I’m sitting here trying to commit to memory the linear approximation formula L(x)=f(a)+f’(a)(x-a) so that I can figure out things like the square root of 16.38 without using a calculator. I’ve memorized so many theorems this semester for Calculus that it makes this one in particular difficult to muster the energy to remember. At the beginning of the semester I was really enjoying the fact that in math all one has to do is memorize what theorem to use in what situation and then just systematically work through it but after a billion theorems its getting old. Now the subjectiveness of World Lit is not as frustrating as it once was.

The other day I rode my scooter to Sinhjuang to meet up with my basketball team for a tournament. I’m on my major’s (International Business) basketball team for our university. The IB (International Business) tournament was happening. Basically the IB basketball teams from all the different universities in our area got together at Lunghwa University in Sinhjuang to figure out which one was the best. We lost our game to Tai Da University, Taiwan’s most prestigious university and one of the best in Asia actually. We all figured we could take them pretty easily because they’d be all brains and no brawn. However that was not the case. They were a really quick scrappy team even though we had the height. I didn’t play in the game at all but I really felt for the players because we were on these courts on the roof of Lunghwa’s sports building and it had sprinkled a little bit so the court was slippery.

In spite of the fact I didn’t play it was fun to ride my scooter to another town and have to follow directions from one of my teammates. Singhjuang is towards Taipei and if I had kept on provincial road 1 which I took I would have ended up in Taipei. I think sometime I want to try and ride my scooter to school and see how long it takes me. Its fun to cruise through towns set in the vallies surrounded by the mountains of this area. My manly desire to figure things out came out and I had to figure out where to go and what to do. It felt great!

In phys ed class on Tuesdays a lot of times I’ll play basketball with other guys in my class. Sitting and thinking about things I realized that the guys from Africa say “who are you gonna mark” instead of “who are you gonna take” or “who are you gonna guard?” Upon reflection I found it interesting that because of the context I knew exactly what they were asking me even though I had never heard that question asked that way before. Isn’t the human brain incredible! I wonder what sport “marking” comes from?

My family sent us a Christmas package and I have to say eating Christmas cookies and fudge from my mom has been a highlight. The fudge tastes so good and completely familiar without any tastes in my mouth that I’m not sure about. Its so sugary and American and I love it!

I miss my brother a lot. I get to talk with my sisters and parents sometimes but my brother and his wife are so incredibly busy that our schedules never seem to align. On Christmas they were at my parents for Christmas and so I was going to wake up in time the day after Christmas (my time) to talk with them before they left to go home Christmas evening (their time). I even skipped school to do it but my slothful tendencies of morning sunk their claws into me and before I knew it I had woken up and they were gone. I talked with my mom and sister for a little bit saying how bummed I was but it was too late. I’m a lazy idiot sometimes.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what Emily and I will do this summer. Where we’ll live, what will do, etc. I’d like to be able to get jobs and earn enough money to pay for our plane tickets for the summer trip home and back here. The main decisions are what kind of jobs would accomplish that the best and allow us to spend time with our families and friends during break. Also where to live? We’ll only be home for 2 months and a few weeks so I’ve been toying with the idea of trying to get odd jobs from family and friends to earn money or maybe getting restaurant jobs like normal college students or whether to de-tassel corn or something like that. They all have their pros and they all have their cons. One real concern is getting enough time with family and friends since we have two sets to think about and I love them both equally. Its hard to think about the family and friends quotient being met because we’ve been away for so long that we have that feeling you get when you think that it couldn’t possibly be met no matter how much time is spent……..you know that feeling right.

Emily and I woke up this morning to a shouting match on our street. One dominant male voice screamed above the rest but there grew to be so many voices I couldn’t tell how many people were involved. It seemed like it started at one house and just kind of spread to include several houses or something. I wonder what we’ll feel when we’re back home and live with greater space in between neighbors? Its been really nice to get to be friends with neighbors so quickly here and the way the architectural layout aids that. Some people back home go years before knowing their neighbors but we’ve only been here for four months and already we know who’s nice and who’s not. Who says hi and who doesn’t. I really like our street. I really like our one room apartment even while that may sound crazy to other Americans. Its really been good for Emily and I to be so close together. We’ve learned to give up things for the other. Emily is so good at that. I’m constantly realizing that she is giving something to me and doing something she wouldn’t otherwise do except that she loves me. Its very challenging and convicting when I see Christ so beautifully displayed in someone that thought I was good enough to marry. She inspires me!

Wow, I can’t believe its Christmas already! Seriously two days from now it will be Christmas 2007 and the next day it will be over.

Its definitely different here than in the US. In the US even when you turn on the radio you know its Christmas. Here I know because Emily keeps on reminding me….she likes Christmas a lot. I’m a “bah humbug” compared to her vigor over the season.

Emily has made a sign for our door that tells our neighbors Merry Christmas. She also bought a fake 3ft christmas tree for our apartment and has decorated it beautifully. Hopefully she’ll get some pictures up soon. She bought lights for it too! However these lights are special. We think they were made in “China” because sometimes when you turn them on they are solid non-blinking lights and sometimes when you turn them on they are blinking lights but at fascinating intervals!

On Christmas day I have a calculus test! Thats how Taiwanese celebrate Christmas. Actually a bunch of the international students have always asked for Christmas off classes but we’ve never gotten it apparently and a lot of them skip classes. However I won’t this year because of the test. Emily and I will hopefully follow the Jefferies tradition and open one gift on Christmas Eve, then the day of we’ll go to class and open the rest of our gifts and celebrate on Christmas evening. That way we can join in using skype with our families who will just be waking up for their Christmas morning!!!! We think its a pretty good plan. We are also having Carla and Ramiro (our friends from Bolivia) over for dinner Christmas day.

Saturday night we went to our church’s Christmas party. They held it at a hotel and had a great big banquet hall rented out. Basically what they did was the 150 members of the church invited all their friends and it turned into a room of 500. The idea was evangelistic. Everyone had a wonderful buffet meal and then their was a Christmas program with songs and testimonies. When they asked who wanted to become a Christian a bunch of people raised their hands and went forward. However I’m not sure about authenticity. In the US the peer pressure says not to raise your hand, here from what I gathered the peer pressure was against not raising your hand. That doesn’t mean they weren’t authentic dedications to Christ though, I really don’t know. Actually because of translations I don’t know much of anything here. If anyone likes living in a sort of fog then I would definitely suggest a move to Taiwan. It was really really cool though. Both Emily and I really enjoyed ourselves and felt really loved by our church family for having been invited.

They way we got to the hotel was really cool too. Basically we had a little map on the invitation with us on our scooter. We went to downtown Taoyuan, then at stoplights we would ask the person on the scooter next to us to tell us where to go. They would look at the map on the invitation and give us some instructions and then we would follow those instructions as best we could. When we weren’t sure anymore from the previous directions we would would ask someone else at whatever the next stoplight was. I think we had talked to about 10 people or so when we finally found the hotel which turns out to be one we’ve passed before and knew of. I love living somewhere where I don’t speak the language!!!!!

I only have like three weeks left of school this semester. Its getting to be crunch time except I’m sick of school already. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. Actually a blessing in disguise was a weird sickness I had this past week that was really bad in my throat and basically drained all my energy for 3 days. It kept me away from school for 2 days and the effect was that I wanted to go back by Friday. Thank goodness Emily didn’t get sick! She took really good care of me! I like having a wife!

The week before last I did a group project in a class. I had been elected group leader for us and we did a presentation on high school etiquette and the differences between Brazil and Taiwan. Its weird to become a student again and all the things that come with that like taking pointless classes and doing fluff projects and yes, slacking.  The one difference is I selected none of my classes to take so I can’t take all the blame. In fact here you actually have to fight against the system to be able to pick your classes, even electives. This next semester they’ve given us our mock up schedule and I have 3 electives that I can “pick”. Hopefully I can figure out how to work the system and get something better than Understanding Art which is on the list.

Well the main thing was I wanted to get something up here because its been a while. Feel free to make suggestions on what we could write about that you are interested in.

This year, Christmas is taking on a new meaning for me. Holiday decorations and music, usually welcome and warm, now make me feel far away from home and lonely. I miss my family so much. Every year before this one, we’ve all been together – together around the table with the special poinsettia placemats, together drinking hot cocoa out of the special Christmas mugs after playing in the snow, together around the newly-decorated tree, singing our favorite songs. Together, howling at the top of our lungs to Dad’s special version of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Together. I was a Muffett. I was the only one who could remember all the words to the songs. I was the only one who could hang my ornaments. I was the one who knew how to help mom place the wreaths around the house. I was the only one who made sure we all listened to my favorite LP – King Family Christmas. Of course, we don’t have a record player here in Taiwan so there’s no way I could have brought it. I think to myself: can it be Christmas without the King Family? …I don’t know. It’s December 9 today, and even though I’ve tried my hardest to give our little foreign home some holiday warmth, it’s hard to feel. I’m not sure if it feels like Christmas at all.

Last year, at about this time, my boss and good friend Mrs. Burdick told me “No matter where you are, Christmas is Christmas. It will happen no matter what you’re doing – people all over the world will celebrate Christ’s birth.” I know she’s right, but HOW do I I celebrate when I feel so FAR AWAY FROM HOMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Somebody teach me. I’m sort of lost.

Michael is trying so hard to help me. He’s been so comforting, holding me when I cry and telling me what I need to hear. It hasn’t helped much, though. I am still crying.

I don’t know how to handle this, Lord! Please teach me what Christmas is all about – help me to feel the joy in my heart of your birth. Help me to make this, our first Christmas away from home and as a new family, one that honors You. I feel so lost and lonely. Please be with us, God!

Here’s what I miss…

For a few days now Emily and I have been a little under-the-weather. Its interesting because here health care is nationalized and everyone is part of a national health insurance program. Because of this everyone always goes to the doctor for anything. Nothing is too small to warrant a doctor’s visit, especially when it costs around $5 USD….don’t quote me on that but I know its a tiny amount. Therefore everyone has been telling us to go to the doctor. However we aren’t allowed to enroll in the national health insurance program until we’ve been residents for 4 months so thats still one more month away. Luckily MCU has a campus doctor that we went to and got some pills to make us feel better. Its funny because at the grocery store we were looking for a pain reliever and couldn’t find anything. The only thing they’ve got at grocery stores are bottles and bottles of vitamins.

I felt funny going to see a doctor with only symptoms of sneezing, runny nose, sinus pressure, and an itchy throat. Growing up as a Jefferies I think I can count on two hands how many times I’ve visited our family doctor. He was a really nice older man though who I think was tickled to use his English. He asked me where I was from and relayed it to the 2 or so nurses in the office as well who both let out an “oooohhhh, how how how” (“how” means good and is a constant filler word). Taiwanese people are so nice to Americans its incredible.

For the past week or so I’ve been sort of sick of school. Seeing Finals looming and all the teachers giving their big test talks always does this to me when I have nothing to really be concerned about. I did fine on mid-terms and I’m on track to pass everything I think. I’ve got a group presentation in a class this week that has been a constant project for the past month and a half so hopefully with that out of the way I can have some relief. The moment of truth will be after the end of the break between semesters and seeing if I’m ready to go again?