Visitors 客人

(Look guys, it's Taiwan again!)

Sometimes, it's good to get back to normal routines. While I was in America, my daily schedule was familiar, but in a strange way, like putting on clothes you haven't worn in a while- I remembered how to do all the things I needed to do each day, but it seemed to fit me differently than I remembered, and I wasn't quite used to it. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice trip; but I was still happy to get back to Taiwan.

While I was gone, the weather has gotten quite a bit cooler! The Taiwanese are having a harder time with the 'cold' than most foreigners, of course- it's just gotten to around 60 degrees at night, so we're not exactly arctic here- but it's a refreshing change from the humid heat of the summer.

It doesn't stop the ministry, of course!

The weather here has actually been really strange this year, and even now it's acting a little oddly, like it can't make up its mind. This Monday, while standing at Chiang Kai-Shek at our table, it was cold enough that I needed a jacket; the next day, it was 85 degrees, humid and sunny, which according to the locals is the hottest it's ever been in Taipei this late in the year. The weather all over the world has gone a little crazy, it seems!

Despite any weirdness, the congregation is still doing well. Some people left while I was gone, but we got a few new faces as well, and our spirits are high!

Smiling faces!

This time in anticipation of food!

My work was piling up for me while I was gone, unfortunately. My school has started a new policy- I've gotta give my students a test every single day now. They're not hard, just ten-question reviews on what we studied that day, but I can see from the results that not all the kids are getting the material... so although it's boring for them and annoying for me, I suppose it's good to have that kind of progress monitor.

It's good practice for me, too!

But of course, tests aren't interesting. Visitors are! We've had two very special people visit us in the last couple weeks. First, one rainy night two weeks ago, after a long day of work, I was walking home from the store laden with groceries and water, when I heard a familiar voice call out to me- "Dylan!" It was Jerry!

Jerry! (And Joe! But he's not news...)

Jerry was in town just for the one night, being transferred from his civil service assignment in Tainan to Taoyuan, a city just an hour away from Taipei, and instead of getting a hotel he thought he'd try to stay with us, which of course we let him do. He's doing well, although he's sad to have to move out of his new hall just as he was making friends, He stayed with us one night, which we spent catching up on things and playing card games, and in the morning joined us at a cafe for a little breakfast and letter writing service before catching the train onwards to Taoyuan. 加油 man!

The other guest we had- still have, actually- is a very familiar face:

Mason!!

Mason flew into town about a week ago on his winter vacation from school in America. Longtime readers of this blog will remember that he originally came to Taiwan with me around the same time, after I'd gotten us set up with a place to stay and stuff, but after having a really hard time finding work decided to head back to the States to finish the degree program he was enrolled in and come back once he's gotten that settled.

He says he's making good progress on that front- actually, if you want to hear from him directly, he's updated his own blog for the first time in like a year, mmmtaiwan.blogspot.com- and is really happy to be back in Taiwan, if only for a few weeks. He's been pretty active in the time he's been here, out in service with us, hanging out with the friends, and just in general enjoying a well-deserved vacation!

Also showing off his agility!

Mason came out with us one day while working at CKS, and while witnessing at the stand a man from Mainland China decided to show us how to catch some of the millions of pigeons that hang out with us with our hands. Both Mason and I managed to catch one, although our partner, Paul, showed us up with British class:

You just let them come to you, you see...

Mason had good timing. Completely without meaning to, he happened to come to Taipei just in time for our Circuit Assembly, the first one we've had since it changed to one day only. I wonder, can you tell if he had a good time?

(Hint: he did.)

It was a really good program, very encouraging and upbuilding. In total, we had a little over 1,900 people attend- we're North 2 circuit, which covers the cities of Taoyuan, Tamsui, Taipei and Keelung- and 24 people were baptized, including one sister from our congregation!

Not a bad, seat, either!

Of course, having the convention to attend made us all very busy, particularly us pioneers- we had the separate Pioneer Meeting to attend on Saturday, besides having cleaning assignments and working to set up the convention site, and then I myself was assigned to Parking the day of the convention. I remember Parking in America being a really boring, if quite important, assignment, as basically all you do is guide people into their spots and wait for the program to start. In Taiwan, it's a bit more entertaining, since most people here don't really know how to drive- or at least, it seems that way! We did well though, and no one was injured by any of the craz- er, enthusiastic driving of our brothers and sisters.

We also helped set up chairs!

All the work was totally worth it, of course, especially since I was assigned to Security during lunch and got to see the entire baptism procession.

Not quite as fancy, but no less encouraging!

Mason will still be here with us for a few more days, and we'll enjoy the time we've got; but then he'll have to get back to work, sadly. It's for a good cause, though, and hopefully he'll be able to come back more permanently in the near future.

So speaking of near future, this weekend there's going to be a couple events- one Running Man (a Korean comedy show) party, and then a jam session in a park! I'll see if I can't record some of it for you guys...

America, Part Two: Places 美國, 第二部分: 地方

(About time!)

Writing these two posts about America is interesting- hopefully for you, but definitely for me. I've lived in America most of my life, and most of that time was spent in California, so a lot of the things I'm writing about in this post and the one before it wouldn't have seemed odd or in need of explanation before coming to Taiwan. It's been one year already- can you believe it? My one year anniversary of living in Taiwan was November 5th. Of course, I really like it here, and I don't plan on moving back anytime soon- but my first sight of America from the plane window still made me pretty excited!

Look! It's America! That bridge is in like a thousand movies!

Often, while in Taiwan or Asia in general, when people ask me where I'm from I simply say "San Francisco". I'm not really from SF, I'm from a smaller city called Sacramento, but not many people over here know where or what that is; I'd end up having to explain "it's near San Francisco" anyway. Still, it really is not far from the City, and I went there often enough to do things that it was nice being back in a familiar place.

Two things immediately struck me. First, San Francisco is really clean. That might surprise people who live in the City, because you probably don't think so. But check this out:

哇! (Wa!)

There's no mold on the sides of the buildings, not even dirt! The street is so wide and nice! Look, the buses have their own lane, that's so cute! And cars give people a crazy amount of room, even stopping for them at crosswalks- how considerate!

There was a flipside, though. The second thing I noticed- America, even a big city like San Francisco, is so empty.

This is actually back in Sacramento, but it's still true.

The roads are crazy huge for the amount of traffic they get. Houses are enormous. There are no pedestrians walking around, no bicycles, no street-front shops spilling onto the sidewalk. Everyone is in cars. It felt... sterile, almost, like no one really lived there, they just passed through. I didn't like it. I like how busy and crowded and energetic Taipei is.

Maybe it's because I'm young. I've showed these pictures to several friends back here in Taiwan, and that seems to be their opinion- as I grow older I'll want more space to myself, and a quiet place to live. Maybe. I know older people who seem to really like places like Taipei, and I know younger people who enjoy Suburbia, so it seems to me like it's more of a temperament thing than and age thing, but- maybe.

I will say that American houses are really nice, though. I mean, really nice. This is one of the better neighborhoods in Sacramento:

They're like mansions!

Granted, Taipei does have its share of nice houses, but not nearly as many, and not nearly as nice, I'd say. Even the areas around town that I would consider "bad areas"- areas I probably shouldn't just hang out in after dark- had big, spacious houses, and everyone had their own yard. Like I said earlier, all of this isn't news to me- I've lived in California most of my life. I just saw it differently this time.

In fact, I began thinking about it. America has poor people, of course- American standards of 'poor' might be different than places like, say, Somalia's, but still- in many ways, America does not allow truly poor people to have a life. In most places, you can't not have a car- you wouldn't be able to get to work. By and large, there aren't any social safety nets, since children are encouraged to move out young, and they often move very far away. Basic necessities are very expensive, too. Although most people outside of America have a conception of Americans as all being rich- which is true, as numerically Americans do make a lot of money- the truth would seem to be that although Americans earn a lot of money, they are required to spend a lot of money, too, or else they really aren't allowed to live in America.

It does have its benefits, though. My parents, like most Americans, have a yard, but unlike most they chose to build a chicken coop and raise chickens in it.

Fresh eggs!

Also, American supermarkets are amazing. Look at all the cereal!

Too many choices!

And huge cheap bottles of wine!

These might actually be worth their weight in gold in Taiwan.

Besides stuff in and around the cities, though, I managed to sneak in one really good road trip while I was back in California. The second to last day of my trip, me and my parents went up to Lake Tahoe, one of the most beautiful places in all California, just to get away for a little while.

On the way up, we got some pretty nice views of what Central California looks like after a year-long drought: 

Not nearly as green as Taiwan...

It's not the same beautiful as Taiwan, but it still is beautiful, just in a different way. It's no tropical rainforest, definitely, and it doesn't help that this drought is one of the worst California has ever had; still, the rolling hills and blonde grass are very nice.

We stopped in a little town called Placerville for breakfast, first.

Very classy, Placerville.

Placerville's nickname is Hangtown. Way back when, during the California Gold Rush, there were a lot of people and not very many laws; but every now and then, someone would do something so bad that they just had to be arrested, and when that happened they went to Placerville to face the judge. If they were found guilty of doing whatever they had done, they got hanged- so Hangtown was the town where people got hanged.

Despite its fairly grim history, Placerville is a really nice place, although lately it has become a haven for hippies.

One of those houses is a restaurant!

After a really nice breakfast- American style French toast, eggs and bacon- we drove around through the mountains, seeing some really beautiful sights.

Evergreen forests...

Mountain passes...

Even tiny waterfalls! (And my smiley car! (And parents!))

While driving around the mountains, we got a chance to stop at one of California's many wineries. I never really thought about this until I left California, but we're really quite fortunate to live so close to so many good wineries; it means the wine in California is both cheap and good. Napa Valley is, of course, the most famous wine region in California, and that's where the world-famous varieties are all from- still, California has many places you can grow grapes, even if they're not quite as famous!

Hooray wine!

I do miss wine sometimes. In Taiwan, wine is very very expensive- even cheap bottles of nearly undrinkable stuff is close to US$15 per bottle, and although I've had it a couple times since being here, it's just too expensive to enjoy very often.

This place is called Kids Inc.- wine for the whole family?

After driving for quite a long time, we reached our 'destination', not that we were really going anywhere in particular- Donner Lake.  

Really, the reason we took a road trip was to hang out together. I really was quite busy during my time in California, and it was nice to have a solid day just with my parents before I took off for Taiwan again.

Aww, aren't we cute?

But eventually, it had to end. We drove back home, I packed my bags, and the next morning we drove to the airport and I was off.

I liked my time back in America, but I realized that it no longer feels like my home. I like Taiwan. At least for now, I'm happy to stay here for a little while longer, or maybe I'll go somewhere else in Asia. Everyone reading this back home- I truly appreciate your loving support. Thank you. If anyone wants to come out to Taiwan, send me an email- I'll hook you up! 

Next week, I'll talk about Taiwan some more...