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!