Weekend #2

I left my apartment to go meet my friend Alix the other night. Just after I left the building, I realized that I had forgotten my keys. I knew my roommates were upstairs, but I still don't have a cellphone yet to call them to ask them to bring down my keys. I can't even get into my unit or go up to my floor without my keycard. (That's how secure and hightech these apartments are). So I went back to the front lobby and tried to tell the guys at the front desk that I had forgotten my keys upstairs to see if they could help. Obviously I do not speak enough Mandarin, so I had to use a lot of hand gestures, and then I had this 92 year old Taiwanese lady come up to me and tell me that I have to know how to speak Chinese if I want to come to Taiwan. I do at least know how to count in Chinese so I was able to let them know which floor and apartment I was in, so they were finally able to help me out.

Sabbath I went to church and found a couple of my old highschool teachers there. I also ran into some parents of some old highschool classmates. Small world! Speaking of a small world, I found out that one of the other teachers at one of the camps here actually lived in Rwanda before us and we inherited their cat Fluffy! Also I was talking to one of my coworkers on the phone and I asked him who he was with and he said I probably don't know them, and I jokingly said "I know everybody", and then he told me the name and it turned out to be one of Shaun's old highschool classmates! I think it's so fascinating how many connections there are in the Adventist world.

Anyways, today we are planning on going to the zoo. It's supposed to be really cool and really cheap which makes me excited, because I LOVE zoos! Hope everyone back home is doing well. Please pray for Japan and other places destroyed by earthquakes and tsunamis.  Thanks for thinking about me and praying for me. God has kept me very safe over here and I am having an AMAZING time! Love to all!

First Week in Taipei!!

First of all, I would like to say that I set up this blog, and all the directions were in Chinese. So I definitely consider this a victory!

Moving on, I arrive here Tuesday morning, March 1. I was picked up at the airport, then we dropped my luggage off and went out to the new school that I will be teaching at. For those of you who don't know what I am doing, I am teaching dance at a 5th grade English camp. If you have heard of 6th grade outdoors camp, it's kinda the same thing, except 5th graders. Anyways, more details on that later because our camp is not quite ready to open, they are finishing up construction and stuff.

I would like to touch on some first impressions: 1--It is most courteous to wear surgical masks if you are sick. 2--traffic rules don't really apply here, just try to dodge whoever you can. 3--they require recycling here. 4--it seems like every apartment has a washer, but not dryer, and not an oven.

I have gotten pretty familiar with the public transportation systems, and have a lot more mandarin learning to do.

Sorry I don't have pictures up yet, I've never been a photographer, but I will try! Will update you soon and will have better stories:)