Sandra and I have been enjoying the last two or three days of exploring our new neighbourhood, getting to know our landlord.. we'll call her SF. We'll write more about this experience in a subsequent blog, but a big part of wanting this apartment was the opportunity to build a relationship with SF and her family. SF's husband has been traveling the last few days, so Sandra has been able to go grocery shopping with SF and her children. SF has been very good to us - we think this is going to be a start to a great friendship. She even brought some chicken up for us and helped us book our Chinese New Year trip to mainland China.
Lots of different thoughts going through our mind and we're still in the process of setting up what we'll call "home" for a bit. As you may have read in previous blogs, we've already had a few sets of visitors. My mom and sister in the beginning of January - literally the first day or two that we arrived. My sister is studying in Australia so we haven't seen each other in almost two years. It was good to go through our initial house hunting experience with them. As my sister said, you really get an appreciation for what live "can" be like by seeing the inside of homes (or at least potential homes).
My coworker from the Bank, J, was also here. J's family lives in Taipei and J and his wife (and now baby daughter) come every year. J has been very gracious is showing us around and on his last night in Taipei, he invited us over to his family's home for dinner. They live in a little gated community just south of Taipei city. The experience (and some others to date) have given us the impression that family relationships are an important part of life here. J's house was full of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, children, etc. coming and going on this regular weeknight!
Finally, our friend DKF visited with us for 1 1/2 weeks. DKF has been an important part of our life and community at ETCBC. Amongst many other things, DKF has been a quiet time partner to Sandra, an inspiration and support in small groups, missions and prayer. A big thank you to DKF for coming all the way out here to visit us and help us in our integration to Taipei. It has made a difference. Also a thank you for helping us clean our apartment! We're glad that we were able to get the apartment in time for DKF to be our first guest and also have the experience of being able to pray and dedicate this place! For those of you who know her, I'd encourage you to ask her about her six month sabbatical experience to date. It's quite encouraging and worthy of consideration (even a shorter version) for those who can do it.
DKF is also a great photographer. I've included three excerpts from her blog (blog copied with permission - no links, but I'm sure if you ask her she won't mind sharing her blog with you). Here are her initial impressions of Taipei.
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Odyssey of the Senses
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - Posted by dkf at 11:27 PM
Phew, I feel as if I've been in Taiwan for 5 weeks, rather than 5 days. It's been a whirlwind of activity! On Saturday, S and I left for Taichung for the weekend ... killing 2 birds with one stone ... sightseeing and S had an interview with Morrison Academy on Monday. R was not feeling well, so we convinced him to stay in Taipei and catch up on rest.
Taichung is a city about half the size of Taipei in population (> 1 million), situated on the central west side of Taiwan. After a 2 hour train ride, we immediately sought out a hotel and got settled. It was an older city and very evidently trying to improve it's infrastructure so as to catch up it's big brother Taipei. The Lonely Planet was our guide and we walked all around the city getting familiar with the streets and eats.
The next day, Sunday, we took a bus to one of the highlighted destinations of Taiwan - Sun Moon Lake. Sun Moon Lake is indeed beautiful ... surrounded by mountains, little trails and little villages all around, we naively thought that we would be able to hike around the whole lake in 3 hours. Two hours into our little adventure, we realized that we hadn't even covered half the lake. We should have listened to the other seniors on the bus who encouraged us to take the tour van around the lake, being the only 2 crazy people hiking. As the mopeds, cars, vans, buses whizzed past us, we really enjoyed the hike, taking in the sunshine, the huge bamboo trees, giant cobwebs, flora and fauna that we would have missed had we not taken this path. The tour van driver, in fact passed us about 4 times, and every time, honked loudly, as if to say ... "told you so"!! Nevertheless, we finally reached Itashou village and were relieved to find out that the total distance around the whole lake was 37 km and we had hiked 10 km. After a curry chicken wrap and green mango popsicle, we were treated to a private boat ride back across the lake.
S's interview went really well ... the recruiting officer was very friendly and welcoming. Visiting Morrison brought me back to memories of my school in Ghana. The campus was even almost the same as GIS (Ghana International School), with all the lockers outside the classrooms surrounding a large compound. I reminisced about the many times I got in trouble because I was playing rough with my very international classmates during recess, and how strict our English teachers and principal was. They ran the school with an iron fist. Here at Morrison, the environment seemed so relaxed ... the students were in civies, coming and going freely and there was occasional laughter coming from the classrooms as I sat in the shade reading the latest edition of The Walrus.
Today, S and I went to the National Palace Museum of Taiwan which contained what I consider the best artifacts from ancient Chinese civilization, ironically, scores better than the national museum in Beijing! Despite my illiteracy when it comes to Chinese history and art, I still managed to learn something through this odyssey ... most of all, I came away awed by the incredible wisdom, gifts and intelligence of the Chinese.
Dinner was a gastronomical experience via the Shilin night market .... yummmmmy ..... lip smacking chicken cultets 1000x better than KFC, wonton noodle soup, oyster omelets, peking duck wraps, and ice cream dumplings! The coolest part was the animal market which sold all kinds of little puppies, kittens, hamsters, porcupines, bunnies, turtles, fish, and creepy crawly animals! And no, not to eat but to take home as pets! There was even a little black and pink piglet waiting for a home! I didn't know pigs wag their tails - no kidding, they do! It's adorable!
The evening ended with R&S enticing me with the 6th season premier of 24 and after 1&1/2 hours, I was hooked! Congratulations to R&S for securing their first apartment in Taipei!
First Day in Taipei
Friday, January 12, 2007 - Posted by dkf at 3:30 PM
In a city of more than 2.5 million people, my first day in Taipei was just about taking in the sights and sounds around the hotel. Taipei central is surrounded by rivers, The Danshuei River, Xindian River and Keelung River. S & I walked around in search for a print shop and stationary store. It was such a pleasant walk ... people are extremely courteous and patient with our hesitant mandarin. I wandered on my own, amusing myself with the things I saw while S went back to the hotel to work on her portfolio.Streets of Taipei and other interesting sights on Fuxing and Nanjing E Rd:
The motorpeds here usually have right of way and they take over the whole sidewalk. Crosswalks are timed, new buildings are mixed in with old, Starbucks is on almost every corner and believe it or not, Ikea is popular here too!
The street food looks really yummy (not including the innards), especially the different variety of fruits, but I'm going to ease my stomach into this little food adventure. The Chow's are wonderful hosts, and I've even been treated to home-made soup courtesy of S. Tonight, we are going to check out the snake market ... eeeeks!
Ihla Formosa, here I come!
Tuesday, January 09, 2007 - Posted by dkf at 11:46 AM
This "beautiful island", Taiwan has been described as being shaped like a tobacco leaf or a sweet potato. I've been reading a bit on it's landscape, history and culture, so with much excitement, I am looking forward to this trip ... particularly visiting R&S and experiencing part of the U curve with them. I'm praying that my cold will not be a transmitted to my hosts nor a hindrance to my experience. I've been struck by a nasty virus that has laid me flat on my back for a couple of days ... coughing, sneezing, laryngitis, sore throat and fever. Boo!
A good Taiwan overview can be found here.
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