Taiwan To Me

Closure...

2008-10-28T02:45:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a few weeks to communicate the last blog entry on this site, but I'm finally here to tell you how I finished up in Taiwan. I enjoyed many amazing moments in the 10 days after I wrote the previous entry and before my departure on October 4th. The final weekend of my time in Taiwan, we had another typhoon, and it hit pretty solidly on Sunday afternoon so the government officials canceled Monday classes. This was a gift to me (which later bit me on the backside, but I'll get to that in a bit) and my roommates.

The Saturday of that weekend, my friends Mari, Anneloe and Julie treated me to a massage and lunch. Thanks, girls!! That afternoon, my friend Lucy, came over from Taipei to bring me a homemade cheesecake and see where I'd been living. (Lucy is Irene Morris' sister and she's a generous person.) In the evening, my friend Hein and I attempted to make a homemade gnocchi, which ended with us opening a packet of pre-made gnocchi instead. (Don't ask how long it took to get our kitchen back to clean again.) That Sunday, we had to taxi to church because of the weather, and we retreated quickly back to the apartment afterwards. We were pretty scared in our 18th floor home when later that afternoon the wind got so gusty the building was literally swaying. But what could we do? I must admit I got a little queezy. This didn't deter my roommates taking me out for dinner at a local teppanyaki joint (Japanese style cooking, prominent in Hsinchu and all over Taiwan) just as the schools were officially canceled, and the rain settled down. We took some pics, which you can see here.

Mari, Anneloe, Me and Ryno eating teppanyaki.

Because of the typhoon, it was a slow night
for the teppanyaki cooks, so they posed for a pic.
I think their names are, left to right, Grumpy,
Stumpy, Happy, and Giggly, collectively known
as "Boys to Boys" on the musical touring circuit.

Starting in August, some of my co-workers and I would go out on Wednesday nights after work for some late dinner and laughs. We met up with some friends that weren't working at Kang Ning so it made it feel like we were doing something different than normal. We had some good times in the last few weeks, the best being the last Wednesday night when we met up at Amber and Sarah's and had Mexican food. It was a crack up night to remember and I was so thankful to the girls for hosting it. I've posted some pics so you can see what we got up to.

Mexican food makes a bunch of tired
teachers act crazy after midnight.

Close up of the girls and a few of the guys.

Me, Amber and Sarah saying goodbye!

The last week of work was short but intense. I was told pretty early on that because of the Monday school cancelation, my Monday night class, A15, needed to have Parents Day on my last day at work. (A15 was a class I inherited the last month of my contract, and I never really wanted to be teaching beginners that late, 7:45-9:15, on Monday and Friday nights.) Doing a Parents Day didn't really bother me because in most of my Parents Day experiences, no parents showed up and it's just a party day for the kids. Color me shocked when I had 6 parents show up to that class, WHEN IT STARTED, not at the end of it. This meant that rather than throwing a party for my class, I had to TEACH!! I had spent the last three days throwing parties for all of my classes and would you believe it, I had to actually do my job. I was pulling out all the stops for the parents in front of a class that's only been studying English for 3 months. I was sweating it and at one point I said to my manager, "I'm done, man, if you want to teach you can do it. I just want to talk to the parents and get outta here." He was cool about it and let me get on with the parents part of the evening.

Before I left school that night, Alex paid me my months salary, plus bonus (Praise God!), I said my goodbyes and went to church to sell my scooter to my pastor. My friend, Julie took me home and I got to hang with some friends for a late dinner and coffee. As everyone left at about midnight I was just sitting in the living room with my roommies talking about the day, when Mari said something about my ARC and it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have my ARC (Alien Resident Card). Then I realized I didn't have my passport!! I freaked out, called Alex, explained to him that I had given him the ARC and passport the day before so he could make all the arrangements for my taxes to be processed. He was so embarrassed and apologetic, and he asked where I was so he could bring it to me right then. I was laughing so hard as I met Alex in front of my apartment complex at 1:20 in the morning to get my passport and ARC.

I stayed up most of the night finishing the packing, and after just 2 hours of sleep, got up to leave. My cool roommies got up at 6:30 in the morning, on a Saturday, to have coffee with me before we said goodbye and I left Taiwan.

When I got to the airport, I discovered that my school had failed to keep my ARC valid, and after paying a fine, I got a stamp in my passport prohibiting me from traveling to Taiwan again for a year. It felt like a fitting send off from a situation I'd struggled to embrace for over 13 months.

All is not lost, of course. I had a great time in my apartment with my precious roommates (whose mamas all raised 'em right), and with my co-workers and friends from church, I made a years worth of memories that I'm enjoying reminiscing over these days.

Thanks for keeping up with me on my blog and praying for me. This will be the last entry on this blog site. You can catch up with me at www.aftertaiwan.blogspot.com where I'll continue to journal life as I see it here in Asia and wherever God takes me.

All the best,
LC, no longer from the TW

Little Old Men...and a few young ones!

2008-09-23T19:31:00.001-07:00

These are just some snippets of life here for me recently, mostly things that put a smile on my face and perhaps one or two that leave me scratching my head asking questions about why people (men, especially) do the things they do.

It starts with a little old guy at my church, (which I think I wrote a blog entry about) and how he almost made me cry. Just this cute little old guy that never really interacts much, and I've always assumed he was at church to learn more English. He got up and made an announcement a couple of weeks ago in church, and it turned out to be more like a testimony of how God took him to the states many years ago to study in Hawaii and then on to Georgetown University. He's started a book club for people who want to work on their reading, because he's retired from over 40 years of teaching and he doesn't want to just sit around and do nothing. I was mesmerized to listen to him, and thought it was adorable when he told us the first book they would read in the club is "Charlotte's Web". How cute is that? I love him.

A few days later, on my scoot to work, I saw something I've observed several times here. There was an old man on a bicycle determined to get the bike up an incline (not much of one, but he was old and skinny), pumping with all his might. As he passed in front of me at a red light, I saw the silhouette of his frail body and there was a profound curve in his spine, that made me ache just to look at it. I couldn't help but watch him labor on his bike to cross the intersection before the light turned green. I've seen similar sights with old people lugging big loads of recycling or supplies for a cooking stall, but this guy was on his own, and it was a hard thing to see.

Last Sunday, I got up at the close of the service to give an exhortation and sing the last song. As I did, I focused on thankfulness, since I'm one Sunday from being gone, and our pastor had just made thankfulness his third point when trying to keep from taking the Lord's name in vain (yeah, it's sort of funny, but it kind of worked for me at the time.) So, I got up and in my ramble to express thankfulness for the body of Christ in Hsinchu, I said I was thankful for the man that gave his testimony and was starting the book club. Only much later in the day, did I think about what I'd said. I asked my roommates and they confirmed that from the pulpit I said, "I'm thankful for the little old man...blah blah blah!" How embarrassing! Right now, I'm thankful that many of those people will not have understood what I said, and if they did they wouldn't have thought it was inappropriate, just accurate.

As I was scooting to the apartment after worship on Sunday, again at a red light, a scooter came up next to me and stopped suddenly. I looked and it was an old man with three days growth on his face, looking all weather worn, with a construction helmet hanging half on/half off of his head, and as if that wasn't a sight in itself, he had a cigarette sticking out of the side of his mouth burning. Our eyes met and I couldn't help but smile. Maybe I laughed a little bit too, cause it was funny! Wish I'd had my camera ready.

Not one block later, I stopped for another red light, and an old man on a scooter was coming through the intersection "flying low" as my mom would say, and he got my attention because he had no teeth. His lips were sucked into his face so far, I couldn't help but notice, and yes, I had to laugh, again.

Then on Monday, at work, the guy who works security in the apartment complex where our school is, came into the office to deliver the mail. He speaks two words of English, (Pizza Hut) but he always talks to the English teachers through the Chinese staff. He's loud and raucous, and we like to talk back to him as he comes and goes about three days a week. He often asks if I have a boyfriend. He's married and just playing around with me, but you can tell he's kind of flirting and thinks he's funny. This time when he came in, no one was translating what he was saying. I was at my desk working so I didn't really care, but when he left, I asked what he said. My manager said, "He said you should wear some makeup and lipstick." Well, in Taiwan, I wear a little makeup everyday, more than I usually wear in the states, and so I was kind of annoyed about that. As I thought of it more, I got more annoyed and started asking the questions...Why do people think they can get up in your koolaid and tell you what you should do or shouldn't do with your personal appearance? Why do men think more about the outside than the personality and what a woman can bring to their lives as a whole? I kept on with this line of internal questioning for the better part of the day and grew more frustrated with life here in Taiwan. It's not enough that I spend a year of my mid-forties in a blazing hot and humid climate, standing on my feet speaking at the top of my voice to children who sneeze in my face without reservation on a daily basis, but I have to endure the advice of near strangers about my personal appearance in the midst of this mayhem. Dang it! (What do the mid-40's have to do with it? Well, if I'm not having some hot flashes, I don't know what they are.)

So, I determined I'd pen this blog entry and rant a bit about old men...not all ranting, some raving...but then...

Yesterday, the 23 year old Canadian guy I work with, Ryan, had a much longer break than I had, and I thought he might be running a 15 minute errand to get himself an ice tea drink. So, I excused myself from my tutoring for a minute and called to ask. He said he'd brought two so he didn't plan to go. I said no problem and went back to work. Later, when I was on a 10 minute break and frantically trying to keep up, he walked in the front door with my favorite tea drink. He was singing a Star Wars song or something grandiose like that as he presented me with my drink. In one second, he restored my faith in the ability of men to think of someone other than themselves! Way to go, Ryan!

Regularly, my precious roommate, Ryno (yes these two names are very similar, so you can imagine the confusion I go through) does kind things for me and the rest of us in our house. He is only 24 and such a catch, I really pray that one of my young friends from America will snatch him up (like Julie Veneer or Janae or someone like that) so he can live in the states and I can see him more often than if he stays in Taiwan or goes back to South Africa. (Details are available if anyone wants to set him up.)

So, I know all is not lost on the men in the world. The future looks quite bright actually.

Have a great day...and give your eyes a rest after reading this long one.

Until next time, LC from the TW

Ryan and his kid Norman!

Ryno fixing drinks for our guests.

"No one in the world can be my best partner...

2008-09-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

except the Dio." This is painted on the side of one of the scooters here in Taiwan. It cracks me up the misuse and abuse of the English language in a country desperate to learn but not approaching it the right way. Many people have just enough language to be dangerous.

So, I was at the party on Saturday night (read previous entry for more info), and met this guy named, Thomas. He's been in Taiwan for 5 years, so he's well acclimated, but was cracking me up 'cause he brought up the ridiculous sayings they write on the side of their scooters. It's the manufacturers that do it, and they are funny. I remembered that when I first got here, I cracked up daily at the things I read...before I got angry (some of you have been sending your concerns for me. I think I'm getting a little better.) So, I dug up a card that I had written all these things on about a year ago when I first arrived. Here are a few things I found humorous on the side of the scooters parked near mine.

"Fuzzy: The scooter of wind called 125"
This is a scooter called Fuzzy 125, and someone destroyed the English language with this comparison.

"Sniper 50: Just for Windcutting"
At 50cc's, I don't think anyone's cutting wind. (Breaking wind maybe, but not cutting it.)

"The best racer you are from now on"
Wow...what can I say. Send more teachers. I'm outtie here.

Until next time,
LC from the TW

Typhoon'd, but not marooned!

2008-09-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

Just a quick entry to say thanks for everyone who's been praying for me. You know I've been disconnecting from Taiwan for several months and will spend the next three weeks getting more and more excited about that. This process always creates dissonance between the present and the future, and my experience here is no different. So, I've been unhappy about much of what's happening in my work situation, and as a blog is a place for rants and personal thoughts, I've shared my unhappiness with my readers. Well, this weekend, we are having (although it's died down a lot now as I write on Sunday afternoon) a typhoon, and I've been chillin' at the casa letting it roar outside. (This doesn't look much different than my usual weekend, just perhaps the howling wind makes it more distracting for naps.) Yesterday, Saturday, I woke up and made my roomies a light breakfast of muffins and fruit in honor of Anneloe's birthday. Then the day was spent getting some chocolate chip cookie dough prepared for last minute baking, and cooking Mexican food for her party last night (which had a guest list of 26 people). It was not too stressful and actually a lot of fun...the climax of which was being in the apartment with 21 (typhoon deterred some attendees) South Africans boisterously speaking their native tongue, Afrikaans, and laughing as they enjoyed the Mexican food, bought in an international store and prepared by an American in Taiwan. It was a very relaxing atmosphere, full of love and laughs. South Africans are raised to be polite and genuinely gracious people. I believe every person told me at least once how much they enjoyed the food (burritos, nachos and salad) and they did it with varying expressions of praise and gratitude. It was heart-warming and precious to me, a memory I will cherish as I look at three weeks until leaving.

This morning, we had a smaller crowd and they trickled in even slower than usual as I'm sure everyone waited til they got up to decide if they would brave the storm for church. My pastors sermon was on the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and two other gals and I sang a follow up prayer to the sermon with "Captivate Us" by Watermark. I've been wanting to do that for some time, and had to make today the day since my genious guitarist is heading back to the states for university again at the end of this week. I was really blessed by worship this morning (we also managed Indescribable and I Am a Friend of God) and was so happy to have such a Spirit-led experience here in Taiwan, where I've found such times infrequent and challenging to create.

Icing on the cake: my pastor bought my scooter after worship for the amount I was asking. I'm excited to get that done, and now just ask for prayer as I need to drive it for the next three weeks and don't want to have any problems, mechanically or accident induced.

Thanks for caring about me...and praying. I'm typhoon'd but not marooned! (Oh, teachuh, so funny!!)

Until next time,
LC from the TW

"What happened to your face?"

2008-09-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

That was the first question of the day yesterday when I walked into work. I discovered after a frustrating few minutes of dialogue that I had made my makeup just a little dark, and my manager, Stanley thought I had a bruise. Yea, it's funny now that you think about it, but it prompted this rant, which can only really be titled, "10 Things I Hate About Taiwan" (but there may only be a few in this entry since I don't have mental energy on a Wednesday morning to come up with the entire list...probably.)

1. I hate the way the Chinese cannot speak subtly about anything, so they end up saying things like, "What happened to your face?" when they probably shouldn't say anything at all, or if they must say something, it should be something like, "You have a dark mark on your cheek." My T.A. kept saying, "You have black." It wasn't black and my Canadian co-worker looked at her after she said it the third time and said, "It's not black. It's makeup. You need to review your colors. This CHAIR is black." I laughed at that.

2. I hate that today I have to teach 7 hours in a row without any more than 20 minutes break at any one time, and the Chinese think that this is o.k. This hate can also be summed up in their determination to squeeze the life blood out of their teachers, because they don't value humans, just work, material things, and money. I hate that.

3. I hate when I'm riding my scooter in the dark and I hit a large pothole that sends my scooter down to the earths' core and me on the back of it landing with a mighty jolt to my entire system. Sick of that, and it happens at least once every day.

More to come...later!

Until next time,
LC from the TW

One Julie, Two Joyce's and Too Much Juice

2008-08-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

So, today was Thursday, and I woke up excited to see my friend, Julie, who was coming over for breakfast. Most mornings, I just take my time getting ready for the day, without too much pressure. I usually have the apartment to myself, and it's a good time to talk to friends and family, or surf the net. But this morning was different and fun. Julie has been in Taiwan for 9 years, and she's getting ready to head back to the states at the beginning of next year, so she and I are processing together. I enjoy her a lot, and am so thankful that God orchestrated our meeting at the English fellowship on the first Sunday I was here a year ago. For breakfast, (cause I know some of you will be interested) I made breakfast burritos (complete with Trader Joe's salsa I "smuggled" into the country) and fresh mangoes. Good times.

At the last possible moment, I dashed out the door for work, hopped onto my scooter, and began to listen to Joyce Meyer's sermon, as I do most days on the way to the job. She was on a roll today, talking about how all of us have the fruits of the Spirit in us, but some of the fruits haven't yet been developed so we can't see them. As she was talking about this, a huge tanker truck rambled at a pretty fast pace right out in front of the scooter in front of me, and we all (there were others near me) had to stand on our brakes to avoid hitting him. I was incensed...once again at the utter selfishness of some of the drivers in the TW. Surprising myself, I showed no outward signs of my inner rage, but kept scooting toward work and listening to Joyce. Not long after this, Joyce said, "So, you have all the fruits of the Spirit in you...love, gentleness, self-control, patience..." and on she went. I was pondering these things and agreeing with some of her thoughts, when I was approaching a light and a car just about ran me off the road so he could get two feet in front of me and only to be stopped by the red light. I could not help myself (at least that's what I told myself) and I reacted with some outter rage. I got next to his window and stared through it shouting, "Was it worth the two feet? Just so you could stop at this light? Huh? You almost killed me, and for what?" Then I scooted around him, went the four cars ahead of him and was with the rest of the pack when the light turned green, way in front of him. I heard Joyce say, "You have patience, but it just needs to be developed in God's dark room" about the same time I heard the car I had told off peep it's horn at me from back in the line. I had to smile at the irony and timing of such events, and then feeling some conviction, had to ask God to forgive me (and pray that the guy wasn't a member of my church. Isn't that awful?

Well, after all that happened, I realized I had an extra couple of minutes so I stopped to get some tea at the tea/juice shop I like. Since I would be at work late today, I bought two drinks for the day, one grapefruit green tea, and one milk tea. I scooted on down the road, and when I walked into work, there was a grapefruit green tea on my desk, a frequent but unpredictable gift from one of my co-workers. Wow! Now I had three. It's so hot here, it's not that difficult to drink that much tea in a day, and by tonight I had them all down. There are few breaks in our schedule for using the bathroom, and often when we do have a break someone else is in the toilet, so I don't always get to go. I've sort of adjusted to this, and tonight I didn't really notice that I needed to go.

After work, my co-worker, Cara and I went out for a light dinner with another co-worker Joyce (both Chinese girls) because Joyce will have her last day at Kang Ning tomorrow. We talked a lot about how disappointed she was with the leadership of the school and how she had been treated. Her English is quite good so she was able to express herself pretty well. She told me that she had done her best so she had no regrets, just that she didn't feel things had gone fairly for her. I was able to encourage her a little bit, I think. After we shut down the TGI Friday's, we were standing out in the parking lot and I realized I needed to go to the toilet, but there was nothing around. Then, Joyce started kind of doing the pee pee dance, and I said, "What's the matter Joyce? Are the mosquitoes gettin' ya?" She said yes, and we continued to say goodnight. As I was getting on my scoot, I looked at Joyce again and she was laughing and dancing around and she said, "Oh, I have to pee!" I started laughing then too and knew I better get home soon. For those of you who are jumping ahead in this story, thinking that I wet myself, I want to quickly assure you I did not, but I will say, the potholes were more torturous than normal on the way home tonight!

I'm excited for this weekend. Apparently, my new co-worker, Ryan, is a big basketball fan, and he found out there was a game this weekend in our town between two teams made up of retired NBA players. Clyde the Glide and Scotty Pippin were a couple of names he dropped, and I'm sure there are others I'll know. So, Ryan and his girlfriend, Liz, me and my roommate, Ryno, and two of our other friends, Amber and Sarah, are all going to the game on Saturday. Should be a blast.

Well, that's the update from my end of the stick. As always, thanks for praying!

Until next time,
LC from the TW

Urging, Splurging, and Aging

2008-08-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick check in to tell you a little about the last week in my life here in the TW. That's more or less what a blog is for, and sometimes I neglect it, mostly out of laziness I guess.

Last Monday I was informed by my Chinese co-worker in a communicae that went something like this, "Hey, Loreesa, you have new class. You do demo August 28, start beginner class September 1st. O.K.?" I had been warned this was coming, and I knew there was nothing this woman could do but tell me, so I said o.k., and she kept talking. "You new class is Monday Thursday 2:30. When you have 1 on 2 you start at 12:40. O.K.?" Again, I had a heads up from my Teaching Assistant, so I knew what she was talking about...that on the days when my adult tutoring class of 2 came in, which they do from time to time at 2 on Mondays and Thursdays, they wanted me to teach them at 12:40 until 2:10, then the beginning class at 2:30. I told my co-worker o.k. again, and I continued to work on my lesson plans.

The next morning, Tuesday, before I left for work, I penned an email to the owner of the school, Serena. I told her I felt with one month left in my teaching contract it wouldn't be the best use of my time and wouldn't for many reasons be in the best interest of the school if she asked me to open a new class, demo for the parents what I do as a teacher, and then pass the kids off to someone who is not me (duh!!) in four weeks time. I asked her to reconsider giving me hours doing something that I'm good at and I enjoy, like editing the school newsletter or various other English signage that exists around the school, or anything else she could think of. Urging was the order of the day, and I did my best to urge her to be wise about this.

The next day, Wednesday, was and is always my longest day, and after being at school for 10 hours about to head out the door, exhausted, I got a phone call from Serena. She said she understood my email and agreed with me so I didn't have to open the new class. Then she tried some urging of her own. She asked me to stay at Kang Ning teaching until the end of the calendar year. She said she had been let down by two new teachers she thought she was going to have that didn't end up coming, and she really needed me. I told her I would think about it, but I know she is not as desperate as she sounded, and I know it's time for me to leave, so that's not going to happen.

The rest of the week played out pretty well, with me enjoying Thursday afternoon without teaching, working on planning. It's a new thing for me, and I love it.

I arranged with my new Canadian co-workers, Ryan and Liz, to come over this weekend for Mexican food and a swim in our village pool. (I live in a place called Holland Village, but it is not a village in the quaint and cute sort of way. More like a village because enough people live here to populate one of those cute and quaint mountain towns that we think of when we say the word village. We have a pool.) So, on Saturday, planning for Sundays visit with Ryan and Liz, I "splurged" on some sour cream at the gourmet western food store in my city. (Actually, it is kind of expensive, but something I deem necessary for Mexican food, so I wouldn't have called it splurging, but I wanted another word to rhyme with urging for my title. It costs about $4.50 for a tub of Daisy Sour Cream and it lasts for about a month.)

Lastly, I want to tell you about my Sunday, or at least part of it. My pastor, Rocky, is a retired missionary from Wisconsin or somewhere up there. (Those states kind of all run together for me. Sorry, Lea Ann.) He's boring, and that's putting it nicely. I easily get distracted while he's "preaching" because he doesn't usually preach, more like talking. Yesterday was no different, except that he sprinkled an adult believer and called it baptism. First time I've seen that at this Lutheran Brethren church that's full of people from many denominations. I don't want to talk theology but it was not very moving. I like the immersion baptisms at my church, when there's a little more drama when the person is "raised" to new life in Christ. So, that was during the sermon. We finished worship and then Rocky came back up to say, "I've got one more announcement." He's almost 70, and he came to Taiwan two weeks before me last summer. He nursed his wife about 3 years ago when she was dying of cancer. He's got 5 adult children back in the states. Well, anyway, he called a woman up to stand beside him, and I took a double take as I saw him hold her hand as you would with someone "special". Then he said, "This is Rebecca. We started spending time together in April and we're going to be married in February."

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I've never seen the woman before, never heard a peep that the dude had a sweetheart, and "married" is what he said. I was thinking, "Mawwied?" "Mawwied?" (You have to picture Long Duck Dong from 16 Candles saying that to understand what I was thinking.)

So, that brings me to the third and final point of this blog...aging. Kind of creeps me out that Rocky is going to marry this woman, about 15 or more years younger than him, and I can't decide if it's the creepy old man thing, or the he should marry someone from America who can relate to his culture thing, or if it's the secretive nature of it, or if I'm just jealous...o.k., that's it. I guess deep down inside I don't think my pastor should be making out more than me! I've said it! It's not an aging issue...it's a jealousy issue.

I'll leave you to ponder that one. Looking forward to the comments this week.

Until next time,
LC from the TW

Full Moon, Firecrackers, and Prayer

2008-08-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

Last night, while I was teaching, I could hear firecrackers going off randomly outside of the building. It happens enough that I know there's something up religiously speaking. Then later, when I left work, I noticed almost every home had a little fire burning out in front of it. It's boiling hot here, so that was not in order to keep the cold away. Instead it was to keep the ghosts away. Apparently in Taiwan, the people believe the heavens open in August and on/near the full moon you must put fire on your door to keep the ghosts from coming to your house. Pray for this nation and those of us who try to love the people here. It's challenging!

On a separate prayer issue, I ask you...

"What do you pray for?"

Well...I pray for my family. That my parents will heal from their respective health issues and at least begin to feel less pain, and I pray that my siblings will have love and peace in their relationships with their spouses and kids (and now grandkids). I pray for friends who ask me to pray for specific things, like my friend whose husband moved out and needs to hear miraculously from the Lord that he's going against God's will by abandoning his marriage and three beautiful daughters, meanwhile I ask that God's grace will be sufficient for all her needs and those of the girls ... and my friends who go on mission with God to places like Nicaragua, India or New York City (yea, they all come to mind at the same time) and I know that mission trips are only successful because God's people ask for His guidance a lot more when they are away from their comfort zones and daily routines. I also pray for world issues, the President (present and future), and humanity to begin to act a bit more human toward one another.

Of course, just like many of you, I pray for myself more than anyone else, because I'm reminded many times a day that I need God to help me get through life (and I'm WITH me all day, every day!) And sometimes I pray for God to reveal big things to me...like who to marry (you know that one has become less urgent over the years, but it comes up now and again), how to live my life on a bigger scale (trying to find things that really matter to God), and what to do in the future (where to live, what to do, when, etc.)

I asked so many people to pray for me over the past couple of months as I saw them and they asked how things were going in Taiwan and I said things were challenging and I had applied to teach in New York City...yada, yada, yada. I know many of you prayed for me, and I'm so humbled and thankful because I believe God answered your prayers (if you prayed for His will and not mine.) I heard last night by email that I did not get accepted into the Fellows program, so I'll not be entering their Masters degree program and I won't be teaching in the public school system of NYC in the immediate future.

How do I feel about that? I was kind of prepared to hear it, strangely, because I approached it more or less with the same attitude I do most things...kind of laid back and trying not to care or get too anxious. But, I was kind of disappointed too, since I knew it would be such a great opportunity for me...or so it looked like that on paper (computer screen really). However, I often think something looks good that turns out to be not so good for me. So, I've been praying that God would only open the doors He wants me to walk through, as I often pray, and He's been faithful...I am not supposed to be in that program this year, for some reason, and God only knows.

What's next? That's where your prayers come in again...would you just ask God to keep giving me ears to hear and eyes to see? I have some ideas, and I will walk toward those unless God shows me otherwise. In short, there are two paths I'm looking at - one is to apply for a tutoring job or other type jobs in NYC like I've seen on Craigslist. I will probably do this and see how far it takes me. The other path is to spend a few months in Thailand, with my friends the Kapurs (Kris and Jen), teaching and touring a bit, until Christmas. The day after Christmas my SF church (Temple Baptist) is heading to India and I would join them for a mission at an orphanage our church sponsors. This would be an answer to a long-standing prayer for me. Our church sent a team there two years ago and I wanted to go but the timing wasn't right for me. Plus, I have several friends living there and others who love it and go often, so it's something I've thought about for a long time. (Not to mention the fact that in the world of evangelical missions, India is right next to China in the "two most populated and lost nations in the world" category.)

So, there are a lot of things to pray about and I would once again appreciate your prayers.

love to all of you,
Until next time, LC from the TW

Swollen ankles and a tired voice...

2008-08-12T07:49:00.001-07:00

must mean I'm back at work in Taiwan. I arrived about 53 hours ago, and have already worked two days, teaching only 3 hours on Monday and 4.5 Tuesday. (I've got to get back in the habit of taking my vitamins, because tomorrow and Thursday are 6 hour days.) Jetlag's not been too bad, but I stayed up really late last night saying goodbye to Erin, my co-teacher and friend. She left today to return to her life in Canada. I'm really proud of her for finishing well. We were side by side in this endeavor for the most of this year, 'til I left at the end of June, and I sometimes felt like I was abandoning her in her greatest hour of need. But, she persevered, finished strong, and today she left a lot of students who love her. We got to scoot over to the beach last night for a few hours and watch the moon starting to set. It was great closure for two girls that have "survived" the work schedule and culture of Taiwan for a year. I will miss her.

So, I've still not heard from New York, but it's only been two weeks this Wednesday, which means it's just reaching the minimal amount of time. They said it would be 2-4 weeks before they let me know. Thanks to all of you who are praying with me/for me about this next move for me.

Sorry to keep this short, but I'll need to sleep now......zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Until next time,
LC from the TW

August is here...and so am I

2008-08-04T22:17:00.001-07:00

Hey there everyone, just checking back in quickly here from San Francisco on a foggy, chilly Monday night. I leave for Taiwan on Saturday to resume my job until the end of September.

So...some of you have asked me about New York City and how my interview went, and here's my attempt to answer.

Well, thanks for everyone who was praying for me. I definitely knew people were praying. I arrived in NYC after an eventful day of travel (which of course is always welcomed), and made it to my hotel, where I'd never stayed before, without any problem. After a good night's rest, I got up on Wednesday to a sunny and warm day with several hours to solidify my thoughts on my teaching sample lesson before heading to my interview at 5:00. I was able to meet up with Rebekah Slick, a friend of mine that just moved from SF to NYC about 10 days ago. We hung out for about an hour before I went back to my hotel to change clothes for the evening.

So, I made it to the interview early, and sat in a classroom with 7 other candidates for half an hour before these two teachers came in to interview us. After some introductions, we each had five minutes to do our teaching sample. It was very regimented and felt really false, since we were all trying to teach to a chosen age group, mostly elementary, although we were all adults of course. Anyway, I chose to teach on the present continuous form of the verb "to be". After my intro, I told a story about a mother named "Be" (last name "ing") who had three young children and two older children. My lesson focused on her three young children called "is, am and are". (The older children are called "was and were".) Each of the children have some friends. "Am" is shy so she only has one friend, "I". But, "is" and "are" have three friends each. "He, She and It" are friends with "is" and "You, We and They" are friends with "are". The story made sure to point out that mother "Be" always goes everywhere with her children, so whoever she's with and whatever they're doing, "ing" is also there. For instance, if there's "am" in the sentence, there will also be "I" and you must have "ing" on the end of the verb, like "I am playing". Also, "He is running" or "She is laughing".

I ended my lesson with a game where the students had to unscramble sentences that included the present continuous form of the verb.

I think my lesson went pretty well, all in all, so thanks again for praying.

After we had all done our lessons, we had a short break before returning to the interview for group discussions. Our two interviewers had randomly split us into two groups, where we were asked to take part in a discussion about a real life situation in a public school in New York City. Of course there were some hard to navigate issues in the discussion, but I think it went alright.

We then had to write an essay on the same issues that were addressed in the discussion. We were timed, and I guess I did alright on that too.

Lastly, we had a 25 minute interview one on one with one of the teachers who had been interviewing us. I got to go first, as I was the only one who'd flown in for this event, and she had some mercy on me. There were some tough questions during that part of the evening, but I did my best to be honest, even if I didn't know much about that subject. Since I was first to go through this part, I got out early, and it wasn't even dark outside when I left the building. I got back to my hotel in time to watch "So You Think You Can Dance".

As I was walking back to my hotel that night, I had to take a deep breath and sigh a prayer of relief. I knew I had done all I could do at that point, and that's still how I feel. I will know something within the next three weeks and will certainly keep you posted. It was great to know people were praying for me and that I would be in God's will throughout this process. I would thank you all for continuing to pray for me around this decision as God lays it on your heart.

I've had an awesome vacation, and now I'm gearing up toward teaching in Taiwan for the next several weeks, starting one week from today. I'll keep you posted on that too.

Take care, until next time.
LC from SF (after NYC and OKC! ;)

Is July over yet?

2008-07-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

well, I've been on vacation for 4 weeks, and I get confused on what day it is, so I thought I would ask.

The funny thing about having a blog is you never know who's reading it. I started my blog because I had moved to a strange and new place and needed an outlet for sharing my experiences. Then, I started to bore myself with the constant complaints, so I didn't write as much...then, well, you probably know what happened then...if you read the blog.

The other funny thing about having a blog is I feel there's no need to write if I'm around all the people that read it (all two of you...thanks mom and dad.) Today, however, I realized that I often write on this blog to gather prayer support when I need it and to share my thoughts on things as I see them. Today I feel inspired enough to write again, and here goes.

Here I am in the states, lovin' the vacation vibe, (it's Saturday morning and I'm at Claudias in San Francisco...the sun is shining so clearly I can see a mountain on the other side of the bay, that I'm sure I've never seen from her deck before.) As good as it feels to be on vacation, I'm just starting to think about getting back to work in two more weeks. I'll leave San Francisco August 9th, arrive in Taiwan on the 10th, and start teaching again on the 11th. I've resigned my job, as many of you know, but I have to return to teach for 7 weeks 'til the end of September. What comes after that is a little up in the air, but this is what I know...

I will be flying to New York this Tuesday morning, only for two nights to interview with the New York Teaching Fellows program, for a potential job teaching ESL to children enrolled in one of the 1450 New York Public Schools. For more info on this program you can read all about it at www.nycteachingfellows.org. It looks like a solid opportunity to do a lot of what I've been doing in Taiwan, but in a context where everyone around me speaks English, and I'm familiar with the culture in which I'm living. I'm only a short plane ride from family and friends, and maybe, just maybe, I'll get the chance to sing with one of the most awesome gospel choirs of our time. I hope to get to audition for the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, and be involved in the ministry of the choir for a couple of years, before the Cymbalas retire. They've been at the church for so long, I think they could retire anytime, so I'm anxious to get there.

So....I will interview next Wednesday evening in New York City. If I am accepted into the program, I will start my 7 weeks of training on November 3, finishing on December 19. During that time, I will be placed in a New York City public school somewhere in one of the five boroughs (Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Bronx), where I'll be mentored and learn the system. Also during the training, I will be alerted to job openings and get to go on interviews to try to secure a teaching position in the system. When I'm hired, I can begin work at anytime, and my Masters degree classes will begin in February. Once I'm hired, I will have to find a permanent place to live as close as possible between Brooklyn and wherever my school is. (I'm responsible for finding my housing during training, so I'll be looking for a temporary solution during that time.) Before all that happens, I have to pass two standardized tests on October 18th in NYC. These are the LAST (Liberal Arts and Sciences Test) and the CST (Content Specialty Test). Woo hoo ...tests!

All of these things are exciting challenges for me, which will require a lot of praying and listening to God so I can know what's best for me. On my own, I'm a failure. I know that. But with God, all things are possible. I can't even explain what it is about this that makes sense to me or appeals to me, I just know I have a deep desire to do it... and so I take one step at a time. The next step is flying to New York, going through the interview (which involves a 5 minute teaching sample on any topic - I've got to figure that out this weekend... aagh!), and seeing what happens then. Thanks for praying that I will be in God's will throughout this process.

I have been having a great time on vacation...beginning with seeing everyone in San Francisco for two days before flying to Toronto, seeing an old friend of mine from Scotland now living in western Ontario, meeting my friend Michelle's fiance (now husband) 4 days before their wedding, taking part in all the fun festivities surrounding their July 4th wedding, flying off to New York City for a vacation for four nights and five days, then back to San Francisco for a weekend before flying to Oklahoma to see my family, R.V. camping at the lake in southern Oklahoma with my parents, nephew (wife and four kids), niece (and husband), brother (and wife), and my cousin. (To read a sweet entry about my Oklahoma vacation, check out my nephews family blog at kmanderson.blogspot.com.)

Now, I'm back in SF, recovering and thinking a lot about next things. Looking forward to the adventure, and not without a little bit of trepidation. Vacations are a good time, eh? Maybe I'll post pictures later...maybe not. ;)

Well, like I said, it's a beautiful day in the bay area, and ... what... oh, yea, there it is...the sun is calling me to get out of my pj's and go out to enjoy it. Gotta go.

Until next time,

LC from SF (not TW ... at the moment)

Whoosh!!!...there goes June!

2008-06-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

That's what it feels like so far, and I'm not complaining. I shouldn't be so time-obsessed, but I'm sure there are many things which God still wants to perfect in me, so add it to the list and keep praying that God will do a great work in me.

This morning, I'm up early to go for a job interview at a university near my home. It sounds like a good opportunity in many ways, but won't pay as much, and it's only part time, so if you don't work you don't get paid. That's a problem here since universities take July and August off, as well as 6 weeks in the winter. However, it's a good chance for me to get to know the system and perhaps have influence in the university community. I'll go to the interview, see what they have to offer, and pray that God will give me wisdom to do what He wants.

The other options are for me to continue on here at my current job through next March as I had been planning, or to try to get a job in a government elementary school. For the pay and number of teaching hours, as well as the paid vacation time, the government elementary school is definitely the way to go. The government recently changed the laws so that I am now qualified to teach in these schools, so I feel it's something I need to consider at least.

Always on my mind is the countdown to when I get to see some of you, just 2 and a half weeks til I fly to San Francisco, and I'm excited. I am past the point of seeing things in terms of weeks or even days here, and have been plodding along the last few days trying to make it through one class at a time, so you can tell my brain (and body) needs a break. The constant barrage of "Teachuh, teachuh, teachuh!" is a sound I am totally over. It reminds me of being in charge of a group of people in ministry and hearing my name over and over, until all I wanted was to change my name. I guess leadership comes with that price to pay, everyone wanting to get your attention and ask you a question. Sometimes I want to retire from my personality, and right now, that's what I want with regards to being the "teachuh!"

It's time for me to bolt out of here for my interview, so this will be short. I just really wanted to check in, say "Happy June" to everyone, and ask once again for prayer support as I make some tough decisions about my future in the next few days, while juggling my day to day responsibilities as a teacher. I also need to be motivated to get my ministry position filled while I'm gone for six Sundays traveling. This has proven to be a challenge in a time when I don't really want another challenge.

Thanks for praying. Let me know how I can pray for you.
Until next time, LC from crazy TW

You know when...

2008-05-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

you're feeling emotionally drained and you can talk about it, so you know you're still o.k.? Then, sometimes, you're so emotionally drained that it kicks into the way you feel physically and you can't really talk about it 'cause it takes too much energy? Well, I've been feeling so weary emotionally here over the past month, that I've just been putting one foot in front of the other and not had much joy, certainly not enough to write an entry in my blog.

So, my sincere apologies to the likes of my sister who was telling me yesterday that she checks my blog everyday, and she's been beyond bored with me lately...I've been bored with me lately, too. Show me a teacher who isn't at the end of their rope in May each year, and I'll show you the exception to the norm. It stands to reason that as we near the summer, the kids are getting more excited about the break and so are the teachers and administrators.

It is no different here in Taiwan, where we maintain this schedule year round, but still long for a break at this time of the year. I am exhausted, AND it's that time of the year, AND I'm not anticipating being off in four short weeks, so my attitude wavers from positive to negative on a daily basis.

Saying all that, TODAY is a good day! This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

It's Sunday, June 1st for me, and I'm getting ready for worship. It's communion so we're singing songs about how much Jesus loves us. I'm looking forward to the day because I've missed the fellowship. Last weekend, I went camping with some friends and wasn't at church. Then yesterday, I had a pretty solitary day, staying home, talking on the phone, running a few errands, baking banana bread and watching movies. I needed it, and I enjoyed it, but I'm ready for the fellowship today will bring.

After church, today, I will scoot over to Chudong to give out the awards at our school's annual speech competition. I am the M.C. and have to give a "short speech", at leas that's what the organizer of todays event has told me no less than two times a day for the past two weeks. (These people repeat themselves A LOT!) So, today will be a little different than normal, and also a day to be proud of my students and others at the school. I need this day. Sometimes I feel I'm not making a difference, as I think I'm too close to the process to see significant changes, and the process of language learning is so slow at times it seems like nothing has changed. But when you hear a child that speaks very softly in class with his peers, standing on a stage with a couple hundred people looking at him, and he recites a speech by memory, strong enough to be heard and judged, you can see something's getting through.

Well, must get going here. Rehearsal begins at 7:45, so I'm dashing.

Until next time...sooner than last time, let's hope...LC from the TW!

A good Friday, a relaxing Saturday and Sunday, and it's...

2008-05-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Monday again!! The weather is beautiful this morning and I'm in a decent mood to enter the week, so that's a blessing. I'll tell you about yesterday in a moment, but first let me explain the picture and video.

Friday, I gave E2 a party, sort of, since they had done their final test and we'd talked about it, I took them some snacks and we went out to the courtyard at the back of our building to play some games. Lee-Sheen is my little wonder child, with whom God's given me favor, and to whom I've referred in earlier blog entries. So, he's in that class (and in B3) and he was being his normal 2nd grade self, playing with his friends outside. I don't often get to see this side of Lee-Sheen since I'm always teaching him and he's always studying very hard and trying to finish assignments. So, I made a video of the kids playing and him talking to the camera.

The picture below is from the last class on Friday, it finishes at 7:35 and then I get to leave, which is always a happy time. I am currently teaching 17 or 18 classes a week, each lasting 90 minutes, so by the time the last one rolls around each week, I'm usually really tired. Friday was no exception, and if you read my previous blog you'll understand some of the reason why. The kids were all sort of chatty and giggly and I had to keep them on task, trying to help them understand the difference between noun, verb, adjective and preposition, which I think is too difficult for their level, but that's another topic. I was wavering between discipline and fun most of the class period, but I was getting pretty close to my edge by the end of it. Then class was over and I dismissed them, but these three stayed behind, looking embarrassed but determined. Finally Cosmo, the wonder child, burst out with, "Teacher, I love you, Happy Mother's Day!" followed by a fit of laughter on the floor then he, Mavis (the glasses) and Angel all gave me pictures they had drawn on pieces of notebook paper. I had to take a picture with them because they were so cute and pleased with themselves, (and because the co-teacher walked in right at that time.)

That was Friday. Saturday I met Julie for 10 breakfast and didn't return home until about 1, which was great. Julie's my American friend here (though she hardly qualifies after living in Taiwan for 9 years!!) She's great to talk with and we were both unscheduled lazy girls so we just took our time chatting and catching up.

Sunday worship went well, and I believe because God knew where I was emotionally, He sent two people to encourage me after worship. It was great to hear that worship matters to people, although I know it does from leading and sensing the Spirit inspiring the body to worship. But it's always good to hear people say it. A Chinese gal, named Joy, whom I'd never seen that I know of, approached me after service to say that each Sunday when she leaves she has the worship songs on her mind all week. I thought that was awesome and it's certainly one of my goals as a worship leader so that was encouraging. Then I grabbed this South African lady I know here to chat with her about something else, and she was also encouraging. Thank God for those two conversations.

The rest of Sunday had moments of relaxation and good conversation, wishing my mom Happy Mother's Day on the phone, and making chili and mango sticky rice (not to be consumed together). We invited friends for an early evening meal, and there were 8 of us. All of us satisfied and happy, everyone left and the house was still again by 9.

So, I'm pleased to have had such a good weekend, and now look forward to the week of teaching and reconnecting with each class.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts many of you have expressed concerning my friends Todd and Timberley and the tragic loss of their daughter. I believe some of the mystery has been settled as I spoke to mutual friends this weekend who heard that the accident involved a bike and a car. I assume this means that Anna was riding her bike when she was hit by a car and killed. Please continue to pray for this family as they grieve and determine their future plans.

Until next time, LC from TW

Cosmo, Angel and Mavis

E2 Video

If it would only snow tomorrow...

2008-05-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

we would have "enjoyed" all four seasons this week. I can't believe the weather this week in Hsinchu. We have wind most days, so if I tell you it's been windy, you must know it's been VERY windy. That said, on Sunday, it was so humid and hot, I changed clothes about four times I think. Then in the night, it turned cold. I mean really cold, and by the time I scooted to work, it was raining and windy! That continued on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the clouds parting late in the evening while I was in class , so I drove home last night in a mist rather than deluge. Now it's Thursday morning and the sun is bursting through blue skies and I can feel the heat returning. Global warming I guess!

Weather report finished, I have to tell you something very serious and sad this morning. I have friends all over the world, because of my faith and my journey with other like-minded people. A couple that I've known since before they started dating, live in Indonesia with their two children. Todd and Timberley, are from San Mateo, California and Richmond, Virginia, respectively and they got married in San Francisco at FBC about a dozen years ago or so, after meeting and dating while we were all in seminary together at GGBTS. I met Timberley in '89 when we served as journeymen in the same class at the IMB. I would have visited her in Cyprus when I was living in Scotland but George the 1st started the Gulf War about the time I was set to travel there so I went to Spain instead. I was living in the dorms at GG with Timberley when she started crushing on the intellectually attractive Todd. So, I got to be part of the processing for her while they dated and were engaged. I was at their wedding at FBC after I helped them become associate members so they wouldn't have to pay to get married there.

I haven't seen them much in the past 6 years or so, because they've been serving overseas, but I had met their two children, Samuel, who is about 11 I think and Anna, age 9 or 10, in California when they were on sabbatical. Todd is a professor at a seminary now. I receive their monthly updates and prayer requests so I know what's going on with them.

This morning, I opened a somewhat cryptic email that said their daughter, Anna, had gone to be with the Lord after an accident yesterday. I am in shock and cannot imagine what they must be feeling. But, as they said in their email, they know that God is in control of all things, and they have peace that she is with Him. Wow! I can only ask that all of the people who read this would just take a moment to ask God for comfort and clarity as they deal with all the aspects of something like this happening. An accident...in an international setting...where they live as witnesses in a land of militant islamic believers...their heads must be spinning with all the decisions they must make for their future, not to mention just having to accept the loss and God's will when it comes at such a personal cost for them and their family.

Pray for Samuel, who was Anna's constant playmate since birth, for Timberley as a grieving mother. and Todd who has lost his little girl. With all the songs and books out on relationships these days, I think we all know that fathers have a special place in their hearts for their daughters, and Todd is a strong man of God, which will help sustain him through this tragic time. This family has been sold out to God for many years and they have deep love for their people group, so I ask God that they would have peace about how to continue life on these new terms. I've included some pictures that Timberley's sent me over the last year of their family. You can see how young and sweet Anna was. Full of fun and adventure, as is true for so many children who grow up in an international setting.

Anna getting braids on vacation. Sweet girl!

Todd and Timberley, Samuel and Anna
on vacation in Bali.

MK's often make life more interesting for themselves
by playing with bugs and animals in their
country of residence. Here Samuel and Anna
have slugs on their neck and face and their mom
sent it to me with the subtitle "Sam and Anna's pets".

So, thanks for praying for this family!

On a personal note, I enjoyed a weekend of feeling well and had a great worship experience on Sunday morning, but woke up Monday morning with clogged sinuses again. I don't know if it's a recurring sinus infection or what, but it's pretty uncomfortable to live with, so I've had a hard week. I hate always complaining about life here, but the most honest thing I can say is it's difficult to be here. This week, because of being so exhausted and discouraged about being sick all the time, I've been entertaining the possibility of coming home for good this summer. I really don't want to, and don't have peace about doing that, but the entertaining of said possibility is something that keeps coming to my mind every time I blow my nose, or feel uncomfortable. Yesterday, during A11, I lost it on my kids because they just could not shut up! I have a new boy in that class who is older (in a class of younger more serious learners), and before he came to my class he walked past another class and gave them the middle finger, so you can see how charming this one is. His name is Victor, and he's been in my class 3 times now. Since the first day, he sits right under my nose, and still he manages to wreak havoc on the rest of the kids, changing the dynamic of a class that had finally gotten to a manageable place. He gets everyone all riled up and yesterday they all thought they could say, "Teacher, teacher, teacher..." multiple times each to get my attention. Well with 14 kids in a class, it doesn't take but one time each for me to start to lose it. So, they had to endure a 30 second loud lesson on what they can and cannot do to get my attention in the future. I then called up the Chinese assistant to reinforce what's o.k., and what's not o.k. in Teacher Larissa's class. We'll see tomorrow if they remember it.

I am longing for the weekend. Today is Thursday so it's very near, but I'm staring my longest day in the face and now feel so heavy because of the shocking news about Todd and Timberley's daughter. I am facing nothing today like what they are facing. I think I will do well to remember God doesn't put on us more than we can handle and all things work together for our good according to His will and His purpose.

Gotta grade some tests. Thanks for praying.

Until next time, LC from The TW

Another Friday morning...and

2008-05-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

I'm feelin' fine. Looking forward to the weekend, as always. I've been really exhausted this week after double duty last week, but thankfully it's been pretty uneventful. I have a lot of extra responsibilities to take care of this morning at school to finish the week a little better ready for next week, so hopefully I'll get to work early today.

Thanks to all of you who prayed for me last week. I totally needed it. The upsides to my taking that on were 1) the children were a welcome change to the children I usually teach, and
2) the co-teacher turned out to be a Christian Chinese lady that goes to the Chinese language service at my church, so she was great to hang out with for a few hours a day.

What does welcome change mean? Well, the children I usually teach have such limited language ability that I'm constantly having to slow my speech and choose my words carefully, then evaluate how I can better explain myself when I'm met with the blank stare of not understanding. This is tedious to say the least, and it's often discouraging and frustrating for me, and no doubt for the children. However, the children at Hsinchu International School (HIS) were mostly speaking English well for 3 and 4 year olds. It was like taking care of preschoolers back in Oklahoma when I was 15. The biggest challenge everyday was keeping them interested in whatever activity they were doing at the time, and making sure the three Japanese boys (Shogo, Ryota, and Masatoshi - no lie) weren't planning the next invasion of China in their daily summit meetings. (These three would speak Japanese to one another in these huddles that looked very intense when the rest of the children would be playing at recess. It cracked me up. When do these patterns form in children. Intensity at age 3? Wow!)

So, HIS was a great diversion to my routine, and I welcomed it. I was thinking this week, that although I was actually in the states just 11 weeks ago, it really seems like it's been much longer since I was there. It feels to me like I've been gone for 8 months or something, which I guess I have in total.

Anyway, please pray for me to be encouraged in the remaining 8 weeks until I get to take a 5 week break this summer. I'm excited about the plans shaping up for my trip to the states and Canada. I'll be singing in my friends wedding on July 4th in Toronto, so that will be a blast. The following day, I'll go to NYC for a few days with a couple of SF friends to enjoy the sights and culture of New York. I'm really looking forward to seeing friends and family in San Francisco and Oklahoma as well. And then I'll come back to Taiwan to finish my contract, which I've extended until next March. I'm excited, but exhausted too. Thankfully, I no longer have a cold (but with children sneezing in my face on a regular basis that could change, so thanks for praying for my health.)

I will post some photos of the children later this weekend. What a crack up!

O.K., must run. Until next time, it's May, and I'm in Taiwan! Aagh!!
LC

Hump Day...

2008-04-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

and I really need a few prayers to finish strong this week. Monday morning, my friend Julie called me to ask if I could sub at a really easy job for the mornings this week, 8-12. I went to see the school and meet the class and co-teacher, and was so impressed with everything, I said I'd do it. Yesterday was my first full day to start at 8 and finish at 9:15, and now I'm facing three more of those, so I need prayer. You may ask why I would do this, but I guess all I can say is it seemed o.k. to do it, the job is pretty easy, (although it's watching over 12 pre-K kids, including 3 precocious little boys), the co-teacher has great English, and I found out yesterday she goes to the Chinese speaking congregation at my church, so that's cool. The extra pay I'll get this week will pay for my rent for a month, and that's handy since I'm looking at being gone for a whole month this summer, spending instead of earning. AND, on the health front, my cold is gone since I'm pumping my body with Vitamin C and water every day, so my energy is a little better.

All in all, I know the week will fly, but what I want prayer for is...patience with all my kids. This has to come from God as I'm not naturally gifted in this area (as you know) and when you throw in normal weariness from long days with living in this foreign context, I can be pretty crabby. Pray that my usual classes at my school will run smoothly and I will be gracious to ALL my children. Big prayer!

Speaking of prayer, thanks for praying for Lee-Sheen and his parents. The father met us after church for lunch, but LS and his mom came to church!! Big praise. We had a great afternoon and I was so happy to finally get to connect with the father, as I have never had an opportunity before. His English name is Frank, and as I said, her name is Jean, so keep praying for our relationship when you think about me.

I have a free day on Saturday to recover from this week, and I get off at 7:40 on Fridays now, so I'll check in at the weekend to let you know how God answered your prayers. Thanks again for loving me from a distance.

Until next time, LC

It's the weekend...

2008-04-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

and I'm getting ready to go down to Taichung today to spend some time with my friends, Otey and Cheryl and their three kids. Their oldest, Hannah, is in Seussical the Musical at her high school, and I love that show, so I'm excited to see them do it. I'm in a fat hurry, but I wanted to quickly tell you two things that I've experienced this week. (By the way, I posted a few pictures from my trip to Thailand so you may want to look at my previous post again.)

Last Saturday, I got up at the crack of dawn, drove over to Chudong, met up with 10 of my co-workers and got on the bus from H-E-double toothpicks (sorry, but it was!) to go up into the mountains of Taiwan where there is an aboriginal village of farmers. One of the gals who worked for Kang Ning was born in that village, one of nine children, and she now lives in Taipei. She was our guide and we had a blast, (once we got off the bus...winding roads, with potholes that touched middle earth, for two hours, me with a cold and on medicine, I was pale and wanted to hurl, but never did!)

There are many details about this day that I could share, but I must just say the highlight of the day was meeting our guides parents and some of her family. Her father, apparently was a minister in the Presbyterian church in the village for 30 years, and we met him and his wife. Their countenance was amazing and it truly gave me a different and welcome impression of Taiwanese people. This has been a prayer request for awhile, so I am thankful that God answered my prayers. When I spoke to the man about his life (through his daughter as our interpreter), he said that the whole village was Christian. This really did my heart good to hear. After lunch, we were relaxing around their lodge (a huge retreat house with traditional bunkbeds that will sleep 10 people each), and one of his granddaughters came in to turn on the television. I took my Ipod off my ears when I saw she was watching a worship service. It was Joel Osteen from Houston and no matter what you think of him, his worship team can play and the worship leader was bustin' out with How Great is Our God! I started singing and Anne (our guide) came in and started singing it in Chinese, and again, my heart swelled with excitement. Wow! It was cool.

Well, that was a week ago, and I've needed to post this all week, but haven't really made the time to do it, since I was full of the cold all week, and just had the energy to teach and come home to my bed.

However, one last story about my student Lee-Sheen, with whom God has given me favor. Lee-Sheen started out in a lower level class of mine, but quickly proved himself to be in the wrong class level. He's very bright, and his English is great, so I promoted him within a month or so of being here. About 6 weeks ago, his mother asked if we could put him in another class of mine, since he likes me, and she wants him to have four days of English class a week, rather than just two, which is the norm. His mother's English is very good, and we have had some very good conversations. Several weeks ago, she talked to me about coming to church, and expressed real interest in it. Then this week, she asked me again about it, and I told her that I really believed Lee-Sheen would benefit from being in Sunday School with all the children at our church, since he is an only child, and he is a little A.D.D., and can be demanding. She immediately got that, and said, "O.K., what time does it start? We'll come this Sunday!" I really pray that she and her husband will come together, that Lee-Sheen will have an instant connection to the teacher and to some of the other students, that the worship and sermon will pierce the heart of these people and that God will have His way in their lives. So, if you think about it, no matter when you read this, lift up this family, who's priorities seem to have focused, up to now, on material things. Her name is Jean, and I don't know the father's name. Thanks.

Gotta run.
Until next time,
LC from TW

Anne and her parents in front of their house.
He's 62 and the mother is 56.
It's a hard life in the mountains, I guess,
but they have faces full of joy.

(Sorry about the angle!)
This family entertains guests from the
lowlands regularly, and here the father
is singing a traditional song for us.
It was very moving.

The only good thing about...

2008-04-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

not being able to breathe through my nose is I don't have to worry about holding my breath on my scoot home going past the street vendors selling stinky tofu. Yep, I came back from Thailand with a cold and my nose is so stopped up I can't smell or taste anything. Last night after work, as I rounded the corner into this small market street on my route home, I was reminded of how fortunate it was to not smell that rotten smell. The Taiwanese call it Cho Do Fu, but all the westerners call it STINKY Tofu, because it is strong and smelly. I don't know how they do it, but they season it with all kinds of funk and then deep fry it and the smell wafts through the streets. You never know when you're going to pass a vendor selling it, but you can't mistake it when you do. I once asked several of my classes if they like it and I didn't have one person tell me they didn't like it. They all said, "It's delicious." They may have been showing off that they knew the word delicious, but seriously, I think they all love it. It is apparently the national dish, according to one of my co-workers, Sharon, who has informed me that I have to try it before I leave Taiwan, or I cannot say that I've lived in Taiwan. (Why can't milk tea be the national dish?) I guess asking a Taiwanese person if they like stinky tofu is like asking someone from the south if they like fried chicken. Or, asking someone from Texas if they like Dr. Pepper. (My supplier in Hsinchu ran out of Dr. Pepper about 3 weeks ago, so I've not had any for awhile.)

Anyway, all that rambling, to say I've got a cold, even though it's hot here. It turned off hot and humid this week and I was able to ride the scoot to work without a jacket for the first time in 6 months I think. It will soon be unbearably hot in our apartment I'm sure. Alas, I cannot be pleased when it comes to the weather.

Speaking of hot...it was hot in Thailand. My friend, Julie and I had a very relaxing three days and four nights, although now, on Friday morning at the end of a busy week, it seems like we were there a month ago rather than a week ago. Thailand is a tropical Asian experience replete with street markets selling black market wares, the tuk tuks (open air cabs for two plus people run off a motorcycle engine), the smells of green curry and pad thai, and the people begging on the streets. I saw many people from around the world walking the streets and markets of Bangkok and Pattaya (pat tuh yuh), and got to use my Irish accent on a young Irish guy who approached me in the street to see if I wanted to join his party in the bar for a bucket. (Apparently the bucket is the preferred container for mixing drinks and consuming them in Thailand amongst western tourists.) He was funny, although he was drunk. As soon as I mimicked his accent he asked me where I was from. I told him San Francisco, and he told me he was drunk. As I walked away, I thought, it was kind of funny, and really sad at the same time.

One of the things I liked most about doing this short vacation was seeing the looks on my kids faces when I got into a limo at my school on Thursday evening, and then getting dropped off at school with one hour to plan for the day on Monday. I couldn't have planned this or executed it any tighter, and many of you know how I relish the challenge of tight travel plans.

I also enjoyed just getting to take my watch off for a few days, getting two massages in one day (one delivered to my room - luxury), sitting by the pool (fully covered), and eating some of the best food I've had in months (green curry giant prawns!)

What I didn't enjoy about Thailand - our resort in Pattaya was on a dirty beach and our view was of industrial cranes. When we walked around the town, the prostitution was really in your face, and one couldn't just ignore what goes on in that country. Please pray for the people of Thailand to come to know the Savior.

Well, I've got to scoot, so I'll close for now.

Until next time, LC in TW

Julie on the beach being intellectual.

Eating Mango Sticky Rice in Bangkok.
Nothing intellectual about me!

Our cute little taxi guy taking us to the airport
at 5 in the morning. Ugh! Nice taxi though!

Julie in the Burberry Taxi at 5 in the morning.
Vacation over!

Just one of many funny things we saw in Bangkok.
In this funky boutique hotel lobby where we stayed,
these were the bathroom doors. At first, I really
wasn't sure which one to go into...lol!

Pictures as previously promised...

2008-04-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

As always, not much time for posting an entry, but here are the photos of Sunny, one from last week, and one from this week's Monday class. I posted the entry mentioning her on Monday morning before work, and then went to teach her class. Didn't she show up with the cutest pants on and her hair done up like she was in a wedding or something? I tell you, watch this girl, 'cause if she doesn't grow up to be a model in Taiwan/Asia somewhere, I'll be shocked and her mother will be devastated I'm guessing.

Gotta get classes planned for the day, so I can work, come home and pack, and leave for school tomorrow ready to be picked up after two classes and swept off to the airport for an evening flight to THAILAND. Beach resort, cheap massages, good Thai food, and Thai coffee here I come...for 3 glorious days. Woo hoo!!

Until next time, LC

Sunny, last week, walking across the room before
she was aware I had the camera out. Love the stripes!

I had her stand up and read with Jessie and Juliana
this week in class to try to get her ensemble,
and the hair, but it's not a great shot. You get the idea.

April's on the horizon...

2008-03-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

where does the time go? It's been two weeks since my last blog entry and it seems like four. Sorry to my faithful four or five that check in to see what life's like here in Asia. This is not an earth-shattering post, no really humorous stories to share, and since it's Monday morning and I'm in typical fashion chasing my tail, I'm not going to set up the camera and show the latest picture of my A8 Sunny. Although I'll have to do it later, 'cause last week she came in dressed like a model again and I couldn't resist taking a picture of her. She cracks me up!

So, hmmm, the last two weeks highlights...Easter weekend was a blast, with an evening picnic planned by Tinus and Marguerite (two of the S. African friends I hang with here) on the Saturday, which was the day in between both of their birthdays. It was cool to get together with people they love, some I know and love and some I didn't know at all. I especially loved talking to a new gal that all the S.A.'s talk about but whom I'd never met. She's the mother of 15 month old twins, so she's been really busy in the 7 months I've been here. But it was finally cool to get to put a face to all the stories about her. The twins were at home with Papa, giving her a rare moment to be an adult with other adults.

The Easter Sunday morning was a wet beginning, but that didn't put me off trying to find a sunrise beach scene. I live just 15 minutes from the water, albeit on the West coast, so it was a short scoot, but the rain was pouring so I was wet within one minute of leaving the apartment. My friend, Claudia had sent me some killer rainboots in the mail the day before and I took them on their inaugural run that morning. My friend, Ryno and I went to a place where we could stand under a shelter, staring at the ocean rockin' with the wind and rain, and prayed for the day, thankful that we both have a relationship with the risen One, and praying for people who would be in our company that don't yet know Jesus. It was a very cool moment even if we had to exercise faith to believe the sun had risen, in some ways not unlike the faith required to believe the Son has risen. We scooted to a nearby 7-11, sloshed into the store, picked out some "breakfast" and sat there watching the clouds move off while we talked and ate. We got back in time to change into church clothes and then the rain had stopped.

Easter worship was cool and there was a packed house, including my friend and co-worker, Erin with her friend/my friend too Erica. It's always fun to merge your work life with your other parts of life, and this was no exception.

After worship, we all came to our house to get ready for the potluck we'd planned for Easter lunch. We had 14 people here for lunch and quite a spread I must say. The leftovers lasted me for lunches throughout the week, so that'll tell you how much food there was. Everybody enjoyed themselves which was just what we all needed I think. When everyone left at almost 5:00 my roommates and I all went into our respective bedrooms to nap, but understandably we were still exhausted the next morning when we got up to have Easter Monday breakfast together as a household. Monday night was an early night for us all. Good weekend.

Now, it's Monday again and we've just come through another cool weekend, that was not nearly as busy and yet still a lot of fun. I asked my roommates last night what they're looking forward to this week, and not surprisingly they all said "a four day work week." Yep, me too. We get Friday off as a random holiday, I believe it's called "Tomb-sweeping Day". Gotta find me a broom, I reckon...and a tomb too come to think of it. Actually, I've decided, rather spontaneously, to join my friend Julie on a weekend trip to Thailand. We're leaving Thursday night and returning Monday morning. It's only a 2.5 hour flight, and the package was pretty reasonable, so I said why not. We'll be at a beach resort for 2 nights and in Bangkok for 2 nights, with 3 days to play and relax. Yea!! Vacation!!

Well, I've got to get moving here. One last highlight/praise from the last few days. Last Thursday I was listening to Joyce Meyer while I was scooting to work, and the podcast was on Faith. I really liked some of the things that she and her guest said, so I texted my roommates to see if they would be around Friday night so we could listen to it together. They were all in, so we got together over some homemade quiche (thanks Mari and Annaloe) and listened to the 14 minute pcast on Faith. Then we talked about what we needed more faith for in our individual lives and I asked them to pray for a meeting I would hopefully have with my boss the next day. It was a cool time of sharing together.

The next morning, Saturday, I went to Chudong to do the storytelling, and then I went to lunch with Serena, my boss, the founder and director of the school. I knew I was covered in prayer and because of that I was able to diplomatically suggest some things that she might do to make the teachers enjoy their jobs more. (You know God was doing the talking if I was able to be diplomatic!) She was very receptive and even excited that she could create an environment that attracts teachers in a climate that is very competitive for schools hiring and keeping teachers. I really knew that God had given me favor with her when she reacted so positively.

Well, that's all from the TW. Gotta go teach A8, A7 and B4! Woo hoo! The wind is blowing in gusts, there's a light rain falling, but the temp is not too low, so that's o.k. Thanks for reading and thanks for keeping me in your prayers.

Have a great week.

Until next time,
LC

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2008-03-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Today's my dad's birthday, and since it's Sunday, he's doing what he's done most Sunday's for the past 51 years (since he was 23!) He's preaching. Today he begins a four day revival meeting in a church in the small town of Chelsea in NE Oklahoma. I phoned him this morning and he was getting ready to drive to the church. He downplayed the fact that it was his birthday. When you're in ministry it's a little weird to have a birthday on a Sunday 'cause you've got major responsibilities on that day of the week particularly, so you hardly get to pamper yourself. But hopefully my dad will get a little lovin' from some of the family that lives close to where he is, and I'm sure mom will hook him up with some good food. When I asked him about the church he was going to, he said this was the third time they'd had him up for a revival in the last few years. When I told him they must like him, he responded humbly. I thought that was sweet...but truthfully, most places where my father has preached in his life, they've wanted him to come back. He's a good preacher and he's really a likable person, so he draws people to him. I like that about my dad.

So, I guess I should just close by saying, "Happy Birthday, Pop! I love you."

That's all from the TW.

Until next time, LC

Dad and Kaibryn (greatgranddaughter) driving the boat
with Papa Clark last summer in Oklahoma.
The grandbabies love Papa Clark.

Dad with his youngest granddaughter, Candace.

This pic was taken at Christmas '06.
This past Christmas, '07, Dad performed her wedding to Michael.

Dad holding Taylor,
another great granddaughter,
Christmas '06. Like I said,
the babies love Papa.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Karen!

2008-03-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

She's my only sister and it's her birthday today, so I wanted to give her a shout out. It's late here on my Thursday, and I am absolutely wasted from my longest and most stressful day. I'm sitting on my couch making loads of typing mistakes, barely able to hold my head up 'cause I just took some allergy medicine to try to breathe better, and listening to "Take the Lead" in the background on my TV.

Earlier today I asked my little girl, Sunny from A8 to say Happy Birthday to my sister on video. It just happened to be her birthday too, so it was kind of fun to try to get her to do it. Two classes later, I had A4, and there's a kid in there who sort of takes over the class with his joking around and laughing so loudly. His name is Tim and he's a little larger than life, so all the kids really like him a lot, while I often feel he's obnoxious and hard to keep in check so I can teach. However, Tim is very good at drawing and so tonight I asked him to draw a birthday board for my sister. He agreed and this distraction kept him busy for about half of the class time. This was good for me, good for him and good for the rest of the class. When he finished, the rest of the class was very impressed as was I.

Karen, I hope you enjoy your shout out and you have a great day. Happy Birthday! Until next time, LC from TW

Saturday night in TW with Friends

2008-03-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

just a few videos of the party. Pretty subdued really, but thought you should at least see them and hear them say their own names. Zzzzz...wake up and meet my friends in Taiwan, dang it! (Yea, we have a treadmill in our living room. Wonder if it works?)

Happy Birthday to me! My live, my stweet!

Spontaneous singing at the party. Loved it!

Hope

2008-03-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Larissa, here's a late congrats on your birthday! We hope that the new year redefines 'blessed' and we hope you can cope with the level of the originality of this gift...but, then again: 'hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things...and a good thing never dies' - Shawshank
Godspeed,
Johan, Hein, Marguerite, Tinus

This was written on the beautiful envelope given to me last night at my Friends party by four of my South African friends. (I threw this party so I could have a reason to bake cakes and make burritos for the friends I have here in Taiwan and because I wanted to play the Friends board game as most of us here enjoy that show.) In the envelope, the second such gift I've gotten in the past three days, was one of the best gifts anyone could want...a $1000 NT (about $32 US) gift certificate to my favorite mall here in Hsinchu, good for anywhere in the mall. I used my first one in the American food store in the basement of the place and fed the 12 friends that came over last night with my purchases. (Thanks to my roommates for that one.)

I wanted to share this sentiment with you because I'm thankful for a group of people who call me friend in this foreign land...I'm thankful for remembered conversations about movies that I like...and I'm thankful that the friends I enjoy here know that the best hope is found in the blessings we all receive from our relationship with God.

So, tonight before I go to bed I wanted to say I'm thankful that our hope in God never dies. May we nurture that hope and guard it against any kind of illness even. On that, I'm out.

Until next time, LC from the TW

PS...I love you....;) ...and I will share more about yesterday in a post later this week.

Pictures of Today!

2008-03-06T18:07:00.001-08:00

Nothin' but pics. See previous post for details. LC

Erin meeting me for our ride in front
of my apartment.

I followed this bus for awhile before

reading it and deciding it was worthy
of a photo, even if I was scooting beside
it when I took this shot. Don't ask me
where Yosemite is in Taiwan, but I suspect
someone just pulled that off the internet.

Me and Erin, just off the bikes ready to start walking.

Great looking path, eh? It's a good thing.

Me near the edge of the beach. Can you see China?

Huge beach near the path. Beautiful from a distance,
but we walked on it and found broken bottles,
discarded baby buggies, and loads of plastic trash.
Trash Beach!

Beautiful shell on Trash Beach. We didn't keep it!

Trash boat right off the beach. Yikes!

Crab on a bike makes a bench. Kind of clever,
kind of practical, kind of goofy looking.

Me and Erin at the more than halfway mark.

Had to get a shot of the recycling plant
next to the beautiful beach area.

This is Sunny from A8, who I
feature frequently in my blog
'cause she cracks me up.
She came to class today
dressed to kill again, and I
convinced her to take a couple
of pics even though it was on the
wrong setting.

Sunny posing for a pic alone.
Too dark to see her pants.

Now Sunny's running cause
she doesn't want to take another
pic and she thinks it's a game.
But take a look at those pants, and
pink shoes with red socks. Crack Up!

Cake at the end of the day! Good times.

4T6 2day!!

2008-03-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right party people, today WAS my birthday. Seeing that it's after midnight in the TW, it's over now, and I have officially started my 46th year. (I know I've already lived 46 years and I'm starting my 47th technically, but please just let me say it this way for now.) It only hurts if you think about how close 50 is at just 4 short years away.

This morning I was thinking about that and I tried to recall where I was 4 years AGO. I realized I had just left First Baptist, San Francisco and was studying massage and how to teach ESL. Then I realized how long ago all that seems to me and I wondered if the next 4 years will go slowly or fast. We shall see. Deep thoughts, here, eh?

Today was a great day in many ways, although it was a Thursday and, as you know if you're an avid "Taiwan to Me" reader, Thursdays are not my favorite days of the week. (My last two classes of the day I was pretty much in a fog.) I got up earlier than usual this morning for two reasons: my roommates surprised me with a birthday breakfast, which was awesome! (thanks Anneloe, Mari, and Ryno) AND my friend Erin and I went for a birthday challenge walk. We set out to find the beach town of Nanliao, (which is a challenge in itself since we neither one had ever driven there on our own, and in fact we'd only ever been there once before) and it was a beautiful morning with great sun and not too much wind. Nanliao's very near to where I live and Erin was great to scoot over about 30 minutes from Chudong to Hsinchu to meet me at 8 for our adventure. We found the "Sea Viewing Park" without too much difficulty and started walking around 8:45. After almost two hours enjoying the sea views and discovering the "trash beach" (yet another reason the Taiwanese don't swim in the ocean) we were back at the bikes and heading back into town. It was a great way to start the day, and I really am so thankful that Erin embraced the challenge with me.

After an indulgent morning, my afternoon and evening went pretty much as normal, with the exception that Erin showed up at my school to teach her one class in Erchong (on Thursdays she teaches all afternoon in Chudong and one early evening class in Erchong), brought me a yummy bubble milk tea, and then taught her beginners to sing Happy Birthday so they could invade my class and sing to me. It was a sweet interruption to my long day.

Only after I had finished teaching all my classes and was truly ready to come home and relax did I discover Erin had also brought a beautiful (albeit Taiwanese) birthday cake to the school and stashed it for the Chinese staff to enjoy with me at the end of the day. (Thanks TE!) Cara, Sharon, and Scarlet were pretending to be on the phone when I came downstairs to shut down my computer and head off. Then, I couldn't find my coat, and I had a "senior moment" wondering if I had worn it and if so, where had I put it. Cara started laughing and it became obvious she was not talking to anyone on the phone. So, I searched for my coat and found it in the storage closet sitting next to the birthday cake with a question mark candle on top and a sign that said, "Happy Birthday, baby!" Crack up! So Chinese! They love to say "Hello, baby!" sort of seductively. I think some advertiser is responsible for that trend. Anyway, the four of us had cake and then I brought the rest home for the roommies.

After a few phone conversations, I'm blogging and then crashing. I'm old you know. Thanks to everyone who emailed or sent cards (woohoo Hoops and Yo Yo!) or called me to sing or say Happy Birthday. Hope you all have a bright weekend. Love from the TW, LC

My roommates made me breakfast!

Two weeks, two weekends, and...

2008-03-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

too many emotions to explain why I haven't written in that length of time, and why I'm sitting on my couch on a Monday morning, in denial that my day/week looms large in front of me and I've done no planning. All this to say, this is a short update with high points of how re-entry has been in the past two weeks here.

I made it through the first week of teaching without too much fanfare. The new teacher, who my boss had made such a fuss about him being my age, was here when I returned and there is definitely no there there. He's not bad looking but he's not for me. Mainly because he's not walking with the Lord, and that makes him completely unattractive to me, but also because I think he's quirky and strange and may put my money on a future news story highlighting a sordid past at the community college where he taught most recently before moving to Taiwan in the middle of the school year to teach 1st graders. (That was a great sentence don't you think? Long by anyones standards but particularly meaty coming from the English teacher that I am! Woo hoo!) So, first week down, I entered last weekend with a few things to do, but it was raining and cold, so I didn't do much. Got my hair washed/head massaged Saturday morning. (A great indulgence for less than $10.) Then I met up with my co-worker for some shopping and a movie. (Saw The Bucket List and thought it was great.) The first Sunday back was great seeing people on the worship team at church, and reconnecting to the body in Taiwan. The rest of the weekend was chill with me fixing tacos for the roommates for Sunday dinner. We usually have Sunday evening dinner together, sometimes with friends and sometimes just the four of us.

Last week went by pretty quickly because we had this random day off on 2/28, which was Thursday and my hardest day of the week. I was thrilled to stay up late on Wednesday night, sleep late on Thursday morning, do laundry, and generally have a lazy day in the middle of the week. Friday was a quick day because it felt awesome to have a "one day week" so to speak, and the weekend was upon me again.

Saturday I got up early and scooted over to Chudong to read stories to the munchkins from 10 to 11, (part of my job I have to do about once a month), then I scooted to Jubei to catch the High Speed to Taipei and meet up with Lucy. Lucy is Irene Morris' sister and she is great to spend time with. Except for one annoying thing, which is she makes me eat Chinese food when I'm with her. Alas, I found myself at a hotpot restaurant for two hours with Lucy on Saturday afternoon. Taipei is full of American chains like Chili's and Macaroni Grill so I'm generally disappointed to have to eat bad Chinese when I can eat bad American food. It was great company though, and I made it back to Hsinchu by 7, so not too bad of a day.

Yesterday, I led worship in the morning, spent the afternoon with my roommates rearranging our house and hanging some pictures I had framed, then napping. We made breakfast for dinner at 6:30 last night for about 10 people before we saw a two hour (about) slideshow from our friend Hein. He just returned from 3 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia and had an amazing time with great stories to tell, so it was fun.

Now, this morning, I'm struggling again to get out the door. Thus there will be no pictures with this posting, but promises to do so later.

It's March, best month of the year...hee hee...and I promise to do better with the posts this month. Thanks to all of you who read it faithfully or try to (sorry Stephanie;).

One funny story about A11 from last week. As I was teaching and calling out the names of the children to participate in various class activities, I unwittingly called on two children one right after the other with interesting names. The first one's name is Willie and the second one is named Nelson. I said, "Willie, Nelson, come up here." And then, I heard what I had said and just busted out laughing at myself. These kids must definitely think I'm nuts. As if that wasn't funny enough, two days later, same class, I called on two other kids. The first one is a little girl called Jessie and the second one I called up was James. Yep, I've got Jessie James and Willie Nelson in my A11 class. Only in the TW!

Take care until next time,
LC

"Rude Awakening"...

2008-02-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

and harsh reality, those are the words and phrases that come to mind when I think about the last couple of days being back in Taiwan. I had a blast in the states (more about that later) and arrived back here just 6 hours before I had to teach. I was able to sleep really well on the plane and was experimenting with some "No Jetlag" homeopathic pills I picked up at REI, so I felt o.k. when I got back to the apartment. After a three hour nap and the realization that my scooter wouldn't start, I drove my roommates bike to work, arriving just 20 minutes til class started. The first class was a party so it wasn't too strenuous, but by the time A7 came along at 4:20, I was not prepared for what happened. I was trying to teach them, and they were all just looking at me like they couldn't understand anything I was saying. I forgot how to talk to them. I forgot they don't understand English the way I speak it normally. After two short weeks, I had lost it. Well, I wasn't really in the mood to work too hard to get it back at that moment, so I just prayed that class would end quickly. It did, and I only had one class left, which was also a party, so I was o.k. As I was scootin' home, I was just thinking to myself, "Yea, this is Taiwan. This is where I live. I'm back and it's a harsh reality, a rude awakening!" It will take some getting used to again, but it will be o.k., I'm sure.

I know this is where I'm supposed to be, but as I keep saying it's still a challenge...every day, it's a challenge.

Today is Wednesday, I have four classes, and I don't even know if I've planned anything yet, so I've got to get going. I'll write more later this week and tell you all about my time off...and whatever else will inevitably happen the next few days before the weekend. Roll on the weekend!

Until next time,
LC from the TW

Here are some pictures of some of my good friends in San Francisco. I blogged about getting to meet Olivia before I left, so I wanted to show you what all the fuss was about. She's precious! Enjoy the photos.

Elijah, Stacey and Claudia at the Nicaraguan Restaurant
in San Francisco

Elijah holding Olivia at 163. Sweet baby in pink hood, sweet papa in brown hood. Good memory.

Baby O sleeping at the Nic restaurant. Beautiful girl!

Thankful Friday's

2008-02-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

My nephew's wife, my niece-in-law if you will, has been posting Thankful Thursday entries on her blog the last couple of weeks, and I just caught up on her blog, so I had to start with a Thankful Friday title! (Nice blogging, Keli! Thanks for the photos of the babies. Keeps me going.)

I am so thankful that it's Friday...not just any Friday, but the best Friday of my last several months. That's because I finally finished a crazy week of teaching and prepping for a substitute, which involved many late nights and early mornings (nothing's free...if you want "free" time you have to earn it! Especially in Ambitious Asia.) Secondly, I now have internet in the comfort of my own home. After being without this for three weeks, I cannot tell you how good it feels. Last but certainly not least, I get to go on vacation tomorrow for two weeks! Now, I love me some vacation time, no matter when it comes, (and almost no matter where I'm going), but this one...well, this one has been one of the most anticipated vacations in my recent memory (which may not be saying much since my memory keeps getting worse...what was I saying again? Oh yea, vacations good!)

See, this vacation involves getting to go to a place where most of the people I'll be around are speaking a language I can understand. Where I don't have to repeat every word I say at a snails pace to be understood when I speak. Where I don't literally see my life flash before my very eyes every time I drive down the street because someone pulls out in front of me without any regard for the fact that I'm on a scooter, it's raining, and/or dark, and the wind is blowing so hard I could get knocked down without their help not to mention with it. Those are a few reasons I'm glad to get a break from Taiwan...but there are more reasons why I'm glad to be going on vacation. The main reasons I'm glad is the chance to see awesome friends in San Francisco (shout out to Kelly, 'cause today's her birthday...holla!) and my family in Oklahoma (and Missouri - Road Trip!), and to finally get to meet a special little girl, Olivia, who was just born three and a half weeks ago to my friends Stacey and Elijah. I get to do all this in just a few short hours and I'm excited. I'm thankful, even! Thankful to God for a good job and chance to live internationally again. And thankful to God for a break from a stressful life where I'm often not in control of my circumstances. I'm learning a lot here, and I really hope I'm learning to be more and more thankful every day. (I'm also really thankful for the internet and that I didn't move to China to teach English this year. In case you've been under a rock lately, China's freezing under a mound of snow, power outages, people crowding into train stations trying to get home for Chinese New Year, and it's a tragic scene there as many people are stranded and some have already died. Pray for China!)

On that sad note, I've got to sleep now, so I can get up and fly tomorrow. Just finished watching Hitch on cable and it's so funny at the end with the dance sequence. Looks like a Taiwanese Karaoke party...been to too many of those already!

Be thankful, and maybe I'll see you soon...give you something else to be thankful for. ;)

Until next time,
LC from the TW

I lift my eyes up...

2008-01-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

to the heavens, where does my help come from. My help comes from You, Maker of heaven... I hope you remember that worship song from the 90's, that proclaims the truth of Psalm 121. If you don't remember it, no worries, but that's the song that came to my mind as I came back into my empty apartment a few minutes ago after sending Claudia off to the airport in the taxi. She's been here for two weeks, and we've had a great time, even if it's been mainly focused around work and the 25 minute scooter commute I take each way every day. In the last 9 working days ('cause today is a working day, but she's gone now..uh), we had one day off (New Year's Day), and she came to work with me 6 of the other 7 days. She filed my lesson plans that had been gathering dust in my drawer for a month, she entered my test scores for all my classes which will make my future work lighter in that area, she assisted my co-workers with all kinds of things, and she made some cool bulletin boards to decorate my sad, drab classroom. All the kids loved her and my co-workers now like me better because of her. (They never expressed interest in coming to America to visit me, but they're all looking at flights now so they can go visit Claudia.) My roommates loved her and want to come visit her too, and my friend, Julie was wanting to give her a last minute tour of the city this morning before her flight, so clearly she won her over as well. I told Claudia that she made me look good, but also gave a good impression of Christians and of Americans, which is not easy to do these days in many places. All this to say, we had a great time together, and although I know I'll be in SF in 3 short weeks, I got sad to see her go this morning. It's just a reminder that I'm here without my San Francisco community, and that reality is still often hard for me to swallow, even after 21 weeks (but who's counting). I came in the door, and immediately started singing that song, "I lift my eyes up, to the heavens, where does my help come from..." because I know I cannot face even one of these next weeks in my own strength. My own strength was pretty much gone here within the first few weeks, and I've been mostly exhausted ever since (thank God for caffeine!) Yet today, I have to face four classes and begin packing for us to move this weekend. My roommates and I are getting a fourth, we're moving across the road in our huge apartment complex, and I'll save about half the rent I've been paying the last several months. This is an answer to prayer, even if the timing is rushed for me. I go to church with these great South African folks who are here teaching (you've seen their pictures before) and we'll all be living together for the next season of my life in Taiwan. So, we're packing and moving this weekend since two of them leave for home next weekend and won't return for 3-4 weeks (luckies).

So, today is Friday, and I'm ready for the weekend. I've included some photos and a couple of video's. One of the video's is from my A8 class this week. It's not great but I hope you can make out the sentences they are reading. I couldn't resist writing them out of the choices of their predetermined spelling words. (I don't choose their spelling, it comes from a phonics book. You can't make these things up!) They get five words each class session and they are usually related in some way. This list included words with "nk" endings like sink, think, junk, trunk, and skunk. How would you write sentences with these words? Check it out. There's also a video of me, Claudia and Julie, meeting up for a late dinner after work last night. Just a local dive that serves Japanese style food for cheap.

I'm looking forward to being back in the states for a few days the first two weeks of February. One of the reasons is for the great joy of getting to meet Olivia Anne Tafao, born February 8th in San Francisco to my friends Stacey and Elijah. I haven't seen a picture of her yet (hint, hint) but I'm betting she's a beauty! Congratulations to the Tafaos!

I hope this finds you all well and taking on the new year with a sense of excitement and purpose. If the purpose part hasn't dawned on you quite yet, take a moment to look at Saddleback Church's website. God is really working within that church and through their leadership, and it's always fun to watch God work. You might even get inspired.

Gotta get on the scoot for the commute, so I'll close.

Until next time, LC from TW

Psalm 121 (NIV)

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

A8 trying to say the sentences I wrote for them.

At Teppanyaki Thursday night.

Erin and Claudia acting up at TGI Fridays.

Me and Sharon at Fridays.

Annaloe, me, Mari and Claudia.

Me and Claudia in front of my apartment.

New Year's Day in Taiwan! and Happy Birthday Jesus!

2008-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, 1997, everybody! (In the Chinese calendar, it's only 1997. Guess we can't sell them any Y2K software, eh?)

If you're reading this I hope it's because you're procrastinating on all your New Year's resolutions (I know I am)...but here in a minute, you're going to have to go to the gym, or clean out the garage, or whatever else you promised to do.

I'm on day three of 2008, and for the first time in my life, I've worked 2 of the 3 days so far this year! There's no rest for the workers in Chinese culture.

It's a good year, so far. My friend, Claudia, from San Francisco, arrived late Friday night (the 28th) and promptly had to get up for a work commitment I had on Saturday morning. She arrived in the coldest spell of the year and we've been experiencing the rigors of scooter riding in the freezing cold wind for the past 5 days. On top of that, there is no heat in the apartments here, so the other night when I said to Claudia, "I can turn the heater on if you want me to," and her eyes lit up with excitement, I had to let her down and say, "Just kidding! There's no heat in China. These people are hardcore!" I thought she was going to cry, but instead she found a space heater in my roommates room and it has become her new best friend. I think she may survive her visit. (IF she could just find a way to have that heater on the scooter, she'd be happy!)

I've included a video of my A7 class from Friday night singing, "Happy Birthday, Jesus" with one of my students, Cosmo, doing interpretive movement. Just so you can hear them sing (sorry you can hear me coaching them too.)

I've also included a video of one of the 300+ participants in the Kang Ning English School Reading Contest (for which I served as a judge, "certified foreign teacher judge", all day Saturday). This little boy is probably 6 years old, he read with the paper covering his face the whole time, but what a cute voice. His topic is "Owen and his pet python, Lucky". Try to listen to the whole thing and watch him walk off the stage. This was in a huge convention hall full of people.

On Sunday, we went to church, then ate Teppanyaki (Japanese style cooking on a grill in front of your table), which we both enjoyed, and spent the rest of the day holed up in the apartment trying to stay warm.

Monday, we went to work, and spent the New Year's Eve-ning chilling (literally) in the apartment with an American friend, Julie, playing a cool game called Imaginiff. We were asleep by 1:00, which meant my roommates were locked out at 3:10 when they came home from their New Year's Eve party. Claudia and I never heard them, and slept right through til I woke up and discovered their text message at 5:15. Too late, they had already gone back to sleep at their friends house. Oops!

Tuesday, New Year's Day, was a full one! We took the train into Taipei to see the worlds tallest building (o.k., now it's the 2nd tallest, but don't tell the Taiwanese since they haven't updated their displays or their audio tour). It's the Taipei 101 and it is really impressive. When we got out of the train station, we took a taxi to the 101 and it's surrounding shopping areas, complete with a Chili's, a Macaroni Grill, and a Cold Stone Creamery. (Go America!) (Shout out to my sister from the food court where we found another Teppanyaki restaurant named "Karen". Hey sis!) We ate a yummy Italian meal at Macaroni Grill and then went up in the tower for the tour. It was awesome to see the city from the sky. Claudia graduated from Cal Berkeley with a degree in Architecture so she was more impressed than I was. But, I found all the grammar mistakes in the signs...see the picture below of Claudia and the "World Fastest Elevator".

After we finished at the tower, we stopped in at Marks and Spencers to see what they had (I used to shop there in the UK and wanted to check it out), then we picked up some Cold Stone to go, both of us clinging to our old favorites, and being sorely disappointed when the girl behind the counter didn't mix it the way they do in DC (that's Daly City, not Washington). We jumped into a taxi, tried in vain to communicate "train station" to the taxi driver, complete with "choo choo" and "chug a chug a chug a chug a" and finally we got out our tickets from the earlier train to show the guy. He LOOKED like he understood and off he went. After a bit, when I didn't recognize anything, I called my friend and had her say it to him on the phone. He had understood but was just taking a different way to get there. We arrived at the station shortly after, bought a ticket and only had the option of standing on the train for the hour and fifteen minute ride back to Hsinchu, so we were tired puppies when we got off. And fearing the public toilets on the train, I was needing to get home quickly. No such luck.

As we got on the scooter and turned out of the train station parking lot, we were seconds later, met head on by a taxi whose driver was clearly not wearing his glasses. The dude just rolled right into us. It was like bizarre slow motion. The bike fell over, Claudia got her leg caught under it, the back of my leg scraped on something, my Marks and Spencers bag fell into the street and I pounded the guys hood trying to make sure he didn't keep rolling. He got out and made some motion that he'd HAD his blinker on...as if that makes it o.k. to cross traffic and roll right into a two-wheeled vehicle. I immediately called my friend and let her talk to him in Chinese. Long story shorter, he gave her his name and number, the bike was not hurt so we could drive home and get out of the cold, our "injuries" were mainly just bruises which are still with us but nothing major, and the old taxi guy made sure we were out of the street and said a number times in his broken Chinese accent, "Surry!" Sincerely offered and apology accepted, we scooted on home to the comfort of hot shower, clean clothes and leftovers from Macaroni Grill. It was a big day filled with excitement, discovery, adventure, and surprises. What more can we ask for in 2008, er uh, I mean 1997? (Prince, tonight we're gonna party like it's 19-90-9!" They still have two years before that song is old. Buy stock in Prince's music.)

We're having a great time, so far, although I'm already getting really tired of being at work all day and not being able to enjoy the visit with Claudia like I want to. Alas, as always, work really gets in the way of life doesn't it?

Have a great one. Until next time, LC (and CB) from the TW!

Taipei 101 at dusk!

Claudia pointing out an error.

Hey there, Karen! You're big in Taiwan.

The inconsiderate Taxi Man!
Ran right into us!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!
A7 singing with Cosmo as the star!

The Reading Contest at Kang Ning
(note the backwards "N" on the curtain...oops!)

Christmas Day in TW

2007-12-25T18:58:00.000-08:00

What a great few days we've had here! I have three sets of friends here...my co-workers, which includes Sam and Erin, my teacher friends from Canada...my South African friends, which includes my roommates and their extended circle of friends...and my church friend, Julie, who is American and has been in Taiwan for nine years! Over the last few days, beginning on Sunday morning and finishing late Tuesday night, I got to spend some quality time with each of these folks and enjoyed it so much! It made being away from family a little easier to bear and the necessity of working on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and today Boxing Day (hey, I lived in the UK for three Christmas's) a little less of a bummer. I miss my family, but thankfully I will see them and my friends in SF in just 5 and a half weeks. Woo hoo!

I've included a video (sorry it's on it's side) and some party pics of our Christmas "Dinner" at school yesterday, which our boss put on for us in lieu of our weekly staff meeting. ("Dinner" was a turkey, a plate of french bread slices and two pizzas from Domino's. This, of course, was better than the funky combo of foods they would have put on if we had asked them to prepare their food in a traditional feast, so we didn't complain, we just ate pizza for Christmas Dinner.) She made my heart skip a beat when near the end of lunch she made a big "announcement". I thought she was going to say we could take the rest of the day off, but I guess I've been watching too many movies. She said, "I have a big announcement to make! I want to give you all a very special gift for Christmas, so I've decided that next year on Christmas Day the school will be closed!" We all cheered raucously, but were of course thinking, "Ugh! What about today? 365 days away? That's a special gift? I got your special gift over here. Where I come from we call this a knuckle sandwich!" And on and on my sad mind went with my thoughts on her announcement, but you get the gist.

My three classes passed without too much fanfare and I scooted after work at almost 10:00 over to Julie's house where she had spent the day preparing a real Christmas Dinner. Roasted lamb, scalloped potatoes, corn casserole, green beans, rolls, and homemade blueberry cheesecake. I had made a box of stove top stuffing so we also had that. It was awesome.

I came home around midnight, gave my folks a call to wish them a Merry Christmas. My dad had just come in from hunting (and killing) ducks and he was happy. Mom sounded really good, which was great for me to hear. I think she feels a little better in the mornings. Anyway, I went to sleep late, very tired but very happy.

It's Wednesday morning here, I have much to do to prepare for teaching in a few hours, so I'm off. Hope your Christmas was memorable, and if it wasn't, perhaps you can think of ways to make it so next year. As for me, I'm already looking forward to next year, when I won't have to work, 'cause my boss declared it yesterday! ;)

Merry Christmas from TW, until next time, Larissa

This video is not great, but it's a slice of life here for me, if you can stand to have your head tilted to watch it for less than a minute, and hear me trying desperately to coach all the Chinese staff to say Merry Christmas, when most of them thought I was taking a photo and just freeze framed their smiles. Alas, it is what it is!

This is the group of young women that work
for our school as Teacher's Assistants.
Left to right is Annie, Cara, Joyce, and Debby.
I work with Cara mainly.

Below is the motley crew of "foreign teachers" that teach at Kang Ning. There are a few missing, but back row is Ben from New Zealand, Erin from Canada, Hendri and Stephen both from South Africa; front row, Sam from Canada, me, and Candice from South Africa. I only teach with Erin but I go to staff meeting with all of the rest of these except for Stephen. (He looks like a happy fellow, eh?)

Here I am pictured between my boss,
Serena, and her brother, Alex, who works
for the school. (I think they were having
a dispute over our upcoming Reading
Competition and I made them take this
picture with me. Rather Kittlitz of me I
think, don't you?)

Finally, here is a classic kitchen shot
of all the ladies that happened to be
standing nearby when I wanted a picture
with only one or two of them. They love
the pics (note the poses on both of the
bookends.) The only new people in this
shot are the two ladies in glasses. I work
with Lizann, next to me and Sharon,
in the front looking very uncomfortable.

Another week and all is well in the ROC...

2007-12-22T07:05:00.000-08:00

(which stands for Republic of China) of Taiwan. I've had a pretty good week, except for the melt down I "enjoyed" with my B5 class late on Thursday.

Here's the short version. Thursdays are my longest day, (which I believe I've mentioned before but apparently can't say enough), and by my last class I'm flagging on energy I can tell you. I teach a class of 7 boys, 13 and 14 years old, and they are tired too so we're not great to begin with in that state. Usually we manage o.k., without making a big deal about our mutual lack of interest, but Thursday night I found my edge. Not only did I find it, I fell off it and walked out of the classroom. After my co-worker explained to them that they cannot just keep talking when I've told them a dozen times to stop, we finished class with a decidedly more somber mood. I was moved to tears when the two boys responsible for my frustration approached me after class to apologize. They said, with such sincere expressions on their faces, "Sorry teacher. Sorry teacher. Never again. Never again." At that moment I really hated the language barrier, a feeling I have every day, but particularly in this situation. I could not say anything back to them except, "O.K., thank you." But, of course body language is universal to some extent and they saw that I was moved by their words. I wanted to give them a hug and tell them I'm sorry that I'm a crappy teacher at that time of the day, that my patience is gone by 8:45 at night no matter what I've done that day, but especially when I've been on my feet for three classes straight before theirs. I'm still trying to understand the Chinese psyche and probably will never get it, but it seems like the fun is squeezed out of these kids pretty early on, and I don't want to teach them without having fun. They have to work so hard in Chinese school and then they have an endless list of lessons and activities, including English, and I want this part of their lives to be something they enjoy and want to do. It's hard to know how to make that happen, but I was so proud of my co-worker, who has a reputation for being hard and making the kids scared of her, because she just told them that the teacher has feelings too, and they need to pay attention when the teacher is trying to help them learn. (Truthfully, I was so frustrated because they were stuck on the distinction between all the "wh" words - where, when, why, what, who - and they were not listening to try to understand it. Thus, they were answering questions in their grammar books with sentences like "Why do you live?" - technically o.k., but not correct really - and "Where are you wearing a sweater?" - also o.k., but not the best choice.) It was an exhausting evening and I came home very ready for the weekend, although I still had another day to teach.

Now, it's Saturday night and I've got to crash so I can jump up for worship in the morning. I hope you're enjoying the frenzy that Christmas often becomes and are finding some time to be with those you love. I miss mine, so I encourage you to make an extra effort to enjoy yours. One of my favorite people is having a birthday today, so I want to give a shout out to Lisa. Happy Birthday, Lisa! Hope you have a great visit with the family.

I will post again soon, but let me assure you my back looks a lot better now and my cough is also much better this week. I don't know if the two are related, and still have my doubts, but that's where I am on the health front. Thanks to all of you who sent in creative expressions of your concern for me.

Take care until next time. LC

Yet another Chinese cultural experience..

2007-12-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

was enjoyed this weekend by me here in TW.

As you know if you've been reading my blog, I've had a cold again for the past ten days or so. This one developed into a bronchial thing with me sounding like I was going to bark up a lung at any minute, so many of my friends have expressed concern for me. Well, yesterday after church, my American friend, Julie, asked me to go for a massage with her. Having no idea what she was intending, but lovin' me some massage (being a massage therapist and all...), I agreed to meet her at the place at 5. When we arrived and she ordered the "scraping" for both her and me, I got a little curious. But she assured me, having lived here for 9 years and gotten this done many times, that it was great to get rid of a cold. She had a cold too, and I was fed up with being sick, so I agreed to it. I asked her what kind of scraping we were talking about, and she said, "It's like they're using the back of a comb to stimulate the blood in your back. It's a little uncomfortable but it really helps."

O.K., so off I go to the room, which by the way, I shared with Julie and her uncle (who's here on business from the states and was also getting a massage). In Asia you wear loose fitting clothes for your massage so there's no modesty issues. I gotta tell you, the three therapists chattering away in Chinese was not contributing to me going to my happy place, but I strangely grew used to it and sort of even drowned it out. Of course, I was coughing quite a bit at the beginning as my girl was really working my lungs from the back.

You've probably already seen the picture of my back, but let me assure you, it doesn't hurt, now! (When the gal was doing it, I was thinking, "What kind of comb does Julie use? A metal comb? A really mean comb? If this lady goes much deeper she's going to hit bone! Ouch! Stop, please stop!!") It doesn't hurt, but it looks really bad. I took the picture about 6 hours after she did it, and it was getting deeper purple by the minute I think. But, I woke up this morning and feel A LOT better! So, do I argue with this? I don't know, the jury's out. Weigh in and let me know what you think if you have any thoughts about these kinds of unconventional remedies.

I have to run, but hope to post again in the next few days. It's Monday morning and I have to get to work, just like the rest of the human race. (Speaking of human race... I saw "I Am Legend" at the theater here on Saturday night...ugh! Pretty creepy creatures I must say, but an interesting thought about what "could" cause humans to become almost extinct. Have you seen it? I don't necessarily recommend it, but Will Smith's "guns" are huge. In one scene they're almost as big as his head.)

Until next time, LC

Praising God tonight...

2007-12-12T08:10:00.001-08:00

for safety on the scooter. I often talk about the craziness of driving here, and I've had some very close calls (that I know of and probably many others I wasn't even aware of), but tonight was the closest, I think. Erin was not as fortunate, but thankfully she's o.k. Her scooter doesn't look so good and she's got some bruises but at least she's got no broken bones.

Erin is my Canadian friend I work with and we were riding together tonight after work to try to see a late movie. We've never done this but decided to try it because I had an unexpected class cancellation from my adult 3 on 1 class. This means I got finished at 7:45, which is the same time Erin finishes on Wednesdays. We were riding on a very busy street and had just taken off from a red light (which always resembles a race amongst all the scooters) when a taxi van pulled a u-turn right in front of us and stopped without any warning or indicator. I was in front and just barely managed to swerve to miss him at the back, but Erin couldn't do it without hitting me, so she braced herself and went broad-side into his car. She's a tall girl and the impact made her come over the scooter to smack her helmet on his car, then she and the scooter fell over on the left side. I was past the car when I heard a very loud thud and a slight scream from a girl, which of course when I turned around I knew was Erin's voice. I got to her in seconds and she looked up at me and said, "I'm alright." The taxi guy was standing there by then too, and the first words out of my mouth were, "You shouldn't have done that." He actually spoke English and understood what I said and frustrated he said, "I do it all the time." To which I quickly said back, "It doesn't matter if you do it all the time, it was wrong and you shouldn't have done it. You cannot make a u-turn without any warning." Erin managed to hobble off the road, leaving her bike there in the middle of it, and someone phoned the police. They arrived and asked if we could speak Chinese, which of course we can't. We phoned our office and our friend Sharon came within a few minutes, but meanwhile a very kind gentleman and his wife (angels?) who both spoke great English stopped to help us. To make a long story short, we ended up in the hospital for about an hour and a half, Erin getting the ambulance escort, and me following behind on my scooter, going much slower and notably shaken by it all.

I have to give a shout out to Erin, who saved my hide tonight, and handled the quick decision to hang on and go straight into the taxi very responsibly. If you've ever been in a wreck, you know that you can make it worse or better depending on your reactions to the situation with which you're presented. Erin could have tried to swerve in either direction and really done a lot more damage to her body, or she could have slid out and ended up under his car, or any number of other very unpleasant things that could have happened but thankfully didn't. So she was cool under pressure and that is commendable! Way to go Erin!!

I also want to give a shout out to the Kang Ning gang, particularly Erchong, but also Chutung, for showing up when we needed them. First, Sharon, one of our Erchong co-workers, came and talked to the police for us...thanks, Sharon, you're awesome! Then, when we were at the hospital, Sam and Serena showed up (from Chutung, Erin's roommate and our boss, the founder and director of the school) followed closely by Alex, who also works at Chutung school. Then, Teacher Hendri (the stellar teacher from my Saturday evening experience, see previous post for details) arrived followed by Cara and Scarlet, our co-workers from Erchong. By this time, I had registered to see a doctor myself and get my cough/cold seen to, and Erin was pretty much finished. We both left, able to walk unassisted, with medicine in hand, and neither of us spent more than $20! (Even though Erin's right knee is swollen and her face hurts, no broken bones, thank the Lord!)

You know, I often feel that God is protecting me, and tonight I really feel so blessed that He would cause it all to be so much better than I thought it was going to be when I first heard that thud. I really pray that I'll forget that sound soon, but that I won't soon forget how good He is to me. Thanks so much for all your prayers when you think of me here amongst the crazy drivers. (Let's face it, taxi drivers are crazy everywhere!! Sorry, if you drive a taxi, on a number of levels.)

Now, I'm off to bed to try to sleep...if only the mosquito that's been feasting on my flesh the last few nights would somehow choke out from the cough medicine they gave me. (I think there's liquor in it!) I'm probably pushing it, eh?

Until next time, LC

Cultures colliding (parts one and two)

2007-12-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

...is the theme of this past weekend for me here in Taiwan.

Part One
Saturday morning I relaxed at home for a few hours before heading out to meet my boss. Several of us followed her to her farm about 20 minutes from the Chudung school, where her 74 year old mother has planted a huge field of vegetables that are now ready for picking. Serena, my boss, is using many of these to feed the children at school everyday (this is customary since it's an all day school and serving hot nutritious meals is a selling point). Of course this is only provided in the school at Chudung and I teach in Erchong so I don't eat this food everyday...which is actually o.k. with me. Anyway, Serena is very health conscious and earth friendly so she's growing these veggies organically to feed the kids better food and to lower her food costs. So, we were invited to pick some veggies for our own personal use and off we went. What an experience. It was a beautiful day and we each picked a big bag of veggies, mostly unidentifiable, but still I'm sure healthy. The funny part of the afternoon was realizing that I was never going to know what these veggies were called, as each time I asked "What's this?" the reply was "Uh, uh, Chinese vegetable." To which I just nodded and thanked God once again for the internet. (Although honestly that didn't really help me either when I was deciding what to do with these huge peppery flavored green leaves, not really lettuce but not really mustard greens. Something else. Oh, yea, Chinese vegetable!)

Then, after picking my bag full, Saturday evening had been prearranged by the secretary at the school for a few of the teachers to go to an aboriginal restaurant with three of the students, who are siblings, and their parents. This is always a sacrifice since our down time is precious, but it is one of the reasons I believe I'm here, so I agreed to do it. We met at 5:30 at the school and followed the father to the restaurant. Their Vietnamese servant had arranged the table at the restaurant with these thimble sized drinking glasses and had filled up a pouring pot with this clear liquor. We each had one of these drinking glasses and thankfully one of the teachers who has been here for 13 years (he's from South Africa and married a Taiwanese woman) told us not to drink it too fast, or at all since he would keep filling the glass every time it was empty. I managed to pour mine into another cup after a while and never had to drink it, but smelling it seared a hole in my nostril. Whoa! Strong does not describe.

After making it through many courses of various animals with bones or eyeballs looking at me (not only was the usual fish eyes on the menu, but yes, we ate fried bee...my first time, not too bad, but honestly...bee?), we finished the meal around 8 and were invited back to his home for tea. This was something we couldn't get out of, so we all went, hoping and praying it wouldn't last too long. Well, by 9:30 he was brewing the third kind of tea and the best, of course, so we were pretty stuck. I drank more tea than I've ever had in my life and don't know that I've felt any benefit from it, but alas it was about building the relationship so it was not a complete loss of an evening. I learned a lot about Chinese culture and how this man feels that he must send his four children to English school because it is part of the expectation for the future in Taiwan and internationally. He sacrifices his own pleasures (except for the tea) to make it possible for the children to have English classes, and he's very proud that he can do it. They live in a big house that he built, that has traditional Chinese concrete floors.

It was a good evening, but just long and I was frustrated to come home after 10 with a bag of dirty veggies to wash and put up, plus the need to prepare for Sunday. I had to confess my bad attitude and ask for forgiveness. When I did I felt really honored that I had gotten to spend the evening with Alec and Susan and their four children, Victor, Vincent, Eva, and Wayne. You can pray for them too when you think about it. They have probably heard the gospel before because Alec mentioned having tea once a week with a guy who goes to my church here, so I can only assume that was for evangelical purposes. But, I don't really know much more. No doubt I will have another opportunity if I want it.

More later about my Sunday with the South Africans.

Part Two
Sunday afternoon was lazy for the most part, which was just what I needed after such a crazy Saturday. Our home now has three living in it, with Mari here recovering from her scooter accident, and we'll soon be moving to a four bedroom place where we'll welcome a fourth roommate. We were all four here on Sunday afternoon just relaxing and eating lunch and for some reason the topic of teaching me Afrikaans came up. If you don't know, Afrikaans is the language spoken most often by white South Africans (which all these folks are), and I believe it was brought by the Dutch settlers who "colonized" South Africa many hundred years ago. (Wow, if you're South African and you're reading my blog, forgive my pathetic explanation of your mother tongue!) So, it sort of sounds Dutch and German with a British lilt to it. Anyway, my roommate, Annaloe often tries to teach me a few words, and she gets very excited when I speak the odd Afrikaans word here and there, so she of course was really into this. Again, for some reason, only known to the highest level PhD's in Psychology (or maybe Psychiatry) we started talking about words that we really shouldn't be talking about, and I found out that when you want to say "I need to go #2" in Afrikaans, you say "I need to go poof" or something like that. Those kinds of conversations can only continue downhill (there's that saying again) and of course this one did, until we had all embarrassed ourselves and laughed til we were crying. This was a great feeling. You know you're amongst friends when you laugh until you cry. Round two of this started later in the day when another (South African) friend came over and we re-enacted the whole thing for him. It's the little things that keep us going, eh? Just had to share it with you. And with that I'm off...

Until next time, LC

Snow Cake...

2007-12-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

not an Academy Award winner, but still incredibly endearing, I just finished watching this movie because it's due back at the shop by noon. (In Taiwan, the movie boxes are often covered with Chinese writing and we English speakers don't have a clue what we're renting. Such was the case for this film.) Sigourney Weaver (where has she been anyway?) turns in an amazing performance as an autistic adult living independently. It's heart-wrenching and thought-provoking and even profound, so if you're in that mood, check it out. It's got Alan Rickman as well, if you dig his broodiness and deeply-felt renderings.

I also finally saw La Vie En Rose La Mome, the true life story of the French singer, Edith Piaf, and it was an amazing film as well. I liked it because of the lead actresses performance. Wow! What a lesson in the contribution quirky people can make to the world, eh?

With the movie review in the bag, I move on to other thoughts...

Hmmm...don't really have any. Well, maybe just a few.

It's Thursday. I don't really like Thursdays. They are long and I am reminded of how much energy each class takes and how little I have to offer the ones that come later in the day. B5 gets me last at 7:35, and it's a class with the deck stacked against it...7 boys, and one girl, all 12-15 years old, most with poor reading ability and serious self confidence issues, which makes the 90 minutes tick past at a snails pace at times. However, we manage to get through. At my school, the Chinese teacher assistants call each of the students twice a semester to ask them questions in English and to assess their skills. In these conversations, they often ask if the student has any comments or requests for the teacher. To my utter surprise, B5's last telephone interviews reaped some very interesting and encouraging thoughts for me to ponder, so I now don't hate it as much. How's that for a positive outlook? Seriously, though, it's not unbearable. If it were, I wouldn't try to bear it. Life being short and all!

So, Mari's just come back from the hospital where she went this morning to get her remaining stitches out of her leg. She's now watching the last of Snow Cake, as we had both started it last night before bed. I just heard Sigourney Weaver use a made up word in a scrabble game and I remember I really liked it. Dazlious! See the movie and let me know if you like the word too. (And if you don't want to see the movie but you want to know the meaning of the word and how to introduce it to the English language, let me know and I will explain it to you. I'm an English teacher. ;) (Oh, and another word from the film..."eyebrowsing", when you're looking for new glasses. Hee hee!)

Gotta run for now. But, thanks for checking in. Until next time, LC

Four Days later...

2007-12-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

...I'm finally getting back to my blog. And now, it's December, the first Monday in December, and I've got teaching to do today. I like my Monday schedule though, since I teach A8 (challenging but small group of 8-10 year olds) which I've blogged a lot about, followed by A7 (children mainly 8-12 years old a little more advanced, this class has the ever adorable Cosmo in it - his former teacher must have been a Seinfeld fan!), and my last class on Monday is B4, a group of 13-14 year olds, one of two "more advanced" classes that I teach, they're not too bad, most of the time. I finish early on Mondays, the only day of the week that this is true, so I tend to enjoy that a lot. On Monday, I get home around 8:30 rather than my usual 10:00. Oh the things you can do with an hour and a half.

So, this is just a brief check in. I've gotten another cold, which really stinks since it's only been one month ago that I had the last one. I'm going to strategize a little better to try to keep future colds at bay. Feel free to offer any advice about that. (I'm taking vitamins now and exercising, so don't know much of what else to do.) In spite of the cold, I had a really good weekend. I worked Saturday morning, and had a casual rest of Saturday. In the evening, I fixed some fried okra that I had bought fresh last weekend, and made some mac n cheese from the local foreign foods store (it's actually called Annie's Shells and White Cheddar...va va!) and it was some good eatin' I can tell ya. We got a third roommate on Saturday when Mari came "home" from the hospital. She's now staying with us while she convalesces after her scooter accident about 10 days ago. It's great to have her here. She's easy going and draws a fair number of folks in to visit her, so the house is full of activity, which I enjoy.

Sunday was a continuation of Saturday in some ways. I led worship at church, and in much the same way as one month ago, I managed to make it through the first set of worship before the sermon without cracking, but...just as I finished praying, and as the pastor was taking the pulpit, I had a coughing attack that caused me to have to go out of the service and retreat to the bathroom for a few minutes. And, similarly to a month ago, Deacon John (very nice guy), came to my aid. This time, he ran out to the pharmacy and bought some hot patches (like for sports injuries) and by the time I came out of the bathroom he was unwrapping it and heading for my throat. Funny me, finishing the last part of the service with a white patch on my throat, but you know you can't really deny someone their deeply held beliefs in a medical remedy. Not that I would question it, 'cause I was able to hold it together for the last two songs.

I relaxed at home in the afternoon, but had an unexpected visit from my co-worker, Sharon, who was at the big warehouse shop close to our house and called to see what I was doing. She was shopping there with her mother and dropped by afterwards. She was telling me that her mom was buying five big cans of cereal and she said, "you know the kind for old people, it's not for breakfast, but old people like it." I said, "Are you talking about oatmeal?" and she didn't know that word. Then, she came into my kitchen and pointed at the Quaker oatmeal on my shelf and said, "This one!" To which I smiled and said, "Yea, that's for old people alright!" At any rate, I was glad to see her. I think she's someone God has given me favor with, so I'm glad to get to spend a little time with her away from work.

Well, that's my weekend in a nutshell. I will do better in December to write more frequently. November was more like a once a week thing, so I am aiming higher for December.

Have a great week.

Until next time, LC

Thanksgiving Weekend...Saturday!

2007-11-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

I had such a fun time on Saturday. I caught the high speed train to Taichung, which takes only 23 minutes to go the distance that would take 90 minutes by bus, I'm told. Taichung is in the middle of Taiwan, on the West side of the island, and it's HUGE! My great friends, Otey and Cheryl, and their three kids, Hannah, Owen, and Peter, moved there just this past summer and I consider that one of God's gifts to me to provide for some deeper relationships for me (and indeed one of the ways He used to confirm that Taiwan is where I should be right now.)

So, I got on the train, and met up with Otey and Owen who were on their way back home after spending the night in Taipei. It was fun to hang out with them on the train, albeit a short journey. Cheryl and Peter picked us up in the van and thus began a hilarious ride back to their house. Peter is a funny kid and since it was so warm in Taichung, he was wearing sandals and got to show me how he could pinch with his toes and inflict great pain. Trust me, it hurt! We began to share all our strange human tricks with one another and laughed all the way home.

After running a few errands, (I got some fresh okra that I can fix, yea! and some great coffee to bring home from Otey's favorite coffee shop, which I love!) we all hung out talking and watching some videos on YouTube. It was like being with family, and I was so appreciative. Later that evening, we shared a great meal together, I've included a short video of the meal for my mother and friends. Shout out to Cheryl and Otey for cooking a delicious ham, (which Otey had to cut and we all had to hear the perils of leaving the string on the ham when you cook it...poor guy), making some awesome mashed potatoes, vegetables and hot rolls! (I made the stuffing...well, stove top put it together, I just added water...yummy bready goodness!)

My favorite part of the day was Otey gathering the family together in the evening after the meal and sitting everyone down to talk about being thankful. Hannah is 16, Owen is 12 and Peter is almost 10 (I think that's right), so the fact that they would be willing to participate in this activity is a testimony to good parenting, the grace of God and the benefits of raising your children outside of the U.S. - not necessarily in that order. Anyway, we all sat down, and I was reminded once again of how much I love the way certain people handle the truth, in this scenario it was Otey. We are all in a new place, again, and we're all without others in our lives for whom we're thankful, and that makes living here/being here sometimes difficult. Otey acknowledged in a humorous way that although it may be hard to be thankful for this particular period of our lives, we have much still to be thankful for. He asked each of the children what they are thankful for, to which Peter readily volunteered, "I'm thankful that all my body parts are here!" We all laughed about that and then we agreed that we were thankful for that too. Owen was thankful for a good weekend in Taipei with his dad, and Hannah was thankful for her school (which is Morrison Academy, a great school for all three kids). I was thankful for friends like Otey and Cheryl who would indulge the deeper side of me to hold an intentional time of thanksgiving with me and include me in their family celebration. Otey prayed...and it was a good day.

At that, Cheryl and I rushed off so I could catch the train back to Hsinchu. It was an awesome thanksgiving Saturday!

Stay tuned for more Thanksgiving weekend news!

LC

Thanksgiving Weekend...Friday Night!

2007-11-28T17:24:00.000-08:00

I had a great weekend last weekend (for an English teacher you'd think I could come up with a better way to say that). Here's how the first part of it shook down...

Weekends for English teachers in Taiwan begin on Friday night, since we get off after 9:30, it's a late start, but the mindset begins somewhere around 5:50 for me when I see those sweet little A11 children rushing towards the door. (I'm certain I'm happier to see them go than they are to be able to go, but by the looks of their struggle to get out, you couldn't tell who was happier.) That's not my last class, since I still have A7 at 6:05 and then I have a one-on-one with a teenager at 7:45, but suffice to say the last two classes of the week are giddy with anticipation that it will all be over soon. (Actually, I really like A7, for many reasons, not least of which includes a little 5 year old named Cosmo, who is very articulate and takes great joy in loaning me his cool pen every time we have class. I DO like the pen...but I give it back at the end of each session.)

So, on Friday night last week, I left school very happy but then had to do a not so happy thing. I had to pay a visit to a friend in the hospital. Mari was in a scooter accident on Thursday night (Thanksgiving night) when a car decided at the last minute to turn right and she was heading straight at a light. Her left leg got pinned between the scooter and the car and the leg didn't fare very well. She broke it in two places below the knee, thus beginning another educational opportunity for us all regarding how things are done when something like this happens. Long story short, when I saw her late on Friday night, she had gone through surgery that morning to set the leg, was in a lot of pain but also feeling very woozy from all the medication. She had been given a private nurse, paid for by the driver of the car that hit her, and this nurse was like an angel, so Mari was in very good hands. One week later, she is still in the hospital. She will stay a total of 9 days, then be released to come stay at our house since we have an elevator and her house has stairs. She will be on crutches for 3 months but will be o.k. and in fact began to look much better the day after surgery, so we were all very relieved. Here is a picture of her in the hospital last Sunday evening with my roommate, Annaloe and another friend, Trix.

That's how my weekend began...so it was all downhill from there (I always get confused about that saying...I think you say it's downhill because it is getting easier after something that's difficult, but then sometimes, I wonder if it's downhill because it's all going toward the gutter! Can someone help me out on the proper way to say that?)

O.K., more later,
LC

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful this morning for such great people in my life that have responded to my requests for prayer for my Mom and many other concerns I've mentioned on the blog. My Mom felt well enough this week to fix a Thanksgiving meal for my brother, Paul and his wife, Lisa, who recently moved back to Oklahoma after living in Washington for the past 9 years or so. She and Dad were so happy to have them come to celebrate the holiday with them, which makes me happy since I'm here and couldn't be there. She also felt well enough today to make a trip up to Oklahoma City with Dad to see my other brothers, Jay and Joe, and my sister, Karen and all of her family. So, I know she'll be tired tonight but her heart will feel good that she was able to see all of her kids except me, (and I've talked to her on the phone several times.) Physically, she tells me she's in a lot of pain and doesn't sleep very well still, and I'm sure she is exhausted after being around so many people. It seems that the current strategy for dealing with her illness is taking pain killers and some other medicine that is supposed to help restore some of the feeling in her extremities. I know she's discouraged a lot, so I am so thankful for your prayers and continued prayers as she goes through this season.

Spending the holidays in a country that doesn't celebrate them has always been a little strange as you probably know or can imagine. Like Thanksgiving Day...a very important day in America, duh, but obviously not anywhere else. (I just remembered my friend in Scotland telling me about shopping in New York City over Thanksgiving week a few years ago and how many of the shopkeepers would say with surprise, "You don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Scotland? Why?" To which her reply would vary depending on her patience and mood.) In Taiwan, people know about Thanksgiving, but of course they don't know what the reason is for the holiday. Not unlike me knowing that they have a "Tomb-sweeping" Day and not knowing why. But, on Thanksgiving Day at my school, my boss arranged for some of my students to write little Thank You notes to their teachers. I had enjoyed reading a few of mine and was touched that they would make an effort to recognize a day that they don't celebrate, but yesterday, I got the best one from my little guy in whom I've placed a lot of faith for the future. I've talked about him before on the blog, his name is Lee-Sheen and he's 8 years old. His card to me said, "Thank you, Teacher Larissa. You make me like English. I love you! Happy Holidays! Lee-Sheen" Isn't that a sweet thing for the wee one to say? I'm thankful for him and several others with sparks in their eyes that make it feel worthwhile putting so much effort into my job day in and day out. Pray for Lee-Sheen and his family when you think about them. (I also have a good relationship started with his mother.)

Well, I have to keep this short since I'm going to Taichung today to have a "real" Thanksgiving meal with my American friends, Otey and Cheryl and their three kids. I will hopefully take some pictures of the experience and post again this weekend. Let me know how you're doing as well. I love getting your email responses to my posts and hearing all about your lives as well.

Until next time,
LC

"Hope Faith Love"

2007-11-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

This will be quick, but had to share a couple of significant things about yesterday. I was asked to prepare the children at my branch for singing a few Christmas songs for the residents of the apartment complex surrounding our school. They are apparently planning a Christmas party and want the children to sing at it. My boss asked me to do this so I'm happy for the opportunity to put "Christ" in Christmas in a country that doesn't even have December 25th off from work because they are not a Christian culture. So, yesterday I started teaching E2 (my 8 year olds that are pretty bright for the most part) "Happy Birthday Jesus" which you may know from The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. It's a sweet song and full of truth for children to sing. It lends itself well to teaching children here because they all know when their birthday is, they all know how to sing Happy Birthday, and they all know about Christmas even if they think it's about Santa Claus. I have to admit when they sang the first few lines of the song, I was a little emotional hearing them sing it. "Happy Birthday, Jesus. I'm so glad it's Christmas. All the tinsel and lights make the holiday nice but it's all about You." Please pray for me as I attempt to teach the other classes this song and "What Child is This?" as well as "O Holy Night". I found some cool children's versions on ITunes and downloaded them for us.

The other significant conversation from yesterday happened last night. I teach one adult class of three women and I enjoy it very much although I don't like that it's my last class of four on Wednesdays. I'm just tired by then so it takes a lot out of me. However, God threw me a bone last night when Jennifer asked me why I wear the ring on my arm. Her English is not great and what she meant was the rubber bracelet I have worn since leaving Nicaragua this summer. It's tie-dye and has the words Hope Faith Love on it. I got to explain what it means, why I put it on, and why I still wear it for all three of the women. As I finished the explanation, they were all three smiling and nodding as if to say they understood what I meant about loving God and being motivated to serve God to the orphans because of God's love for us. I pray they are curious enough to ask more questions. Actually the conversation ended with them asking me if I wanted children and me telling them I have 90 that I'm with every week and that's enough. Then one of the women told us that she is expecting another child. She's not sure she's happy about it, so I'm hoping to have more opportunity to talk with her.

Thanks for listening. Now it's off to a busy Thursday.
(BTW, I had a great weekend with Lucy and her family last weekend in Danshui which is outside of Taipei. She was a great hostess and spoiled me, although I only ate Chinese food and I'm pretty sure my stomach is still mad at me.)

Until next time, LC

3 Months in TW

2007-11-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

but who's counting, right? Well, actually, I still sort of am counting. It's getting easier but I have to admit I still think about the days, weeks and now months that I've been here. It's Saturday morning here and the sun is shining so the construction workers are making sure the neighborhood is awake. (Mildly annoying but I think I'm getting used to that too.) Last night as I was scooting home after a long day, I was struck by the feeling of accomplishment after completing another week. It's amazing really that I can face so many different children, little people, every week for so many hours, to know their names and abilities and be able to help them each in ways that they need and still maintain some sort of forward motion for the entire class -- I felt good about being here and doing this job.

This week I gave three final tests to three of my classes. (The students are on 12 week semesters, meeting twice a week for a total of 24 sessions each semester. So, at the end of each semester you give them a comprehensive final test before promoting them.) I have another one to give on Monday, so that means I've been preparing tests and now I have to grade them and then enter all their test scores into the computer system. All of that equals lots of extra work and so I've been going in earlier than usual this week and will continue to do so next week. Last week I was sick and actually stayed home from work for two days, so I got behind then and had to hustle to make up for it this week. So, I'm busy! You probably are too. C'est la vie!

Today I'll be going over to Taipei to visit Irene Morris' family for the weekend. I will hang out with Lucy, Irene's sister, who I've known for more than 10 years so that will be fun. I've been trying to do it for the past two weekends, but because of being sick it's just not been possible. Speaking of being sick, could I ask for your prayers for my mom? She's been feeling unwell for the past three plus months and this week went to a specialist clinic for three days of testing. They diagnosed her with Neuropathy which explains the numbness she's had in her feet and legs, but it doesn't help with treatment if she has permanent irreversible nerve damage. So, they are running other tests on her blood and will hopefully be able to help her with pain and numbness. Could you pray that she will find some relief in the treatment they offer her? Also, could you just pray that she will not be discouraged and be able to manage the illness well. None of us likes to see others in pain and needing to manage it, but it's a reality for so many people. I just pray that my mom can discern what's the best way ahead for her. Thanks for praying when you think of me. As you can imagine, her health needs become the concerns of our entire family so I appreciate your prayers for me to have discernment with how to help her and my father to cope with this.

Well, I'll close here with a few pictures of Jessie, Sunny and Roger from my A8 class. They crack me up, so I had to share another slice of life here in the TW. Until next time, LC

Sweet and intense Jessie giving me her
best performance for her final test.
Her best friend is Juliana, and it's sometimes hard
to assess what Jessie knows because Juliana
always tells her the answers.
So on final test day, Jessie had to stand on her own.
She did very well, I'm happy to report!

Here's the oh so fashionable Sunny once again showing
up to class wearing something so cute I'm motivated
to pull out the camera. It's hard to tell in the photo
but her pants are sort of flannel, black and white
with big checks, her shirt is polka dot aqua blue.
I don't know anyone who could really pull this off,
but I think Sunny does a pretty good job of it.

Last, here's a picture of the ever clueless
belly scratching old man of the class, Roger.
He's hilarious and keeps me amused most of the time.
You can't see it in the picture but his pants
are too short for him, they are lined with
plaid flannel and very heavy. He tries very
hard to learn and speak English and I think
he'll get it one of these days, (if we can just
keep his hands on his pencil and off his butt,
belly and other parts of his anatomy 0>= maybe
he'll have a chance!)

Monday, Monday...

2007-10-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

I woke up Monday morning feeling still full of the cold and not too happy about it. But, I didn't want to call in sick until I really need to, or at least until I could miss one of my hard days (Wednesday, Thursday or Friday), so I went to work and stayed out of the kids faces. For my first class (A8 is the class that I videoed weeks ago singing Happy Birthday to Kim), I was greeted by Sunny, the future model, dressed in some crack up clothes, so I had to figure out a way to take a picture of her without asking. We've been working on this song which they learned in Chinese but we translated it to English. So, I had them sing their song, and I video taped it. Then, I got cracked up at myself because I realized I have a Sunny and a Claire in this class. Sounds like...Sonny and Cher, but my children bear little resemblance to the once famous couple except that Sunny is a "Cher" type little girl with the long hair and the fashion sense (or lack of)!

I'll tell one more quick story on these kids and then I'm off to start my Tuesday. You can imagine how difficult it is to maintain one's patience in a classroom where you have multiple voices simultaneously saying the same thing to you many times within each 90 minute period, right? Well, all of my children (all 90 of them), have been taught to say "Teachuh, I am finishee." Don't ask me why they like to say "finishee" instead of "finished" but they like it and they all say it. So, the other day, I had an Oklahoma moment, where I taught them to say some incorrect English. I taught this class to say "Teacher, I am done." Only they couldn't really say it. They were saying, "Teacher, I am dumb." So, I corrected them and said, "Say, done. With an "n" at the end, say done!" Then, they said, "Teacher, I am dung." I have to admit, I was sorely tempted to leave it, and I enjoyed a little giggle at this mistake, but I corrected them again. I don't know if all of them are saying it correctly, but they are trying to please me so that works for me as their teacher and it works for my patience to hear a little variety. They can learn later that saying "done" means you are fully cooked and ready to be eaten. ;)

Hope you enjoy the video. Sorry, I turned the camera at the end. I was trying to "fill the frame". (Shout out to my friend Glen Morris who taught me that!)

Until next time,
this is Taiwan to me!

Saturday Night in Taiwan

2007-10-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it was bound to happen. All the children coughing and sneezing around me finally made me catch a cold this weekend. Of course it had to happen on the weekend! Oh well, I needed to rest, so it's o.k., but it meant I had to cancel a trip to Taipei to hang out with Lucy, Irene Morris' sister. (I've known Lucy for about 10 years since she used to come to San Francisco and stay with Glen and Irene. She's really sweet and we've been trying to get together for the last several weeks.) She was planning to show me around the city today and we were going to see her family's home and the town where she lives, but alas none of this happened. Instead, I stayed home today and relaxed, caught up on some lesson plans and other school work and talked to some of my family, which was long overdue.

It was a good day all in all and tonight my roommate, Annalu had some of our/her friends over for dinner and they cooked a traditional South African dish, which was yummy. I decided to post the video of our apartment, I know it's not high quality since it's at night, but hopefully you'll get a little feel for where I live and the excitement that goes on in this part of the city in the evenings. So, not a lot to say tonight since I've had such a low key day, but I want to post again tomorrow, so check back in and see if it happens. Let me know how you are. I always love to hear from home. I look forward to a good day tomorrow in worship and in rehearsal. Until next time, Larissa

Sharon, Erin, and Cara last thing on a Friday night after a long week.

This was Erins birthday cake. Hello Kitty is alive and well in Taiwan!

It's Friday, that means I've been here for another week...

2007-10-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

it's a sort of anniversary feeling, although it's not an anni-, just a weeki. I think I've heard sappy newlyweds in love speak of it as their "week-a-versary", so I could steal that I guess. Each Friday over the last nine weeks, I've been reminded of how long I've been here, and today was no different. As Friday's go, it wasn't a bad day and on a good note, I was aware that I wasn't just hating every minute of my one on one for the last hour and a half of my day. I actually had the thought that I could be getting used to the schedule. (This comes the day after me wanting to throw my hands up over the lethargy in my pubescent class that I teach last on Thursdays. Ugh! Teenagers!! Roll eyes here!)

As I reflect on the day, I had E2 at 1:30. It's a small class so I like it a lot. Neco is a big challenge 'cause he's A.D.H.D. and bounces off the walls from start to finish, so I had to say his name the usual average of 150 times in 90 minutes. But, Sophia 2 (there are two Sophias so they number them 1 and 2) was so helpful and pleasant and really displayed a lot of understanding during the class so that was great.

Then I had A11. You know how I feel about A11 (if not view previous post under "nightmare"). Well, they have gotten a lot better since you've all been praying and I am so thankful. However, today we had a nosebleed before our activity, and a couple of bruised kids during the activity as a result of a scuffle between a 12 year old and two six year olds. Guess who was on the ground? (It wasn't the 12 year old!) No tears though, thankfully. (Six year old Nelson cried last Friday because he thought he was getting in trouble for not spelling any of his words correctly. I was just trying to show him that I wasn't going to count the grade 'cause he'd been absent, but he didn't understand and started to cry.)

Then right on their heels I taught A7, one of my favorite classes, except tonight they put two new kids (not new to me but new to the class) in to "try it out" and that pushed the dynamic over the top I think. In language learning, (as in Small Group Bible studies) a class of 10 is great, 12 is a little too big, and anything over that, you're definitely going to have discipline problems and some kids will get left out. Well, A7 had 14 today and it wasn't much fun for me. I really push this group because I like them so much and want them to succeed, so consequently I get really disappointed when they don't get me. Tonight was disappointing. But, it was Friday at 6:00, my last class of the week, except for a one on one tutoring session, so what should I expect?

Last there was Cherry. She's a soft spoken, bright but awkward 13 year old that I see each Friday night on her own. She gets the dregs of me, but doesn't seem to mind. We've been meeting for about 5 weeks I think and tonight was the second week in a row where she looked a little relaxed so that's good, eh?

I scooted home on my new ride (photos to follow in a future post) in a shorter time than usual, (light traffic I think ;), and my roommate had bought me a milk tea drink with pearls (they're gummy balls that have no real flavor but are good to me), so I was happy.

Tomorrow I will take the train, another first, to a city to the south of me, called Taichung, where my good friends Otey and Cheryl live and catch up with them after many years. I've been reflecting on that and remembering that it was 20 years ago that Otey and I met when he hired me to do campus ministry at Clackamus Community College in Oregon City, Oregon. Those two years were great and I've always enjoyed Otey (and Cheryl) a lot since then, so tomorrow will be fun.

Well, that's it for me. Except that I would just ask that you join me in prayer for a friend of mine who lives in Germany. She's younger than me and heard this week that's she's got colorectal cancer that's spread to her liver. She's a missionary from Missouri that I met at Golden Gate and worked with there. She's a great woman and I would love to see God do a miracle for his glory and for her good if it would be his will. Thanks for praying.

God bless and keep each of you.

Until next time,
LC in TW

"Duh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh..." (think '80's)

2007-10-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

"today is your birthday. Duh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, it's my birthday too (not really). Duh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, today is your birthday. Duh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, we're gonna have a good time! Dun, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, today is your birthday. Duh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, Happy Birthday to you!"

Well, just about the time most of you are convinced this has become the birthday blog, I have to go and post yet another birthday shout out, and prove you're right. Sorry, folks, but I gotta throw one to my friend, Claudia. She's having a birthday today and I can't be there for it, so I'm wishing her a good day/weekend/week/month as she celebrates with friends and family. I made her a cheesy video tonight from my school, just with me and three co-workers, at the end of a long day/week, so we were all looking a little spent, but the love came through I hope. (Sorry, but I'm sharing it with her only on Skype chat, so there's no url to give you.)

Claudia and I have known each other since playing softball together on the First Baptist San Francisco team (sad as we were), and that's about 8 years or more now. We've traveled a lot together and we still like each other, so that's a good thing, eh? She's a great friend to me and I think I keep her laughing so it's a decent trade off.

What can I say, Claudia's great!

So, Clauds, have a great day and sorry I can't be there. Lovin' you from the far east!

This is Claudia translating for a Nicaraguan couple at the clinic
we worked at this summer in the mountains near Jinotega.
She was amazing. Full of patience and love for her "peeps".

Same clinic, same day, but another one of the
250+ patients the doctors saw that day.
Claudia was one of only 3 translators.

Claudia with some of the older girls at the orphanage in Jinotega.

Claudia with two of the girls we had walked
to school on the last day we were there.
Kinda makes ya sad to say good-bye.

Last of the "Family" October Birthdays

2007-10-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

Me and Joe on the Harley in San Francisco.

The Golden Gate Bridge in the rear view mirror of the Harley, on a
typical San Francisco summer day.

You can take the boy out of Oklahoma
but you can't make him take his boots off on the beach in California.

Yes, I have three family members whose birthdays are in October, and today is Joe's birthday. He's a great guy with a charismatic and winsome personality. I had the awesome opportunity to spend a week with him in Nicaragua (a week in Oklahoma and 2 weeks in San Francisco) this summer and it was so much fun. In Nic, everyone he met became his friend. He sat on the porch each night exchanging cultural lessons with the night guard, bus driver and translator, mano y mano (I think that's how you spell that), which means man to man. He wouldn't have it any other way but to stand in the doorway of the bus when we were traveling so he could "talk" with the bus driver (who only spoke Spanish and Joe only speaks English), be ready to jump out of the bus to open the gate, help the driver park the bus, and just generally provide a sense of camaraderie with the driver. He's always impressed me as a man that gets things done, whether it's building a small shed, or a huge shop in his back yard, putting together a custom motorcycle or repairing a friends "scooter" (i.e., Harley), whatever he puts his mind to, he manages to do. I love him, and I really hope he has/had a great day. So, Joe, this blog's for you!

Joe in Nicaragua, on a horse at the medical clinic, with Moises (one of the boys that lives on the farm/ranch), holding a little boy at the clinic, and standing with his "boys" (Donald, Dimitrio, and Lester) outside of the Jinotega orphanage.

Here's my brother and my nephew,
his son, Shane, this summer at the
lake in Oklahoma. What a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2007-10-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Today's my Mom's birthday, so I just want to say "Happy Birthday, Mom!" and hope you have a good day, and a good week.

My Mom was born more than seven decades ago, but she's still on the road to seventy-five, so that tells you how well she's doing. Although she's not been feeling well lately, and I would appreciate your prayers for her, she's a delight to the whole family and takes good care of us all. This summer, when we were all together at the lake, she was making sure all the food was provided and that everyone was happy, so much so that I don't know how much she was able to enjoy it, but we sure did! (Thanks Mom! I know you loved it.) That's what my Mom does, she makes sure everyone else is happy and puts her own desires on hold. In that way, Mom has raised five children, helped to raise eleven grandchildren, and now she's loving playing with ten great-grandchildren (with one on the way!)

In July, when we recognized my Dad's 50 years in ministry, we spoke of what a legacy he was leaving and how many of his family members and people in his churches had enjoyed life-changing experiences because of his influence. Well, Dad rightfully threw some of that love Mom's way, as he said, "No one stays with anything for as long as fifty years by themselves." He knows and we all know that Mom helps him do so many of the things he's able to do in ministry and oftentimes at home, so we have to say the legacy is shared by them both.

So, Mom, I hope you know that your family loves you, appreciates all the love you give us, and that we are all excited to see what God is going to do with you now as you continue to serve along side Dad in Southern Oklahoma and many other places. Happy Birthday, and many happy returns!
Love from Taiwan,
Riss

Karen, Mom and Me at Christmas

Dad, Candace and Mom at Christmas

Mom and Cooper on the boat in July.

Mom and Kaityn in the RV at Lake Murray in July.

"Double 10 Day", or "a day off in the middle of the week!!"

2007-10-10T17:54:00.001-07:00

It's Thursday morning here, the sun is trying to break through the clouds, but there is a beautiful breeze coming through the windows, and it's nice. I'm so happy to report I've not had to sleep with the air conditioner on in my room for three nights now. Hopefully this means the weather is becoming more bearable. We use Centigrade here and the thermometer in my room reads 26* at the moment, which is pretty pleasant. Weather report over, the reason I'm posting this morning is to tell you about yesterday, Double Ten Day, which was a great excuse to have a day off in the middle of the week.

The South African posse had a "slumber" party at my place on Tuesday night, to which I arrived after 10 pm when I finished work. They had already gorged themselves on snacks and were contemplating all sorts of ways to lose weight. Seems this conversation bridges the cultural gap and is universal amongst women of all ages. One of the girls dyed her hair, another was talking to her friend from home on the computer, and another to her boyfriend via text on her cell phone. Gadgets aplenty, all were happy. I made some hurricane popcorn*, which they loved, as did I (thanks to all the Hawaiian influences in my life over the years Lisa, Lani, and Lori to name a few), and we settled in to watch a movie around 11:30. *(hurricane popcorn is a Hawaiian original. it's a mix of seaweed bits, little sesame seeds with salt and sugar and soy crackers. very tasty!) After watching about an hour of Zach Braff contemplating cheating on his pregnant live-in girlfriend in a movie I don't wish to name since it's not recommendable, I could see the writing on the wall for this "winner" of a pick, so I "pulled a Lisa". (Lisa loves to disappear up the stairs while we have guests at the house and never return, leaving the rest of us wondering if she's died up there, gotten on a major phone call, got mad at us, or in fact just gone to bed without saying so. It's always the latter, but we still wonder ;) My bed was so comfy, I couldn't get up to go say goodnight, so I just turned off the light and fell asleep with a guilty smile on my face. (Lis, I do understand.)

Wednesday morning, my roommate and I thought the crew was taking a day trip to Taipei departing at 9, but when I emerged out of my room at 9:30, they were still here. Indecision also seems to be a universal issue amongst the young, so they discussed all the pros and cons of going or staying, and ultimately stayed. When they put yet another movie on at 2:00 in the afternoon, I went grocery shopping. Always an adventure, one of my favorite things is to buy whatever I feel I want or need, THEN think about how I will transport it all home on the scooter. As always, yesterday's trip did not disappoint. I came out with a huge jug of water, which went at my feet in the middle, and two huge bags, which I balanced on either side of the jug. Although the bags were hanging off the bike's platform a bit on each side, the faithful bungee cords skillfully wrapped around all of it and strapped to the bike seat made it possible for me to drive home without too much fear. I was amused though. (Sorry no picture of this. Maybe next time.) It made things slightly more challenging when I took a text message order for tea drinks from the slumber party-ers and ended up riding home with a bag of five ice teas hanging off the acceleration handle of the scooter. They were dangling and sloshing around every corner, however, since this is a scooter culture, the drinks are sealed with a plastic wrap that makes them spill proof. When I arrived home, the girls were ready to go up on the roof to look at the city from the 21st floor of our building and enjoy our tea. (Photos below.)

All of the girls took off to do various things around 5, except my roommate and I. We cooked dinner and ate, went for a walk around the complex where we live (it's gorgeous), and arrived back to one of the girls, Marichen (we call her Marie, thankfully) waiting for us on the doorstep. She had downloaded the first two episodes of Grey's Anatomy, henceforth known as Grey's, and we watched it together before bed. I capped the day off with a couple of phone calls on Skype and went to bed happy.

And now, I'm off to teach the children for two more days before the weekend. Yea!

Hope you're well.

Until next time,
LC from TW

Anneloe (left) and Noeline enjoying
the rooftop view and the wind in their hair.

Marichen enjoying the view of Hsinchu on the roof.

The view of Hsinchu as the sun is setting, from our roof.
My tea is in the picture for perspective.

Speaking of perspective...this is an avocado
I bought in the store yesterday next to my camera case.
I know my camera is small but shouldn't the avo
be about the same size as a digital camera?
Wow! I think I'll invite the neighborhood over
for some guacamole. Chevy's has got nada on Taiwan!

Cabin Fever, Canadian Thanksgiving, plus "Fridays" with Friends and Another Birthday Shout out

2007-10-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Well, friends, I spent Friday night until Sunday afternoon in my apartment without going outside even once. We had another typhoon (video below, hope you can open it), which is my third one in seven weeks. The only bummer is that it hit a day too late and on the weekend. If it had come on Friday morning instead of Friday night I could have gotten another day off of teaching, and this one would have included A11! That did not happen, but I still like to fantasize that it could've.

Speaking of A11, I've had two sessions with them in their new semester, and it looks like they're trying to rise to the expectations of being in their second 12-week semester of English study. We shall see how long that lasts, but at least for now it's going alright. (It still takes so much of my energy, so I appreciate your prayers for this class each Wednesday and Friday.) A great blessing to me for this upcoming week is that I get Wednesday off to celebrate Taiwan's National Day. (I don't know if China knows about this, so please don't tell them;)
No A11, PTL!

Today's Sunday and I got together with my Canadian co-workers this evening for another trek to Outback. They were excited that this was Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. They kept saying "Happy Thanksgiving!" and it was a lot of fun. We pretended the brownie dessert was pumpkin pie and talked about all the things we missed about home. Love those Canadians!

I managed to make it to TGI Friday's today for lunch with the South African gals, my first time to find the restaurant (it's not difficult, but somehow I've struggled there), and therefore my first mexican food in seven weeks. It's not quite a record, but close to it. Those chicken fajitas were rockin', and I loved giving the South Africans a lesson on what's in the various mexican dishes. They were eager to learn...and with my years of Taco Bell experience, I was a great teacher, I must say. Yo quiero, Taco Bell!

Last, but certainly not least, today is my girl, Stacey's, birthday! Now, since Stace was one of the residents of 163, I haven't missed her birthday in about six years, I think, so I'm bumming that I'm not there for it today. However, I trust she'll enjoy the birthday song my roommate and I left her on her Skype voicemail tonight. "Love you, Stace. Hope your birthday was memorable, as only Sunday birthdays can be for those of us in ministry."

Well, it's very late and I'm very tired, so I'm sleeping now. I'll check back in early in the week if I can. Stay gold, pony boy.

Until next time,
Love from LC in TW

Just a quick shout out to my bro!

2007-10-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday morning here, but still Tuesday in Oklahoma, which is where my brother, Jay, and his wife Jackie live. Today's Jay's birthday, and I wanted to say Happy Birthday to him on my blog. I won't say what birthday this is, but just know that he told me he got the senior discount for his breakfast at Denny's this morning. ;) Way to go, bro! Take advantage.

Here's a picture of him and his son, Jeff, at the lake this summer...

and a picture of his granddaughter, Taylor, posing for the camera at the lake.

...a picture of his wife, Jackie, holding our great niece, Kaityn,

and one of his daughter, Christy, granddaughter, Tori, and son-in-law, Shane, who now live in Alaska. Tori was tired, so...

here she is looking her usual radiant self!

This is Josh, Jeff's son, Jay's grandson, at Christmas with his new bike helmet on...

and here he is in April playing with his Dad at GiGi and Papa Clark's house.

And finally, here's Jeff's son, Jesse, last but certainly not least, he's a sweetheart of a boy, loves to play with his Dad, brother and sister, and Aunt Riss ;), he's a delight to us all.

Wow, bro, you've got a lot to be thankful for, eh? I'm thankful for you and all of yours. Hope you had a happy day.

Gotta run and teach some Chinese children now. Love you all, Riss

"To a heart formed for friendship and affection...

2007-09-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

the charms of solitude are very short-lived."

So says a quote in my "Cryptogram a Day" puzzle book by a woman named Fanny Burney, who according to Google was a servant to the royals of England in the late 1700's. Well, I don't know what inspired her to write that quote, but I can say when I read it this week I could relate to it. I do enjoy a good bit of solitude, but this week I've found myself in the throes of cultural dissonance. (I know this because I became intensely annoyed yesterday by the giggling of all the staff at the drink shop I stopped at when I couldn't communicate to the guy behind the counter that I wanted an iced coffee with milk. He told me there was no milk, which is ridiculous since most of the drinks they offer come with milk. But since neither of us could communicate our thoughts, I just said, "o.k., coffee." And then I watched them make a large iced coffee with whipped cream on top. No problem...in the end, but I have to tell you, inside I was thinking "you folks better stop laughing at me, 'cause I could bounce over this counter and crack your skinny behinds! I know you don't want to see that, so you better stop!" That's about the time I realized, the honeymoon is OVER!) So, Fanny had it right, the charms of being on one's own in a strange place where you neither "know" others nor are you "known by" others has worn thin and I long once again for my friends and community, the place of peace and familiarity I call "home"..."163" ...and all that comes with it.

I know this is a natural part of assimilating to a new place, but knowing and liking are very different things, and right now I'm not liking the adjusting. Mainly this feeling may be brought on by two things...I moved into my new place on Monday, and I love it. It's clean, it's modern and beautiful and my roommate is very kind. Buuuttt...I keep getting lost every time I try to venture out anywhere and it's getting old very fast. I eventually find "a way" to where I'm going, but not until I've gotten really frustrated and annoyed that I can't seem to get the feel of this neighborhood. (For those of you who have enjoyed my navigation help around the city of San Francisco, you can really understand how this feels for me.) This gives me a daily reminder that I am helpless here and this is not a good feeling.

The second thing that I believe may have caused my "turn toward the abyss" is that my manager (not my boss, but the gal that manages my branch of the school) came to me on Wednesday to tell me I'll probably have to take another beginning class in the next few weeks since there are so many inquiries about the school from new students. The reason I get this is because one of my classes only has 6 students in it, E2, and the school has an 8 student minimum for a class to continue. I love E2, and although one of my students in that class, Neco, annoys me a lot with his silly antics and insistent "Teacher, me no" shouts at me when he wants to say "Teacher, I don't...(whatever it is we're doing at the time)", I love him! And I really enjoy that class. (Show me a teacher that wouldn't enjoy teaching 6 children eager to learn, right? Of course I love it!) I'll try to post some pics of this class before they break it up into other existing classes to make room for the new one...ugh! You know how I blogged about A11? Well, I think this one will be called A13...and I ain't feelin' like 13's gonna be a very lucky number for Mama! Alas, if this is part of the job, then I must do it, but I don't like it, and I'm really hoping there's another solution. As always, I covet your prayers around this and for my continued adjustment to life and living here...not only because it's a different place, but also because it's away from the people I love.

So, all in all, this has been a good weekend. Yesterday, I set my room up (pictures to come in future blogs) and prepared dinner for my two Canadian colleagues and my roommate. We had fun just eating and chillin' together at the new place. My roommate had to teach during the day so I felt like treating her to dinner. (Shout out to Anneloe, pronounced Annalu, for letting me stay here rent free for the last week. God is good!) We did a reconnaissance mission where we all four went out to the corner traffic light to video tape the count down of the little "don't walk" graphic. Here are two very short clips of me interpreting the little walking dude.

Today, I led worship at church, went to lunch with some of the folks on the worship team, and then had rehearsal afterwards. It went pretty well, and I can sense the team beginning to gel and trust one another. I'm so thankful for a new couple in our church from Pennsylvania, Phillip and Jennifer. He's on the worship team and can really rock the guitar, plus he's got a real heart for worship and for youth, so he's an amazing addition to what God's putting together at Victory English Fellowship (VEF)! After rehearsal, I rode out about 20 miles or so on the scooter with Ryno (pronounced Rrraino), another guy who plays guitar on my worship team, and another South African...I'm surrounded! He lives out near Chutung where I used to live, and he was showing me his special way to get into Hsinchu. It was fun, but after we had a coffee and I scooted back to the apartment, I was so dirty from the dust that was blowing around, I had to have a shower. I've been relaxing in my room ever since and now it's almost time for bed.

So, not bad, and tomorrow begins a new week full of fun and adventure teaching English in Taiwan. I really can't complain. There is never a shortage of things to blog about and it seems like several of my friends enjoy reading it. Thanks.

This brings me to my two last things to share with you. I recently purchased my own helmet for my scooter ventures. I had seen these helmets that had the name SCOTLAND on the side and something as a subtitle, and they always made me smile, for obvious reasons. But, when I found them for sale at the store I like to go to, I couldn't resist. And the subtitle reads "Every day is so nice." No doubt!!! As this is the first September in the past three that I've not been in Scotland, I can concur, "Scotland, every day is so nice!"

Lastly, I was alone in my apartment this evening putzing around making some dinner when I noticed the sky outside of the living room window. The sun was setting and it was beautiful.

So, that's all from me for now. Sorry I've been slow to post this week. For a short work week, it really felt very long! Work, huh? That's why it's called work, cause it's work. No more profound thought.

Until next time,
LC from TW

Touring...Chinese Style!

2007-09-26T17:53:00.002-07:00

Apparently the Chinese are notorious for a certain type of touring. They like to get up very early, go to the airport, fly to an island, get on a bus, go to at least 8 different historical sites, eat Chinese food twice in different but similar looking warehouse style restaurants, before going to the hotel to check in after about a 15 hour day! And that was just DAY 1! Well, that's what happened on Saturday. I had a hard time sleeping the night before and probably nodded off for about two hours when the alarm went off at 4:30. I had to get to the neighboring village of Chutung/Jhudung (I've seen it spelled at least four different ways on official signs) by 6:30 on the scooter. (The distance for readers familiar with the Bay area, would be similar to riding a scooter from Serramonte Mall to the Golden Gate Bridge. For readers in Oklahoma, it would be like riding a scooter from Del City to Moore, without the freeway.) So, I was a weary traveler from the beginning of the day, and with the heat and humidity, I was so TIRED by the time we got to dinner that night. However, my roommate was looking to me for some entertainment on Saturday night and I think she was surprised when I turned the other teachers down on their invitation to go sing Karaoke in the hotel. Instead, we called a couple of the Teacher's Assistants (T.A.'s), two young Chinese girls not long out of college, and they came over for "girl talk". It was fun and we all laughed a lot. It was a good end to a long day. Sunday was much the same as Saturday with the wonderful exception of a 45 minute stop at a huge and deserted beach. (Chinese people here are apparently afraid of the water.) I think the stop was supposed to be much shorter but all the Western teachers took off down the beach splashing in the waves and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. I took a video of Erin and Sam, the two Canadian teachers that arrived with me. I teach with Erin (the one in the yellow shirt) and Sam teaches at the other campus. I hadn't had much of an opportunity to speak with Sam until this weekend, so that was fun. In the video they're wearing a shirt that says Pandy Happy Day (it should say Panda), and it has at least four other English mistakes, including the word "stweet" instead of "sweet". Funny stuff for an English teacher.

As I was walking on that beach for even just a short time, I thought of how blessed I've been this year, to have walked on three beaches in three different countries over the last three months. (Actually it made me tired to think about it.) But what a blessing to be with friends and family in Hawaii in July, Nicaragua in August and now China/Taiwan in September. I loved 'em all, but have to give a shout out to my favorite...Kailua still takes first prize for me! :)

Just a quick thanks to all of you who prayed for me with my roommate situation for the weekend. I didn't have a hard time "living" with her and actually found some compassion for her as I listened to the things she talked about. Yesterday at work she said her father's in the hospital and I think she's really worried about him, so I believe I may have a chance to offer prayer for her. Her name is Sharon, and although she has lived in this area most of her life, her family are from Shanghai in mainland China. It would be great if you could pray for her and her family. Gotta run for now, but more later.
Until next time, LC from TW

Cute picture of my boss and her niece.
Me in the waves on Kinmen.

Erin, the Canadian, in the waves on Kinmen Island.

Mike, Karen & Claudia on Kailua Beach in July.

Joe and I on the beach in Nicaragua in August.

Kailua Beach at Sunrise! Wow!

No News is Good News...right?

2007-09-25T19:38:00.001-07:00

It's not really that I have no news, it's just that I have no time to deliver the news. It's Wednesday morning here and I need to be getting on the bike heading toward school a little earlier than usual today. We've had a long weekend (more on that later) and I thoroughly unplugged, so I am now behind on prepping for the week. One of the joys of teaching is the stuff you have to do when you're not teaching...preparing, planning, grading, praying...it's an almost never-ending job. (So, all those mugs and t-shirts that say "My 3 favorite things about being a teacher? June, July and August!" are indicative of just how much teachers work and NEED the down time.) Well, one of the things that we have to do at Kang Ning is twice every 12 weeks we have to assign our students a reading passage for them to record on a cassette and turn into us to grade. Several of my classes hit that time in the semester together and I have a sea of cassettes on my desk at work waiting for me to wade through them. So, I'm off to work early today.

With that, I will bid you adieu and encourage you to "HUG A TEACHER TODAY" and "If you can read this, thank a teacher!" and "Just say no!" (I wanted to throw that one in there because I couldn't think of anything else.)

Thanks for the prayers.

Until next time,
LC from TW

Be careful what you ask for...

2007-09-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

have you ever heard that before?

Well, I asked you all to pray today that I would be focused on my purpose for being here and that there would be some miracle with A11 while my boss came to observe me. Prayer is key, people! You've got to ask people to pray for you when you need it and even if they don't do it in the time frame you were hoping for, God somehow (sovereign that He is) knows that the one in need has asked for prayer from others and He honors our prayers even before we utter them.

So, off the sermon and on to the news from today...Serena (my boss) was a little late to the class, so I got to get the stuff that I know she wouldn't like out of the way. (Don't be alarmed, no children were hurt during these few minutes!) I know she wants us to be superhuman, and be entertaining to all 16 children at once (I had 19 until today when my colleague "promoted" three of them to other classes - shout out to Sharon, my roommate for this weekend, for helpin' a sistah out!) Well, when you're trying to check and record that they did their homework and you're trying to give them individual feedback, you just can't keep all of the others from speaking Chinese to one another. Suffice to say, I was happy she was late. I was able to check homework, give the spelling test, and record both of them before she came in.

The children were miraculously calmer than normal, and I was able to handle them. Today was their preparation for a test next week, and I feel that many of them have been well prepared, so I did my job. (Some of them need more prayer!) At the end of the grueling 90 minutes (well, maybe about 80 with the boss watching), she said as they were leaving, "Wow, they seem like a totally different class than what I saw four weeks ago. You're really getting through to them." Pick my jaw up off the floor, 'cause I know it wasn't me today...but I'll accept the encouragement. The only problem now is...I have to keep this class, 'cause the boss thinks I can handle it! Argh!!

Thanks again for praying and keep 'em coming! There's always tomorrow, and never a dull moment in TW! Come visit.

Until next time,
LC

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

2007-09-20T20:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Thursday, and on Thursday I teach a full load of classes, some of which are enjoyable ;) Well, I was enjoying the freedom of the borrowed scooter, so I set out to pick up a few goodies on my way to work. (My Chinese colleague, Scarlet graciously loaned me her scooter that she's had for over 12 years but doesn't drive it anymore. She's had so many wrecks, and one of them caused the left hand break handle to curl inward, making a perfect handle!) It's an awesome feeling to know where to go to find things you like when you are new to a country. So, I picked up this yummy iced tea with milk and pearl gummy balls and strapped it to the scooter to ride out to work. (Shout out to all you lovers of the "Quickly" shops in the states. They have them here and many other varieties of drink shops.) I made it through the traffic and negotiated all the obstacles to arrive at work safely, park the scooter and promptly knock the back off of the bike. It only fell a few inches, but it cracked a hole in the bottom of the cup and my yummy tea (which I hadn't taken one sip of) was seeping out the hole and into the bag. There was nothing for a girl to do, but drink it out of the bag, which I did as you can see. I was laughing at myself so much, I had to take a photo and share it with all my peeps.

This is a picture of one of the classes I like on Tuesday and Thursday. It's B3 and this little guy is Gaga. Don't know how he got this name, but alas many things are a mystery. He is very bright and helps me manage the rest of the class, including his silly buddy Max behind him and the child I like to call Slow Stanley on the back left, since he is slower to move than any other child in the class. These guys make me smile, and I wanted to share them with you.

Today, I have a HUGE prayer request. It's Friday, I'm tired and looking at a four class teaching schedule, so that's a concern to start with. But I learned two days ago that my boss will be sitting in on my NIGHTMARE A11 class today. That happens at 4:25 p.m. so if any of you read this before then, please throw some good prayers my way. She will also sit in on the class that follows, A7, but those children are eating out of the palm of my hand since they had a party last class session and they are raring to go to learn some more English. They love "teachuh". ("R"s are hard for second language learners in TW.)

Tomorrow, I need more prayer, as I set off on a three day trip with the rest of the staff. We are flying to an island, Kinmen, very near to China but still in Taiwan's possession...don't understand but I'm going. It will be challenging to be around all these folks for the whole weekend and I heard yesterday I found out I will be rooming with a gal from my office. She speaks great English, but her attitude is sort of crappy. She's not slow to express disdain for others in the office that she doesn't really care for. So, pray that I will have some good opportunities to talk with her and for my energy to stay high enough that my attitude doesn't get crappy.

You guys are great to comment on my blog and to pray for me when you think of it. I can sure tell you're praying...so thanks!

Until next time,
LC from TW

Homeless in a Hurricane and Happy Birthdays

2007-09-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today was a typhoon day in my county, which is akin to a snow day in the states...nobody goes to work and all the schools are closed. (Typhoon's are like Hurricane's, consult Wikipedia for more info.) Although I was thankful for that, I can't help but think that it's a bummer it didn't happen tomorrow, since I have A11 tomorrow. Alas, it was today. I had a good day and I really shouldn't complain. But...where shall I begin.

Not only are we having a killer typhoon/hurricane, but I'm homeless again! Yesterday when I got to work, there was a message for me to say I would not be able to move into the house I'd planned to move into. Apparently the landlord decided to sell the house and Julie and I are not going to move into it. So, I'm homeless...sort of. Thankfully, I have a place to stay until next Monday, and today, during the typhoon, I went to look at an apartment to share with a South African gal who's been teaching here for 2 and a half years. She goes to my church and works with the youth, and she's got a great personality. All this to say, I will be moving in with her at least in the short term, as little as one month, and as long as four months. I like the place but I'm reserving the right to move for several reasons: the rent is higher than I wanted to pay, Julie and I may be able to move into the house in the future, we may find somewhere else we like, and/or Annaloe (pronounced Annalu) has four months left on her lease and she may wish to move at that time. I'm thankful that I have a place to go to, and it's nice, modern apartment with cool yellow leather furniture. In the words of Jon Lovitz, "jealous?" (shout out to Lisa!)

This brings me to Happy Birthday's, which I owe to my friend Kim, overdue from last Saturday. Kim, just for you, I had my children from A8 sing you a little song and say a few words. (Please disregard the annoyed sound in my voice at the end of the video. Sometimes it's like herding cats.) Follow this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85INqVnvKI, to meet Lee-Sheen, the very loud and bright boy who's mother is a United flight attendant, Jessie and Juliana who are inseparable, Sunny - the future Miss Taiwan, Ava - otherwise known as sleepy girl or "why am I here?", Roger the fumbler, always messing with his books and/or pencil case, Claire - the raspy voice child who says "Teachuh, teachuh!" like a linebacker, Charles, who rarely understands anything I'm saying, but is very cute, and Leo - I don't think you get to see Leo because the girls all gather around behind me and start squeeling so I cut it off. Well, that's my Monday and Thursday 2:30 challenge. But I like this class. They crack me up. I hope they learn something. Truthfully, I think several of them will be good English speakers one day, so I have hope. Kim, hope your birthday was great. Many happy returns.

Well, that's all from me over here in TW.

Until next time,
Larissa

A11 is my nightmare class!

2007-09-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

And here's why. Agassi, James, Nelson and Benson are little boys that are six or seven but look like four year olds. They love to jabber away in Chinese baby talk, and only pay attention when they hear their own names. Actually, that's the case for all my students, they only pay attention when you start the sentence or question with their name, which is impossible to do when you have 18 kids in the same classroom. This class, A11, is on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and it's an absolute beginner class. I'm often at a loss for what to teach them. I have tried to play preschool games with them, but some of them are 10 and 11 year olds and they won't play the games. (Those are the girls, Jill, Jane, Betty, Cindy and Joyce.) So, if anyone out there in blogger-land has any bright ideas about how to teach English to A11, let me know what you think. Suffice to say that right now I dread Wednesday afternoons and by the time Friday afternoons roll around, I'm thrilled to see the little darlings behinds scooting out the door. I throw my fist in the air and declare it officially the weekend (although I still have two classes after this one, neither of those compare so I don't mind.)

Well, I wanted to get this post up since I told you guys I would show more pics of my students. Here's A11...more to follow.

Until next time,

Larissa

Agassi, Tony, Kevin, and Willy

James, Nelson, and Benson

Benson is very bright, and fun to teach

Jill, Cindy, Joyce,Betty, and Jane

Sarah, Viola, and Emily

"Counting the Cost" was

2007-09-16T05:41:00.001-07:00

the title of our sermon this morning at Victory English Fellowship here in Hsinchu. It was taken from the passage in Luke 14 verses 25-33, one of the hard teachings of Christ, where He says, "Whoever comes to me cannot be my disciple unless he loves me more than he loves his father and his mother,...(lots of other people)...and himself as well." Our pastor wanted us to be reminded of what it means to be a believer in Jesus. It made me think of what it's "cost" me to come here, and why I did it. I have to admit that although my main motive for being here is to please God with my life, sometimes I know that I'm here because I love adventure (which is how God made me) and I want to make some money teaching ESL. But, whatever my motive, the cost is the same. On day's like today, it feels a little more costly, because today's my parents anniversary...Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! (pictured below in July at Dad's 50th ordination year celebration)...and on special days it just makes me realize the things I'm missing back in the States. (Don't let me give you the wrong impression. If I was in California, I would not have traveled to Oklahoma for their anniversary today, so that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that on special days, and always on Sundays, I think of being far from family and friends and I miss them.)

However, here I am, and here's where I'm supposed to be, and one of the reasons I know that is because of the way my parents raised me and taught me to live with my eyes open to ways I could be a witness. This week I had a significant and unexpected conversation with one of the people at my school, and it further solidified my reasons for being here. Thanks again for your prayers and your supportive comments. Keep 'em comin'!

Next weekend I will be on a staff trip for Saturday through Monday, so I appreciate your prayers for good conversations and team building.

And, one more time, Happy 56th Anniversary to Mom and Dad! Here's to one more...at least ;)

Until next time,

Larissa

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

2007-09-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

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

“Davy, (bum, bum) Davy Crockett….

2007-09-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

…King of the wild frontier” (imagine the tinty sound of elevator music accompanying these lyrics). If you could complete that song in your mind before you read the words on the blog, you can imagine how obnoxious it is for me to have to hear this tune playing at my school everyday, intermittently with old Carpenters songs (every sha la la la, every whoa whoa still shines), and a bad rendition of Edelweiss, all played without lyrics on a xylophone!!! I’m stuck in “bad musack hell” here and I can’t get out! The next time you are in an elevator or a dentist chair and you hear the musack, think of me having to endure it everyday in TW, and pray I don’t pull the wires out of the wall. I think that might blow my witness.

Well, I had to share that with you, but really I just hope you have a good rest of your week and no matter where you are or what you’re doing today know that I’m praying for all of you to have significant conversations with people around the memories of September 11^th, 2001. I had a good one today but will be sharing that offline. God is still good!

Until next time.

"God is Good!"

2007-09-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

This is Sophia 1 (there are 2 Sophia's in her class so she's Sophia 1). Her mother and sister are also my students (stop the insanity) and they all three took me out for the day two weeks ago after church on Sunday. I took this picture after much pleading with Sophia and as you can see she was not very happy about it. I like her a lot and I think she's warming up to me too. I have other pics of my students in class that I will post soon.

It's Sunday night and I've been planning lessons for the week but wanted to share this with you.

We had a great day at worship today. One of those days when you’re absolutely certain it’s not about you, and God shows up powerfully. I’m so thankful for this, since as I said last week, many on the team are from the youth group and they are young in their faith. (They like to play the songs that they can personally sound good on.) We are all still learning that worship isn’t about us and the younger we are the more shocking that discovery is it seems. This morning, we were late getting started, and yet it was still really early so everyone was tired and low-energy (we’re at rehearsal at 7:30 on Sunday mornings). We rehearsed and every song sounded flat and out of tune and frankly sort of embarrassing. I started to worry a little. God gave me the strength to power through the line up of five songs and when it was time to turn the stage over to the worship team from the Chinese church, we went to a back room to continue rehearsing “unplugged”. Today was the last day for two of the youth, one of whom has contributed a lot to the worship team in the last five years. (He’s a little genius child heading to Northwestern University this week to study some ridiculously complicated major). He plays about five instruments and does them all well. So, needless to say, he will be missed by all. But in God’s sovereignty, we have just added two very good musicians to the band, so we’re not going to be hurting too badly. Well, all this to say, we rehearsed as long as we could and none of us felt very certain about the songs when it was time to go out and start. However, we gathered together and prayed. We asked God to be honored in our worship and to not let us take lightly the privilege and responsibility to lead people into God’s presence in their time of corporate worship each week. Well, when worship began a miracle happened (at least one!) The opening song that had been giving me fits in rehearsal was “Trading My Sorrows” (shout out to my Nicaragua team “Si Senor, si si Senor…”) and right on the front row two guys stood up and were clapping right away. I know God sent them because the team got encouragement from that and the presence of God was among us throughout the rest of worship. It was great to be able to say to the team later, that although we knew we were not as prepared as we should have been this morning, God knew our hearts desire was to worship and lead others into worship and He made that possible. I’m thankful tonight for the mercy of God, for all of the team, especially for Kenneth who will be heading to school this week and for Mari, a teacher from South Africa that helps me a lot with the worship team. And I’m thankful for you, for your prayers, and your emails of encouragement.

More later. Love to all. Larissa

an inch is as good as a mile...

2007-09-02T05:23:00.000-07:00

that old adage proves true many times a day for me as i walk along the narrow streets next to buses, trucks, cars, scooters, other pedestrians, bicyclists, and dogs, all sort of bobbing in and out of one another's way as if dancing to some tune only distinguishable by the finely tuned chinese ear. i was wondering how long it would take until i found myself in a stand off (or worse). it happened today when i was leaving church. i looked both ways, walked slowly out into the pedestrian crosswalk (these are invisible to the drivers of any motorized vehicle), and from my left and behind me, a little old man (with a wife beater on) driving an old motorcycle slowly drove right for me. we both stopped at the same time just a couple of inches apart, me with a look of exasperation on my face, i'm sure, and him with a big smile on his face, the look of recognition that he had not timed that very well. no one was hurt, i kept walking and had a smile on my face before i got to the other side of the street. just thinking about the old guy on that bike still makes me laugh a little.

so, pray for me. not just for my safety, but also because i began ministering in a new setting today. i led worship for the congregation where i've gone the last three sundays. i had a singing group of five plus me (only one guy), and a band of four (an electric, an acoustic, a bass and a drummer). i sensed the presence of God early on in worship, so God was, as always, faithful and i am thankful that His presence is not determined by my level of familiarity in any one situation. we rehearsed after lunch as we will be doing for the next few weeks to see how it goes with everyones schedules, and that went reasonably well. can't help but feel like the new kid on the block. they are mostly high school students who are bi-cultural. chinese in ethnicity, but american in speech and attitude. ("we were like, and they were like, and i was like..." if you know what i mean.) even though they are young, they want and need leadership, and they know it. however, many times today i heard, "that's not how we do that." so i will need patience and discernment to be effective here i think.

here are a couple of pics from my church. we meet in the basement of an eight floor church building. the picture is of last weeks service, the new pastor, rocky bronson (love that name) from michigan, is praying, and the worship team is on the platform. the other picture was taken today from the eighth floor after rehearsal, and yes, there are about 100 scooters parked on the street, only one section of about five that look exactly the same on this street.

see you next time.

"take your chances" drugstore

2007-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

ok, seriously, tonight i saw a big store, with the name "take your chances" on it. as i looked at it closer, it said "drugstore" in small letters next to the sign. yet another reminder that i'm living in a country where english is most definitely not the first language. some things get lost in the translation.

i stopped by a cell phone store today to try to get a sim card so i can make calls here in taiwan. it was quite an ordeal, as most things are when you don't speak the language. first, i had to go back to my room and get my spare cell phone, since there is no sim for my blackberry apparently. so, i came back to the store 15 minutes later with my old nokia and the manager, who spoke pretty good english, thankfully, began to try to help me. i didn't have my charger and the phone was dead, so he sold me one for about 5 bucks. then, i had to have a battery, because my battery was no good, so that cost me about 10 bucks. then, he was about to sell me the sim card, but he remembered he needed two forms of i.d. i already knew this and was ready with my passport, which has my visa in it, thus making it two separate i.d.'s. well, this was of great concern for the other manager of the store, who thought i didn't have the right documents to purchase the sim card. (why you need i.d. for this, i don't know.) after about 20 minutes and a phone call to the authorities, they let me purchase the card. then, i had to fill out a form, and didn't have the phone number or address for the school where i'm living (which is a shame since i just received my business cards from my employer this week...but who carries those things?). when i told them i didn't have my info on me, they began to pace a little and speak in rapid fire chinese. then i said, "i am staying at kang ning english school" and they both said "ah, kang ning!" and that seemed to make them both happy. within a few minutes i was walking out of the store a satisfied customer. so glad to know that my school has name recognition in this part of the world. just another day in the life, here in taiwan!

here are a few pictures of the town where i live, standing on a walking overpass looking both ways up the streets, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. on one side of the street, i took this picture of a residence that has been added to the top of a building. it just struck me as interesting. hope you think so too.

see you next time.

ahh...the comfort of a good cup of coffee

2007-08-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

the things we do for our coffee...most of you know, right before coming to taiwan (two weeks ago), i was in nicaragua*, where i purchased some very nice coffee, caffeinated and ground (i usually only drink decaf and i usually only buy beans...snob that i am). all this is significant because for the past two weeks it's been very helpful in my adjustment process to have readily available, caffeinated coffee when i get up in the morning. however, last weekend, i purchased a coffee grinder, and this morning i ground some decaf coffee from the kalapawai market in kailua (if you know me, you know just what i'm sayin' here! if you don't know me, this is my favorite coffee place in hawaii where i used to live.) here i sit in my little room (temporary accommodation provided by the school), sun shining through the window, air con blasting, doing the laundry, and thoroughly enjoying my first cup of ground coffee in taiwan!

*me and my friend, kim, in a coffee shop in jinotega, nicaragua after a long day (can ya tell?)

this is my first blog entry, so i'll keep it short. but i plan on adding to this frequently on the weekends and sporadically through the week. feel free to check back often. have a great saturday morning.