Great Learning (大學)

(It also means "college"!)

Hello everyone! This week seems to have gone by very quickly. I'm almost out of the 'setting up' phase and into the 'normal person' phase, I think. 

This last week in school we mostly focused on Chinese grammar, relating to time phrases in particular. Needless to say, it wasn't fun. Grammar is hard! Still, I have to remind myself that in many ways, this is why I'm going to school and not just learning through the meetings and ministry; by going to school, I can not only be understood but be able to speak well. It's the difference between being able to preach and being able to give talks. Granted, everyone learns grammar eventually no matter how they learn, but this is certainly speeding things up.

I'll give you an example, and hope that I get it right (the test is on Wednesday!). If I wanted to say the sentence "The first time I went there, I ate with my French friend", I would need to literally say "I the first time with my French friend went ate". If it seems a bit confusing, don't worry, it is; but the Chinese think English grammar is strange too.

But enough about grammar! Here are some pictures from more interesting things last week.

The library's sign says "Forest of Literature"

While out in service the other day, we came across this park with a beautiful library in the center. We sat on its steps for a little while and preached to people nearby, which was very nice. Inside the museum they have some modern Taiwanese art on display. I'm not quite sure I understand their art, but it did contribute to a very relaxing atmosphere.

Traditional shrine

We also saw this very traditional shrine to the ancestors along the path. On certain days- a birthday, an anniversary of death, important events- the family will give gifts and burn incense to their ancestors, hoping that somehow they will get help. They typically leave fruit out, sometimes money too. I have never seen what they do with the rotting fruit after a while...

On Friday, Mason and I were invited to go bowling! We all met at 8AM in Sanchong Station. I had never been bowling in the morning before, I had never met most of the friends we were going to be playing with, and I had never been to Sanchong, although I was told it was the Oakland of Taipei. And I will admit, it did look pretty seedy... but the bowling was fun!

We split into four groups of five. This is Ginger, Kate, Brandy and Xie (action shot!)

I'm not sure about the other groups, but everyone in my group was terrible except for Xie, who pretty much owned us. (And yes, I know, those aren't Chinese names; for whatever reason, most young sisters here have picked English ones and they won't tell anyone their Chinese names. I don't know why.) The bowling was actually just a small part of the building; they also had a huge arcade (all games are free!) and even a gym inside! We had a good time until about 1, when we had lunch and went our separate ways.

This week I also tried to explore a bit more. Unfortunately my school keeps me busy, but I was able to see things a little out of the way. This is Da'an Forest Park Station:

The main thoroughfare; it's pretty empty right now!

Outside they have this area with fountains and a few statues. Kids were playing, it was quite nice.

Walking along the path, on the edge of the main park...

And looking into the main part of the park. 

The park is huge, I haven't seen it all yet. It's not quite Central Park, but it might be close. The brother from Reno, Cameron, saw a huge awesome spider hanging out in there! He showed me a picture that I unfortunately don't have- black and green, and almost as big as his palm! Taiwan has a huge number of unique animals. Most of Taiwan's animals only live in Taiwan. It's extremely interesting to be able to see these creatures!

Some bad news, unfortunately- my laptop broke. It had been giving me some problems ever since I arrived, but it just stopped charging altogether. If it had power, it worked- but it didn't work if plugged in, only off battery power. You could plug it in to charge the battery, obviously, but you couldn't use it for anything. Well, you could- one day it just wouldn't charge. I tightened the connection and left it all day, nothing. I taped it down, twisted it a bit, reset the battery, cleaned the contacts, and let it sit overnight- nothing. I took it to several local shops, but sadly, it's a Dell- and Dell is unknown in Taiwan. That meant that no one really knew how to fix it, and the one guy who did had no way of ordering the parts. I also spoke with Dell Support, and they agreed with the local guy- it was a motherboard issue. Dell said they could fix it! But- I'd need to ship it back to America to my family, have them take it in, then ship it back. All on my own money, of course.

So I bought a new laptop! (Some advice: Don't buy a Dell. Especially if you ever plan on leaving America.) As it turns out, there was a huge technology fair going on at Taipei 101 at the same time, so I headed over with a mission.

Taipei 101, from the ground, looking up. Now that's a skyscraper.

The fair was huge. Every brand I'd ever heard of was there, and many I hadn't heard of, with TVs, cell phones, GPS, servers, industrial electronics, these new smartwatches they're selling here, cameras, and most importantly- laptops.

There was a sign outside- the fair was at 14,000 people out of a maximum 32,000. It was less than half full, and it looked like this.

I got a really good deal on a brand new ASUS X550V, a model that hasn't come out in the States yet. I managed to haggle down US$300 from the original price! There is the slight problem that it has a Chinese OS, a Chinese keyboard and everything is in Chinese... but it'll help me learn! :-)
All things considered, I'm happy with it. Although I got a good deal, it wasn't cheap, and I especially wasn't expecting that expense right now. Still, it's a good machine, it'll last me a long time, and it's one less thing to worry about. The good thing about ASUS here is that their headquarters are actually in Taipei- I could take the subway there if I wanted- so I'm guaranteed the best support if anything goes wrong with it.

I'll end this entry with one last event. Last night, GianCarlo asked me to help him move. I agreed, of course- always happy to help a brother out- but little did I know what lay in store.

You see, GianCarlo lives- I should say lived, we did get him moved- on the seventh floor, actually the roof of a six-storey building, with no elevator. So we got to move all his stuff down six flights of stairs into another friend's waiting minivan, his books, his mattress, his shelves, his washing machine, everything. The one respite we had- and it was nice- was this:

Winch power!

GianCarlo had set up an electric winch at the top of his stairwell. It couldn't get the big stuff, and it couldn't take that much weight, but it helped out immensely with bags of clothes and such. After we helped him move, we capped the night off with a soccer game. (See! I did eventually go! And to think Nikolai doubted...) My legs killed me all today, but it was totally worth it.

Well, I'm writing this at 1am my time, and I'm tired, so I'll end it here. My parents have told me a little of what's going on back home- that snow is crazy!- and it's very encouraging to hear that so many people are doing so well. Please feel free to leave comments, I promise nothing bad will happen, and if you want to say something I'd like to hear it.

Until next time!