Home

Yay!! Mom and I are home!! We flew into Seattle on Thursday, stayed the night there and then Dad drove us home on Friday. As we got near to home I kept saying, "I know that curve in the road!", or "I recognise those trees!"

G. K. Chesterton said somewhere that the reason we travel is so that we can go home. That is exactly how I feel. I've had an amazing opportunity to see another culture, another world, and it was incrediably different from anything I've seen before. It makes me appreciate what I know and love more.

Pictures will be uploaded asap. I just have to figure out "how". :-)

Day Tripper, Yeah

"We drove and drove and drove some more, and that was our vacation." ~ Disney Land commercial

Thursday we drove to Taipei - we saw Dan Shui Harbor where the river meets the Taiwan Straits and we went to the ShiLin night market
Friday - We went to the National Palace Museum containing artifacts for "4 thousand years"! What a claim to fame! We saw some very cool colored china, jade pieces (one famous one that looked like a cabbage and another that looked like a slab of meat), very old books in chinese, etc. China claims to have had moveable print in 618 AD! (they also claim the Americas which they discovered in 1421. When the ship returned to China 3 years later, China was in political wars and the discovery went unnoticed and the records were lost).
Next we went to the Grand Hotel. "The only hotel in the world modeled after Chinese palaces" It's huge and uses very striking colors; red, yellow, green which set if off from the mountain. There were many restarants from which we chose one for our lunch! It was like eating at the Ritz! lol
We went to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial around 3:45. We walked up the many stone steps to the Memorial Hall and waited for the hour to watch the changing of the guard. It was so amazing. All the tourist got very quiet as we waited. There were two guards facing each other on the opposite sides of the room. It began with the two guards banging the butts of their guns on the floor. The sound echoed throughout the marble hall and we feel silent as we heard the other guard approaching from outside. I can't describe the rest of the movements except to say that watching 5 men walking, stomping, calling, clicking in exact unison was amazing. Mom took videos on her camera which we'll be sure to post when we get home.
At 5:30 we were at Taipei 101. The sky was very hazy, but we decided to go to the top anyways. We rode one of the fastest elevators in the world. It took 37 seconds to go from the 4th floor to the 87th at a speed of 1010 meters per minute!! At the top we walked around the observation deck, listening to an audio tour, and eating ice cream. We saw the world's largest mass damper which is also the only one in the world open to the public(nearly evey tall building has one to counteract the sway of the wind). It does an excellent job and I was grateful for technology. However I could still feel it sway! Mom didn't feel it, and Aunt Melody only a little. But I one point I was standing in the middle of the room, apart from anything else, and I lost my balance!! lol We walked up two flights of stairs to reach the 91st floor. There is an open air observation deck. We saw people on the east side watching the Moon rise. October 6 was the Moon Festival, the night the moon is the brightest in the year. (see my dad's blog)
Saturday we drove under a tunnel that took 18 minutes to go through! We drove along the coast to Heulien and then into the Taroko Gorge. We watched an aboriginal dance and spent the night at an stone church.
Sunday, we left at 9:30 and arrived at 8 pm. It was supposed to be a 6hour drive. We had to go slow on the hairpin turns and there was lots of traffic for the 5 day weekend. We were all glad to be back. Thank you for your prayers for safety! There were a couple times when we were on the mountain trying to pass traffic in a one car lane. Cliff on one side and ditch on the other. Pictures forthcoming of the gorgeous views!

Off to Hong Kong in the morning. Probably no computer until I get home. Toodles!

Capitol City

We'll be off, momentarily, to the capitol city of Taiwan, Taipei. We shall see some sight in the city, then come down through the mountains on the East side of the Island back to TaiChung Sunday night (Sat night American time).

Please pray for traveling mercies and health. I was sick Tuesday night from what we guess was slight food poisoning or just my system getting too sensitive.

See ya in 4 days!

Meat in the Market

Although you can't tell from the picture, most of the fish were still alive. Gills were moving. "Fresh fish! We catch 'em, you buy 'em!" - Aladdin



We ate roasted duck on Tuesday! "Very nice, very tastey." ~ 84 Charing Cross Road. We ordered half a duck and made pretty good dent into it. Food is so cheap here. I'm glad that I'm able to try lots of new things without it being an over-my-budget meal.

Driving

Pictures Ahoy!!

Market Day!

Walking through the streets lined with stalls full of wares, there was so much to take in! The colors were enchanting, bright and cheerful. The people sang there calls to "Buy! Buy our goods!" I was reminding of the scene in Oliver "Who Will Buy?" Every time Mom or I stopped to take a picture we were bombarded with "Buy my fruit!" or "Take my picture!" The scooters raced down the road and around the stalls. Mom and I weren't used to being so close to them. Here are a bunch of pictures of the Market Day (Friday).

Food

"Food, glorious food, that's what I live for." ~ Oliver
"Gotta eat to live." ~ Aladdin
Necessity is the mother of invention.

Eating in another country is so different. I came to Taiwan thinking to myself " you gotta try everything, even if you think that you won't like it. you have to at least try it." I've done way more than try things! Somethings are so strange looking, weird and contorted. Each place cooks their rice differently. All the open air resaturants (more like a corner shop) have questionable sanitation. And I've plunged myself into this totally different food culture ready and willing.

Mom and I have eaten breakfast out twice now. They usually serve a fried or scrambled egg with ham or bacon or turkey wrapped inside a flat totilla/crepe like pancake. Very good and tasty! Also dumplings in any shape or form are popular for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some are small circular dough balls with pork inside. Some are made with the dumpling dough rolled out, the filling laid on top and rolled up and cut into slices. We watched a lady in the day market make dumplings. She took a small ciricle of rolled dough, about as big as a lady's palm, and piled a small bit of shreaded pork into the center. She then folded the dough in half and pinched the sides shut.

Some of the drinks are interesting. The tea here is hot or cold. Hot tea is "red" tea or milk tea. The red tea is our typical black tea although usually much sweeter. The milk tea is just that, a sweet, creamy tea. It can also be served cold. They also like fruit drinks. Fruit grows prolificly here and they use any and all in a drink. I found a new fad in the bottom of my fruit drink , tapioca balls! Small black balls of tapioca pudding in the bottom of the drink slide up the straw with the rest of the liquid. Soft and squishy in my mouth. But good. I decided after a lot of tapioca that I liked it good enough to have it again, although it wasn't my favorite.

Every meal is eaten with chopsticks. On the first night Aunt Melody offered me a spoon when she saw me struggling with my sticks. I refused knowing that if I didn't try I wouldn't get the hang of it. Mom and I have done better and better eating with two tiny sticks in our hands. It's kinda fun now that I understand the technic.

Saturday night, Cynthia's parents took us out to dinner. They order so much for us to try. Here is a list as a sample of what we've been eating. This is in the order of what was served to us when during our meal.

1) Shrimp and rice cake wedges w/ sauce
2) pork slices in thick fat
3) veggies plate consisting of carrots, green onion stems, bamboo
4) finally our rice came. It was seasoned with bits of salmon! I loved it!
5) bamboo and chicken soup. Mostly stock with tiny bits of chicken and some leaves similar to spinach and the inside of the bamboo shoots.
6) pig intestine
7) fried fish in a sweet and sour sauce
8) tarro cubes
9) cheese fish on bamboo shoots
10) lamb chops
11) candied sweet potato dipped quickly in ice water (it carmalizes fast)

I'm glad that we told the Mr. and Mrs. Lu that we weren't very hungry. :-)

Friday

9 AM - Day Market ... sensory overload :-)
11 :30 AM - join A Capella choir (mom rested at home)
1 PM lunch ... We used the afternoon to do prep on the evening's dinner
4:15 PM Mission's prayer meeting
5:30 Dress for party and help with last minute set up
6 PM Guest arrive promptly (I know a college that had a reputation for begin late. The students there should take note of these Highschoolers *hinthint* :-) for Mystery Dinner

The Mystery Dinner went so good! A bit stressful at times for those of us in the kitchen, but it was pulled of masterfully and I have a bunch of pictures and hopefully my first video worked! The kids that came are my Aunt's highschool Madrigal choir so they sang three songs and I recorded one. Hopefully I'll get it up here with pictures soon.

Weekend plan: Visit Taipei with Cynthia and her parents. Sunday - mountain drive and/or Jade market

So I'll be busy, but I'll try to write. Leave me notes and I'll respond asap. :-) I'll get pictures up first of next week, Lord willing.

Good Night!
Moi

Thursday

Now remember, our Thursday was U.S. Wednesday. We are a day ahead since we crossed the *loud speaker voice* "International Date Line!"

Thursday: we slept through the night, which we are told is rare for jet lag. We went to breakfast with Mrs. Sheppard and her youngest daughter, Kealyn. We ate at Mei-0-Mei (the name of the owner). Dad, it was eggs and bacon and green chilies wrapped in a really thin tortilla like thing. Then there were pork dumplings, and we drank milk tea. It was good and creamy.

Then Mrs. Sheppard took Mom and I with Kealyn to the Folk Park. There was a big pond and big goldfish. Kealyn liked to feed the fish, but she dropped in one pelet at a time. All the fish would come swarming to where they saw the food and they would try to race each other to see who could get it first. :-) Then we had to go so she dumped the whole box in at once. The fish practically jumped out of the water, climbing over each other in their vain attempts to eat it all!! It was hilarious! Mom and I were not expeting to see that, so we gasped and started laughing!! Good times at the fish pond. ;-)
Lunch was ate at Aunt Melody's. She has three co-workers over for lunch too. they are all teachers in the music departmet. then aunt melody took us on a walking tour of "the Village", which is what the missionaries call their part of town mostly because they remember when it was a villiage. Now there are skyscrapers. :-) that was fun, although a bit intimidating I found.
We made it back to Morrison in time for Chapel. the main part of the service was a time when the highschool students could give testimonies about Spirit Week, which happened last week.
Most of the kids at Morrison are Christians, but some are not. Every year in the Fall, Morrison holds "Spirit Week" where some of the classes are cut to make room for special classes on religion, Christ, Christianity, God, etc. They have chapel every morning (where as regularly chapel is once a week) and a speaker comes in who encourages the believing students in their walk with God and the others he witnesses the gospel too. His message was especially clear, all the teachers have been saying. Anyways, the kids were able to share about their impressions from that week during chapel. It was neat for me to hear those impressions and hear how they all cared for one another. The kids either felt love for the brethren, or love for the unbelieving. They pray for one another and encourage each other to walk the life daily, lean on Christ, and be do-ers of what they believe, not only say-ers.
After that we had dinner and then ... oh, boy! Aunt Melody took Mom and I out to get our hair washed. Doesn't that sound wierd? It is a realy commong thing out here. They massage your neck and shoulder first to relax (Theresa, they use Eucalyptus oil for the massage!) and then they lather your hair with shampoo and the scrub your scalp for over 5 minutes! They you lay in a chair with your head in the sink and they rinse you hair out and add a conditioner of some sort. They also wash your face with an oil or gel at this point. Now these guys are good! No water get into your eyes, or on your shirt, not even one little soap sud. Pretty cool, huh? Then the lady dried my hair and Aunt Melody told her to style it. I have pictures of this whole episode and I'll post some when I get it all up and running.
Then we walked home, happy and relaxed to bed.

Morrison Academy

We arrived at Morrison on Wednesday afternoon. It takes about 2 hours to reach the campus from the airport. Aunt Melody lives down "Faculty Row" which is the ally running behind the soccer field and sports tracks. There are a bunch of faculty housing on that street, some dorm housing, etc. Aunt Melody lives at the end, on the left, second floor (in case you want visit :D). She lives across the street from Jeff and Ronda Sheppard (from Moscow!). Mrs. Sheppard took Mom and I to the Folk Park on thursday and we talked a bit about Moscow, the people, and how things change. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Wednesday: was relaxing. Mom and I unpacked, showered after the trip, and tried to stay awake. At the end of this day we will have had a 33 hour day (the longest in my life!). A. Melody wouldn't let us go to bed until after dinner, so she took us out to a restaurant where we ate Teppanacky (sp?). I ate with chopsticks which Cynthia showed me how to use. I got a good start, and a pretty good dinner, and have been practising at lunches and dinners since then. After that, we went to bed!! yippee! :-)

Carrying One Another's Burdens

Thank you, all, for the prayers that were given on our behalf. Mom and I were able to nap at least three times on the plane (new record for our family!), we had no worries flying so long over so much water (there were some worries before leaving U. Bill's and A. Nonie's), we had no trouble getting through customs, and our bags were one of the first on the belt, and we were never stopped, nor questioned, nor asked to open our bags!! Yay! Praise God!!

Aunt Melody saw us when we left security and she squealed! lol She has been so glad for our visit, so thankful. At every prayer, she gives thanks for us. That makes me glad to be a tool for God's use in her life, as well as making me feel a little bad about not visiting sooner. But the Lord has opened this trip up to us in a marvelous way... so much has been laid before us!

computer trouble

hi!

We're here with minimal access to a reliable internet server. Mom and I have got on every day and the computers have crashed in the middle of emails, blogposts, etc.

Just to let you know. ... we remember you.

Seattle

Mom and I arrived safely in Seattle thanks for U. Steve's driving. "We drove and drove and drove some more ... that was my vacation." ~DisneyLand commercial :-)
We got to go see Mom's cousins, Meghan and Missy, and their families before dinner. We got a good sleep last night. Yay! This morning Aunt Nonnie made oatmeal with blueberry syrup. It was so good and not too sweet. Then Uncle Bill and Aunt Nonnie took us with them on their walk around the mall. We ran errand, picked up my new glasses (they came with no problems! phew!). Later Mom took us all to the IHOP. I had breakfast (of course) - two eggs, two pork sausage, hash browns, and cinnamon rolls that were fried French Toast style. This afternoon I slept, then had dinner, and Meghan and Missy brough their families over for Apple Crisp.
Now Mom and I are packed and finishing things up before we go. The shuttle takes us to the airport at 1am. After 12 hours we'll see A. Melody! Yay!!

- pictures to come when I reach Taiwan -