Taiwan Michael | Taiwaneers

Strangers on My Couch

Dec 142009

Well my workload is finally up. It seems like all semester long I haven’t had too much to do or study but that is just because it was all delayed. I guess the stars aligned this semester or whatever ’cause most of my classes have end-of-semester projects but not really stuff that I could do until after I learned it. So between now and mid-January I’ll be busy, busy, busy with papers and presentations.

My university had a blood drive last week and I donated so sometime soon some Taiwanese dude, or dudess, will be walking around with 250cc of Michael Jefferies coursing through their veins…pretty cool huh? They even gave me a pair of socks with hearts on them for donating! Not too mention the added benefit of finally discovering my blood type…B+ thank you very much.

In other news I finally got up enough courage to ask the homeless guy who sleeps on the bus stop bench across the street from our house if he wanted some food. Why do I always go back to worrying about doing stuff like that? I’ll go through times where fear about that sort of thing really doesn’t bother me and then other times where I hesitate. But every time I overcome the fear I remember that it is no big deal at all and I kick myself for waiting so long over nothing. In any case the guy said he’d love some food so we gave him some leftovers.

I’m playing guitar at church pretty regularly now or at least playing what I know and fumbling through the rest. It’s fun and I’m excited to be playing an instrument more regularly again. Our new roommate, Phil who took Darren’s place, has a keyboard and the other night we “jammed” for a bit.

Lately I’ve been missing work. Studying is nice but going so long without an honest day’s work has been getting to me. I keep on going back and forth between doing that accelerated Masters program I’ve mentioned before and getting a job after I graduate. Right now I think getting a job is winning in my mind.

Last week we had an British guy stay with us for a few nights who has moved to Taiwan from mainland China and needed a place to stay for a few days before moving into his apartment. Ken, our other roommate, is signed up at www.couchsurfing.org and this dude connected to our house through that. It’s a really cool idea and I’m becoming more and more intrigued with the idea of using couchsurfing for vacationing and traveling myself. Lodging is such a big expense and being able to stay on nice people’s couches for free is so appealing. Everyone should check out the website!

Left to right: Phil from Michigan, our newest roomie; Ken from Taiwan, our faithful roomie; Jim from England, couch-guest for a few days. They’re all painting over the leftover weird wall drawings and scribblings in Phil’s room.
Professional(?) painters

Not Much To Tell

Michael's Posts, Our Taipei Life, University 1 Response »

Oct 202009

It’s been a few weeks since my last post so I figured I had better get on the ball. The problem is there is not much to tell. I mean sure, I can tell you that Emily is super busy and harried with schoolwork and that I’m not but is that really post-worthy news?

If you are a praying person you can pray for Emily. She is incredibly challenged by this semester’s workload and doing her utmost to measure up. I, on the other hand, have one of the lightest loads of my academic career right now. With that in mind I’ve been trying to work on becoming more in tune with the housework and meal needs and all the jobs that Emily remembers so naturally but that I just don’t even think about. I want to be better at having all that stuff in my head constantly and being able to remember that the bathroom needs cleaning, or the roommate needs to be reminded to do their cleaning job, or the groceries need buying. And then once I get that stuff in my head on a constant basis I want to do those things.

I’ve been having fun building my Mandarin vocabulary. It is a constant challenge but I’m hoping the consistency of lessons and such will help solidify all these new words into my brain so that I can actually benefit from them in real situations. Our good friend Sandy has agreed to do some language exchange with me and she is a really, really good teacher. We are so blessed!

Oh, I just remembered there is something I can talk about. Last Saturday Emily and I went to Guang-hua Market electronics district and bought a new desktop computer. Both of our laptops are 4 plus years old and are getting quite temperamental. We have high hopes for our new computer! Guang-hua Market seemed like a geek’s paradise. Picture a billion little stores that had all these menus of computer components. You could buy each component individually or put them together to create a new computer. Emily and I ended up at this store and the guy had this order sheet and basically filled in what type of each computer component we wanted. He told us to come back in thirty minutes and the computer would be built. Great way to buy computers as far as I’m concerned because I could choose how good/expensive I want our computer to be!!

Yes I’m Baack in Blaaack

Michael's Posts, USA 1 Response »

Sep 202009

We have completed what has been one of our most fun trips between the USA and Taiwan and are now chilling at our home in the good ol’ Jhongjheng District of Taipei City.

Our visit in California proved to be fantastically cultural and extremely enjoyable…you can tell I’ve been in the US for ten weeks ’cause I’ve got such a big vocab to draw on.

We made last Sunday a beach day and our friends took us out to Newport Beach. The sun was great and the waves were awesome. We all did our fair share of body-surfing, sun-bathing, and frisbee. Later we went to the evening service at our friends’ church. Monday we went to The Huntington where I saw a Gutenberg Bible as well as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that had the Gutenberg beat by like 50 or a hundred years. The gardens there are huge and we only made it through a third or so before the place closed. It’s a pretty cool place! Tuesday we went to The Getty. Again we only made it through a small portion of this place because it is stinking huge. Incredible collection as well and thanks to the wishes of its founder, J. Paul Getty, they aren’t allowed to charge admission! I of course liked the French Impressionism section the best but they also had a bronze exhibit that was pretty incredible as well. Actually the whole place was magnificent and I would definitely go back.

Tuesday evening brought a mini-reunion for Emily and I. Some of our friends whom we had met in Taiwan were in Long Beach for various reasons and the three of them came over to Genevieve and Kevin’s house for an excellent meal of spaghetti coupled with lots of talking and catching up! That night definitely ranked high on the most fun of our summer list.

Wednesday was a relax day and that night we were driven to the airport, graciously given exit row seats upon request, and settled in for a long but good (remember my high endorsement from a few months ago?) flight on Malaysia Airlines back to our little island. No joke I even slept for several hours which hardly ever happens!

We lost a day coming over and Friday morning after landing we made our way by bus and MRT back to our home in Taipei. I had planned on being out of commission but I felt fine. I even went to my Friday afternoon class and got to say hi to everyone.

Well, since then we’ve been grocery shopping, cleaning the apartment, and in general settling in for another year.

Today we made it to church at New Hope and had a wonderful time worshiping God and catching up with friends.

Now its back to cleaning…