22 二十二歲

 (A very eventful year!)

So, have you ever done that thing, where you imagine someone takes a picture of you right now (and, if necessary, explains it), and sent it backwards in time to past-you? How far back would you have to send it to make past-you actually believe it? Yesterday, as Mason and I were joined by our dear friends Adam and Drew, visiting from New York Bethel, at the foot of Taipei 101, I figured... about three months. If Adam and Drew weren't there, probably about... five months. Any further and there's just no way I would believe it.

Anyway. One of the first things I did this week was convince Harry to come up with me to Maokong, a mountain on the eastern edge of Taipei. I had heard for a while that it's a really nice place to visit, with teahouses, fresh mountain air, and a beautiful view of Taipei. Also, you can only reach it by gondola, which is awesome.

Inside the Hello Kitty-themed gondola, on the way back

I would have gotten more shots from inside the gondola, but... well, it's a gondola and won't stop moving and swaying around, so my pictures are terrible. But they weren't kidding when they said the view of Taipei was great. We arrived a little before sunset, and got to walk around and see a bit of the mountainside before going into a tea shop and hanging out for a while.

Taipei before...

...and after.

It wasn't heart-pumping action or anything, but it was very pleasant to hang out with Harry for a little while and kick back.

Service has still been great. I've got a few return visits now, enough that I actually need to start scheduling them. We've also been enjoying working with our American friends serving in another land- for hearing their stories, Taiwan is quite a contrast to what they're used to. They've also been very helpful to our friend Irinka, who is considering moving abroad soon.

The Art of Beer Contemplation, by Irinka

Speaking of Irinka, she also seems to be Mason's best hope of a job right now. She's gotten him into an English buxiban (cram school) as a substitute/tutor... or at least, she's gotten him into an audition to become one. He had his first trial yesterday and his second one on Friday, and we're both quite hopeful! If he can't find a job soon, he may have to go back home, which would be really depressing. 

Later, we were once again invited to Terry's family study. It was encouraging to be a part of it, although the material was slightly awkward... we were considering the Young People Ask book, specifically about money, and one of the biggest points was "am I ready to move out on my own?". Well... I sure hope so!! :-)

With Terry, buying brain food for the study

Terry is a cool guy. Recently, we were riding a bus together, and as we got off the bus driver shouted "Thanks Brother Miller!" It says a lot about him that everyone in this city knows who he is and what he does.

At the actual study. Despite Mason's protests, here he is again, playing guitar for the sisters...

And yesterday was a great day. Adam and Drew came to visit!! Well, actually they went to Myanmar for the international convention and just had a twelve-hour layover in Taipei, but that's good enough for my purposes! We're good friends from our time in Bethel together, and Adam in particular is one of my dearest friends in the world, so I was very happy to see them. I haven't seen them since I left Bethel about a year and a half ago.

Yep, still about the same.

This is the nicest smile I've ever seen on Drew! He must be really happy! :-)

So actually, the plan was that Mason would get them at the airport and take them to Taipei Main Station, where I would meet them and we would go do things for a while until we had to take them back. Their plane landed at 4:30 and my school doesn't get out until 5, so it just worked out better that way.

So after school, I called Mason up, expecting him to already have Adam and Drew and be on his way back. It turns out that he went to the wrong airport, and had no idea where the correct one was or how to get there from where he was. (We have two- Songshan is much more convenient and cheaper, but is smaller so only serves close countries like Japan, Taoyuan is the big one we both flew into.) So I got on the bullet train and arrived in Taoyuan at about 7, barely catching them before they gave up waiting and went back across customs to eat, and after many hugs and greetings took them to Taipei 101 to hang out and- finally- eat. 

It was great hearing about Myanmar. They announced this convention last year, and some brothers up in the hills actually took most of that time to travel to the convention. What they did was worked their fields back home, saved up enough money to buy another field about a day's walk closer to Yangon, bought it and worked it until they had enough saved up for another field a day's journey closer... and in that way leapfrogged their way to the capital city for the convention. Of course, once they arrived they had no way to afford a hotel or any kind of food, so the brothers allowed a tent city in a nearby parking lot for the Convention. Apparently, since the convention was announced last year the number of publishers has literally doubled, from 4700 to almost 9000!

Outside of Taipei 101

We showed them around the city for a while, eventually wound up back at our apartment, and talked for a couple hours until we had to regretfully get them into a cab and back to the airport. (Actually, I gave the cabby his money and directions up front, for all I know he could have turned a corner, dropped them off and kept the money... hopefully that didn't happen.)

This time last year, I had gotten back from Bethel and was looking forwards to learning Chinese in the field. This year, I'm still looking forwards to learning Chinese in the field, but the field is very different, and the horizon has changed.

So, please tell me, what's on your horizon, and what are your plans for the future?