I WAS living at Falls Creek, but now...

I'm living in Dallas. O.K., for all of you that are confused, I'm still living in Taiwan, but it just SEEMED like Falls Creek, and it just SEEMS like Dallas. Sort of. (There are a lot more Chinese people in Dallas than I had remembered.) You see, yesterday morning I moved from a small town, Chutung, where I frequently felt like I was at youth camp in Oklahoma, the camp I grew up going to (check out Falls Creek Baptist Assembly on the www if you want to learn more), to Hsinchu, which is a city, full of traffic and people, but where I'm housesitting in an apartment complex that's huge and new with a pool outside my front door. (Yes, I know that will impress some of you...Kim...more than it does me.) These standards are all very general and contextual, so let me explain a little further. Chutung is a big town really, about 80,000 people with all a westerner could want, according to the Chinese (because there's a Domino's, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.) But, it has a small town feel with narrow streets and neon lights only on the main street. At night when I would be walking around after work, I would often feel like I was going back to my cabin at Falls Creek after a long day of bible classes, worship, sports, icee's, hanging out with friends and looking for boys. (O.K., some things haven't changed.) Hsinchu, on the other hand, is a city of about half a million or so and it reminds me of Dallas, only because I once lived in Dallas for a summer with some friends. We shared an apartment that overlooked a pool, the weather was hot, and we had the windows open a lot so we could hear all the sounds of the city. That's where the comparison to Dallas stops. (So all you people that want to explain how Dallas cannot be compared to a much smaller city in Northern Taiwan, can just save your breath.)

So, I moved into the city, only about 15 minutes from my work, 10 minutes from my church, and in another 10 or 12 days, I'll be in my permanent housing, sharing a four story house (4 bedrooms, 3 baths) with a friend from church. The rent is half of what it would normally be, for two reasons...Jacqui's been praying (that's a friend from Temple in SF, thanks, Jacqui!) AND the family that have been living there for 10 years are paying the other half so they can use two rooms for storage. My roommate, Julie, and I don't mind this arrangement, since our rent will then be only about 1/3 of what I paid for my small room in San Francisco. (I'm making you work for those calculations, huh?) Suffice to say, it's a great deal and I'm thrilled.

This morning, I'm off to teach a seminar on worship at a retreat for youth from my church. Many of you remember how difficult it was for me to write the youth bible study curriculum earlier this year...well, it came in handy when I was preparing for this seminar. Matter of fact, my prep lasted about half an hour, since two of those lessons deal directly with the subject of worship. I'm glad I did that...now!

I will check back in later on. As always, thanks for your prayers and comments. Sorry, no pics. I'm using someone else's computer.

Until next time, Larissa