Tang's Taiwan: Fireworks 煙火

(Greetings from The Future! Although, it's probably already 2014 for you by the time you read this...)

Welcome, friends, to 2014! I gotta say, it's been a cool year so far, and the last few days have been very fun! Although Taiwan doesn't celebrate Christmas, everyone does get a day off for New Years', so this was a great time to take a break from my schedule.

This post actually begins a few days before 2014, though. On the 28th of December, Saturday, we had our annual pioneers' meeting- not with the Circuit Overseer, this is just something Taipei South does at the end of each year to check up on everyone. I was really happy about this meeting, because I actually understood what was going on! I could follow the brothers' talks, and even be encouraged by what they said! What they said was pretty interesting, too- Br. Liang spoke to us about supporting foreign languages. This is not new information, but it did make me reflect a bit- Taiwan is not America. Back in the States, pretty much every language had its own congregation or group, even for very small needs (like Portuguese in Sacramento- hey guys!), which meant that although you wanted to learn whether they were interested in the Bible and perhaps invite them to a meeting, you didn't want to do too much with them and step on someone's toes. Here in Taipei, though, we have much fewer language groups. Chinese (obviously), English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog... and that's it. If you find someone who speaks any other language, it's your job to figure out how best to talk to them. That should be interesting!

After the meeting, all 80 of us pioneers (yes, 80) were invited upstairs to the missionary home for tea, coffee, really weird pizza and conversation. (The pizza had corn on it! And shrimp, and spinach! I mean, it was pizza, so I ate it... but man!) During the course of conversation it came up that Mason could play guitar. Okay, so I totally volunteered him. Either way, it ended up with him playing Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam to all of us:

I tried to record it but the sound is terrible. He's pretty good though!

He was totally uncomfortable and it was awesome. I'm a good friend. Seriously though, he was pretty good and everyone enjoyed the song. Afterwards, all the new people were invited to stand in front of everyone and explain who we are, and answer any questions. My turn was a bit awkward because pretty much everyone already knew me, but whatever, I introduced myself again!

The next day, Sunday, we were invited to come to a Korean family's house after meeting for food and games. Sr. Yuan made amazing Korean food for us, including freshly made kimchi! It was also very nice getting to know them. They had actually been invited to serve in Kathmandu, Nepal, but Br. Yuan's mother is in very poor health. He wants to be able to rush back to Seoul if need be, and it's much easier to fly from Taipei to Seoul than Kathmandu to Seoul. Still, he did go there for a few weeks, and it was very interesting hearing about such a unique place!

What was also interesting is this game they brought with them from Korea. I honestly can't tell you what it's called... and I can't really tell you how to play, either. The important thing is my team won. Basically, you throw these sticks with Korean writing on one side onto a mat and which sticks are face up or down determine how far you can move your piece around a board. If one stick falls off the mat, you skip a turn.

The true trick to winning is: Make sure you have a Korean on your team.

But although all these things were great fun (and, in some cases, remarkably delicious), the real fun started yesterday, in the closing hours of 2013. Br. Liang invited Harry, Mason and myself up to his house so we could see the fireworks marking the new year. Br. Liang lives on the top floor of a high-rise apartment building, and has roof access, so he had an excellent view of the show! There were about 20 people invited. We all arrived at about 10 pm; people brought food, drinks, it was a good time even before the fireworks.

There are about five more people in the kitchen behind me!

Then, at about 11:50, we ascended to his roof and took in the view.

Taipei City, with Taipei 101 in the distance.

Zoomed in on 101.

As the minutes passed, the city began getting excited. Taipei 101 turned on all its lights. Spotlights activated. Amazingly, the weather was beautifully clear- after a month of rain, the weather picked a good day to clear up! Then numbers appeared on the building- 10, 9, 8... The city roared as everyone stood on their rooftops shouting the numbers. Then, at midnight-

Fireworks!!!

More fireworks!!!!

It was a great show! Taipei 101 is the world's largest fireworks stand- they pack every flat plane on the building's exterior with fireworks- and they really use that. The show lasted for about ten minutes, and although Mason wasn't impressed, it was beautiful.

Afterwards, it looked like 101 was on fire!

Afterwards, 101 remained fully lit, scrolling "2014" on its upper section.

After the show, we walked back to our apartment and passed out at around 1:30 in the morning. But our rest was not to last, for we had been invited to Sanchong for bowling at 8:30 the next morning!

I say "bowling", but actually it has an arcade and pool as well. The two brothers against us are Nikolai and Ryota.

That day, we learned that Japanese people in general and Ryota in particular are amazing at everything that requires dexterity. He got four strikes in a row bowling and was able to bounce the cue ball off walls accurately to sink pool balls. Times like this, I wonder- how did they lose the war??

We left the bowling alley at 2, and I still had an entire afternoon with no school before me. So I asked around and invited everyone to come to Danshui with me! Danshui is at the northern edge of the city, as far north as you can take the metro to, and is actually older than Taipei, having been the main port of Dutch Formosa. It's kind of touristy now, but I don't mind. :-)

Danshui Market Street.

Nikolai agreed to come with me first, then we got three Japanese sisters on board, Tomomi, Aike, and Chihiro. After they agreed to come Mason decided to come with us too.

We're like giants!

Danshui is a really beautiful place. The sun was shining, there was a breeze coming off the South China Sea, you're surrounded by forested mountains, and the area is designed to give you really good views. This is why I don't mind touristy places- sometimes they just want your money, but sometimes the locals realize something is beautiful and want to showcase it. And they also want your money.

As we were walking along the pier, we saw a shop that took different colored wires and made art out of them. You could get earrings, bracelets, little robots- but the really cool thing was this:

我是擎天柱！

That's right, an Optimus Prime helmet. If it had fit me I would have bought it right there, but sadly even the sisters had to cram their heads into it for a picture (totally worth it guys, trust me).

And as we were walking around, we ran into three more sisters, Yunya, Yunmei, and Brandy! They had been out preaching all morning instead of spending their vacation bowling and had the same idea we did of going to Danshui. So, naturally, we celebrated our meeting with ice cream!

Green tea and mango swirl ice cream is amazing, by the way.

We just walked along the riverside for a while (Danshui is actually on the mouth of the Tamsui River, opening into the South China Sea), all nine of us, until we found a nice spot to wait and watch the sunset.