Busy 忙

(Sorry, this is a quick one!)

So as I sit typing this, I really should be packing my bags. I'm leaving to visit California in the morning! Because of that (that is, because of my poor planning and not doing this when I had more time), this update will just be a small one.

The biggest news will, of course, come first: Our dear friend Joel has gone back home to England. He served here for seven months, but realized he still had to get some things in order back home before he could completely commit to serving abroad; he's said his plan is to come back, or maybe serve elsewhere in Asia, after a year or so. We're holding you to that, man!

Group shot at Joel's last meeting here

The actual morning of his departure, we went over and had breakfast at Evan's Burger, a burger place that really tries its hardest to be American. They don't quite hit the mark, but it's not bad despite that.

One half of our table

Joel is very positive about going back home temporarily. He's definitely grown and matured a lot since arriving in Taiwan, and I know he'll use the experience he's gained to serve Jehovah more fully, wherever he ends up.

Outside the restaurant

After the picture was taken, there wasn't much left to do... all the girls cried, and also Joel a little... and maybe I got something in my eye, too... and he hailed a cab to the airport.

沒有一個真永別!

We've talked to him a little since he went back home... England looks very strange to both him and us, now. This might sound selfish, but I hope he doesn't get too settled again!

The next day, many of us went to the zoo. I've been three or four times now, and it's always fun, but surprisingly, two of the sisters who went with us said they had never been to a proper zoo before! It was quite a new experience for them, which made it even more fun for the rest of us! 

Nice bridge, huh?

Jessica, a sister from England, has her family visiting her right now and she brought them along; besides all of them, there was myself, a Japanese sister named Ayaha, two Swedish sisters, Angelica and Anica, and young Aiden, one of the kids in our congregation.

Aiden got tired.

It was a fun time! The animals were very active, we had beautiful weather that day, and afterwards we decided to head up the mountain to Maokong!

Anica looks like that all the time, don't worry.

Maokong is a little village in the mountains above Taipei that is locally famous for its views of the city and its excellent tea houses. A few years ago, Taiwan built a cable car between the Taipei Zoo and Maokong, and since then it's been a very popular spot to go after a day of zoo-ing!

Maokong

 Everything else has been pretty normal this week, besides me trying to get all of my classes covered for the time I'll be in America. Friday was a holiday- National Day, the Taiwanese Independence Day (except theirs is more of an Overthrow the Qing Dynasty Day), so a few of us took advantage of the day off to go play some bowling and pool.

Artsy shot courtesy of Yosuke 楊介

And finally, I'll end this post with a shot of the group out in Saturday morning service! 

It's like a rainbow!

So like I said, just a short post today- and late too, of course- sorry! This trip home has thrown my schedule for a loop, but soon I'll see all of my American friends and it will be worth it! Strange to think it's been almost a year already.

Anyway, I won't do any updates while I'm in America (probably), but I'll make a post about America when I get back to Taiwan. You might not know this, but my blog has a Tracker page where I can see the rough location of everyone who reads this blog (and I do mean rough- like, I can see which state you're in). According to the data, this week I've had 117 different IP addresses from the US visit, which is by far the most; but I've also had 55 from Taiwan (hi guys!), 26 from the UK, 24 from South Korea, 19 from Lesotho (Hi! I don't think I know you, but hi anyway!), 11 from Ukraine, 4 from Singapore, 3 from Canada, 3 from France, and 1 from Rwanda (hi Brian!). So you can see, the majority of my readers are actually not Americans, and would probably be interested in a quick intro of the Chinese service and environment in America... I hope.

We'll find out soon, anyway!