06/09/11: 16:46, Location: Death Floor

Super chill today. I spent the entire day sitting in front of this computer translating the Mennonite Foundation website into English. I thought this was going to be easy...but apparently my Chinese grammar/vocabulary is not as good as I give myself credit for. I got in at 8 AM this morning, watched the Guitar Professor (Dr. Martin) perform until about 10 AM, and have been translating ever since. It's almost 5 PM. Lucky for me, the staff members around me are super nice and have been bringing me food. haha. They're like "You're working too hard. Have some cake. Or a Mochi. You don't get mochi in America right? Try this one. And this one too. " Friends, I am getting FAT(ter).

The guitar professor was pretty legit. He performed a love song he wrote to his wife, and the slideshow consisted of pictures of SF (where they met). Made me CRAZY homesick. I'm like "FISHERMAN'S WHARF...WAAAH...LOMBARD STREET...WAAAAAH." We talked for a little bit afterwards and it turns out he lived in Cupertino for a bit. Sick. I wanted to buy his CD, but when I asked Pastor Chao where he was selling them, she informs me, "I already bought you one. And one for Dr. Liu, and one for Daniel. Which you must deliver for me." Guh. DANG IT. BUT, she borrowed 2000 NT from me to pay for other people's CDs. So YES. :D I'm going to totally forget, so I'm chronicling it here. Anyways, I plan on adding all the songs to my iTunes and listening to them while I study. Then I'll give the CD to my parents. They need some zen.

Today, Hualien had some "Emergency Drill". The tsunami in Japan caused quite a stir here. For those of you who are as geographically illiterate as me, Japan is a little north of Taiwan. (I think.) Several alarms went off that day and people were told to evacuate/prepare for the worst. Parents were let off of work early to go pick up their kids. It was crazy. They call it "311". Anyways, after that happened, every once in a while, the hospital has drills to see how adequately prepared it is for an emergency. They call all their staff with an automated message and time/count the responses. This helps them to see how many people they could potentially have on hand in how short of a time to respond to an epic disaster such as a tsunami. This afternoon, they did the second part of the drill, where everyone is forced to stay inside. Cars that were driving on the street were pulled over and not allowed to move until 3 PM. Police locked us inside the hospital. I was told that we were lucky. Because we are a hospital, things were allowed to run pretty much as normal. However, other places were required to turn their lights and electricity off. It's 37 degrees Celsius today. PRAISE THE LORD. I LOVE HOSPITALS.

Pastor Chao decided I needed a break and let me tag along to her devo session with the custodial crew. Her job entails leading different departments in weekly devotionals. Anyways, cutest Ah-mas ever. We head over to the Mercy building's basement, and when we get there, I get a niggling feeling at the back of my neck. I'm like "Wait. Isn't this where the morgue is?" She turns her head slowly, gives me a creepy smile, and says "Yes. Want to visit?"

HELL. THE. FREAKING. NO.

Her: "You have to get used to it. Experience everything."

Me: "NOOOO. NOOOOO. NOOOOOOOOOO."

Her: "Maybe later. When you're ready."

Me: "NEVER. ZOMBIES. GUUUH."

She says Melody loves dead bodies. Always wants to accompany her to funeral homes and SEE the dead bodies. I don't mean stand respectfully in front of a closed coffin. She demands to SEE the body. Crazy chica. I see scary things in her future. She wants to be a doctor. Good for her. Dead bodies make me...squiggle.

It was kind of creepy doing devos knowing there were vaults of dead bodies chilling (literally. ha. ha. ) next door. Eeeh. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Pastor Chao wanted to cut through to get to the other elevator but I used my limited veto power.

"But we do it all the time!"
"NO. TURN LEFT."

Ok. I've wasted a good ten, fifteen minutes. Time to get back to translating.