A Day in the Life

 Hi everyone! Taiwan is still awesome.

Taiwan might be awesome, but it also has very different customs, and a different set of things assumed to be true than America. Take work, for example. In Taiwan, it is assumed that what you do is an integral part of who you are. If you own a restaurant, you are a Restaurant Owner. You don't get weekends or nights off, because you own a restaurant, and what if people want to eat?! But conversely, when you're at your job (which is always), you don't have to take it too seriously. Yes, we know you want to eat, but my kid is sick today, okay? I need to go to the doctor with him, the shop is closed. Oh, I have a customer? Okay, well I'm watching TV right now, wait until commercial. Go have a soda while you wait, okay? Free. Not every place is this chill, but it's actually kind of... nice. You're less inclined to see people as Corporations and The Man, because obviously they're people too, and... actually, Korean sitcoms are pretty funny.

So, this was my day yesterday (Friday)! Got up in the morning to join the group for field service, at 9 am. We went to our territory:

Those two buildings were our territory. They look Matrix-y, don't they?

And preached for a few hours. People here are quite friendly, even if they don't want to talk to you they're still quite polite about it. I was able to get to know some of the friends a bit more, especially when we collectively decided it was time for a coffee break.

Yes, this place is called Cafe Macho, why?

That cafe had band advertisements all over the place inside, it was quite cool to see all of them. As it turns out, Franz Ferdinand is huge in Taiwan. Who knew?

As I sat there sipping my incredibly manly latte, I spotted this guy across the street:

Made In Taiwan!

So you know the Japanese car company Lexus? I'm told by the friends that this is a Luxis. You can only get them in Taiwan, they only make the one car, and apparently it's quite comfortable.

Later in the day, I went back to my home restaurant and met up with Harry. We really need to get an apartment, quickly. I got an email from my school asking me to hurry up with my ARC processing, so they can give me my scholarship stipend... I'm still waiting to hear back on the health check (I'm sure it'll be fine), but I also need a local bank account. Which means I need proof of residence- a rental contract. So we spoke with Sr. Tan, and she recommended a volunteer agency called Tsui Mama. Their job is to get foreigners like us houses here in Taipei.

Eventually we made it there, after getting lost a few more times, and they were quite helpful! They couldn't speak any English, of course... but despite that, I spoke with them and got our search narrowed down a bit. I left with three pages of potentially rentable apartments in my hand, with the small complication that it was all written in Traditional Chinese characters. Which I can't read yet. It's a start at least...

I also saw this guy!

I see you seeing me!

In Chinese they call him a Ying, which means Eagle, but Terry called him a Slothbird. So he's probably not really an eagle. He really is slow, too- he walks at about ten feet an hour! Apparently it's because he eats mostly fish, and moving so slowly on the ground keeps him from scaring away the fish.

After resting up a bit, we went to our meeting (it's on Friday night)- this was Harry's first meeting, so I got to introduce him to everyone. They thought he was my dad at first! All white people look the same...

So something interesting happened at meeting. Before I left California, Br. Derek Galvez gave me a gift to give to a sister in Taipei Nanqu. I didn't look inside, but it was a Starbucks bag marked "Sister Vivian". I had never met her before, but Derek said she was hard to miss, because she had cancer and was bald because of it. So when I arrived in Taipei, I brought the gift with me to the meeting, and asked around a bit for Sr. Vivian. No one knew who that was, so I explained she had cancer, and they pointed me to an older sister, who was very happy when I gave her the gift.

So it turns out that wasn't her. I know that because the real Sr. Vivian's mom, Sr. Chen, came up to me and asked me about the gift I was supposed to give to her daughter. I gave them a really awkward half-fluent explanation and apology, which they found hilarious, and started searching for the older sister. Happily, she hadn't eaten the gift (candy!), and gave it back to me when I explained (she also found it hilarious). I gave it back to the correct sister (I hope), and all was right in Taipei. :-)

Also, this is my ride:

Don't worry Mom, we're just posing; when we're actually riding we have helmets.

This is me on the back of Sr. Tan's scooter. Now that Harry's around, it's easier for the two of us to just walk to the meeting, but I needed to get a picture of me riding on that thing for old times' sake. Side note: I love the Taiwanese word for scooter/motorcycle. Tiema (tyeeh-mah); it means "iron horse". Awesome!

I also learned at the meeting that I am no longer the new guy in Taiwan. A couple from, of all places, Reno NV arrived three days ago to assist us in the field, and I got to meet them. Harry wasn't feeling well after the meeting (I think he's still tired from the travel), but the new couple, Terry and I went out on a brief gustatory tour of the night markets.

Xiaolongbao!

Xiaolongbao are little baozi (dumplings) with meat and soup inside. They're amazingly good, and super cheap- you can get six for 35NT (just about $1)!

Choudoufu!

Choudoufu is the legendary Stinky Tofu of Taiwan. And man, it is truly stinky. At first I thought it was a broken sewer line, but Terry calmly walked up to the cart and ordered some fried tofu! It smells worse than it looks, and it looks pretty bad, but it tastes really good actually. And our breath protected us from pickpockets!

And no night out would be complete without a group selfie (is it still called that if it's more than just you?):

Sadly, Terry had already left, but this is me, Cameron and Madison (I think! I'm really sorry if I got your name wrong! Why can I remember Chinese names but not English ones now?!)

We walked back to the MRT and parted ways at about 12:30 Saturday morning. That's what I call a successful day.

I still need to find an apartment (quickly), I still need to get my ARC, and my school starts Tuesday, but with friends like these and Jehovah's organization, it'll be a piece of cake.