Taiwaneers

Merry Christmas! I truly have a great life and this is truly a great Christmas. Here’s our house, all decked out.

Yesterday two packages arrived. One from Emily’s family and one from mine! We found wrapped gifts in one and food in the other. Could a guy ask for a better mother than one who sends him Christmas cookies, fudge, nuts & bolts (our family’s name for homemade Chex Mix), and chocolate? I can’t think of anything better! I guess it just goes to show how highly I value food huh. Now I just have to figure out how to keep Emily from eating it all…

Yesterday was also a big day in terms of busyness. I had to go out to  MCU’s Taoyuan campus (where Emily and I lived our first year) for an awards ceremony. I won third prize in the English Prose section of MCU’s 21st Annual Literary Competition. Maybe its a false impression of mine but Taiwanese seem to really go for lots of pomp & circumstance; so there was a big ol’ program to  take part in. I was really happy for  my classmate, Edineau, who won first prize. He’s from Brazil and beat out all the native English speakers to win first place by writing his life’s story of going from the poorer neighborhoods of Brazil, where his brother was murdered, to two years on The Doulos (a missionary boat that travels around the world helping people) to a student at Ming Chuan. He is a cool guy and I know winning has got to be a big encouragement to him in his English skills. After the ceremony ended a friend  and I got dinner at the Thai restaurant there in Gueishan that I still am not over even though I haven’t lived there for so long. The owners still remember me and we talked some as my friend and I partook of incredible eats and Singha (a popular Thai beer). After getting back to Taipei I had to pull myself together and get Christmas shopping done.

This morning  Emily and I were  able  to skype with her family and help decorate the Christmas tree (virtually) and sing Christmas carols and talk. It was great! They wanted us  to open the presents that they mailed to us, which had arrived yesterday, and we were happy to oblige. This very moment I am adorned with comfortable and warm pajamas thanks to the generosity of mom and dad M! We also got a dvd of “A Christmas Carol” and a calendar!

This weekend we’ve got so many events planned it’s a little overwhelming.  Tonight (Christmas Eve) we are going  to go to a Christmas service at a  church nearby  that puts on a nice little show every year. Tomorrow we are going to skip school and have a wonderful family Christmas with just  the two of us. Ending the day will be a trip to a fancy nightclub where a friend is celebrating their birthday. Saturday we are throwing our own Christmas party at our  house. Then…on Sunday Emily and I are going to lead worship at church as well as Christmas carolers from our church around Da’an Park (Taipei’s version of Central Park) after the service. And then…we are going to go hang out  with my sister Megan, who will be in town for a few hours. Whenever that ends we’ll head home to hopefully get all our homework done in time for Monday. Oh man it’s gonna  be crazy.