Thank goodness for the end of stress. Emily is home now and I can relax and enjoy being with her.

Also my midterms are over. Last Monday I took my Economics midterm. Than on Tuesday I began with my Accounting midterm, followed by my Sociology midterm and ended the day with my History of Modern China midterm. Than I woke up Wednesday morning to go take my Calculus midterm.

I think I talked about it last semester near midterms as well but I’ll say it again. They really put a lot of emphasis on these tests here. In fact its a historically cultural thing as I learned in my Chinese History class. During the dynastic periods in Chinese history peasant class people were able to make the jump to gentry class by taking a civil service type exam. It was called the “Eight Legged Test” and was heavily based on Confucianism. Because of this history tests are huge here. You take a test in high school that tells you what university you are able to go to and even what major you will take. After university you take tests to get different jobs. For example if you want to work as a clerk at a bank you take a certification test for that and a different one if you want to be a bus driver. Pretty much every time you switch jobs you’ll probably take another certification type test here from what I gather.

My midterms had high stakes too. The grade weight ranged from 15% of my final grade based on the midterm for Sociology to 40% of my final grade based on the midterm for Economics……WHA!

Thankfully I finished them on Wednesday without a nervous breakdown and had a long weekend to detox and relax with my loving wife.

Today classes started back up. In Accounting the teacher let us see our midterm grades and I was satisfied (not overjoyed) with the 88% I managed. Maybe tomorrow my Calculus professor will be that nice so I can stop worrying about that one. Thats the one I am on pins and needles over since I know in order to pass the class I’m going to have to do at least ok on the midterm because the finals going to be…….lets face it, its going to be a final in Calculus, ’nuff said.

I’m really getting excited about coming home for the summer. I’m missing everyone more and more. My family and friends and driving and eating different kinds of foods and even just the familiar streets and scenes of Lansing and Sturgis. Only two more months to go!

Since last Saturday Emily has been in California at her best friend’s wedding. I stayed back here in Taiwan partly due to the high cost of airfare and party due to the fact that next week is midterms.

I was interested to see what it would be like to be away from Emily for a whole week. Since last August we’ve been living together in a one-room apartment in a foreign country where everyone is not fluent in our first language. The closeness and camaraderie has grown exponentially. However its difficult to see sometimes. What would it be like to be “on my own” again? Would I like it? Would I like it too much? How would I spend my time? Would I miss Emily? Would I be happy when she got back? Would her return be bittersweet?

These questions were answered. At the beginning of the week I was definitely ok with her being away. She was with her best friend in the whole world and would get to see her mom too. I was really happy for her and knew that her happiness would undoubtedly make it possible for me to be happy. I knew I wouldn’t be missing her horribly. She even had to ask me to go with her to the airport to see her off because me being the lazy bum that I am would have just as soon seen her off in the taxi and then gone back to bed rather than take the 3 hours that going with her to see her walk through security at the airport would take.

It is important to note that this state of mind is not still residing in me. I am pining for my love. Yesterday, Saturday marked a full week of her absence and even though we’ve spoken over skype a few times throughout the week it didn’t compare. I felt deep, powerful pangs of emptiness. I missed having her presence in the apartment with me. I missed her face and her hair. I missed the sense that her presence brought to my world. I missed knowing that when I came home after school in the evening she would be there to be so happy that I was home after just a days separation. I missed talking with her and learning from her. I missed looking at my dirty dishes and knowing nobody was going to ask me to wash them or make me feel guilty by washing them herself.

This time apart has been so good. Learning how to be married is such a process and I feel like this week has added a lot to my ability in actually seeing the process that has been accomplished in addition to adding more to that progress. I definitely do not enjoy living without Emily for any length of time. She is the one God wanted me to marry and last August was when He wanted me to marry her.

My mom told me a story when I was a teenager. She said that her great aunt, a single woman who never married was once asked as an elderly woman why she never married. “I never found someone I couldn’t live without” was her reply. Because marriage is giving everything to the other person I didn’t want to have even a possibility that I would screw up and marry the wrong person. Thats why this became my motto as well. The problem is sometimes I forget what I need when I have it. This applies to God, a job, my wife, health, and a bunch of other things. Not having Emily this week has been horribly wonderful because I’ve remembered that ‘I can’t live without her.’

Last night Emily and I went out to eat at my favorite restaurant ‘the Thai restaurant’….no idea what its real name is. I ordered a dish at the medium spicy level because sometimes when I order little spicy (my usual level) they barely put anything on there which is no fun. The dish came and it was definitely more spicy than anything I’d eaten there before. As I ate I thought about how I loved the taste of the food in my mouth with the burning sensation and the feelings of manliness from conquering what Emily could only nibble at, announcing that she didn’t know how I could put that stuff in my mouth.

It was great! I downed some Thai beer, Singha, to help with the process and they gave me a slice of lime to squeeze on the food to help neutralize some of the spiciness. I made it through with a few laughs from the lady owner and the owner’s mother who also works there, a sweet older lady who always has this wonderful expression on her face that can only be described as motherly. The man owner was in the back doing the cooking. The lady owner explained that the spicy level I was eating at wasn’t anything for her and that she would consider it weak.

After finishing the meal Emily and I said hello to some of the other foreign students from MCU that were there as well (this restaurant is very popular with MCU’s foreign students) as well as the guys from the Philippines who work at a textiles factory down the street that we had befriended at the Thai restaurant several months earlier. After explaining to both groups of people that we hadn’t sat with them because it was a ’special night for Emily and I’ to which one of the Philippines’ guys remarked “you both are very cute” or something like that, Emily and I walked home.

Well last night for some reason I wasn’t able to fall asleep until around 4am. I had no idea why and it seemed strange because I had had a full day. This morning I discovered however that there was good reason for my sleeplessness.

I woke up, started getting ready for the day, packed my bag, and got my coffee in the thermos. All the while more and more intestinal pressure seemed to be building up as I moved around and I wondered what the deal was. Figuring once I was seated on the scooter on my way to school everything would be better I started the ol’ girl up (my scooter that is) at about quarter past seven and headed out. After smiling goodbye to the neighbors I turned onto Datong Rd. About a half a mile later the pressure got so bad I knew I had to turn back. I zoomed back home to take care of ‘the business’ and made the executive decision that I would not be attending classes today. Not an easy decision to come to since Tuesdays are Calculus days and missing one of those classes puts me back light-years in reaching my end-game of actually passing the class. So I went to bed.

Thankfully I was able to sleep until around noon when Emily came home from classes. We went to see the doctor who prescribed some pills and gave me the all-important doctor’s note needed for my being able to miss classes without penalty……..side note: MCU is really whacked out about attendance and sometimes I feel like I’m back in high school because of it but whatever. Thankfully the doctor’s visit and the pills at the pharmacy combined cost me about $8.25 USD thanks to my handy-dandy Taiwan National Insurance card which its mandatory for me to possess. Also I needed no appointment and seeing the doctor wasn’t the all afternoon affair that we Americans are accustomed to.

Anyways all that is the lead up to why I was home reading my Bible earlier and why I made a fresh realization about God being so great. Laying in bed this morning I kept thinking about how magnificent it will be when I graduate and get some fancy job with some awesome company and am always traveling to different countries I’d never been to with plenty of time to explore. Staying in fancy hotels, wearing my Calvin Klein suits, and in general being the awesome’ist guy in the world my thoughts built up and up. This afternoon God came to my rescue.

I’ve been reading in Luke and today I was up to chapter 12. It was wonderful and brought me back to that ‘big picture’ perspective that I’m so good at losing sight of. We truly do serve an amazing God and His Son was the most poignant, beautiful, poetic, gifted, talented, incredible teacher the world has ever known. Below are the verses from the chapter I highlighted. All of them are from Jesus’ own lips.

“…there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”

“I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

“Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:”

“…when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say. For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”

“…Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abudnance of the things which he possesseth.”

“…Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:…”

“…Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.”

“If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye though for the rest?”

“…seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

“…it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.”

“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”

“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”

“…that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

“…For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required:…”

“Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:”

“…When you see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?”

God is awesome! He is teaching me the way my dad taught me and correcting my misconceptions the way my dad corrected me. Even though its ‘christianese’ I say REJOICE!!!!

For English speakers: my teacher made a blog for our class, in which all the students write in Chinese. You can visit there: www.wretch.cc/blog/tytwchinese. This is intended for that site, but I can’t post it for some reason.　This is the holding spot for a bit, and you can look at some Chinese characters! woohoo!

大家好﹐我在試著寫我們的部落格。請你們看﹗

四月二號﹐我跟明哲一起坐火車到斗六市﹐因為我們的好朋友 Sandy 在這裡學著呢。上一天﹐明哲的姐姐 Megan 從金門坐飛機來了。 我們都是好朋友們﹐所以我們一起玩的好得不得了﹗

上個禮拜四﹐我們跟 Sandy 一起去看她住在孤兒院裡教的小朋友們,跟他們玩了。禮拜五﹐我們去了劍湖山世界一起玩了。禮拜六我們很早起床了﹐開車到溪頭國家森林遊樂區去了。山上的天氣涼快﹐風景很漂亮﹐走路的地方很有意思。我們走著走著﹐很累﹗禮拜天我跟明哲一起坐火車回家去。

都放假的天很好玩啊﹗

請你們看我的相片。　謝謝﹗