictures!

A quick look back...

2010-01-18T09:46:00.005+08:00

I think January is one of my favorite months. It's filled with hope at the beginning of a new year, and often includes some time off for winter vacation or Chinese New Year. If all goes according to plan, I'll be in Thailand next January completing my second study term for my master's degree!

I was thinking it would be fun to take a look at some of my January activities in the past 5(!) years.

Last year, 2009, I went to the Philippines for New Year's and celebrated Chinese New Year with the Chen family, and had lots of fun with my favorite girls.

2008 - the first speech contest I entered was in January!

2007 - I had surgery to get some pins out of my leg and my parents came!

2006 - I went home for the first time after being here in Taiwan for almost a year and a half.

2005 - Teaching new friends in Yuli how to bake cookies.

This is really fun because that's exactly what I'm planning to do this month! I'm having students from my bible study and girls from the high school over in the coming weeks for some baking classes!

Here's an excerpt from that blog entry dated January 16, 2005:

Around 4:00 I had a little baking class, which was pretty fun! It's Sherly's birthday tomorrow and so she asked if I would show her how to make cookies so she can bring some to work. I agreed and suddenly there were all kinds of people signing up! It was kinda crazy, but we had fun. Eva's daughter, her name is Anna I believe, was a big help, and actually did a lot of the work, because the other ladies kind of got tired of it after the first few trays. Anyways, at some point they got the idea to start making shapes and then words out of the dough, which actually baked better than I thought....

That was also the day we unwittingly went to a Mormon Thanksgiving celebration. Oh, the memories!

2010-01-12T09:11:00.003+08:00

I changed my blog template, hope you like it! New colors for a new year.

I'm still looking for a theme verse for 2010, which will go at the bottom of the picture.

I also still need some ideas for my 2010 archive section.

Here are some things I'm looking forward to:

Being done with all my grading!

Having students over to bake during winter vacation.

My friend Jeanine coming for a couple of days at the beginning of Chinese New Year.

Top 9 of 2009

2010-01-06T14:37:00.003+08:00

I've been doing this ranking activity with my students, asking them to discuss what the most important things that happened in 2009 were. There was an interesting mix of things in there, and here are some of the top ones:

H1N1, which I blogged about not too long ago.
American beef, apparently causing a strain on U.S. - Taiwan relations, in daily life, it means signs popping up in all the restaurants reassuring patrons that American beef is not served there
Michael Jackson's death, I remember hearing about it via Facebook before going to one of the summer camps I taught at.
Taiwan's former president being jailed...was that 2009 or 2008? or maybe he was jailed more than once...
Obama winning the Nobel Prize
The global warming summit in Copenhagen, although the movie 2012 was equally popular
Typhoon Morakot, Taiwan's biggest natural disaster in recent years, which occurred when I was home in Canada
Wang Chien Ming being fired from the Yankees, I guess he is no longer the "light of Taiwan"

And lat but not least... Sorry Sorry- a song by Korean boy band Super Junior that has everyone dancing, or at least doing hand motions:

As for me, 2009 was an extremely eventful year, but as readers of this blog, you already know that ;)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T23:37:00.002+08:00

It may sound a little strange, but I've always liked announcement time....whether at school, church, or work, whenever you hear someone say "we have a few announcements" I get a little excited.... whether they are good things that are happening, events to look forward to, or even bad news that must be shared, announcements have a sense of anticipation. Something's going to happen, something's going to change, something.....

Tonight I went to a beautiful candle light service and it made me think about the "announcement" that some angels made to certain poor shepherds... indeed it was an announcement that would change the world. Tonight I was struck anew by just how BIG Christmas is. It changed history. It was an event anticipated for thousands of years here on earth, planned before the creation of time, and never forgotten since.

So Merry Christmas all.

baptism

2009-12-20T22:00:00.002+08:00

This morning I went to a baptism at my church here in Yilan. One of the five people who were baptized has been a student at our English Bible study since last year. She's a really sweet woman with two daughters. They joined us on our trip to the botanical gardens last semester too.

Here are some interesting things about baptism in Taiwan:

Yesterday in Taichung there were over 700 people baptized in an outdoor swimming pool. It made the evening news. I'm not sure if it was because of the sheer number or because it's only about 13 degrees outside here now.
Taiwanese churches often do baptisms on Christmas or Easter, or very close to them.
My church back home baptized by immersion where you went backward into the water. Here many people kneel and are dipped forward so just the front half of their body gets wet.
And an interesting theological point: in Taiwan if you ask someone if they're a Christian, their answer is based on whether or not they've been baptized. There's a lot I could say about that, but I've probably blogged about this before.... comment if you want more deep theological discussion on this blog ;)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

2009-12-08T22:01:00.002+08:00

December is here, and it's high time for me to update my blog! This month will be busy and fun, with a lot of Christmas activities. I started it off the right way by putting up my Christmas tree and baking cookies. Since I actually have a LIVING ROOM now, I bought a larger tree, although I was too cheap to go any bigger.

I made three kinds of cookie dough and froze it for later. Tonight I took the sugar cookie dough to my friends' house and rolled it out and cut out shapes with the kids.

I was really happy with this recipe which added a little bit of spice to the dough. They rolled out really nicely after being chilled.

Christmas Spice Cookies

Ingredients:

Directions

Sift first 5 ingredients together. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in flour mixture with milk. Chill dough for 1 hour. Roll and cut **, bake at 350 for 11 minutes or until light brown.

**if you don't want to roll and cut the cookies into shapes, you can put the dough on parchment or wax paper and roll it into a log prior to refrigerating, then just slice and bake after it's chilled for an hour.

Frost and decorate with colored sugar, cinnamon pieces or any other Christmas decoration of your choosing.

finding out information in a roundabout way

2009-11-21T15:31:00.002+08:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I am applying to grad school. After I mailed my application, I emailed them to let them know, and I immediately got a reply back. Then I waited, and waited, and waited, checking my bank account often to see if the application fee had been withdrawn. Then, out of the blue, I get this email, asking me to set up an online account: I was a little shocked, but I set up the account, and then was able to find out that my application has been received (obviously) and is still pending. So....keep praying for me! If it goes through, I may be able to start an online course as early as January. And I would go to LA in July to do modular classes.

Last weekend I attended ETA, the English Teacher's Association conference in Taipei, for two days. It was kind of a test for myself, to take in some of the more academic speakers and see if I could get a handle on what corpus linguistics is! I actually really enjoyed it and learned a LOT, especially from two speakers in particular. It made me feel like I'm ready to tackle graduate studies!

A corpus is a body of text, and here they were talking about using text analysis (kind of like a database search of different kinds of published text) to inform teaching, textbook writing etc. One speaker noted that the earliest use of this method was concordancing the Bible, followed by dictionary making. Significant? It just goes to show the importance of this book through history on so many different walks of life. Very interesting stuff.

QUarantine

2009-11-17T21:11:00.001+08:00

I arrived at class on Monday and after the end of the first period, the teacher informed me that the next class would be absent because the entire class had to stay home due to H1N1. The government here has made a policy that if there are two positive cases in a class or office within three days, there must be a week of self-quarantine. So I got a free period in the middle of my day and a complimentary(?) pack of surgical masks to wear. I didn't wear them since it would impede language instruction in a number of ways, but most of the students were wearing them, for self protection. It felt like I was teaching classes in a hospital!

New Hair!

2009-11-08T15:03:00.003+08:00

I got a haircut last week and got some layers. So far I like it, but the funniest thing is the "compliments" I've been getting from my Taiwanese friends. In one day, I had at least three people tell me， "Your hairstyle looks so feminine!" Kinda made me wonder if I was looking too masculine before, or what haha! I know what they mean (女生味), but it's still funny to hear.

daily life...

2009-11-03T17:22:00.003+08:00

It's suddenly quite cool here in Taiwan, I think the temperature is in the mid teens, and while I do feel a little chilly, being acclimatized and all, it seems like I'm sill wearing a lot less than the people around me. I haven't busted out the turtlenecks and winter parkas quite yet.

Today is Tuesday, and I like Tuesdays because they're pretty relaxed. I have two advanced English classes in the morning (two hours each) and then I usually stay at the school for lunch since the school provides the food. Last year I got the idea to have a free chat time at lunch and invite my students to come eat with me. It's been going pretty well so far, and today I had some girls who are writing the script for an English drama competition later in the semester. I get things like that sometimes, but most often they just want to talk and find out why I came to Taiwan and what my life is like here.

In an hour or so, I'll head to Chinese class/dinner/tutoring/fellowship with Ivan and Christine and their four adorable girls. Getting to know this family is definitely a highlight of my week, and has been a highlight of my time here. I'm thinking of taking a Chinese proficiency test next semester. I was originally going to take it this weekend, but I want to take the intermediate level rather than the basic, and I'm not quite ready for it. On the test website, you can take practice tests and in the listening section for the basic I got 46/50. But on the intermediate my score was only 39. Since listening is my strongest area, I know I really need to brush up on my characters and reading before April when I plan to take the test (it's a joint listening and reading test).

Time is going by really fast, but I'm glad November is not going to be as hectic as October was, I'm looking forward to ETA (the annual English teaching conference), as well as a wedding or three.

song

2009-10-26T22:29:00.002+08:00

We sang this song last week, and it was the first time I'd heard it. In general though, anything by Tim Hughes is great! I'm thankful to have friends and coworkers who are up on new songs since I often feel a little "out of the loop." It makes me miss college days, that's for sure! Speaking of college, my application is officially in the mail.... I'll have news in 4-6 weeks :P

film festival

2009-10-21T17:03:00.003+08:00

I love how Taiwan is a country that can feel like a small town! It's easy to find out about local events, and everyone seems to know all about any local stars and what they're doing. This week there is a film festival going on in Taipei and I'll be going tonight and tomorrow night. The festival is called Women Make Waves, and it features films directed by women from all around the world. I know that it really does betray my small town almost-the-middle-of-nowhere upbringing , but I still think it's really cool that I get to go to an international film festival, I certainly wouldn't have had that opportunity back home, and certainly not for less than $4.00 per ticket!

5 Years!

2009-10-17T18:01:00.004+08:00

<-- Here's another picture from our Yuli visit, with Peggy Su, our Taiwan mom!

This week I celebrated Thanksgiving, though in a slightly unconventional way. On Friday a Canadian contingent from our office went to a delightful western-style restaurant in our very own neighborhood and feasted on turkey reubens, which were served with cranberry sauce (that may have been raspberry jam). They were quite tasty, and celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving, as always, reminds me of my arrival in Taiwan, which is now 5 years ago!
Although I was originally supposed to come much earlier, it didn't end up working out for me to get here until mid-October. The weekend before I left to go to Taiwan was Thanksgiving, and I remember having a dinner in our old house in Castlegar with my family and grandparents, and even great-grandma! At that time, I had no idea that I wouldn't be sitting with them over Thanksgiving dinner again for a very long time, so far five years!
I still remember getting on the plane in Castlegar, the following day nervously applying for my visa in Vancouver, and finally boarding that long flight across the ocean.
I remember that that taxi driver had trouble finding where I was supposed to go, and that my new (temporary) roommate Jessie, had the elevator doors close on her as she struggled to get my bulging suitcase inside. I remember the first noodle dish from Fat Joe's, one my favorite restaurants here now, and that Liz and Phil told me I couldn't go to sleep until after 9pm.
A lot of things about those first days are fuzzy, and how many things have happened since then that I've already forgotten? Regardless, it has been a great journey, and it's not over yet! I want to share with my blog readers that I'm right now in the process of applying for a field-based master's degree program that would keep me here for year 6, 7, and 8. It's really exciting, but that's all I'm going to say for now until I actually get accepted!

Creative Students

2009-10-11T16:46:00.003+08:00

This past week I helped with 2 day-long camps here in Yilan. In the afternoon we sent the students to different stations, and I was manning the "clothing" station, which included students making outfits using only toilet paper. We had lots of bikinis, a few brides, and I noticed that most of the guy teams made their "models" into mummies. Good times. It's a great activity for a variety of ages, and don't forget to do a fashion show at the end. Outfits can be judged by creativity and whether or not they make it down the runway without falling apart!

2009-10-04T15:05:00.002+08:00

Here is the picture I took the next morning of how flooded the tunnel was!
There are two typhoons in the area now, so we've had a LOT of rain this week!
There was also a pretty big earthquake last night! Asia is not faring well this fall.

Learn something new every day

2009-09-28T22:25:00.002+08:00

I learned three very important things just now:

1. The little railway underpass that leads to the back of my apartment building gets flooded during heavy rain.

2. A scooter does not drive through knee-high water.

3. Scooters don't like to start after that important stuff underneath gets filled with water.

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it home! I kept trying to start my scooter again, while wondering if I should just push it through the underpass to home. Otherwise I'd have to go back and drive around the long way over the train tracks, which is what I ended up doing. A lady came by on her scooter at that time and I told her it was impassable. She waited with me until I got my scooter started again, and drove part of the way home with me until she could tell my scooter was running ok. I was so thankful! I really didn't know what to do!

When I got home I noticed that there was a car stuck in that same underpass (which cars are not actually supposed to drive through!) Hopefully they'll get out!

Weekend Highlight!

2009-09-27T07:43:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was a very fun-filled day of meeting people by chance or by appointment. One of the great things about this little town is that you're bound to meet people you know no matter where you are! Since we left here 4 years ago, a lot of our friends have had children. On the left are our old landlords' three boys. They look like they're all different ages, but the two on the right are twins! The face little Daniel is making is because he's trying Coke for the first time! He would jump around a bit after having a sip making this hilarious face, then come back for more. On the right is Ai-Jia, Robert and Pheobe's one year old (they're owners of the cram school here). She's quite the charmer!

another week

2009-09-25T23:32:00.002+08:00

the numbers game:
55 students in my newcomers class tonight
4 years and 11 months since I came to Taiwan
12 more test questions to write before the end of this month
150 the cost of a taxi from Taipei to Yilan (about $4 Canadian)
9 hours until we're on our way to Yuli!

blittbook

2009-09-21T18:29:00.002+08:00

Social Networking is really the buzzword these days. A lot of my blog readers are also my friends on facebook, but not necessarily vice versa. I've been to Twitter twice, and both times, my impression was....lots of spam......so I doubt I'll be on there anytime soon.

But I do often find myself not writing in this blog because I want to wait until I can give a more detailed description of things.

So I'm going to experiment a little and try to update shorter things, more often, and see how it goes. Like when I have something on my mind that's too long for a Facebook status....

I find blogging to be a little more "permanent" too, though without the instant gratification of people "liking" my statuses right away.... I guess that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make :P

So hello, my name is Charlotte. It makes me angry when I run downstairs with all my garbage only to miss the garbage truck, and then drop half of my fresh made avocado dip on the floor when I get back.

But I'm excited that my warmup activity involving teenage girls making animal sounds in front of their peers went really well this afternoon.

And I'm definitely looking forward to week 2 of my English Bible study, which starts in less than an hour. We had 50 people last week! Tonight's topic: Esau. It's fun to teach about some of the OT Bible characters, and the book I've been reading, The Book of God (The Bible as a novel) by Walter Wangerin Jr. has been really enriching my meditations on the stories, if not my lesson prep! I might type out his portrayal of the battle of Jericho on here at some point, hopefully that doesn't infringe any copyright laws... but it was just THAT good.

all growed up

2009-09-19T13:27:00.002+08:00

Well today I was waiting for the bus back to Yilan when someone came up to me, and asked, "Are you Charlotte"? It was one of my students from a couple of years ago at the high school! I was glad that I could still remember her name, and we chatted while waiting for the bus. She was also on her way home to Yilan for the weekend. She's going to university in Taipei now, and studying Elementary English Education! Also, we carried on the whole conversation in English. Good job, Renee!

Now that I've been in Taiwan for a few years, this kind of thing happens fairly frequently! It's really cool to meet my former students and hear about what their doing, but it kind of makes me feel old too! I know there are only a couple of years between when I have them and when they get to university, but just seeing them make the transition from shy high school to fashionable college lady is so neat.

Once I even ran into a girl who I taught back in Hualian who was working part time at a 7-11 while going to college in Taipei!

Next weekend, Hope and I are going to go back to Yuli for a visit, and I'm sure she'll be shocked at how much the kids there have grown and changed since she was last there four years ago!

Kids that were in elementary school then are in Jr. High or even High School now. Our landlords have three little boys, our friend Vivian who had breast cancer when we lived there is now married and 3 months pregnant (and completely cancer free)!

surprise

2009-09-11T09:14:00.003+08:00

Some surprises are good, like finding out a friend is pregnant, or that you got a raise, or, going into the local 7-11 and finding milk on for buy-1-get-one-half-off.

Some surprises are bad. Like taking a drink of said milk AFTER you've poured half of it into your coffee and finding that it's artificially sweetened with a vaguely fruity flavor. Bad suprise. Note to self: you probably will not "love" the I heart milk brand....

This blog post was going to be short and sweet, but I realized it's my first update since I got back to Taiwan! What have I been doing?

Well classes have started, I have a Mexican and a Brazilian exchange student this semester.

I asked my students who spent the summer in Amanda's class in Canada to reenact their experiences, and discovered they all fell in love with the French boys.

Speaking of French boys, met some Deaflympians from France last night. Taiwan is hosting the Deaflympics right now, and it's really neat to see people from different countries all over the city who are communicating with sign language.

Spent lots of time with Hope mostly around Taipei, but she did come to Yilan for a weekend too!

My English Bible study starts next Monday, and so far there are more than 50 people signed up! It's unbelievable! This is our 7th semester, and the Chinese word for seven and semester sound very similar. Someone told me that when the church was talking about starting the bible study, one of the elders was like "it'll never make it to the qi qi (seventh semester)" which basically means "it's not going to last" but here we are in the 七期!

Made it!

2009-08-27T07:29:00.003+08:00

I'm back in Taiwan now after a long flight. We had some "technical problems" on the flight, so once we finally boarded, we ended up sitting on the plane for almost 3 hours! It was a little disconcerting to look out the window and see a bunch of people with ladders, flashlights, and tools working on the wing of a plane that is about to carry you over the ocean...but obviously they got the problem fixed, and I didn't end up on any mysterious islands except the one I'm supposed to be on. Did I mention that the air conditioner for the plane doesn't turn on until the plane is in the air? It got pretty hot and stuffy inside...maybe it was to help me prepare for the Taiwan heat, since summer is still in full swing here!
Anyways, I AM back now, and fighting jet lag as best as I can. Some of my classes will be starting next week already, and the rest, the following week. I should be over the jet lag by then! Actually it isn't that bad this time around, coffee works wonders! It's wonderful to see all my good friends here again too, I feel like the reunions never end! But the best one of all was when I took the MRT about 30 minutes to go see Hope! She's going to come to Yilan with me this weekend too, how exciting!

Some of my favorites - click to view

2009-08-24T16:36:00.000+08:00

Make a Smilebox postcard

On the Road Again

2009-08-24T14:26:00.003+08:00

Well my updates have been few and far between since I came back from Saskatchewan, but here are a few things I did:

~Spent time with my family in Alberta, went to my Dad's dragon boat practice, and got caught in a freak storm.

~Went to Calgary and reminisced about high school and college days with Melissa, Shelly, Joella, and Carmen.

~Flew to Vancouver to hang out with Amanda and Dwight and got to meet Krystal's adorable boys.

Fun, fun times. As I head back to Canada my heart is filled with thankfulness at how many incredible people I am privileged to call friends, and at how they'll go above and beyond to see me, drive me around, feed me, and give me a bed, couch or floor to sleep on!
This has been such a memorable trip home, probably one of my favorites since I've been in Taiwan.

There are about 300 pictures to show, not including the wedding, and I'll be posting some here and on Facebook (don't worry, I'll link to the album).
I feel like I haven't stopped talking all month, and I'm sure all of my friends must have sore throats! Now all that's left is to wait for my 2:20am flight..and I must say, that's a really RANDOM time to fly! Better than 5am, I suppose, but that's when I'll arrive!
So goodbye temperate summery, Tim Horton's hosting, wide-open-spaces-and-long-drives motherland.......sweaty, vibrant, technology-filled homeland-of-cheap-food-and-goods, here I come. (Did I mention it's late?)

Saskatchewan

2009-08-15T03:20:00.004+08:00

This week, I returned to the province that I fondly remember as a cold white place, and saw it in a way I rarely did when I was going to school there! It's been a week full of great reunions! It all started with an eventful Greyhound ride. The bus was an hour late, and then when it arrived in Medicine Hat, they took a 30 minute break. When we finally got on the bus, the air conditioner wasn't working! We stopped after about an hour of driving in an increasingly stuffy bus, and got off while they tried to reboot the bus computer. It did start working again eventually. Then because of all the delays, by the time we got to Swift Current (originally the dinner break) the store and bus depot were all closed up, and happened to be situated in the industrial area of the city where there were no other shops around, so there was no food, drink or bathroom to be found! I finally made it to Regina around midnight, but the original arrival time was 10:30.

I spent the evening and morning with Kris, my sometimes across-the-hall-mate and Brazil team member and we did some reminiscing as we looked at her scrapbooked pictures. Then we met my old roommate for lunch. Johanna, whose wedding I was in two years ago (actually to the day, I stole her away from her husband on their anniversary....oops!) who drove in from Manitoba to see me. After hanging out for awhile, we went back to Moose Jaw and ended up staying in the Pilgrim Inn in Caronport, just for old time's sake! We talked for hours over walks, coffee, more walks, more tea, and a game of Scrabble Sentences which was kind of a flop, no wonder we'd never heard of it!

I went back to Regina the next day as Johanna needed to head home, and spent more time with Kris and had dinner with her and some relatives I haven't seen for a few years. Then we met Vanessa, who happened to be in Regina for a birthday party and I went back to Nokomis with her. I kind of just got passed from friend to friend on this trip! I'm so thankful for everyone who let me stay with them, and who drove me around! At Vanessa's we took some walks, visited the museum where she worked for a number of summers, and played with a new kitten that her mom rescued! Her name is Sadie, and amazingly Vanessa and her mom both came up with the same name on their own! I was able to explain the Chinese idea of "mo chi" to them, which we really should have an English word for! It describes people who are of the same mind, or on the same wavelength.
I found out that Colleen Taylor, an old prof, friend and scrabble buddy of mine from school is now living about 30 minutes from Vanessa, so I suprised her with a phone call, and we ended up going over there for dinner! It was a lot of fun, and we got to hear about a new children's series she is publishing. I took a few books to bring back to Taiwan. You should check it out! BlueBeary
Vanessa was kind enough to drive me south, and we stopped for a little frolic along the path we used to walk and a visit to our old dorm. And now I'm in Swift Current where I'm hanging out with friends from high school, Adam and Erin, and playing with their adorable children! Which reminds me, I should go take some pictures of them!

Wedding Time

2009-08-08T05:41:00.006+08:00

My younger sister got married last Saturday! We had a crazy busy week beforehand doing preparations, including making the wedding favors, having a bridal shower, and a couple of trips to the beach, which happened to be right next to the place where they got married. Here's a picture from the shower with Sarah sporting a glowing "Bride to Be" button.

You can also see the favors which were some ceramic spoons from Taiwan with Hershey's kisses on them. The tag said "A spoonful of kisses from the Mr. and Mrs."

The night before the wedding we had a rehearsal at the B&B where they were getting married, and a rehearsal dinner BBQ. Then the girls stayed the night there.
As you can see in this picture, the grounds were just beautiful!

We did nails until the power went out. Actually, I shouldn't say "until" because they just kept going by flashlight and cell phone light!
We spent the next morning getting ready for the wedding at 2pm.

It was beautiful but very, very hot! I think it was something like 36 degrees. Here's Sarah walking down the aisle with my dad. And a picture of the groom and best man waiting. It was quite a family wedding actually.
My two brothers were the best man and jr. groomsman. I was the maid of honor and my aunt and younger cousin were both bridesmaids as well!

After pictures we went to a beautiful hotel for the reception where we had dinner and dancing until about 1am! I think all of us were exhausted for the next few days, but we also had a gift opening the next morning, and then cleaned up. It was fun to see family, and also see my dear little sister looking so beautiful and marrying a guy she loves! Congratulations, Sarah and Toby!

As usual, there are more pictures here in this facebook album!

Me and my youngest brother before the reception.

Me and my mom before the ceremony.

Waiting in Airports = Time to update my blog

2009-07-25T09:22:00.002+08:00

I'm writing from the Vancouver airport today/tonight?
I had a really smooth trip to Canada, and was actually able to sleep on the plane for about 6 hours!
When I checked in, the guy was really friendly, and got me a window seat in the very first row on the upper deck of the plane (I didn't even know the plane had an upper deck!). The extra space was MUCH appreciated. After I woke up, I watched 17 Again, which was fun.
The first thing I did when I got to Vancouver was have a Timmy's while I waited for my dear high school classmate Johnny to come pick me up! It was so fun to see him, and when he spotted me, he threw his cell phone up in the air in excitement, it was like something from a movie!
We got some Indian food and went for a drive in Stanley Park and saw these awesome raccoons who I swear, were posing for my pictures!
I got a tour of CTV where Johnny works, and did a quick wander up and down Robson Street.
Vancouver is getting ready for the Olympics, and they have these eagle sculptures all over the city.
But they just called boarding for my next flight, so off I go!

A partial eclipse of the sun

2009-07-22T22:24:00.006+08:00

Today was a once-in-a-lifetime event for us here in Asia. There was a solar eclipse! About 85% of the sun was covered this morning. I tried to look at it with my sunglasses on, and tried to take a picture, which didn't turn out at all. It was pretty cool, but not as cool as the solar eclipse on Heroes.

Fortunately, Jake, one of my semi-expert photographer friends has a special filter for his camera for just such an event, and got some really cool shots:

I'm still waiting for my mysterious superpowers to exhibit themselves.

Summer Stuff

2009-07-21T20:13:00.001+08:00

Some other fun things I've been up to recently:

Pictures from a photo scavenger hunt we did at a summer camp in Yilan. Can you guess our team's name?The first word is "The."

I was in Taipei after that for 1.5 weeks, which I already blogged about. Great fun.

Then I spent a week teaching at the girls' school. They have two classes that specialize in dance, and don't normally take my English conversation class. They were a fun group, but definitely had a lower English level. To whoever decided dancers don't need to learn English: it doesn't make sense. I told them that if they're

serious about being professional performers in the future, language skills will be essential. If they ever make it to the international level, or get to do performances overseas, they'll certainly need and use English.
In keeping with what I already knew they were interested in, I had the students make up dances to English songs, which they performed here on the last day. I might post a couple of videos later. One of the groups danced with umbrellas, and it was hilarious! Mostly because they hadn't thought ahead to using automatic umbrellas, so they had some difficulty opening and closing them in sync. They still had fun though!

Last weekend I had a couple of inauspicious days.... first of all, I went to Taipei overnight and left my scooter keys in my scooter, which then caused me to freak out as I was getting ready to come back because I couldn't find my keys anywhere. It's a miracle my scooter wasn't stolen, though I guess it was parked at the church! It was really funny though, because in one of the English language newspapers here, they publish the "lunar prophecy" of the day telling you which endeavors you should or shouldn't undertake and the one for Sunday said

It's a good day for:
Nothing
It's a bad day for:
Everything

It cracked me up! But I should have taken heed, because later I proceeded to fall down and scratch up my legs, get a sunburn, and spend almost a hundred dollars on unexpected scooter repairs! I'm fine now, but I guess my planets weren't aligned right, or SOMETHING!

Finally, I had a housewarming party last night! It was great to show off my new apartment, which I've found can hold a lot of people! At one point there were 23 people over! I did get in trouble with management for being too noisy though :S I assured them I wouldn't be having parties like that on a regular basis.
It was really cool to see all the connections between the people I know here. I even had some students from 4 years ago show up!
I also got a chance to do a little cooking. Here is a marble cake I baked, and an extremely popular crab artichoke dip, which I wasn't sure would turn out well or go over well. The hummus, on the other hand, was barely touched. I think I should have labeled it! Anyways, if you're ever in Yilan, I welcome you to come stay at my place!

New Look

2009-07-15T16:08:00.002+08:00

It was time for a summer blog makeover, let me know if you have trouble reading/viewing it.

8 days until I go home!!

FuShan Botanical Garden

2009-07-14T13:38:00.005+08:00

To celebrate the end of the semester, I took a trip with my Bible study students up to a beautiful place in the mountains.

Even though we departed from Yilan, Fushan Botanical Garden is actually in Taipei county. It was less than an hour's drive.

We had about 30 people total, including the families of some of my students.
Since the garden is a protected area, they only let a certain number of people in every day. The day we applied, there were over 1600 people applying for 600 spots!

There were tours available I think, but we just went and wandered around.

The main path is just under 4km around the more cultivated area. There are signs explaining the different plants and animals that can be seen. We stopped for a picnic lunch halfway through.
It was so beautiful there, the pictures don't really do it justice! If you want to see more, you can visit here. One fun thing was that we saw some monkeys from the car on our way in. I LOVE that Taiwan just has wild monkeys running around.

Summer in Taipei

2009-07-11T01:25:00.002+08:00

I've been here in Taipei office for about a week and a half working on some projects since my summer classes don't start until Monday...some thoughts and happenings:

Walking down the street in Taipei you get the strangest sensation of heat and cool at the same time. The air conditioner from the stores along the street cools off your left side, as you feel the scorching heat of car exhaust as they go by on the right.
Eating many different kinds of shaved ice, one of my favorites this year is made from almond milk (杏仁豆腐冰）
Writing around 400 test questions in a week...brain slightly fried
"sneaking" off stage halfway through leading an activity because i forgot the central material for the game in my bag...did i mention this was in front of 100+ people? did I mention my brain is fried?
Taking the new MRT 6 times since it opened, no delays for me, but it actually shut down completely today :(
Hanging out with really cool people and getting to know some new ones
Being a panelist on a radio program
counting down the days until I go home (13 left!)
Wondering if staying in Taiwan so long means losing friends back home

new apartment: before

2009-06-25T17:28:00.004+08:00

I found a new apartment just in time for the contract on this one to be up! I'm thrilled to have found a place that's about twice as big as where I live now for the same price! Here are some pictures taken with my cell phone. The quality isn't great, but you can get the idea. I'll take real pictures later once I'm all moved in.

Kitchen and balcony, there's a samll bathroom to the right.
Another kitchen shot.
Dining/living room

Going upstairs

Large tatami room: this will be my office/guest room

Upstairs bathroom: like how the toilet, shower and washing machine all share the same space?

Bedroom from door
View from bedroom balcony

The Thailand Post

2009-06-22T07:20:00.000+08:00

My apologies to all who have been wondering when I'm going to post! It's been quite a hectic month, with a lot of extra activities, finishing up the semester, getting grades in, and apartment hunting.

The last weekend in May was Dragon Boat Festival, and we had a 4-day weekend! Since this is the the only holiday until Christmas that didn't fall on a Saturday or Sunday,

some friends and I decided to take the opportunity and explore some more of Asia. So we booked our tickets toThailand.

It takes around 3 hours to get from Taipei to Bangkok. We then transferred the next morning (another hour + flight) to Phuket. Then we had almost 3 full days of beach and relaxation there! It seemed to be the off-season when we went, so our hotel was practically empty.

It was beautiful though, with nice rooms, a great pool, and even a cool bar in the pool where you could sit and order food or drinks!

We spent a lot of time on the beach, which I realized was bordering on the Indian ocean! So now I've been swimming in 3 of the world's oceans! And the other two, well I doubt I ever will!

Phuket was one of the places affected by the tsunami in 2004, and we saw some signs for tsunami evacuation routes. If I go

back, I'd be interested in visiting the tsunami museum.

Thai food of course is AMAZING! I love pad thai, and all of their curries. They also had lots of good fruit, and a yummy dessert called banana pancakes! It was like a thin crepe with bananas wrapped inside and smothered in sweetened condensed milk mmmmm.We got some massages, and I got these fun braids in my hair! I actually still have them in, though I'll probably take them out soon.

On the second

day, we spent a half day doing an elephant ride (the brochure called it a "trek" but I don't know if what we did can count as "trekking"). It was really cool, but a little scary! We were up so high! We were holding on really tight at some points, especially when the elephant went down a steep hill into the water. Our elephant's name was Lucky. Oh and this picture was taken by our guide. We stopped at this area and he just clambered right off with the camera and snapped a bunch of pictures. We wondered at one point what was to stop the elephants from running away, but Lucky was well-behaved. When we got back, we were able to buy some bananas to feed them. It was amazing to see how they use their trunks to pick things up and eat them! Lucky even kept one banana hidden in his trunk for later! The elephants were definitely the highlight, but next we saw a monkey show, then hiked to a waterfall. It was so
beautiful! It was really refreshing to get into the water there too! Thailand was really really really hot! I got a little burnt on the last day in Phuket when we spent the morning at the beach.

On Saturday

night we flew back to Bangkok, and spent a half day in the city before our flight home. We visited the grand palace, which was definitely grand in every sense of the word! The decor was so ornate. We originally thought we'd just go in for a quick look and then go shopping, but we ended up staying for about 2 hours because there was so much to see! Words cannot describe how beautiful it was! The picture on the right kind of reminded me of the tower of Babel, which I taught about this past semester. Another interesting thing about the palace, was that if you weren't wearing appropriate attire (meaning not covered up) you had to go borrow either shirts or a sarong before you could go in. My capris just made the cut of being long enough.
It was sad to leave, and the next weekend we found ourselves wishing we were on our way back to Phuket! I will definitely be back soon, maybe with my favorite travel partner! Hopie? What are you doing for Chinese New Year?

We have to go back, Kate!

2009-06-20T12:43:00.004+08:00

I have written my post about Thailand, but need to get all the pictures uploaded. You can expect it in a few days. Until then, here's some good news:
My best friend and dear co-teacher in Yuli just accepted a job here in Taipei! Hope will be back for a year!

In honor of her return, I am going to write a comparison between Taiwan, and the island from our favorite TV show, Lost. If you're not a fan of the show please feel free to stop reading now.

People who leave both islands later find the inexplicable urge to go back.

2. In Lost, there is a smoke monster, Taiwan has air pollution.
3. The island on Lost has magical healing properties. Taiwan has Chinese medicine. I remember the horrible smelling witch's brew our landlords made when we lived there, Chinese medicine for fertility....today, they have 3 sons!

4. There are bears on both islands (Polar bears on Lost, the cuddlier Pandas here)

5. Settlers to the island come in waves, first the others, then the Dharma initiative, and finally the “Losties”. This can be compared to Taiwan’s aboriginals and Taiwanese, then the 1949 migration of “mainlanders” and finally the foreigners who have now come to inhabit the island.

6. There are a number of mysterious underground “hatches” built by some of these previous inhabitants, I’ve been to such places in Penghu (The Swan), Tainan (The Orchid), Danshui (The Looking Glass), and Keelung (The Flame)

And finally......
7. The ownership of both islands is disputed by two powerful parties....

I...

2009-06-08T22:56:00.003+08:00

had a GREAT time in Thailand and am now in the final push to finish out the semester, including grading, singing, baking, planning...
But I will write a blog about Thailand soon with more pictures!
I promise.

Speech Contest

2009-05-26T13:17:00.002+08:00

As I mentioned, I was in a Chinese speech contest this past week! It was the same one I participated in last year, but my result this year was slightly better! Last year I got the award for "Most Interesting Speech" which was a separate category from the winners. This year I got third place overall! I was really happy with the result, even though I didn't get first. Both of the girls in first and second gave excellent speeches.

The topic was "Having Fun in Taipei" but as I suspected, many people had similar speeches, either about their own experiences, or highlighting certain places. Having been a contest judge enough times myself, I knew that I needed to put some kind of creative spin on it in order to get the judges' attention. This past year there's been a classical story, which is sometimes referred to as the Chinese Romeo and Juliet that has grabbed my attention. Last semester, a group of my students performed it in English during an English drama contest. Then a few months ago, a coworker who wanted to do some language exchange taught me the story in Chinese. A few weeks after that, a regular Chinese class I attend also introduced the story. Finally, a good friend lent me a movie version which was made in the 60s. Around the time I saw the DVD, I heard about the contest, and so I decided to try and somehow adapt the story for my speech! I changed the names of the characters slightly, and took a few major elements of the story, and included a lot of important places around Taipei. Unlike the original story (and MOST classical Chinese stories) my story has a happy ending!

For my blog readers who don't read Chinese, here's a sort of translation of the speech and interview. You can read the Chinese text here on my Chinese blog.

Once upon a time, there was an American exchange student named Lu Ying-Tai (I changed the first name but kept the second two the same, the original is Zhu Ying-Tai). She was studying Chinese as National Taiwan Normal University when she met the tall and handsome Wang Shan-

Bo (The name of the main guy). They often went out together in Taipei, sometimes to WuFenPu, a

shopping area, or the famous ShiLin Night Market to eat stinky tofu. Eventually, Ying-Tai fell in love with Shan-Bo, but she was too shy to tell him her feelings.

One day, they went to Danshui, and Ying-Tai tried to give Shan-Bo some clues/hints about how she felt (this was a major part of the original story, especially in the movie). They ate squid balls and ice cream, and took a boat across to BaLi where they saw the delicious ShuangBaoTai donuts (the Chinese name means twins because they're two pieces fried together). Lu Ying-Tai bravely spoke up and said, "Hey, Shan-Bo, don't you think these donuts kind of look like a couple?" Unfortunately, Shan-Bo had already eaten his.

Ying-Tai made a plan to take Shan-Bo past a famous temple where people go every year to pray for husbands or wives. So around Chinese New Year, they went to the place where the temple is, Di-Hua-Jie, also the street where you can buy goods for Chinese New Year. They tried a lot of foods along the way, and, what a coincidence, passed by the temple! Lu Ying-Tai said, "Why don't we ask the "moon god" (supposed to be the eternal matchmaker) about our future?" S

han-Bo didn't get it, and replied, (I used Taiwanese here), "I don't believe in that stuff!!"

They went to a lot of other places, Beitou hot springs, the National Palace Museum, Tianmu, and each time Ying-Tai would say the same kind of stuff. Shan-Bo got fed up and said, (again in Taiwanese, this is a loose translation) "This is getting really annoying. We're just hanging out, stop talking about all that wierd stuff."

Lu Ying-Tai was almost ready to give up, but she brought Shan-Bo to the zoo to see the Pandas.

When they got there, she said, "Don't you think we're like those two pandas, a perfect pair?" (I really don't know how to translate the Chinese here, but it basically makes a big word play on the Chinese names of the pandas - TuanTuan and YuanYuan). Shan-Bo shook his head and said, "That makes no sense, we're not animals!" Ying-Tai got angry then and said, "You're a big dumb OX!" (A famous line from the story).

They angrily took the MRT back, not speaking at all. When they reached Taipei 101 they stood there looking at it. Suddenly, they saw a pair of butterflies fly in front of them! (In the original, tragic story, the lovers both die and are reunited as a pair of butterflies). Shan-Bo remembered the story of Liang Shan-Bo and Zhu Ying-Tai from his school days, and finally understood everything Lu Ying-Tai had been trying to say. (Insert singing, "Oh I really was a big dumb ox!") He took Ying-Tai's hand and they ascended the highest place in Taipei, looking out over Miramar (the big ferris wheel) and dreamed about their wonderful future.

THE END.

Well, if you endured this far, congratulations! I hope you understood slightly better. I feel like I live in such a bilingual world these days that a lot of my thoughts require knowledge of both English and Chinese to fully get. Anyways, after my speech the two hosts came up to interview me. This is always the most dreaded part! They wanted to know if I could sing songs from any other Chinese operas.... the answer was no! So I just sang the part from my speech again! It was kind of embarrassing... I really wanted to be off the stage! Fortunately, they changed the subject, asking how long I'd been in Taiwan and what my favorite Taiwanese food was.

song

2009-05-20T15:58:00.004+08:00

The speech went well, and I made it to the final which is this Sunday!

I'll post the video next weeek. For now, here's a song I've been listening to a lot lately:

One line from the song I like is "So I wait for you, Oh Lord, like the watchmen wait for dawn."
They're waiting for something they know will come. It comes each day. They're not waiting with uncertainty but expectation. A lot of the things we wait for in this life are uncertain, a promotion, a husband/wife, an opportunity, we hope they'll come, but we can't be sure. But to wait on God is to know that He will come. Maybe we won't know how. We don't know if the dawn will be overcast, or filled with colors. But we know it will come.

I will be here in two weeks....

2009-05-16T09:53:00.003+08:00

I'm really looking forward to a trip to Phuket, Thailand for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival long weekend!
In other news, I am competing in a Chinese speech contest TOMORROW! Wish me luck! More details after!

Things you can do in a Taiwanese 7-11 #221

2009-05-07T17:54:00.002+08:00

I forgot my cell phone charger in Yilan yesterday, and won't be back until Saturday. Fortunately, you can now charge your cell phone battery at certain 7-11s in Taipei!
So besides mailing letters, paying your electric bill, using an atm, making photocopies, and getting pictures developed, you can also pay 20NT to charge your battery for 10 minutes. It doesn't give it full power, but will last for a bit if you only make short phone calls.
So I'll be visiting the 7-11 a lot over the next couple of days.... can you remember what life before cell phones was like? How did we survive :P

Birthday Treasure Hunt

2009-05-05T09:52:00.001+08:00

I got a sweet suprise on Tuesday night when I went to visit my favorite family for language exchange. Their oldest daughter, Esther's birthday is just a few days before mine, and for her birthday party they made a huge treasure hunt.

Since I was in Taipei that day, they made a special one just for me! Those girls are SO creative and thoughtful...I want my kids to be just like them someday! They've been really into Blue's Clues lately, and made a homemade blue paw print stamp out of an eraser. They then drew a treasure map of the entire first floor of their house/church with stamps where the treasures were. The items themselves also had a paw print mark on them! It was a lot of fun searching for the "treasures" especially since the two youngest girls got SO into it! There's no better sound than that of a child laughing and squealing in joy. Gloria, 4, could barely contain her excitement and showed me where two of the treasures were before the hunt even started. Deborah (6), just barely controlled her enthusiasm, as she took my hand and led me to each room where there was something hidden! I wish I'd had my camera to take pictures during the hunt! An old picture of the girls and the map will have to suffice.

27 (twenty-seven)...

2009-04-27T22:57:00.006+08:00

is the natural number following 26 and preceding 28.

Twenty-seven is the smallest

positive integer requiring

four syllables to name in English, though it can be unambiguously defined in just two: "three cubed."

It is also the atomic number of cobalt.

There are 27 books in the New

Testament.

According to Google, Samuel Morse was also born on April 27 (1791).

Psalm 27 Reads:

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.
4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.
7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.
13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD

Hanging out with students

2009-04-19T14:29:00.003+08:00

Every year, schools have a big fair/carnival to celebrate the school anniversary. Each class puts up a booth and sells different foods, and all the clubs in the school do performances throughout the day. I always look forward to going, and this year was no exception. I spent a lot of money, ate a lot of free samples, and took a lot of pictures. Here are some of the highlights:

Part of the "kung fu club"

wearing traditional Chinese dresses (qipao)

selling their wares

dancing
each class designs their own shirts

Happy Resurrection Day

2009-04-16T23:25:00.002+08:00

I probably say this every year, but I LOVE the Chinese translation of the word Easter - Fu Huo Jie, literally resurrection holiday.

Last night I had a student who asked me if the word "Easter" was found in the Bible. He pointed out that Passover and Pentecost are in the Bible but not Easter or Christmas. I think he was trying to imply somehow that we shouldn't celebrate them.

Actually there is a religious group in Taiwan that holds to this teaching. While I freely admit that you don't need to waste your time searching concordances for the word "Easter", there's certainly nothing wrong with celebrating the event of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. You won't find the words car, surgery, or Internet in the Bible either.

Making cream puffs

Here are some of the highlights of Easter celebrations this year:

Our church had a carnival outreach event on Saturday. Over 400 people came throughout the day. There were 5 game stations which included reading part of the gospel message.

I worked at one with two other people, where we introduced love and talked about how God's love is the ultimate love. Then they got to do a ring toss onto different pillars with the different kinds of love. The teenage girl that was helping was so funny, because she was a great host.

When people got one, she'd yell out (in Chinese) "Congratulations, you've received God's (parents' friends' etc) love!"

Easter Sunday, I have to admit was a little disapponting just because part of me longs for the rich tradition of Easter services that I've experienced before, singing the great Easter hymns and really having something different and special from the rest of the year. We did sing "Because He Lives" though.

Sunday afternoon was spent draining eggs so the shells could be colored and making cream puffs at the church.

I did Easter classes all day Monday, and on Monday night we had a feast with all the egg! There was a lot of food.
This won't hurt a bit...

We also had a clue hunt which the students got really into! Thanks to my mom's suggestion, I had them write their own clues for the other team this year. One of the funniest ones was: I'm popular, and I'm imported.

Where was the clue? In my pocket!

Being a teacher is so fun!

Pondering...

Great clue hunt shot, and two clues:
1. We go here every week, but not this one
2. I can't walk but I never stop

Rescue

2009-04-14T23:39:00.002+08:00

A song I've been listening to a lot lately:

This is quite an appropriate song for the season, as we reflect on the ends God would go to rescue us from ourselves. Speaking of the season, an Easter post has been written, but it's kind of long, so I'll post it when I have some pictures to break it up!

Small World

2009-04-10T00:32:00.002+08:00

I had dinner with a friend of a friend who was visiting Taiwan the other night. Halfway through the conversation, she said, "You know, Charlotte, I think I've read your blog before!"
Craziness, but it reminded me again of this huge Internet community we choose to take part in in varying measure.
In the last week this blog has had readers from Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, and Georgia...but as far as I know I don't know people in those places! Feel free to say hi btw...or maybe I'll meet you someday in Taiwan!

Strawberry season

2009-04-05T08:20:00.003+08:00

Winter is strawberry season in Taiwan.
People pay to go to little strawberry farms and "pick" strawberries. You're usually given a pair of scissors to cut the berries so you don't damage the plants too much.
Juice vendors here think you're crazy if you ask for a strawberry-banana combination, it takes a lot of convincing before they'll make it for you.
This generation of young people (born afer 1980) in Taiwan is nicknamed the "strawberry generation" because they have grown up in a time relatively free of hardship and are often over-protected by parents, which makes them less able to withstand hard work and pressure. Like strawberries, they are bruised or crushed easily. This is also the generation I interact with most. A speaker I heard a few weeks ago pointed out that the strawberry generation was created by "strawberry" parents and teachers. A google search of "Taiwan strawberry generation" yields some very interesting results if you want to read more.

Poem of the day

2009-04-02T18:13:00.003+08:00

I've been using iGoogle as my homepage lately, and you can add a lot of different boxes that update themselves daily. One I've been enjoying is "Poem of the Day". In the 4+ years I've been in Taiwan, I haven't really been able to indulge in as much literature as usual, as it's not really available, and since 90% of the time, I'm thinking of ways to simplify the English I use rather than turn it into metaphors, allusions or iambic pentametre.... But now that I have this fantastic feature on my homepage, don't be surprised if you see some fun stuff popping up on here from time to time.
Today's offering, one of my favorite poets as a child: Shel Silverstein
Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

- Shel Silverstein

Sleeping Beauty

2009-03-31T10:26:00.003+08:00

I went to the ballet last weekend! It was my first one. I feel so fortunate to be able to go to things like that here. When I was growing up, we were too far from any major cities for it to be really feasible to attend concerts etc. very often. Going to Youthquake was the highlight of the year!

I never took any dance classes when I was young, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to appreciate the ballet or not, but though I'm sure I missed a lot of things, I thought it was wonderful.

We saw Sleeping Beauty, perfomed by the Marinsky Ballet Company from Russia. The sets and costumes were beautiful, and the dancers were amazing. Anyone who can move their body like that earns my respect!