Taiwaneers

What better topic is there than to write about weird stuff that happens while we go to the bathroom here? I’m not really sure that there is any so I better get started.

This hasn’t been happening the entire time we’ve been here, in fact it only started a few weeks ago. It only happens here in our house’s bathroom. At least I’ve never experienced it in any of the other bathrooms here in Taiwan or anywhere else for that matter. It has become regular enough so that when I use the bathroom I wonder if it will happen but it hasn’t escalated into an every day kind of regularity. Its still irregular enough so that I wonder if it will happen ‘this time’ but then again I can still get caught off guard when it does. I don’t know why it has started but theorize that it might have something to do with the construction going on across the street from us.

Imagine yourself sitting down in your own house on your own John, or Loo (shout out to Darren), to take necessary actions, making life that much more comfortable. Now imagine a sudden gust of cool air shooting into the area where necessary actions are being performed from the hole in your John that makes it uniquely connected to the outside world unlike all the other chairs in your house. The sudden gust lasts for about a second. Short enough to wonder what just happened but long enough to know it happened. While you confirm with yourself that you did indeed just experience a gust of cool air shoot up from the hole in your ’special chair’ imagine your nostrils suddenly sending signals to your brain that there is now a vile and rancid odor that wasn’t there moments before. Mercifully, much like the gust, this odor wafts through and is gone.

Now imagine that this was really happening at someone’s house somewhere in the world.

After reading the above paragraphs I feel it necessary to point out that the water levels in ’special chairs’ here in Taiwan are significantly lower then in the USA. If you need to reimagine the above without the geyser you thought about but that wasn’t there please feel free to re-read this post.

I know I know the title makes it sound like we’re announcing that we’re pregnant or something but thats not it.

Some friends of ours created a radio program as part of a midterm project. They asked to interview us on what its like to be married while in degree programs here in Taiwan.

For those of you who are interested you can now find this interview on the ABOUT US page. Many thanks to Kenton Chance for passing along the audio and for the excellent editing. In addition we want to thank him and his group, Curry, Yirone, and Michael, for allowing us to share it here.

About a week and a half ago Emily got an email from this British guy that had seen our ad on Tealit for the room our old roommate had vacated when she went back to France. He said that he wanted to take the room but that he hadn’t left the UK yet and would arrive on November 15th. Emily told him that if the room was still available on the 15th he could have it. However if someone took it before then tough bananas.

Well the past week and a half came and went with several people who came over to check out the room but none of them took it. On Saturday, Nov. 15th, true to his word our new British roommate Darren arrived from his home of Swindon!

Darren, from what I can tell, is ‘a roight proapa Brit’ish lad.’ A really nice guy and we’re, so far, excited by God’s gift of another good roommate. Right after he arrived he was eager to see his new neighborhood (much different then me after 16 hours in a plane who just wants to sleep) so Emily and I took him over to the Shida Night Market. We bought him some milk tea, he didn’t like it, and took him to a restaurant we like where he had some beef fried rice for dinner. He, like we were when we first arrived, was excited and energized by how much life there is here in Taipei. With 8 million people populating a small geographical space there are so many vehicles, pedestrians, shops, signs, everything. It was fun to watch him with his head on a swivel! It reminded me of how much fun it was to be new in Taiwan.

We then popped into a pub not far from our house and Darren was kind enough to buy Emily and I a drink. On the way back home we showed him our neighborhood grocery and helped him buy an MRT card so that he could continue exploring the city on Sunday while we were at church and doing homework.

Showing him just a tiny bit of Taipei and turning him loose reminded me of how much fun it would be to show people back home around here. If any of you wants to come for a visit please feel free!

Emily and I seem to be home here in Taiwan. I found an olympic-size swimming pool not far from our house that I can use for about $2.65 USD, we bought a few plants for our back porch, and signs of peace and contentment that come to us when we are in God’s plan seem to be springing up a lot lately!

We went to Ikea the other day and bought a few lamps. Emily got a little one for her desk and I found one of those cool, swivel/adjustable ones that engineers and architects always have mounted on their desks in the movies. Its awesome!!!….its also awesome that I find my lamp awesome. Emily also found a great deal on a dining room table on Tealit. We bought it from another foreigner who was leaving Taiwan.

Emily is really good at making our house a home, as cliche as that is. Me and the roommates are always marvelling at how the apartment has changed for the better as the weeks go by. On that note our roommate and friend, Sunny (the french girl), is leaving to head back to France next week. Hopefully we’ll be able to fill her room quickly with someone wonderful.

As you can see I got my booty in gear and started making movies for this blog. The Welcome to Freshman/Halloween Party one is up and I just added a new video. Drum roll please….you can now experience a Taiwan scooter ride from the comfort of your own home, just click over to the VIDEOS page. Don’t worry, the video camera can’t capture the fine details of the ride. You know what I mean…the danger danger Will Robinson. Its safe to watch even if you do fear death. If you want the full effect you’ll have to come for a real visit and then we’ll see what you can handle.

My management midterm came and went. I think I did okay and I’m definitely happy its over. Now I need to gear up this week for midterms in Classical Mythology, Law, Statistics, and an informative speech for speech class. I think I’m going to be okay. I got my stats quiz back and found that my studying paid off. I’m so happy to be in a math class where I feel like I understand something practical related to the subject and not just blind memorization of theorems that I have no idea why work. Thank goodness I don’t have to take Calc again!

Today Emily and I went to a small church called New Hope Christian Fellowship. I’ve linked them to our blog in the links section and we’ve mentioned it before. It was nice. They have bi-lingual services so someone says a sentence in one language (English or Chinese) and then its translated into the other language. If its a song they sing a verse in one, and then again in the other. They had some food after the service and we stayed for the first class in a twelve week Bible study on Ezekial that a dude who used to teach at some seminary in Pennsylvania is giving. It was good and I’m excited to go again!