Always an Adventure...

This past Sunday, my local church put on a Tomb sweeping service. It’s the first our church has ever done, and the first I have ever attended. And I found it to be deeply meaningful. Growing up in a Lutheran church for a while, and being part of this generation that seems to be moving away from consumerism and entertainment-driven worship and toward liturgy and a deeper connection to past, future, and community, I found it refreshing to be a part of this service. Now for those unfamiliar with the holiday, Taiwan celebrates Tomb Sweeping Festival on April 5. It’s a day off when families traditionally visit the family plot where their ancestors are buried, and, literally, sweep or clean it up. Cemeteries in Taiwan do not, to my knowledge, have groundskeepers or other employees. Thus it is the family’s duty to make sure grave sites are maintained. Traditionally this would be accompanied with burning incense or ghost money, making food offerings, and prayers to the ancestors for blessing...

Check this out if you're looking for a low-impact but still sweat-inducing (for me at least) workout. The lady who is leading it is in her mid-40s and I believe the mother of 2. She looks great! The workout is all in Korean, but that doesn't really matter, since it's easy enough to follow, plus they count everything in English. Nice for cold rainy days when I don't want to go out for my walk but still want to get moving! It's also been nice this week since I hurt my foot after falling on a slippery Taipei sidewalk last weekend. I got acupuncture on Monday (yes, me...who is notoriously needle-phobic, I just made sure not to look at them, meaning my eyes were closed the whole time....), and it did help a lot. Cost me about $5 dollars for the consult, acupuncture session, and some herbal medicine. Awesome.

I just got back from the Christmas outreach service put on by the local church I attend here in Taiwan, during which I started putting this post together in my mind. 8. Expect variety, a LOT of variety.... the variety show is an extremely popular form of entertainment here and a formula a lot of churches follow... we had performances by groups of all ages and in many different genres tonight. 7. Expect at least one aboriginal dance or song, which will be amazing... Ok I've lived on the east coast for all of my 8 years here, so this might be different elsewhere... Tonight's dance represented at least three generations and three different tribes. They were great. 6. If you dare to wear red, or put on a red hat, someone will excitedly say that you look like Santa Claus... even if you're a woman. Who doesn't have a beard. I skipped it this year.  5. You might sing one or two actual Christmas carols. One of them will be "Silent Night." 4. You wil...

Yilan is rich in a lot of resources, fresh air, great food, etc, but apparently its most precious treasure lies somewhere with the modern trappings of the University’s library. I have not seen this treasure, but the seriousness with which they guard it has convinced me it must be something of ultimate value… knowledge? It all started a couple of weeks ago, when I thought there might be something in their English stacks that could assist me in my research. Having helped them with their English corner, I have been in the library before, but this time decided to go on my own. Since I am not a student, they asked for a piece of ID to exchange for a guest pass. On that fateful day, I didn’t have my ARC with me, and tried to give them my health care card. It was denied… reason? It didn’t have my address on it. I can’t even just go inside and look around? Denied. I don’t know what they need an address for anyways, a guest pass doesn’t allow you to take books out, you can only enter the...

This semester in my English Bible study, I'm teaching about the life of Jesus. For the first class, I wanted to give some background and introduction, including "Why Study Jesus?" and "How do we know Jesus really lived?" I actually did quite a bit of research in preparation, thinking about with things like the DaVinci Code etc, many people have questioned whether or not the Bible is even real. I looked up information about Josephus and Tacitus, two non-Christian sources who indicated the existence of Jesus in history. I explained who each of the gospel writers were, and how they were connected to Jesus, emphasizing the fact that all the gospels were written within 70 years of Jesus' death. The interesting thing was that the response I got from the students wasn't even a little bit skeptical. Maybe it's because in this culture, people are taught not to question their teachers. I often have to encourage my students to question and search out informatio...

I was reading stuffwhitepeoplelike.com for amusement as I was thinking about blogging an observation I made yesterday. There are a LOT of things I could list, but here are 5 things off the top of my head. I can also reflect on how local I've become through this exercise... 5. Scooters : they're everywhere, fast, easy to park, and get their own lane on many highways. Though I waited quite a while before I got one, I also like scooters. In fact, I'm going to go for a little cruise when I'm done writing this post. 4. Red bean : Not salty but sweet, these beans find themselves in the traditional cold soup, desserts, ice cream, and now in Costco muffins instead of chocolate chips, much to my dismay (I DON'T like red bean in case you didn't gather that, though I HAVE started to enjoy Taro in some circumstances, which is another Taiwanese favorite) 3. Pearl Milk Tea : Zhen Zhu Nai Cha, is a must-try here in Taiwan, with a number different shops claiming to have inven...

I was taking the bus in Taipei city last night, just minding my own business. I had earphones in, and finally got a seat about halfway through the trip. There was a teenage girl sitting next to me, and after about 10 minutes she tapped me on the shoulder and showed me her cell phone. On it, there was a message that said something like: "Hi, what is your name? Can I make a friend with you?" I was a little confused at first, so I just looked her. I wasn't sure if this was a message she received and didn't know what it meant, or why she was showing it to me. Finally I asked if she had typed it. She nodded. I tried to chat with her a bit but she didn't really speak English, so I spoke with her in Chinese. I invited her to bible study, gave her a card, and fortunately, it was almost our stop. After I got off, she followed me a little ways, and I said "bye-bye" in a very friendly voice, phone in hand as I was meeting someone and needed to call them. Then she a...

note: i was on varying levels of pain medication during the writing of this blog, so just ignore random tense and voice switches! Wednesday 3:30pm : arrive, sign a multitude of papers, and take an x-ray etc. By 5 I’m in my room and have had blood taken and the iv needle taped into my hand I got a window seat! Oh wait I mean bed… roommate arrives around 6:30 , an 82 year old lady also getting some kind of leg surgery. Find out that she only speaks Taiwanese and Japanese, but I have a chat with her granddaughter. I ask if I can go out for a little while (for a walk or something) and they say “sure, just wait until the anesthesiologist comes to see you” well at 10am the next day, I still haven’t seen him grrr… Had some visitors, and put my hair into little braids, partly for something to do, partly so I wouldn't have to worry about doing anything with it for a couple of days. Partly because I'd never go to class with hair like that, so this is one of the only times I can ...

I got a text message on Tuesday morning from my friend Esther from Yuli saying she was on her way to Yilan. It was a surprise to hear that that she was coming to visit the principal of the school that I was teaching at. It turns out that he used to be an English teacher in Yuli of all places! He was her high school teacher about 12 years ago. Now he's the principal of a large high school. After she had lunch with him, the two of us went out for the afternoon. The principal even lent us his car! The great thing about Taiwan is that these kinds of connections happen all the time, but particularly among people from the east coast, which has a lower population.

Amanda over at Following an Unknown Path is doing an awesome series of posts right now called "Simply Taiwan" and her post about garbage collection in Taiwan, which made me want to post about it too! Here's one of the videos she posted, which is great because the garbage system must really be "experienced". I really miss/appreciate the nice little system of leaving your garbage out and it magically disappearing by the afternoon! Getting garbage is kind of a pain for me in Yilan because I either have class or am not there for any garbage collection time except for Tuesday afternoon, so if I miss one week, I'll have two weeks of garbage stinking up my house. The old Taiwanese ladies in my neighborhood always comment on how much garbage I'm throwing away, and chat away to me in Taiwanese, which I can't understand at all. But sometimes I can guess what they're trying to say. In Taipei where I live, they are building an MRT station in the area, so th...

Well I managed to get through the rest of the week without any other scary things happening, but that doesn't mean it was uneventful.... but things are rarely uneventful when there's wedding involved. Not MY wedding of course, but one of the girls I stay (stayed) with in Taipei got married this past Saturday! It was a lovely day, and I got some nice pictures of the happy couple. (See below) But today's blog entry is about the night BEFORE the wedding! Here's what happened: One of the bridesmaids was staying at our house for the night since it was a morning wedding and hair appointments started at 6am. For some reason unknown to man she had gotten some dental work done earlier that day, and arrived at our house really late, and not a little uncomfortable. Our other roommate (also a bridesmaid) gave her some medication for the pain. The bride took a sleeping pill so she'd be fresh for the big day. I came home from doing my nails at another friend's house and go...

this overdue blog update is brought to you by the friendly neighborhood construction...grrr Life in Taiwan is punctuated by short breaks between construction it seems. First it was the house above us, then across the street, and now it seems to be right outside my window .. i mean somewhere below. Anyways, there's nothing I can do about it, except be grumpy that it woke me up at 8 on a SATURDAY morning! Taiwan doesn't have as much construction as China, especially from what I remember from Hong Kong, and of course I'm sure there's even more in Beijing as it's getting ready to host the Olympics. But people are always building something new, or renovating their old place, or building an MRT station or.... It just seems like there's way more than in Canada, and due to the close proximity of everyone, especially in crowded Taipei, you can tend to feel like there's no escape from it! On a list of countries by population density, Taiwan is number 15 . What about C...

Chinese New Year is coming!! Yilan has set up a "New Year's Street" which has some performances, food, and vendors selling tons of holiday wares, including new clothes, dried fruit and fish, candies, tea, and nuts. These are all things that you would find yourself snacking on during a visit to a Taiwanese home during CNY. Most towns have their own small New Year's streets, but Taipei has a huge one called 'Di Hua Jie'. I went there a couple of weeks ago with Michelle and Lauren who were up from Yuli. The main events at the street hadn't begun yet, but we still got to see (and sample) tons of interesting things! Here are some fish ovaries, which are dried and... well I'm not exactly sure how they're prepared or consumed, but I won't make it for you, don't worry! We also saw dried seahorses, shark fins, and giant dried mushrooms: At one end of the street is a temple where young people go to "pray" and burn incense, what are they pr...

Hello everyone! I'm the next president of Taiwan! Our slogan for this year is "Make Taiwan Lovable" 1 (literally cute). This of course needs to start with the Taiwanese government, so my first act in office is to move the Parliament (I know I'm using Canadian terms) to Hualian, because Hualian is the most beautiful place in Taiwan. Then we can invite Hu Jintao (the leader of Mainland China) to come and see Hualian's beautiful scenery and fresh air, taste it's specialty food, go to Taroko Gorge, and watch fantastic aboriginal performances. He'll be so touched that he'll immediately cancel all plans to bomb Taiwan with missiles! 2 Even though the government is in Hualian, the president won't forget the needs of the rest of Taiwan. Here's my plan. The most important is to finish the MRT system, taking it even to more remote centers on the east coast like Jilong, 3 Hualian, and Taidong. Then I can go on vacation whenever, wherever I want! Oh...no...