Taiwaneers

Well, we’re shut up in our apartment on a Sunday evening, due to the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan this year. Typhoon Jangmi has been throwing wind and rain at our house all day, rattling the windows, flinging our hanging laundry all around and flooding the porch. It really sounds scary sometimes when the wind comes whipping by. The rain was coming down almost horizontally a few times. And the few poor people who just had to get somewhere but only had a scooter…! They looked so lonely and unhappy, soaked to the bone and with no other vehicles with whom to fight over the road. I’m glad we decided to have home church today.

Here’s some stats and a few pictures.

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Taiwan braces for Typhoon Jangmi

Jangmi is likely to be the most powerful typhoon to hit Taiwan this year [Reuters]

Taiwan has evacuated landslide-prone villages and cancelled many flights as Typhoon Jangmi roared towards the island bringing torrential rains and winds of up to 227kph.

The usually bustling capital of Taipei was quiet on Sunday morning after residents had boarded up windows and taken refuge before the storm arrived.

“The storm’s fringes are covering most of Taiwan, and is gaining strength,” Wu Teh-rong, a meteorologist with the Central Weather Bureau, said.

The weather bureau said that the centre of Jangmi was about 120km southeast of Hualien in eastern Taiwan on Sunday morning and would likely make landfall in the evening.

Jangmi is the fourth typhoon to hit Taiwan this year, and is likely to be the most powerful, according to the bureau.

‘Super torrential rains’

Local CTI Television showed villagers leaving the mountain resort of Lushan in central Taiwan, which was badly damaged when Typhoon Sinlaku hit two weeks ago, with massive mudslides destroying at least three hotels.

The weater bureau has warned of “super torrential rains” in several mountainous areas.

Taiwan’s China Airlines and EVA Airways said several flights to Asia were cancelled or rescheduled for Monday. China’s Southern and Hainan Airlines cancelled their flights to the island from Beijing and Shanghai.

After hitting Taiwan, the typhoon was expected to weaken but still carry on northwest to China’s Fujian province.

Typhoons frequently hit Taiwan between July and October, causing flash floods and deadly landslides. Typhoon Sinlaku earlier this month killed 12 people and left 10 others missing.

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Today the Taiwanese government announced that all international flights will be canceled until further notice. Some parts of the MRT (subway) are closed. Some mountainous areas are being evacuated, for fear that the deadly mudslides that accompanied typhoon Sinlaku will reoccur. A bus was overturned on the highway, with three people seriously injured. No deaths reported, hopefully there will be none!

And there is no work or school tomorrow in several counties, including Taipei. The only stores open will be a few of the convenience stores like 7-11.

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Today, after sleeping in a little and having a Jefferies Family church morning, we ate a slow breakfast and chilled out. I picked up our once clean, hanging-to-dry laundry off of the muddy, waterlogged porch floor and put it all in the wash again. sigh. Then I spent a few hours cleaning the kitchen/dining room area. It was very dirty (hint: our previous roommates didn’t care, present roommates don’t care too much either. Trash builds up quickly and there are ants). Then studied and did homework. Then got online and found out that this typhoon is a big one!

Things on my list of stuff to do:

~Buy a coffee table
~Buy dining room table and chairs
~Buy queen size bed and mattress (right now we’re sleeping on two single mattresses)
~Pick out a paint color for the common rooms of the apartment
~Paint the aforementioned rooms
~Buy two desks for studying
~Find 4 or more students to tutor in English weekly
~Fix Skype on my computer. For some reason it’s…allergic to the program or something.

So. We’re fine here in our little home, far away from the dangerous coastal areas. All we get is rain, lots and lots of rain! And, of course, the day off from school tomorrow yeah!

Emily

After less than a week in the C class, I got bumped back up to B. Where I belong! Thank you God for answering my prayers! I had asked that He loosen my tongue and hand, so that I could speak and write freely what I had learned before, and so prove that I was at a higher level than they thought. It seems that was the case
So, class went from being insanely easy to reasonably difficult. I love a challenge though, so working hard is not a problem. I am happy! Thank you to anyone who prayed for me.

Love.

It’s hard to say just how much of an effect a first impression has on your future dealings with whatever the subject may be. I’m trying to figure this out as I near the end of my first week in a new school and program: just what were my impressions this week, and are they correct?

I’m speaking in general of my new enviromnent as a whole, but specifically of my school…and I wonder about all of this because I find myself faced with disappointment. As usual, I got over-excited and set my plans on a pedestal, thinking “Why of course it will be everything I dreamed and more, much more…” In fact I have just chosen one out of the myriad paths I could be taking right now, no doubt none of them able to live up to my high, dreamy standards of perfection.  

The main point of discontent lies in not being able to be correctly “fit” into any one of the three levels in my program. I should be intermediate, but because I’m quite a bit less intermediate than some of my degree-mates, I’ve been (temporarily, I hope!) placed in the basic class, where I am not challenged in the least. The school is working hard, trying to do what’s best for all the students, but it just broke my heart to hear that I wouldn’t be able to be highly challenged in my classes, right off the bat. But, there is hope: after speaking in length with the department head yesterday, she agreed to let me join the intermediate classes in my strong subjects, listening and speaking. It’s reading and writing that give me trouble, so I may still be joining the basic class for those subjects, and asking the teacher for special assignments if necessary.

So here I am, wondering how a sinking heart changes into a gladdened heart, holding fast to the words of my sweet Lord and Saviour, who promised “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I feel Him with me, quietly whispering “Oh my child, how I love you! Did I not give you peace and joy of heart when you made these plans? Why then do you wonder what will become of you? Trust in Me only…look to Me only…cry out to Me only…I will hear the aches of your heart and give you the strength to overcome all in My name. As from the beginning of all time, I still have great plans for you.”

I know that God has to help me not let these first impressions of disappointment cloud my view of all the good things and people around me. What good would it do to be a sourpuss, and miss all the fun? So. Please pray for me. I am forever in your debt

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In other news, since arriving back in Taiwan last week I have:

1. Seen a man walking a hariy, ubly boar on a leash down a busy town street

2. Seen a woman shaving her legs in plain view in the hand-wasing bin outside of a rural factory

3. Walked through the hallways and back rooms of a hospital to get to the bus stop inside of it

4. Had the power turned off on our apartment. The previous tenants so kindly forked us with the bill, due in July

5. Sat around a lone candle in our living room and talked with roomies for hours

6. Lived through Typhoon Sinlaku by staying indoors all weekend and doing basically nothing

7. Traveled by myself by subway, train, bus,, taxi and foot, sometimes not previously knowing how I would get to point B

8. Tried watermelon juice. It’s pretty good!

Love you all! Check out the new pictures from this summer.

Emily

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 從金門坐了飛機來了。 我們都是好朋友們﹐所以我們一起玩好得不得了﹗

上個禮拜四﹐我們跟 Sandy 一起去了看見她教住在孤兒院裡的小朋友們玩了。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﹗

Hey all,

I’ve posted four new albums on the pictures page - pics from Megan’s time in Taoyuan, trips and fun in March, and other random stuff. Oh-and, all the little tiny poor-quality videos I take on my digital camera are now accessible on Picasaweb, by going to the newly created “Mini-Videos” page and clicking on the picture there. It’s not much, but it’s what we have. I think they’re pretty neat, myself

Our internet at the house is FINALLY working again, after I think three weeks of absence. It felt like even longer. Our house owner is such a great guy, bending over backwards to make this a good place to live, but when we have a problem it’s really hard to communicate correctly. He really has tried several times to make the internet work for the whole house, and it seemed to be working for everyone but us. Yesterday his son came, was able to speak English with us, and by switching some wires around (or something), we are now miraculously up and running again. hurrah!

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