This is Grace, Danielle and I making pork Dumplings (which are Most Excellent and also fun to make)

Danielle, me, and Francis at..um..I don't know which beach in LA, but it was pretty.

Whoa! It's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and "blog". :) Well, I made it! All the way to Taichung, Taiwan!! Where should I start? This might be a very long post..heh, heh...let me start with a week ago, Tuesday. Or rather, Wednesday I guess. I got to LA early in the morning, and went to the house was staying at in Irvine (I think), the home of Francis Wang, the leader of ITPS. I think I slept all day on Wednesday, except when we went to eat. I was in LA for about four days, and learned all sorts of useful Things for my new life here in Taiwan. Things like...how to use chopsticks, that you should never give a Chinese person a clock for a gift because it is offensive, and also how easy it is to accidentally say "how are you, horse" instead of just "how are you"? :) Seriously though, it was a really good time of training and discipleship and preparation for coming here. There was only one other team member this year, Danielle who is going to Shanghai in August who is in the pictures.

Well, then on Sunday afternoon Grace and I went to LAX to leave for Taipei! Thank the Lord they only charged me overweight fees on one bag (even though both were over 50 lbs) and there were no problems getting on the plane. The 13 hour flight was waay nicer than I had expected it would be. We flew over the Pacific (I thought we would fly over Alaska!) which I think shortened the flight a little. Very minimal turbulence and an empty middle seat (I had a window) and a friendly interesting Aisle Seat Person made it actually quite a pleasant flight. The food, in flight movie players, foot rests, and very cool reclining seats didn't hurt either. :) We landed in Taipei about 7 pm Taiwan time and got on the bus to Taichung, another two hours but I slept through that trip ( I had a gotten a cold Saturday night so I was fighting to stave off a fever because in Taipei airport they screen all passengers for fever (due to H1N1 virus if you have a fever they quarantine you and it can be up to two weeks) but thank the Lord I didn't have one ( I was running a small one on Sunday morning). But I was pretty fuzzy in the head upon landing so I don't remember much of those fleeting first impressions of Taiwan.

Then I woke up this morning and felt MUCH BETTER! :) We went to see Banner church this morning, where I will be serving with my roomates Amanda and Stephanie and also we went to Jackson5, the school I will be working at. I didn't take any pictures yet but will post some soon.

J5 is a very cute school, and my classroom is pretty big. I met my co-teacher (whose name I have forgotten now along with many other things I vowed to Remember throughout today) and gave Angel, Jackson's wife, my documents for my work visa. I rode on the back of Amanda's scooter and also tried very hard to Remember all the roads and turns to get to the school but totally lost track after about the third turn. Scooter riding is not quite as wild and crazy as I had imagined it might be, but it's still a little hairy especially the big intersections.

Taichung has a population of about a million people (which seems mild compared to Shanghai's population of about 17 million), but it is not as congested as I had anticipated which was nice. It is pretty hot and humid but actually very similar I find to Suriname's weather and although I'm not used to sweating, it was nearly as bad as I had read and heard. AND my hair seems to be reacting quite well to the weather, and didn't give me a Frizz Head like I did in Guatemala and Suriname. :)

I have three roommates, although one is in Canada now until August - Stephanie. But Amanda is here, she works on staff at Banner church and is involved with the English zone ministry there, and Katie Jo who is taking Chinese classes here at DongHai (I think I spelled that right) University. Both teach evening classes at a cram school (an after-school English school). They're both quite friendly and very willing to help me adjust which I am SO THANKFUL for! :) My apartment is very cute, and although a bit smaller than I am used to is just fine and I'm thankful that there is a room for me here. I haven't seen any Nasty Bugs so far, just some gnats. I'll post some pictures soon but for now my room is a complete mess and I have Stuff everywhere.

I'm thankful for all your prayers as well! and if you'd like some specifics to pray for...

- that I would recover from my cold and residual cough

- that the Lord would extra special bless me with great Memory to remember all the Things I need to know to just get around in this new culture

- that I would be able to pick up some basic Chinese quickly

- for the upcoming Biligual Youth Camp that I will be helping with in a couple of weeks. I think I will be responsible for the Drama Workshop so pray that the Lord will give me some good ideas and be able to build relationships with some of the youth that come to this camp, also that they may turn their lives over to the Lord.

Here are three New Things I learned today:

1.) If you leave space between you and someone else in front of you in line, someone will step in there because they think you aren't in line (eg. no personal space) :)

2.) When you are crossing the street, the crosswalk countdown Thing on the opposite side has a little digital image of a Guy walking, and as the seconds count down the Guy walks faster..and faster..and faster..until he's running! That's your cue to book it if you want to cross! (this is SO funny to me)

3.) Chinese really like white skin (like they prefer pale skin to dark skin as opposed to the US where everybody wants to be tan). They find it more beautiful to be white. So I guess I'll fit right in until I get a tan! :)

THANKS SO MUCH for all your prayers! I promise I will post many pictures in upcoming days but this is a time of Great Transition for me so be patient! :)

Until next time!!