Our house is all lit up! Just in time for our first package this morning, the arrival of which nearly did me in.

Cuddling nicely with Michael, snug under the blankets…then…

BUUUZZZZZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZZZZZZZ the buzzer started going off the hook and it’s REALLY loud!

A shout from outside “GUA HAO! GUA HAO!! (SIGN FOR PACKAGE! SIGN FOR PACKAGE!!)

I woke up and am wondering, foggy-eyed, if it’s our house? …

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
“GUAAA HAO GUA HAOOOOO”

The combination of noises startled me out of bed and onto the cold wintry floor, which is confusing enough for the body when done over a period of minutes, much less in 3 seconds. I’m in my pajamas which are not entirely suitable for meeting the post man. Struggling to get my robe on and put my hair where it needs to be, I stumble out of the bedroom into the dark living room, fumble for my slippers and the light switch and run into our roommate Ginger, who is equally disoriented and looks like she forgot to put her hair where it needed to be.

“Is that our apartment?” she croaks.
“Yeah, it’s for us. Gua Hao.” I croak in reply. Two croakers.

In the meantime there’s still a loud shouting man down two flights of stairs and outside the front door, who at least stopped hitting the buzzer so much. Thank you, postman.

“Do we have to go downstairs?” she asks.

BUZZ BUZZZ

We both just stood there a moment, trying to remember what the protocol is for signing for a package. I’m not entirely sure, so I just gruffly replied “Yeah” and opened the door to start the journey downstairs.

The postman by this time is talking on his cell phone, complaining to someone that if no one answers their door, how is he supposed to deliver packages? I can hear him all the way through the door and up the stairs. Opening the downstairs door revealed a man squatting on the ground, waving the sign sheet around and talking animatedly on his cell phone. He looked up at me and without skipping a beat said “Gua hao.” Only then did he survey my appearance, and I saw a shadow of doubt cross his face. “Zhe shi ni de ma?” (is this yours?) he asked, in the same loud voice, still holding the cell phone up to his ear. I nodded, not even able to force out a word. He pointed to a box on the form and I squatted too, taking his pen to scribble a messy Emily Jefferies.

I picked up the package and went inside, closing the door on his still-squatting, still-talking self, and listened to his conversation all the way back up the stairs. Thankfully Ginger had left our door cracked, because of course I forgot to bring keys.

In the dark, I found a place for the huge package under our tiny tree and shuffled back to bed, still hazy. Crawling back under the covers, I forced out a weak “We got a package,” the only description Michael was going to get for now.

“Oh.” He said, and sighed, pulling me close.

My husband is great.
Grandma and Grandad are great.
Taiwan is great.
Christmas is great!

Happy celebrating, everyone! We love you!

Since the last post there has been way to many happenings to document them all so I guess I’ll just hit the high points.

Owensboro was a great experience. Columbia Sportswear Company turned out to be nice job. Our boss, Janice, in the Quality Assurance department was a wonderful lady who kept us busy inspecting products and weeding out bad ones. I even got trained on operating a cherry-picker and spent many hours zipping around the warehouse, retrieving boxes from up and down the thirty foot high shelves…it was pretty fun! Janice really befriended us and even had us over to her house one night for dinner along with her adult children.

Janet, our hostess in Owensboro, became a dear friend as well. She and her daughter were so kind to us throughout our stay. They talked with us about our days, cooked dinner for us several times, and even took us out to Red Lobster one night. They exemplified, in every way, southern hospitality. Janet’s other daughter who is now married with children was also very kind. She had us come to her birthday/house party and we all enjoyed some camaraderie with people our age.

Our visits with the grandparents and Aunt Winnie were exactly what we hoped for. We were able to get past the three-day vacation-mode conversation style that we normally get into when visiting and just had good times sitting together and eating together and running errands together and the whole bit of every day life. Thank You Jesus for such a precious opportunity.

After a trip down to Chattanooga, TN, to visit the other side of Emily’s extended family, an awesome time with just too much to talk about, we headed back to Michigan. In Indiana the unfortunate reality that many older car owners face came knocking at our door as well. Our ’95 Oldsmobile’s engine, with over 230,000 miles logged on her odometer, seized and died. My kind, sweet, merciful father drove the two and a half hours, one-way, in the middle of the night to retrieve us and a few days later I went back, cleaned out the car, and sold her down the river to a junker. Goodbye old friend, goodbye.

We had a few more good weeks with the families and friends in Michigan and then flew out to SoCal to visit our friends there. We rented a car in LA and drove down to San Diego for a night with my buddy Marty. He then let us use his car to drive down to Ensenada, Mexico for a few days with our friends Tammy and Eddie and their daughter Esthela. Too much to talk about happened and it was wonderful.

Back up in San Diego Marty gave us a tour of his Naval Base and took us hiking and fishing and cooked for us and all kinds of good things…along with meeting his girlfriend Mel, whom Emily and I both find to be a great addition to our list of people to see and visit with…way to go Marty!

Then we drove back up to LA, visited a little with Gen and Kevin over dinner and returned the rental car and got on our plane.

Now we are back in Taiwan and classes have started. I for one was aching for Taiwan at the end of the summer and I am so happy to be back in my house, on my island, with my wife, living the life God has put before me.

Here in Taiwan it is quite common for people to remain close to their high school, or even junior high school, classmates throughout their entire lives. Many of my Taiwanese classmates spend weekends throughout the year, going back to their home city to visit with a group of high school classmates that planned a get-together. A fifty plus year old Taiwanese man we know went on regular walks with one of his high school classmates up until his untimely death. While these are only two examples there are countless others.

I am understanding more and more why this is the case. Like my current university program, Taiwanese high school students spend every day and every class with the same group of students. It is bonding to say the least. Everyone knows exactly who the slackers are and who the hard workers are. Everyone knows who is getting into playing guitar and who is getting into partying. Everyone knows everything about everyone.

At first, I think it was pretty strange for us as foreigners. But I have to say that after three years of it I have really come to enjoy it. There are definitely the clicks and groups and all that. But at the same time there is definitely an overall togetherness amongst us. I am hopeful that this bond remains even after graduation. Next year won’t be the same with Gina and Jennifer and Ken and the rest of my classmates who will be exchange students away in their various locales.

While I disagree with educational philosophy and practices here in Taiwan in many regards, I have become a big fan of grouping students into classes that remain together throughout a program’s duration.