Taiwan Blog: 06/30 and 07/02

06/30/10

Arrived in Zhanghua less than an hour ago and we’ve already made our first 7-11 trip. Two bottles of green tea for only a dollar. Life is good in Taiwan. After sitting on it for twelve hours straight on the plane and three hours on the bus, I’m positive my ass will never be the same again. Permanent nerve damage, flattening, all that good stuff. On the bright side, today promises to be a chill day. We left America at 2 AM and arrived at 6AM Taiwan time. That means after tossing and turning on the airplane, I arrived in Taiwan with a full day’s worth of work ahead of me. Oh, joy.

Eileen and Genson Hsieh are undoubtedly the best hosts we’ve ever had in Taiwan. They open up their house to over twenty kids, feed us, nurse us when we’re sick, and prophecy over us in preparation for the Big Day. Professor Hsieh even came to my baptism. I can’t deny that the Hsiehs and the work they’ve done so generously in Taiwan have played an integral part in my decision to become baptized.

So far, I’m loving all the people I’ve met. Some are church people that I’ve seen before but have never become formally acquainted with. Through the past several hours of camaraderie, I’m positive this year will be no different from the previous years in terms of the formation of close relationships.

Right now I’m typing this blog on Microsoft Word. There is wifi available here but I’m reluctant to allow the opportunity for dilution of this mission’s objective. I see missions as an opportunity to escape from the materialistic/technology-controlled environment I ensconce myself in back in America. I brought my laptop in order to register for classes on July 1^st. I know if I start using the internet to check Facebook, AIM my friends, blog, I’ll only be encouraging all the other volunteer teachers here to do the same. Live by example, Abby Wang!

Anyways, right now everyone is either sleeping or hanging out. I think I better dive right in there, lest the cliques start forming without me! I’ll continue to blog like this in blocks at a time and upload them when I have the chance. Sorry about the lack of a video blog, Kimberly Young and Jimmy Ly!

07/02/10

Wow. I’m really bad at this no internet thing. Still, I have, as of yet, not succumbed to the call of Facebook. Yeehaw! The past couple days of training have been agonizing. We leave the house at 8:30 in the morning and we don’t come back until 8:30 at night. That’s twice as many hours as I spend at school. Insanity. I’ve been in a zombie-like trance since this morning. Even the Taiwanese version of Red Bull (Savage Bull) hasn’t been able to lend a crutch to the burden of this brain-numbing fatigue. Perhaps it’s the overwhelming number of people here. (Around 90) It’s really hard to get to know everyone and socialize as a group because everyone arrived nicely pre-packaged into a clique. It’s human nature to not stray too far from what we’re comfortable with. I haven’t completely given in to Andrew’s philosophy about always being disappointed the second (or third) time around. I’m hoping my current state of emo-ness is just a passing symptom of jet lag. I remind myself often that the purpose of this mission trip is not to have fun with friends, but to fight the good fight on the battlefields of Taiwan. We here are all soldiers in Christ. We have been brought together by a similar cause, and I can only pray that unity will come with time.

PS: Today our air conditioning broke and I just about had a hernia. Luckily, we have the best hosts in the world who immediately called a mechanic. That's right. At 11 at night, a mechanic came to the house to fix our AC. I love Taiwan. I am now basking in the cool breeze of a fully functional AC unit. Thank Jesus.