taitung

I just came back from a trip to Taitung, Taiwan, which is the area on the southeast side of the island. It was kind of a last minute thing. Originally I wasn't planning anything for Chinese New Year, but a friend mine invited me to go with his family of 25 on the 9 hour road trip to celebrate Chinese New Year which was on the 29th. There was a caravan of 5 cars/vans and for 3 days and two nights we went to various parts of Taitung which is a huge county (basically the east side of Taiwan is 3 counties and Taitung is the largest one).

The entire trip was beautiful.



God is a genius

We slept overnight at homestays (a different one each night because we moved to a different area) which are basically houses you can rent for a day or two, kind of like a bed and breakfast minus the breakfast. Today we went to a part of Taitung where you could rent a bike, or two-man, three-man bike or other unorthodox bikes and ride on a beautiful 12 km mountain trail.

Needless to say it was a great ride.

home again

I'm back in Taichung. I arrived Tuesday afternoon after another long day of traveling. This was a great trip for me, kind of a little breather up out of the water to refocus. I really enjoyed the way of living over there which isn't so material and consumeristic. People seemed content with what they had. It was also great reconnecting and catching up with friends.
The funny thing is that I slept great almost every night while I was in the UK, but now after a day of jet lag, where I slept 14 hours, I only could sleep 2 hours last night. I just ordered a bed frame, so maybe the raised height will help out a little bit. The weather has also been pretty hot. I think I enjoyed the cold weather because you can always get warm, but it's hard to sleep when it's hot and humid, and i think there is something wrong with my A/C.
My roommates are going away for the Chinese New Year, which is coming up. Josh is going to Thailand, and Kevin is going to Hong Kong. So i'll be here by myself for a few days next week. So if you want to come to Taiwan and celebrate Chinese New Year with me, you're more than welcome.
I got a job interview/demo on monday, but i don't know if I can take the job if it's teaching kindergarten, because it's against the law for foreigners to teach kindergarten. It's actually been tough lately finding a job, and I've notice that there is reverse-racism going on here, mainly in the english teacher field. I got turned down for a job, because I wasn't "foreign" looking.
It was nice to find out today that people actually read these updates of mine. I didn't know if anyone actually read my silly stories.
until next time, good night.
W

death

I don't usually do this, but I wanted to share a journal entry I had while on the plane going to Vienna, Austria.

"Jan. 4, 2005 Time: who knows"
"I just had these thoughts race through my head as i woke up from my nap about my own death. I imagined that I was already dead because our plane was shot down fromt he sky and the 'reality' I was experiencing was heaven. Then I woke from my imaginative state, knowing that I'm alive now, I started to imagine what my death experience would be like. After watching my both of my grandparents pretty much die before my eyes in the hospital, I imagined laying in a hospital bed about to breathe my last breath and what it must of felt like, smelled like, tasted like. If it would be painful. Another scenario came into my head, probably from watching too much TV, but it was as if someone shot me in the head and what it would have felt like to die almost instantaneously. Seeing the bullet enter my skull, into my brain and the nerves and etc. etc. [I know this is kind of weird, I thought so too]. At first having all these thoughts race through my head created anxiety, it also wasn't the first time I've imagined this. But just as soon as I felt that helplessness, a truth surfaced that gave me peace in that moment. We are helpless. We are not in control of our last breath, we can't tell our hearts to keep beating, or will an accident not to happen. Life is short and sometimes when we think about our own death we realize what is really important. Our priorities realign. All the striving, grasping, wanting, attaining will count for nothing in the end. And the funny this is, when you die, the hard truth is everything eventually goes back to the way things were. Life will go on with or without you.
I want to do things that matter, not to anyone else's eyes, but to the eyes of the creator. to feed the poor, give hope to the hopeless, give a cup of cold water to the thirsty, to love the least lovable person as if they were the ones that I loved most. For now these are just thoughts. While I'm still far from where I'm supposed to be, I realize I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

Scotland

Pictures from my visit to Scotland are up on my pictures page. Look for William Wallace.

London

Today I spent the entire day in London. I arrived at King's Crossing train station around 10:30am, and kind of wandered around looking for the open top bus tours thing you see on TV. I finally found it after asking a bunch of different people. The tour was awesome, except it was really cold today and because I wanted to take pictures, I sat on the upper deck of the bus, which made the tour just a little bit more uncomfortable. But I got to see the Tower of London (family jewels), Big Ben and the Parliament buildings, the London Eye (shut down today), the Tower & London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, Westminster Abbey (which I really wanted to go inside, but it was closed when I got there), and other tourist attractions. I took a lot of pictures, but after a while it seemed like I was taking pictures of the same building because they were so similar in many ways.
Later during the day I met up with the friends I'm staying with and we went to the shops around Oxford Circus and then ate dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant. I kind of want to go back to London, because there were a bunch of things that I didn't do yet, but things in the UK are so expensive and it's kind of weird doing it all by yourself. So we'll see. I put my pictures of my trip so far on my picture page, so you can check out the things I've seen.
Tomorrow I'm going with my friend to Aberdeen, Scotland, because he's going to try to find a place to live and move his family, since he'll be studying there for the next few years. We're going to going for two nights, maybe three. I'm excited for that.
Also, I have been sleeping very well here, I don't know what it is, but I seem to always be able to sleep when I'm here. I'm just happy to be able to sleep. Thank God.

Cambridge

After about 30 hours of straight traveling, and traveling through 4 different countries, I finally arrived in Cambridge two days ago. What an adventure it was, tiring, but definitely something to remember.
First of all, I was originally supposed to fly on China Airlines to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam catch a flight to London, Stansted. I already booked my flight to London, so the only thing was to get on the flight to Amsterdam, because I was standby. Well I arrived at the Taipei airport 5 hours early, put my name on the standby waitlist. They told me that I would have to wait until the very end of the check-in time because the flight was going to be full, (I wondered why a flight to Amsterdam would be full, but I found out that they were also going to stop at Bangkok, Thailand...figures).
Well, I didn't get to go on the flight, BUT the check-in person said that I could fly into Vienna, Austria and then if I wanted to I could book a flight from Vienna to Amsterdam or just take the train to Amsterdam, since I had about 6 or 7 hours before my flight. I decided to take the train route since I figured it would give me a tour of the countries. So after a 14 flight to Vienna, I got off the plane at 6:10am and found that it was snowing! I've never seen it snow in person before, so that was awesome. Anyway, I hop on a bus to go to West Bahnhauf (West Trainstation). I buy a ticket to Amsterdam for a whopping 170Euro!!! That's almost $200USD. Regretfully realizing that I should have just booked the plane ticket. But there was nothing I could have done at that moment, so I just got on, rode through Vienna and the rest of Austria and then through Germany. It was so amazing to see the landscapes and all the snow covered hills and houses. Beautiful. I started to really like the German language too because everyone spoke it in Austria and Germany. Well after 10 hours on the train I finally arrive in Frankfurt airport in Frankfurt, Germany where I have to switch trains, and I finally get to eat my first meal since my flight. I was starving. I got a sandwich at the airport, disgusting. Worst sandwich ever. But anyway, another 4 hours later on the train and I arrive in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I really have no time and quickly jet on another train to the airport to try to catch the night flight to London (since I missed my afternoon flight earlier). It is about 9:00pm at this time. I get to the airport and try to see if I can still use my ticket that I paid for, but I had to purchase another ticket for another whopping 150Euro. At this point I just want to get to London and just crying because I spent over $400 USD just to get there. But finally I made it.
I still feel like I'm on the train and moving since I was on it for so long, I think I have some inner ear thing. But the past two days have been really nice. I got to hang out with the couple that I'm staying with and their kids. It's nice to eat a family meal together. I got to see a few parts of Cambridge, some of the colleges and the city center shops. The architechture is amazing. Trying to learn some of the English ways of living (really different from the US). Tomorrow I'm going to London for the day to do some tourist stuff. So that's my adventure in Europe/UK for now. I have much more to say, but I have to sleep. Until next time...

Shing Nien Kuai Luh!

Happy New Year!
It's been a while since my last update, so I just wanted to let you guys know what has been going on with me lately and in the coming weeks.
For New Years, I celebrated at Banner Church. They had sort of a singles group party. They had music, memories of the past year, sharing of new year resolutions, small fireworks, and a gift exchange. I played guitar. There were a couple of funny stories that came from this party. One, from the gift exchange I got woman's lipstick, or "lip balm" as they called it, but it said "Lady style" on it. But anyway, luckily I traded with someone for a scented candle; a less "girly" gift. The other story is that a worker at the Church went up and shared his new years resolutions. Well one of the last things he said was that he would find a girlfriend this year. I thought ok, cool. So when I went up and the last thing I said was that I was going to help HIM find a girlfriend. I spoke in English...bad idea. Well almost everyone I talked to afterwards thought I said that I wanted to find a girlfriend this year. So to make a long story longer, according to them, I'm on the lookout for a girlfriend! haha. After the party, I went over the Pastor's house where I hung out with over 20 of the youth at Banner. I got there at around 3:00am, so people were getting ready to sleep, but it was fun.

Speaking of the youth, I'm now officially one of the "sound engineers" for the youth worship team. It's kind of a way so that I would be more active with the group and build more relationships with them. Then later I would be a part of the band and play guitar or whatever they would need me to play. I also hope that I could be able to disciple at least one or two of the young men in the youth before I leave. Please pray that I would be effective in this ministry opportunity.

I got a haircut a few days ago and it could have been the best haircut experience I have ever had. First they served me tea, then had a 5 minute neck and shoulder massage, then they washed my hair twice, giving me a scalp massage (so nice), and then someone cut my hair, and then washed my hair again. Even though they thinned out my hair a lot (I already have thin hair!) it was a nice "fob cut". It was pretty cheap too!

During the past few weeks I have been trying to write some poetry, songs, and dabble in some photography with my little dinky digital camera. (you can see the pictures on the picture page link on the right or just click here: Pictures They are under the photography section. I try to update my photos as much as I can so check back often to see what I have added. Also, if you want to listen to some of the songs, I did record some of them. I can send them to you. Albeit they're not very good and some are covers and some are just for fun.

I'm leaving on Jan. 3rd to go to Amsterdam and then to London, England to travel and visit some friends in Cambridge. My visa is almost expired so I need to leave and reenter the country. It's kind of a forced vacation which is pretty cool. Luckily too that my mom works for China Airlines. I'm hoping to get to see and experience a lot of things over there. I want to visit Paris, France as well, but we'll see what I can do, because I'm only going to be there for about 2 weeks. Please pray for safe travel.

It has really started to feel like home here. I have been sleeping a little better...thank God, and when I wake up, it doesn't feel weird like I'm in another world. I've been trying to decorate my room too, it's slowly coming together.

I miss you all. New Years and Christmas definitely wasn't the same without my friends and family back home.

Resolutions

I never actually write them down, but I thought it would be good this year. So here are some New Year Resolutions I have for this year.

1) To know God more
2) To know myself better (#1 and 2 are I have every year)
3) To take more risks
4) Learn more Chinese, be better at speaking and reading
5) Disciple one/two people
6) Read a book a month
7) Get better at guitar
8) Eat more fiber
9) and finally, get my body to 8% body fat. =)

Happy New Year!