Always an Adventure...

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 rea...

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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: *Flour, white, 2 cup Baking Powder, 1.5 tsp Salt, .5 tsp Ginger, nutmeg, cloves ground, .5 tsp each Cinnamon, ground, 1 tsp Butter, unsalted, .5 cup ( Granulated Sugar, 1 cup Egg, fresh, 1 medium Milk, nonfat, .0625 cup Directions Sift first 5 ingredients together. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in flo...