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(Hot or cold...)

Hi guys!

This last week has been very nice. For most of the week, I've been very focused on school and the ministry- nothing too extraordinary, but very important. In school we've been focusing on passive-tense grammar, how to use it, when and how to interpret it ("Someone broke my window!" is active; "My window was broken!" is passive.) We also spent a great deal of time on fruit, of all things; so now I know how to say "Durian fruit" in Chinese. (榴蓮 Liu2lian2 "liyew-lieyan", if you're wondering.)

The ministry has, as usual, been great. We still usually place four or five sets of magazines in a two-hour block in the door to door work, and I may have started a bible study! As we were just finishing up one day, a man approached me and asked me if I was a minister (actually, he asked if I was a priest). I explained who we were and what we were doing, and gave him a set of magazines to read. He looked interested, so I showed him a few articles... to make the story shorter, I gave him a bible and invitation, and he said he'd definitely attend meeting on Friday! I'm keeping my eyes open :-)

The territory one sunny day

But we did have a few cool things happen. We all went up to Danshui again, which is always good fun. There is a Swiss sister named Corinne visiting Taiwan for two months who wanted to go see the sunset, so we got the group together and off we went! Unfortunately, my school didn't let out until 5, so I missed the sunset, but I got there as quickly as I could and we still had fun.

Not my picture- I was still on the train- Chihiro and the sunset

First, we went to the market and wandered around for a while, looking at knickknacks and eating food. We also picked up some custom bible covers for several friends who wanted them.

Brandy likes squid!

And that was okay.... the real fun was when we found a store that sold fireworks. We didn't go crazy or anything...

Mostly...

We just bought some sparklers. And thus began the climactic battle between good and evil on the docks of Danshui!

But who...

...is who?

We probably shouldn't be allowed near these things.

It was great! Sparklers are fun! And it's fun being kind of stupid with them!

Feel the power! 

Ahem, anyway...

The other cool thing that happened was we all went to the zoo! I mentioned earlier that one of our sisters, Irinka, will be leaving Taiwan soon to serve abroad, and one thing she wanted to do before she leaves is go see the baby panda in Taipei's Zoo. It's a big deal, because she just became old enough for the zookeepers to let people see her.

On the way to the zoo.

Unfortunately, we forgot to do the math. If pandas are cute, and babies are cute, then baby pandas reach a cuteness singularity that pulls every Taiwanese person within range into a giant squealing crowd. So although we still had a good time, we didn't get to see the baby panda.

This was the closest I got to a panda.

The Taipei zoo is huge! It's comparable to the San Diego zoo back in California, although with a definite bias towards Asian animals. We couldn't see the whole place today, but we did get to see their section just for "native Formosan animals". Here's some pictures:

Formosan Flamingos

White Jaguar

This guy was awesome. We couldn't find him in his enclosure at first. We looked for a couple minutes, and right as we were giving up we saw him watching us, camouflaged! As soon as he saw that we saw him he came out and started playing with some leaves.

Here we have a unique opportunity to observe the Formosan Foreigner.

And here is the Formosan Black Bear, also known as the Derp Bear.

"Well... hello there."

Monkeys! (Actually, Macaques. I have no idea what the difference is.)

The sister in the blue is Irinka, who will shortly be leaving us...

Did you know that when camels run, their humps wiggle? It's hilarious!

 We got kicked out of the zoo when it closed for the night- I guess zookeepers deserve to have lives too- so went back to Irinka's house to hang out for a while longer.

Buying dinner

And capping the night off well.

So, yeah! Nothing too earth-shattering, but a very good week nonetheless. Mason's sister Kayla will be arriving soon- actually, within a couple hours! Kayla is only planning on staying in Taiwan two weeks, to get a feel for the territory while she contemplates joining Chinese (we're going to make sure she does), and she's picked a good time to come- Chinese New Year is in just about a week and a half, which also means I get time off school! :-D

So, when is the last time you saw a panda?