America, Part One: People 美國,第一部分: 美國人

(I'm back!)

So here I am, back in Taiwan! The trip to California went really well. I was actually pretty busy- for a vacation, it wasn't all that restful- but I got to see almost everyone I wanted to, I ate way too much food, and I even gave a presentation about Taiwan and foreign service for a few of the brothers and sisters! I'm really happy I got to do so much- thank you all so much for your love and encouragement.

So like I said earlier, I want to use this post to introduce a little bit of America to my non-American readers. But... well, America is really big, and there's a lot to talk about. So I'm going to do this in two separate posts: first, the people.

Sometimes people here in Taiwan ask me if I miss California. I suppose that's a natural question- homesickness is so common, after all, that it has its own name- but I've always thought it's a little bit strange to miss a place. California is beautiful, of course, but so is Taiwan. I guess the question really should be, do I miss the people in California? Of course I do. I miss my friends, and my family, and my congregation, and they're mostly the reason I'm so happy I got a chance to go back. So let me introduce you all to some of them!

First off, my parents!

Hi guys!

That's my mom, Dawn, and my stepdad, Robert. (Not Bob. Robert, or Rob.) What can I say? My parents are awesome. They've been a huge help and support while I've been off on the other side of the world, and before that too, while I was pioneering and at Bethel. If it wasn't for their support, I wouldn't be here. I love you guys!

The first morning I was back in California, we went to an awesome little restaurant called the Tower Cafe. I'm not being paid by them or anything, but seriously, if you're in Sacramento you should go there. (That's where this picture is, in front of their fountain in their garden.) I remember I used to think the Tower wasn't all that expensive, and truthfully it isn't for what you get- you can get a really, really nice breakfast that you probably can't make at home for only like US$15. Still, especially because this was my first day back in America, I was suddenly reminded of how expensive everything is there! I mean, that's NT$450, which is half again my daily budget for food in Taiwan! Happily, (and again, thank you), my parents paid for most of my food while I was back home, so all I had to do was enjoy the french toast. (With cream cheese inside. Aww yeah.)

I saw most of the rest of my family, too, and although unfortunately it would take way too long to introduce every single person I saw while I was gone, I want to show you some of them at least.

Mirror selfie!

That's my Uncle Randy and Aunt Cheryl. Uncle Randy is my mother's eldest brother, and also the coordinator of their congregation, Del Paso Heights. They've lived two houses away from us on the same small street since I was like 13, so we're pretty close family. Their son, Shane, served in Ecuador with his wife (and later, kids) for... I forget how long, but quite a few years before moving back to California, so they're used to family serving abroad. And Aunt Cheryl gave me homemade truffles to take back to Taiwan! :-D

Uncle Randy & Aunt Cheryl's house, and people

As you might notice from the picture, their house is quite large and nice, but in America this is not all that uncommon- many people have houses like this, or bigger even! That was one of the things that stood out to me when I got back, how big everything is. American streets are huge for how many people use them- the small road leading to our house probably doesn't get as much traffic as the Lane 40 Taishun St that I live on in Taipei, but is easily five times as wide. Even poor people in America live in stand-alone houses complete with front and back yard, unless they choose to live in apartments, while in Taipei only the very rich have separate houses. (Also, in California at least, all the houses are made of wood and plaster- they'd fall over like a house of cards in the first Taiwan typhoon!) The cars are big, of course the food is big- I knew all of these things, since I'd lived there most of my life, but somehow they stuck out more this time.

I also, happily, got to see my adopted grandfather Joe Lopes!

Can you see the resemblance?

Despite not being related at all, he and his wife Irene have been excellent examples of pioneers for me since I first began pioneering, and despite the challenges of growing older- he's 92 years old!- and the tragedy of losing his wife this last year, Br. Lopes is going strong and really enjoys participating in our new cart witnessing arrangement.

And of course, I was happy to see other parts of my family too- like Dave!

He wanted to come back with me.

While I was back in California, I also had the chance to go out in service with the Chinese congregation a few times, which was nice. Of course, it's quite different from the ministry in Taiwan- we don't have quite the density of Chinese people that Taipei does, so we drive a car from door to door. As a result, one morning I spent three hours in the ministry and was only able to knock on one door... but at that door, we started a return visit, so it was time well spent! Anyway, it gave me a chance to catch up with the fine brothers and sisters I was working with that day.

Oak Park Mandarin, represent!

They're having a new Mandarin Chinese class starting... next week, actually, so hopefully soon they'll have a new batch of 20 or so publishers to help them in their ministry! The field is pretty productive, but the Chinese people are so spread out it is sometimes difficult to properly cover the territory.

The territory is a little different from Taipei...

Also, look who I saw!

Remember him?

It was great to see Harry again, and although we were both too busy to do much together, he did confirm he wants to come back to Taiwan within the next few months. Hopefully we'll see him soon!

The English congregation my parents attend, Del Paso Heights, is also doing very well. Although I haven't officially attended there for three years now, since before I went to Bethel, it's where I grew up and started pioneering, so it's still special to me.

They remodeled since I've been gone!

As I mentioned earlier, while I was back in town I was able to give a presentation about Taiwan and foreign service in that Kingdom Hall. Quite a few people came- over 100, despite the fact it was a Saturday and we normally don't have meetings at that time- and it went over pretty well, all things considered! I gave out my email address to a few of the friends, and we've been keeping in contact. Some of them want to join the Chinese in Sacramento now, others want to come straight to Taiwan or other places- a few of them are Filipino, so they plan to help out the English congregation here after hearing how many Tagalog speakers they encounter.

Quite a nice crowd!

And of course, I can't end this post without bragging a little about the amazing food. Seriously. I like Taiwan, and Taiwanese food is great, but it's just not the same. Sometimes, you just want a burger.

It even comes with Spenser's approval!

Evan's Burger, take notes. This is what you should be aiming for.

And, of course, among the many things I did I participated in traditional American games, like mini golf!

Like a boss, Mikey.

Why doesn't Taiwan have mini golf? I know it needs a lot of space to do it properly, but if they can have a three-storey bowling alley why not a five-story indoor mini golf place? That actually might not be a bad business idea, if I wanted to spend way too much time on it.

But alas, before too long it was time for me to go. I really enjoyed the trip and I loved seeing everyone again, and I'm really happy my slide presentation turned out so well, but it was time to return.

Off we go!

Side note: I took ANA, All Nippon Airlines, this time, and they were pretty good. They're definitely designed for Japanese people- the seats are pretty small, and almost all of the entertainment options are in Japanese- but the food was great and we had no problems at the airport or in flight.

Next update, I'll talk a little about the environment of California, and show off a little of its beauty. It definitely has beauty, it's just different than Taiwan's.

Teaser!

Until next time!

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!

Wulai 烏來

(Really, really late!)

This one is very late! I usually try to update the blog once every ten days or so (now), so that each month has three updates- but it looks like September will just have to be sad. :-)

Part of the reason I'm so late is because several things have been happening.  For instance, our good friend Jerry took off for Tainan two weeks ago now in preparation for his substitute military service. He was sad to leave, and a bit nervous about the future, but it's a temporary thing and he knows it- in a year he'll have satisfied the requirements and it'll be behind him. He didn't want a real going-away party, so instead we decided to have a special dinner, just the four of us roommates. 

Joel cooked! Hooray Joel!

Not only did Joel cook, he cooked really well. He made us a seafood dinner- crab and shrimp over rice with sweet potato greens. Not only was it delicious, it was cheap too- all of the ingredients were Taiwanese, and like everything else only imported food is expensive. We four ate this amazing meal for just over $12!

But sadly, no amount of food could keep Jerry from leaving the next morning. He boarded the southbound train at 10 am, off to face his challenge.

Although some people are leaving, we've recently gotten an influx of 外國人 (foreigners) to balance things out. About ten new people have joined up in the last few weeks, and the ministry groups have really benefited from their hard work!

The group last Saturday

And since we have so many new people here, we decided to take a group trip to the nearby village of Wulai 烏來, to show off the countryside a little more. One of our sisters, Alix, has been here over a month and said she had yet to leave Taipei City! Then again, I forget how long I had been here when I took my first trip outside of the range of the metro...

Anyway, we left last Sunday afternoon, after the meeting, and arrived at right around 3 pm. The weather has been cooling down lately, thankfully, so although it was still hot it wasn't the sauna it has been for the last few months.

Wulai Bridge

I've mentioned Wulai before in the blog, so I won't go into too much detail about its history- basically, it's an Aboriginal village that accepted foreign culture and worked with the Chinese, and later the Japanese, and now the Chinese again, rather than be conquered and dispersed like some of the tribes. Nowadays, it's kind of a low-key resort town for the people of Taipei- nothing fancy, but definitely has a touristy air about it. Not many foreigners know about it, and in fact our group of 14 people may be the most foreigners Wulai has ever had at one time!

So many foreigners!

We first took a hike around the hillsides, enjoying the scenery and beautiful temperature. Right now Jessica Bennet has her family visiting us, including her 14 year old younger brother, Josh, who was incredibly excited about everything. He especially loved the precipitous jungle-covered mountains surrounding the river- he said it looked like something out of a kung-fu movie!

I kinda see what he means...

After we crossed the bridge, we split into two groups- some of us, mostly those who had been to Wulai many times, wanted to get straight to the hot springs and river. The others, and myself and Nikolai, decided to hike up to the waterfall and small village first, then wander back down to the river.

Hey guys!

The waterfall was pretty impressive this time- unfortunately, all my pictures of it are blurry. :-/ Still, the town was fun. We ate ice cream and traditional food, checked out all the handcrafts...

Rode dog statues...

...you know, all that kind of stuff.

Another thing I mentioned earlier about Wulai was their very odd kind of alcohol- made out of bees. Not honey, actual bees.

The beemaster himself!

That guy standing behind his crop is in fact the man who makes the booze. We chatted him up a little bit, and learned quite a bit about his strange passion! Apparently, he makes three different kinds of... what am I gonna call it? He said 蜜蜂酒, which literally is "bee alcohol"... Wasp Whiskey. Nice ring to it. Anyway, he makes three kinds of Wasp Whiskey- one is made from flying bees that he gets out of trees, somehow, the other is made of a kind of burrowing bee that he digs out of the ground, and the last is made of bee larva. Once he has a few handfuls of live bees, he sticks them into a bottle- again, somehow- and pours millet wine over them, causing them to drown and die. Then he puts his concoction aside for six months, and once the normally clear wine has turned a pale yellowish color it's ready to drink. He may be slightly insane.

But if he is insane, at least it's a nice insane, because he gave us all free shots to sample some of his work!

Anica, the Wasp Whiskey connoisseur

You know what, it actually wasn't bad. It was spicy and a little smoky, although it had a bit of a rough aftertaste. He says it's really good for your joints and skin, which, you know, maybe. More importantly, me and Anica working together managed to bully most of our group into trying some, which was hilarious. I asked the man if I could buy a bottle, but he said the bottle he let us sample was his last one ready to drink- come back in two months and he'll have more. I guess business is pretty good?

(Side note: Bees don't have blood, they have ichor, so they don't need to be bled before consumption. So drinking alcohol made by drowning bees is totally fine, at least Scripturally.)

After we'd all had some Wasp Whiskey, and then gotten rid of the taste with some ice cream (not bee-flavored), we finally headed down to the riverside to enjoy the hot springs. It was really nice, alternately fun and relaxing! After the sun set, those who dared attempted to copy the Nordic custom of getting into the hottest water possible, waiting a few minutes, then diving straight into the icy cold water. I agreed not to post any pictures of anyone in swimsuits online... so I won't. Use your imagination. :-)

Instead, here's the lights of Wulai reflecting off the dark water.

Eventually, though, it was getting late, so we caught the last bus back into Taipei.

Good times!

The festivities haven't stopped, either- tomorrow, we're all going to Taipei Zoo after the meeting. Sunday Funday anyone? :-)

Also, for anyone interested, a small announcement: I will be going back to America for a short visit between October 13th and October 29th, so during that time there probably won't be any updates. I'll post something afterwards, though- I know that many of you reading don't actually live in America, and maybe you're interested in what it's like? But next week should have an update like normal.

Green Island 綠島

(Well, another green Island at least...)

As promised, let me tell you all about my trip to Green Island!

Green Island is a beautiful little island off of the southeastern coast of Taiwan. To get there from Taipei, our bold group of adventurers- myself, Nikolai, Jerry and Yunkai- assembled in Taipei Main station at the crazy early hour of 6 am on Friday morning and bought train tickets to a city called Taidong. 

(Side note: the Taiwanese aren't very creative with most of their city names. Taipei 台北 is literally translated "Taiwan North", because it's in the north of Taiwan. Then you have Tainan 台南, "Taiwan South", Taidong 台東, "Taiwan East", Taichung 台中, "Taiwan Central"... Taixi 台西 exists too, but it's not a city unlike the others, just a little village.)

Waiting for our train to come

There's no fast train along the east coast of the island, so it took us about five hours to get to Taidong- I bought a book for the trip. Taidong Station is very conveniently located next to the harbor, so upon arriving we just got our stuff together and walked over to the boat that would take us away from Taiwan Island.

Looking back at Taiwan

It was strange to be leaving Taiwan without really leaving Taiwan. That can happen because everyone uses the same name, Taiwan, to refer to two different things. There's the island of Taiwan, which used to be called Formosa, which everyone in the world, including Mainland China, recognizes as distinct from China and not the same thing. Then there's the nation Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China, which almost no government in the world- including the US- officially recognizes. So Green Island is both Taiwan and Not Taiwan.

I'll explain a little bit more about Green Island. It's a volcanic island about 100 km away from the east coast of Taiwan, with a little tiny population of about 1,500 people. The surrounding ocean is filled with coral and fish, it's often battered by many typhoons that bypass the main island of Taiwan, and it has a number of famous jails in the same vein as Alcatraz on it. In fact, until recently, the jails were very notorious and dangerous, since Taiwan's most violent criminals, most connected mafia bosses, and of course its political prisoners were all sent to Green Island, where they couldn't escape and couldn't influence people.

Happily, we didn't stay at the jail during our time on the Island; we went to a hostel called Monster 怪獸 instead.

They even lent us a couple of terrible scooters!

We only planned to be on the island for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we didn't want to waste any time- we went straightaway to the most important place on the entire island.

7-11, obviously!

After we'd bought snacks and gas, we once again mounted up and followed the hostel's owner- also called Monster- to the beach, with Nikolai trying his hand at driving the scooter.

Not bad!

Note that they didn't bother to give us helmets with the scooters. We didn't crash, so it was alright. 

We didn't really plan this out, but apparently Monster didn't see Nikolai driving the scooter. Once we stopped so I could also try, to my infinite sadness Monster told us that we foreigners- Nikolai and I- weren't allowed to drive his scooters because we'd crash. Reluctantly letting Yunkai keep driving me around, we soon arrived at the little cove Monster had in mind and finally got into the water!

The cove, and also Monster (the guy with no shirt)

The ocean was beautiful, but the beaches were a little uncomfortable- half the beaches were made of coral and shells, which were a little painful to walk on, and the other half were this:

Lava flows!

Which were more painful to walk on.

After an hour or so of playing around in the water, picking up crabs, scaring fish etc, the sun went down and we decided to head back into town for some food. We ended up deciding on seafood, obviously enough, and we also had a delicious slimy variety of ice cream made mostly out of seaweed!

Seaweed cream! Hooray!

Although it was dark, we decided it was too early to head in, so we went to the island's saltwater hot springs, which are naturally occurring but channeled into a bunch of different pools and at different temperatures. My camera isn't waterproof, and also I thought it would be creepy to take pictures of random people in hot springs, so I don't have any pictures of it- sorry! It was very relaxing and nice, though. 

After we had relaxed for a while, we wanted to head back to the hostel, plan the next day and get some sleep, but we couldn't find the scooter me and Yunkai had been using for the life of us. We searched for a while, but the darkness was slowing us down... finally, Yunkai found a scooter that started up with his key, so we got on and got ready to take off, when we realized this scooter had helmets on it. This wasn't our scooter! In the end, we found that Yunkai's key could start almost every single scooter in the lot, regardless of make or model! We thought about just taking a random scooter and leaving ours behind for someone else- if our key could start theirs, surely their key could start ours- but in the end we found the right one.

The next day, we woke up to find that we were no longer the only guests in the hostel- a Chinese family had taken up the other two rooms, a grandma and grandpa in one and a mother, father and little girl in the other. The little girl in particular was amazed to be sharing a hostel with real live foreigners- from her reactions I think we were the first ones she had ever talked to in person!

They had plans to go snorkeling, which sounded awesome, so we decided to go along with them to the rental place and pick up masks. Little did we know, the Taiwanese are very paranoid about snorkeling and swimming in general, and wanted us to get the whole set- not just a mask but a wetsuit, life vest, and boots! Nikolai and I compromised and wore the boots (coral really does hurt to step on) and life vest, but not the wetsuit. It was hot!

Ready!

When we actually got out to the reef, we found that they didn't want us to swim off by ourselves- we were supposed to hold onto a floating ring and just be dragged around the reef! That was too much, and we just refused. They were angry, but what are they gonna do, arrest us? We know how to swim and we're wearing life vests, relax. Apparently, though, most Taiwanese people don't know how to swim, so those kinds of precautions are necessary to prevent people from drowning.

The fish were gorgeous. Clownfish, parrotfish, fish I don't know the names of, beautiful and colorful and shiny. I don't have pictures because, again, my camera isn't waterproof, but it was well worth all the hassle.

Looking at all those fish made us really want to eat one, so we decided to go ocean fishing later in the day, but first we had some time... so we decided to explore a bit.

The Road

Green Island only has one road, and it circles the outside of the island. That didn't stop us *cough*Jerry*cough* from getting lost a few times, of course.

After driving randomly for a little while, we decided to stop at this place and go over to a cave we spotted.

Because why not?

The closer we got to the cave, the rockier and more difficult the terrain became, until we were basically climbing over boulders to keep going- but we did keep going...

Getting closer...

Only to find when we got there, it was already full of Mainland Chinese tourists who went around the other way, where there was a nice beaten path right to the cave! Well, whatever, it's about the journey, right?

Afterwards, we headed back to the port to meet up with our fishing boat.

It's the little one!

As it happens, that same family we went snorkeling with and who was staying at our hostel joined us on the fishing boat! Strange how these things work out sometimes.

Off to sea!

The boat we were on was an average Chinese fishing boat in all respects. Small, uncomfortable and kind of old, but sturdy and fast. Unfortunately, the boat wasn't very steady, and Yunkai immediately began feeding the fish- and stayed sick the whole time we were out. It was already hot on Green Island- it's solidly tropical- and it felt like it got even hotter as we got out onto the ocean...

I see you staring at us, Sun!

As we got fishing, though, either it cooled down a bit or I stopped noticing the heat. Probably both.

The way we fished is we had a couple people cast a line out behind the boat as it motored along, making sure to jerk and jiggle the lure to get fish, and when a fish bit the hook the boat would slow down and let you reel him in.

Our Hostelmate, with a beautiful fish!

Jerry, with another, slightly different fish!

Yunkai, feeling sad because he has no fish

We fished for a few hours, and in total Nikolai and Yunkai both caught one yellowfin tuna, I caught one yellowfin tuna and one squid, and Jerry caught a bluefin tuna (we think) and four squid. Not a bad haul for an evening's work!

The captain of the boat recommended a restaurant where we could take our fish and get them cooked, so we headed over with our haul.

Hunt fish! Eat fish!

It was a bit of a wait, but well worth it- check out what we caught!

They made sashimi out of it!

It was so much food, but really really good fish. Actually, writing this is making me hungry...

The next morning was Sunday, and sadly our boat would take us back to Taiwan Island at noon- but we still had the morning to mess around with, so we took another drive.

Under the Bridge, anyone?

Sunday was a bit cooler than the other days, and windier too- a typhoon was approaching. (Actually, as it turns out, our ferry was the last one to leave Green Island before they stopped the service because of rough seas!) It was really nice weather to drive around in, though- even when it started raining and we got rained on at 40 miles an hour!

It hadn't rained yet.

One thing we saw was this odd formation off on the coast of the island- according to the locals, it looks like a beautiful sleeping woman.

She's got that weathered look about her...

As we reached the top of a small mountain, the rain began to come down, and we had to hurry and get to the port before our boat left without us.

It was a short little trip, only three days, but very fun. I may have more pictures in the "Other Pictures" page of this blog, over to the right, later- Nikolai took many good shots he has yet to share with me.

Look at him go!

If I visit Green Island again, I think I'll take the diving classes they offer- my favorite part of the whole weekend by far was the snorkeling, and I'd love to see more of the reef around the island. That will have to wait for a future update, though. :-)