April 28, 2005

My students are quite funny and make me laugh (most of the time…sometimes not L…). Today as I was walking back to my office fromnaptime, a group of grade 8 students handed me a glass of coca- cola.Their teacher mentions to me that they have discovered what I like sothey are happy to give me some. Also quite funny is last nightRebecca and I went shopping at the supermarket and I ran into somegrade 7 students and they are whispering to themselves (and theydon’t know that Rebecca can understand what they are saying), they aresaying “I can’t say that… I can’t say that inEnglish.” Verycute indeed. It makes up for the frustrating moments.Last weekend I took a six hour train ride into Taipei city- it wassoooo long, but still an adventure. I met up with the otherCanadians that I trained with when I first arrived here. It was goodto see them and listen to each other’s stories. Taipei has 10million people living in it- It took about 1.5 hours to drive out ofit and to see green space again. I am truly blessed to live inTaitung. It is a little smaller than Regina, has all the shopping Iwould need, I have an English service to go to, it is safe, cleaner,and a nice view. So I looked forward to getting back ‘home’-imagine that, my home. It feels nice to say it and mean it now.The adventures for this coming weekend include an early alarm tocatch a boat out to Green Island. This is supposed to be a greattourist place. I look forward to checking it out.I have been going out on Tuesday and Thursday nights to play soccerwith about 5 other foreigners that live in the city. It has been sofun getting to know them, they are quite encouraging and funny tochat with.

Keep in touch. Have a great week.

Faith

April 20, 2005

My weekend adventures took me out to a place call Sunsiantia (threehill island), where a walking bridge takes you over to this littleisland that is cover mostly in rock and shrubs. I went on Sundaywith my roommate. We drove out on our motorbikes- took us like 2hours to get there- ohhh... the butt is sore after a long ride.(haha) We walked around this little island for about 1 hour- weclimbed up passed the light house (pictures coming soon) and wentthrough a cave tunnel (kinda scary.... not that I should admitthat). A beautiful day, a beautiful view. On Saturday I gottogether with two of my students and we went shopping and got ourpics taken at a photo store- they are sticky on one side and you canput drawing all over the pictures before you print them- very popularhere with the kids. In the evening, I attended a wedding banquetwith one of my Chinese teachers- it was her cousin getting married.It was an interesting event, the food at these mass gathering areless than to be desired for- a lot of symbolism in the things thatare served- will bring blessing to the couple in their future. Someof it I out rightly refused to eat- and I think most of you would tooif you knew what it was. They served 13 different dishes- so themeal lasts about 2 hours. In between the dishes the mother of thebride danced, then her friend danced. I think the wedding was moreabout the mother and the family than it was about the couple. Butthat is only my outsider opinion. But I’m glad that I got theopportunity to experience this- to say I did it.As far as my school work load, it is good. The thing that I strugglewith most is knowing how to teach 800 students conversation Englishin the 45 mins a week I spend with them. It seems an overwhelmingtask and the progress is slow. Some days it is such a battle to havestudents understand me.My roommate and apartment are great. We are still in the process ofcleaning, which may never get done- oh well. We have an extra roomfor anybody interested in visiting this beautiful vacation spot ;)I’m still trying to convince my ‘rents to come and visit.This coming weekend I am going on a little trip across the country toTaipei to meet up with the other Canadian teachers that I was intraining with. I am looking forward to hanging out with them. Thiswill be my first adventure on public transportation- the train.Hopefully I will get a seat on the train, because the trip is about 6hours long- standing the whole time would kill the feet.Well, I hope that you are all doing well. Keep me posted with whatzgoing on in your life.God’s richest blessings, Faith“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in theshadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refugeand my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91: 1- 2

April 11, 2005

So I have a problem taking my camera with me to the places that I goto... hmmm.. I'll need to solve this sometime soon, so that I willnot forget all the places and things that I've seen.Life is quite interesting most days. I am still struggling to findmy groove ~~ my daily routines in this life here. The food isgetting better- I don't think the food is changing, but myperspective- my family would think this is a good thing- as I've beenso picky with what I eat when living in Canada. Today for lunch Iate rice, a cooked vegy (mostly celery and pork meat/ fat), bamboo,and pork in sweet and sour sauce. Mostly good, one of the bettermeals.Not feeling my best today. I think I am coming down with my firstcold/ flu of my time here. Hopefully it passed with me not missingmy classes- for the ones I miss are the ones I make up later- alwayscausing too much hassle in the long run.On Sunday, I went with my church to have a picnic lunch and serviceoutside of the city. They bought 'lunchboxes' which is a box filledwith rice, a meat, an egg, cooked greens, and a juice. Actuallyquite good and I enjoyed the food. While at this little school about45 min drive from the city- in a little village, Rebecca and I metsome students who were playing in the playground- these cute littlegirls in gr 2, 3, and 4 just followed us around. They areaboriginal tribal children- so their skin in much darker thanTaiwanese people. (To clarify, they do wear shoes and normalclothing). Beautiful children- they showed us around their schooland took us searching for bugs- so it was a big joke with these girlsto put 'pretend bugs' on each other- we had a good time with themtrekking through the bush- they were telling us about the plants, theschool. Actually a large number of the tribes in Taiwan areChristian, as missionaries found it easier to make an influence onthese people groups. Very beautiful people, their culture is full ofart and dancing- enjoyable to watch.Everything is going well with Rebecca. We went to the beach onSaturday- so very cool to swim in this warm salty ocean water- for myvery first time (and I forgot to take a picture... ahhh). There wascoral everywhere and a little farther down the beach- nice sandy (norocky) parts. Very beautiful. But tragedy does strike and as I wasswimming along the coral (kinda scary for a prairie girl who hasnever seen the stuff) I stubbed my toe on some and ripped up one ofmy toenails- ouchy... so that ended my snorkeling adventures in theocean. Rebecca is so brave- she surfs, snorkels, any kind of wateradventure- and she's there. I am a 'fraidy cat' - so just swimmingin there was a huge adventure. We were out there on this 28 degreeday and the beach was deserted- there was nobody out there to enjoyit. Actually Taiwanese people DO NOT like to go out into the sun asit will make their skin very dark. So as we North American's love totan and be in the sun, they cover up and carry an umbrella withthem. I will take pics soon and send them. The beach and water wasamazingly beautiful- blues, greens- in the sky and sea. Sometimes Ineed to pinch myself to realize that this is for real- I live in thisplace that is so breath taking. God is good. Did I tell you that mynew apartment is a 10 min walk from the ocean- not a nice beach, butstill a great view. So many plans to make- to travel and see therest of this country and some other countries ones around here. Ithink Fiji would be a cool place to visit.I hear it is warm in Canada these days. Sound like spring has sprung-any tulips yet? Spring is one of my favorite seasons- the promiseof something new, something exciting.May you experience God's richest blessings, Faith!