Taiwaneers

We’ve been having some difficulty with our internet here at home so I figured while I’ve got a connection I’d better get a post up to ensure people don’t think we’ve already called it quits on this blog!

Its seems that one DSL connection to a house converted into eight apartments isn’t enough. We’ll have a connection for a while and then it will all of a sudden disappear and won’t come back for 15 minutes or 24 hours depending and will last for the same weird and varied amounts of time. We suspect its mostly to do with one of the tenants who seems to enjoy downloading large files from the internet and monopolizing the bandwidth……did I get that terminology right all you techies? Anyways I’ve got it right now thank goodness!

Ok so here’s a little story. Last Friday I got on the bus in downtown Taoyuan for the ride to Guieshan (the little village we live in right next to Taoyuan), walk to the back of the bus to one of just a few empty seats surrounded by a bunch of what I think are high school guys. I’ve got my MP3 player going and as I sit down next to one of them I see the rest give him a look and hear a ooooohhhh from them loud enough to be heard over my music. I take off my headphones and immediately the two behind me who spoke English wanted to talk and show off their skills talking to an American……thats right, white guys are cool too!

As we chatted about my age, why I was there, and all the easy things they had learned how to ask in English I found out that they were actually 18 year old freshman at Ming Chuan University at the campus Emily goes to in Gueishan. It was weird to realize these little boys who I was giving “sage council” to about girls and pubs (none of them had ever been in a pub and were excited and nervous to go because now they could being 18)  were beginning probably many of the same core classes I myself am taking.

Another funny thing was anytime, and I mean anytime I said something in Chinese (like yes and no) they would cheer really loud. I can’t imagine a foreigner in the US getting cheered for speaking English on a bus and found it incredibly amusing to be so entertaining. Just to give you a picture other people on the bus were giving this group of 13 or so guys dirty looks because they were cheering so loud.

In conclusion I’d just like to offer up our couch here to anyone needing a self-esteem boost bad enough to make the trip over here. Just save those fees your paying your shrink and in no time you’ll have enough to buy a plane ticket. That purchase is all you need to solve the problem because the boost is the price of a bus ticket once your here…..18NT, about 60 cents USD.

Yesterday I cleaned the apartment, and after doing so realized that it was an optimum time for taking pictures. Our pretty little home can be viewed in its entirety HERE.

Tonight we had a dinner guest - Ginger, another American (and Christian!!!) attending Ming Chuan. She taught English classes with Michael’s sister Megan, so he’s met her before. Actually, she was helping us look for an apartment in the area, though she didn’t find anything. This was the first time I’d met her and I thought she was absolutely great. Warm, loving,  and a follower of Christ. I think we’re going to be easy friends

Tomorrow, Megan comes to visit for the weekend. Students have next Monday and Tuesday off of school due to Moon Festival, so that means teachers too. Yeah! We’re planning to spend time with her and Sandy, and also pick one of many traditional Moon Festival barbecues to attend. It should be a really wonderful couple of days.

Love!

Emily

Its such a diverse list I figured it would be interesting to know all of the nationalities represented in my class of about 30 or 40 students. Its interesting also that MCU has placed all of us Interational Business & Management freshman in the same classes for this semester so basically we see each other all day every day.

Ok so there are:
About 6 Nicaraguans
About 4 Brazilians
A few from Indonesia
A few from Korea
3 of us from the USA (one from northern California, one from Boston, and me)
A girl from Naru (an Island in the South Pacific with less than 15,000 people)
A guy from Kitibus (thats how it sounds but I’m not sure how its spelled. Its also a dot in the South Pacific so small that I can’t find out how to spell it)
A girl from St. Vincent in the Caribbean
A guy from Dubai
A guy from Malawi, Africa
A guy from Swaziland, Africa
About 10 or so from Taiwan (local students who wanted to improve their English so that is why they are in our degree program)

Thats all that I can think of right now but I may be missing a few.

We’re get the natural disasters out of the way immediately it seems. Last week we felt an earthquake in the middle of the night and classes are canceled tomorrow because of a typhoon! NO SCHOOL!!!! Today was my first full day of classes and I was already excited for the break. 7 hours of class today plus an hour and a half commute each way once made me bouncing off the walls excited to just sit at home tomorrow! Emily and I are thinking about going on our roof (our roof is half enclosed with a laundry machine and stuff and half a flat outside area) tomorrow if its not too crazy and watching some of the fun….we’ll see…..don’t worry mothers Muffett and Jefferies. We won’t do anything stupid. Besides, we’re way to far inland to get anything but wind and rain.

For those interested click here and you can see the weather channel’s interactive map of our typhoon. I’m calling it Holiday because I don’t have classes.

We’re all settled in our apartment now, which is nice. After a month of traveling and new things, it’s soothing to come back to one bed every night. I started school 2 weeks ago and have been learning the Mandarin Phonetic System (pronunciation, etc), Michael starts his classes in the morning. We’re a little nervous about how our schedules are going to fit together - our classes are at different campuses of the same school. So, he has to commute 1.5 hours each way every day from our home in Guisan to the Taipei campus, while I walk the 15 minutes to the campus in Guisan. We learned this only after having been here for a week and having paid our full year’s rent, so there was no option to move somewhere in the middle. Oh well. God is good to us and I’m trusting Him right now to show me why this is His plan.

Today has been so wonderful. We found other believers!!!!!! A few times in the past weeks we’ve been on the bus downtown and saw an illuminated cross on a building in the distance - so we thought it might be a church. Yesterday, we went on a walk to find it, but once we saw the building it just didn’t look the part. Sure there was a cross on the outside, but it was 6 or 7 stories high and had doctor’s offices and other random stuff advertised out front. Still, we took a walk around the building and found one glass door that, upon peeking in, revealed a wooden pew for sitting. The only other things inside were an elevator and a few security guards behind a counter. So…not very churchy looking but the pew gave me hope. We convinced each other to go inside, and after saying “Church?” a few times over we were taken in the elevator to the fourth floor, which revealed an actual sanctuary, complete with more of those wooden pews and a stage. Downstairs again, we met the pastor, his wife and his daughter, all who spoke some english and told us when the service times were.

This morning, we decided to go and ended up taking a taxi because we missed the bus (my fault - I was putting on makeup!). We got there ok and everyone was so nice, saying hello and shaking our hands and giving hugs…it was like being in a warm blanket to be around believers again. I didn’t know how much I’d missed it. The service started and although I couldn’t understand a lick of the singing, I felt God’s presence so strongly and started to cry from sheer happiness.

Presbyterian Church Service Picture

Then halfway through the message, a Taiwanese woman came up with little translator devices (one ear piece and a receiver box) and through her translating, we were able to hear the message in perfect English. She came up afterwards to introduce herself: Faith. We met her mother and grandmother too, and all three of them invited us to lunch with them at another church. Happy to have made any acquaintances, we accepted and were whisked away in a car.

Faith’s mother and father are lawyers, and their office space is adjacent to a small church. She explained that even though her family has been going to the Presbyterian church for generations and has responsibilities there, their heart truly lies with this fledgling church family in their office building. OH MY GOSH this little church has made today my best day in this country yet! We met so many open, Godly, transparent and welcoming people. Everyone was quick to include us and make us feel like we’re supposed to - part of the family of God. It seems they are all so eager to be in God’s word and reaching out to their fellow countrymen, 97% of whom do not believe as they do. Among the 15 or so people that we met and talked with, we were introduced to the man who recently retired from running the computer company Acer and an airline pilot for Eva Airlines, who also runs a side business selling Porsche, Mercedes and BMWs. David, the pilot, drove us home. We had such wonderful conversations with everyone and I felt so at home, so in God’s house, so honored to be with people who love and live to serve the Lord of all creation.

Michael, Faith and Emily Picture

Everyone gave us their number and told us to call them “anytime we need anything,” including the former Acer owner guy. We were just blown away with kindness and Christian friendship. So, needless to say we’ll be going back. I am SO excited to be with other Christians, work for the Kingdom here in another country, learn more Chinese and make good friends.

Thank you God for providing us with the chance to meet these people. Thank you for directing us to the right place at the right time. Thank you for keeping us in the palm of your hand!

Emily