Ni hao every one. Ni hao. This is my blog page dedicated to my trip to the mysterious, ethereal land of Taipei, Taiwan. As of today I will be leaving in 13 days. To be quite honest I am a little nervous; a good kind of nervous, though, brought on by boundless excitement. If you are reading this blog you are either a friend, a friend of a friend, or a person with no life who reads random blogs for his/her own enjoyment. If you are the later of the three I highly suggest that you close your browser, think about your place in this world, find a hobby, find interest in God, contact Jehovah's Witnesses, start a bible study, get baptized, join the Chinese group in Omaha, NE, progress spiritually, then join me in Taiwan. However, if you are one of the first two just sit back, relax, and prepare to be mildly amused.
Well now that we have gotten the intro out of the way lets move on to the proverbial meat. I guess I will start things of by telling you all the story of how I decided to go to Taiwan. Ever since I have left Bethal I have tried to keep in contact with at least a couple of the friends I have made out there. One of which is Dylan Byrd. And ever since he had moved back to his home town of Sacramento, CA I have managed to keep in pretty good contact with him, occasionally coming out to visit him. One day he informed me of a scholarship program that would allow someone to study abroad in Taiwan for six months. This would allow someone to preach were the need is greater for a short time while simultaneously allowing them to increase his/her fluency in the language. So I applied with him to get this scholarship. Time went by and I later figured out that I did not get this scholarship. I also found out that Dylan also did not get this scholarship (initially). As it turns out Dylan is the luckiest piece of crap currently breathing on the planet earth. Some dude with no adventure in his marrow turned down the offer to study in Taiwan and Dylan (the honorable mention) got the scholarship in his place. Now, on the outside (to the public) I was very happy and supportive of my friend. I was glad that he was going on this journey, even if it was to be without me. However, secretly, I spent my nights sobbing quietly on my futon reading "Death of a Salesman" will eating a pint of Hagen Daas.
I had resigned to the fact that maybe Taiwan just wouldn't work for me. After all, it would just be too much money to go on my own. And I doubted my ability to function in a new culture while striving in the ministry. But I underestimated the shear unpredictability of life. I had a trip to LA where I would attend the TESOL class taught be the illustrious Dr. Harry Cotton (now Doctor/Dr. Harry Cotton) to look forward to. Dylan would also be attending that class and we were to share a room and the week together. In the course of the week and a half I spent with him he revealed to me that while he was - in fact - the luckiest turd on the planet he desired to have a roommate (preferably one who spoke English, knew him, and lived right across the hall from him at Bethal). So with the help of his parents he slowly managed to peak my interest again. But it wasn't until I finished Dr. Cotton's class that I saw the reality of living in a foreign country as long as I had a tutoring job to fall back on. And wouldn't you know it, they even had a list of reputable employers. So I was sold, if I could save up as much money as possible in three months and secure a small job I could easily stay for six months. So here I am now. In just a little less than two weeks I will be shipping off to conquer the great unknown with an old friend. All blog followers be sure to pray for me every night right after your petitions for the end to come fast and your respective blessing for Jehovah and Jesus. All your help is greatly appreciated. To all my friends I hope at least one of you will be able to visit me. And to the rest, please, wish me luck.
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