New Arrivals 新從外國來的人

(So many new people!)

I've known for quite some time that people tend to travel in waves.

I first noticed this phenomenon when I was at Bethel; tour groups would usually come in groups of three or four (groups of groups, that is, not groups of people). But then, I figured it had o do with lunch, or travel time, or a bus, or something. When I went home in 2012, my first job was at a retail store called Kohl's, and I noticed it there, too- people who had no prior relationship would all come at once, five or six, and then nothing for a half hour. Then another ten, then nothing again.

At my next job, FedEx, this remained true; my manager and I had conversations about it during the long spells of nothing happening. But still, maybe it's just a leisure thing?

Nope; after three months of no one new arriving, we've just had eight people arrive in Taiwan in the last week- one Korean sister, two Japanese brothers, two British brothers, two British sisters, and one sister from New Zealand. I still have no explanation, but at least Taiwan is better than Kohl's!

So much better!

I will introduce (some of) them in a moment. First, we had a special talk by Br. Geoffrey Jackson of the Governing Body. He had some business to take care of in Taiwan- rumor has it Taiwan Branch may be expanding soon, taking some of the load off Hong Kong- and while he was here decided to address the friends. It was a really nice talk; his main structure was Five Reasons to Stay Busy in the Work of the Lord. His way of teaching was quite different to what the Taiwanese brothers are used to, as it was almost completely built around illustrations. For example, he compared happiness to hair; if you buy your happiness, then just like a wig it will slide off when you start sweating (having problems), whereas if your happiness grows from within you won't have that problem. 

I have a feeling if I tried using baldness illustrations it wouldn't work so well...

His talk was translated by Br. Chen, to the left. He did a really good job, even down to the chicken noises! (One illustration had a chicken in it. Hey, he's Governing Body, he can cluck if he wants.) This whole experience was very excellently timed for...

These guys! Sorry for the blurry picture :-/

So these are the guys from Britain that have just arrived. It seems that my previous knowledge about them was wrong; most critically, I somehow got it in my head that there was only one coming, so I merged both of their information into one person, which made very little sense. So, introduction time: The guy on the right is named Joel. He's 19 years old, and has been in Chinese since he was only 7 years old- naturally, he speaks fluent Chinese. The one on the left is named Joseph; he's 23 years old, and can't speak much Chinese at all. (I would say "can't speak a word", which was true when he arrived, but actually he's learning it pretty quickly!) 

Been here less than a week and already preaching in Chinese!

They're both from a town in northern England called Hull, near the city of Leeds. They showed me some pictures- Joel's house seriously looks like it's been there for 400 years, surrounded by gently rolling plains and old growth forest... he's even got a horse! Taipei City is definitely a change for him, but he's handling it pretty well. As I understand it, Joel came here as a scout for his parents, who plan to move to Taipei in a few months, and Joseph came as moral support for his friend and also because it sounded awesome. The first couple nights, they were both staying with me and Harry, but we shifted around a bit and now Joel is staying with Tan Jiemei (oddly enough, in the same room I was in) while Joseph is living with us. We only live about ten minutes' walk away, though, so they still do most things together.

Here we see Joseph talking with Joseph, and a spoiler!

What I mean by "spoiler" is the sister on the right in that picture. That's one of the sisters from Britain that have just arrived- they're from West London, and they are literally sisters... identical twins in fact. And they like wearing identical clothing. And one is named Bridget, the other... Bridgette. I'm not making this up. As a result, I honestly couldn't tell you which of the two is in this picture.

It's safe to say they're both in this one, though! (Those flowers are real, by the way)

The above picture was taken this last Saturday. It's raining once again here, so we went into the Flower Market for some preaching and to enjoy the flowers. Actually, I wasn't supposed to be there with the group- I split off from everyone around lunchtime to meet up with Yunkai, one of the young brothers here, to go on a study with him, but after I'd arrived at the spot we planned to meet at, he called and canceled. Ah well, I'll just head in, I figured; but I didn't realized I'd lost my key. So, I called Harry, and after a long trip through the rain ended up spending a nice time looking at flowers and trying to figure out which sister I was talking to. (They seriously need name tags or something...)

A different day in service, taking a quick break

School has been intense lately. This third book focuses quite intensely on new vocabulary; I'm not exaggerating when I say we're expected to learn upwards of 100 new words a week! Although it's hard work, I'm still really glad to be doing it- it's paying off quite well already, and I still have two more months to go! I also will be starting to tutor a kid wanting to learn English this next week, just for 90 minutes a week, every Monday at 7:30. I don't really need the extra cash at this point (although I won't say I can't use it), but starting now will get me some hands-on practice teaching English so that when my scholarship runs out, I can get a real job teaching and not be totally in over my head.

Sorry for the shorter post this week! I'll be doing some sightseeing with the Brits soon, hopefully that will provide more interesting pictures! :-)