It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's a new Post! (Happy days)

So hello everyone. It has been a very long time. About nine months actually. About one year ago I came to Taiwan to live here. I was able to live here for three months and then I had to leave. Along the way I met a bunch of new friends, got a taste of preaching were the need is greater, and sometimes posted blogs about my adventures (sorry about the sometimes part). If you followed along with my poorly narrated tale, you will remember that due to improper planing on my part and u for scene circumstances I had to return home with the goal of one day returning here to live and preach in Chinese. Well, I have returned! But not to stay. I am currently back in Taiwan for vacation. I will be here for two weeks. To catch everyone up on what I have been doing in the nine months I have been gone let me get into my brief summary.

So you may remember that one of the reasons I could not stay here was because I don't have a college degree. Taiwan is a little different than China so you can have an associates degree and a TESOL certificate and get a work visa. The first thing I did when I got back home was sign up for classes at the local community college. Now, in Nebraska we get financial aid in the form of what's called a PELL grant. It is a pretty good sum of money and if you go to a cheaper school and buy everything the right way you can get free schooling. And if you really do it the right way you can even get paid to go to school! Sometimes as much as a thousand dollars per semester. So I signed up for an accelerated course in Electrical Science and Technology and started to get my degree. I will be done in May. But getting back here was a bit rough. Due to problems getting a return ticket and having a pretty huge tax payment to make I had to pay off well over 3,000 dollars of debt. That was not easy but I was able to pay that off in about 6 months. Then I just started saving money. I did, however, have to stop pioneering to get it all paid off. But I will start again in April in time for the Memorial Campaign.

So that is basically is all I have been doing. Many friends of mine have moved away from Nebrsaka which does make it a little lonely here. Time has been going by really slowly compared to life in Taipei. But I am here now and I really am greatfull for that. I had recently read all of my and Dylan's old blog posts just rehash the old times. I realized that I really have recently had to grow up quite a bit. In fact, it seems so weird to think that only a year ago I was the kid writing those blog posts. I kind of had a very loose attitude about the whole thing and kind was only doing the trip for the adventure of it all. After about two months though my attitude completely changed. I had never experienced the feeling of having such a multi-cultural group of fiends all having the same goal of preaching in this need-greater territory. Most people I have met have had a few experiences in their lives that really make them grow up, and the change when looking back almost seems to happen over night. Well, for me it wasn't over night that I grew up, I am after all, well, me. But being here really changed my resolve and gave me a real purpose. I am the kind of person who really needs to always have a goal to work towards. My goal after being here for two months was to be a pioneer in Taiwan. Of course I have to still do some work before I can accomplish that. I won't lie, it was pretty rough at first having to live clear on the other side of the world from were my heart was. But in the end I had to let reason win out over emotion. Reason told me that even though I have a really good goal, when I had originally come over I just wasn't ready to do such a thing. I didn't have the means, the training, or the mind set. So I view the time I have spent back home so far as a blessing in disguise. It was hard, but everyday I spent by myself was a day I learned something new and valuable. I have learned I am not the kind of guy who does well without a big group of friends. I have learned also though that sometimes due to circumstances you can't help but be in an environment where you are completely out of your comfort zone. And when you find yourself in such a situation the only way to improve it is by fixing it yourself. I want to serve in areas were the need is greater, so I will in future find my self in places were I am a stranger. I like to be around people so what would I do? Well, I would have to be very proactive to endear myself to the congregation, schedule time myself to spend time with the friends, take the initiative to work in service with new people. Could I really do that before, honestly, no. Can I do that now, I have improve yes, but I can get better at it.

The other thing I have learned is that anyone who wants to do something that important for Jehovah need to be a very organized, self-sufficient person. Before you wonder if I was a year ago I will save you the trouble, no I wasn't. I may very well be the poster child for the wild haired ADHD kid. But nothing is really impossible. For me, I just learned that I can be very organized if I just compartmentalize everything in my daily life. I have a list every week I always keep on me, everything that can be a direct deposit from my checking account is a direct deposit. Alerts are on my phone for things as little as calling a bible study. I have a very silly amount of constant reminders and habits but honestly, it works for me.

So I am a little older (but not really) and a little wiser (but again, not really) and I do feel like a very different person. I have only really spent one day here in Taiwan but I will end the post with a nice few pictures and some nice encouragement. The best kind of goals are the ones that are hard to obtain, because when you finally obtain what you desire you get not just your goal, but everything else you acquired to help you reach it. I'm not really sure were I got that from. I probably didn't make it up though. I hope everyone reading this gets to accomplish their goals too. 加油你們!

The real group photo is always the one were no one is looking.

And Then There Were None...

Well hello there. I haven't seen you in a while. For all of you people who wanted one last blog post here it is for you and I hope you enjoy it. If you are thinking to yourself, "Geeze!! Write much? It has only been like 2 months since you posted last!" I apologize. I have an excuse but it is a really long one. But hey, lets face it, you are reading a blog post right now you totally have the time.

The last post I made was my summing up my first month in Taiwan. I intended for it to be a really up-building post designed to draw your interest in serving in either Taiwan or another foreign country (but you know I really am pushing Taiwan). I was riding an amazing mental, emotional, and spiritual high and I really hadn't been so happy in my life. I was planning on trying to make my trip last for as long as I could. I was buying cheaper meals, going to places that costed less money, and walking everywhere I could. I was also seeing if I could do some small teaching jobs on the side. The goal was to get a full six months out of my stay. I had plans to write another blog post the week after my last one and it was bound to be interesting. It was new years after all. But it was that week that I got a feeling that my trip could end prematurely. To give you more insight on my meaning I have to digress from my narrative a little bit (because I never do that (sarcasm)).

My original plan for Taiwan was to stay for six months. I had enough money to stretch out four or five months but I wouldn't have been able to be that adventurous. I realistically could do three months and spend liberally. A lot of friends with experience and knowledge involving Taiwan reassured me that I could always get little teaching jobs on the side to stay a float. I would always ask if that would be legal (you need a Bachelors degree to get a work visa, I don't have one). Every single person I asked said it would be no problem. It's illegal like jay walking in New York is illegal, no one will care. So I said to myself, "Grain of salt, grain of salt. Lets just see what happens." Because if all else would fail I had an ace in the hole, I had quite a bit of money coming in from school (long story on that one, lets just say Nebraska schooling is generous).

I found out pretty late in the game that even though what people told me about the working thing was true in most of Taiwan it wasn't the case in Taipei. Taipei is the big city of Taiwan were everything is much more official. People will hire you illegally but you risk being deported. You also kind of can't have any congregation privileges either. To me it wasn't worth it. But I still had money coming in from school right? I was really hoping so at that point. I had meticulously planned my budget for Taiwan down to just about every daily cost. If you are interested I will tell you? Oh you are, great. 10 USD a day for food, 220 USD split three ways for rent a month, 20 USD a month for public transportation, 10 USD a month for toiletries if you want to be extravagant, and an extra hundred for all purposes (fun). All in all it was a rough 700 USD a month budget. But I knew I would cut it down eventually once I got to know the area. I did eventually cut it down to 500 USD a month. And if I found myself in a pinch I could even do 300 USD a month. But 500 USD a month was good. I came to Taiwan with close to 3000 USD and I though I would get an extra 800-1000 later. But I had to pay a 1000 USD down payment on the apartment I was staying in right off the bat and then another 200 for the utilities we all together bought. It then took me a month to realize I had to seriously shorten my budget to stay longer. But the time was coming around for me in January to start getting nervous about my money. I knew that my only hope for a full stay would be that extra money from school and maybe a small batch of tutoring jobs. Because strictly speaking you can substitute teach and private tutor and still be legal in Taipei. It's a government legal thingy or something, I really don't get it. But around the time I was thinking about my next blog post those things were occupying my thoughts.

But then a truly horrible tragedy also took place that really distracted me. A friend of mine from back home who I have know since we where children very tragically passed away. Her name was Gracie Ehlers and she was only 20. That was a huge shock that distracted me even more. But by no means feel bad for me. If you want to pray for someone please pray for her family. Because few things can compare to the grief you can feel when a family member dies. And the grief and sorrow of witnessing your child die is so great that I can't even comprehend it. But I definitely encourage you reader to pray for her surviving parents Jared and Nicki and two brothers Aden and Liam.

After you get distracted for a couple weeks it just gets harder and harder get the enthusiasm to write again. But my good friend Dylan Byrd has recently told me that I have been requested to write on final entry. But I will do even better than that. I will write another besides this one. This blog will be my final thoughts on Taiwan and my other will be another Greatest Hits complete with story and picture. So enough of the intro let us get into the meat of the blog.

Since New Years Eve I have really come to see the real Taiwan. This is both good and bad. But it is really good for all of you. What I mean is this, if you are thinking to yourself, "Should I go to Taiwan or not?" This will really be the perfect unbiased review on Taiwan. I mean all of this from the perspective of a Jehovah's Witness. I figure that not everyone that reads this blog is a Jehovah's Witness, so if you are not a Witness reader I hope not to confuse you too much. When it comes down to it Taiwan is the ideal place for someone who is learning Chinese to be. There are about 14 Chinese congregations located in Taiwan with the majority of them being located up North in the Taipei area. The congregation I am in right now is the Da'an South Congregation. They regularly have a large group of foreigners come in and out of town with the soul purpose of learning Chinese and preaching. Some of them move on to other places to preach and some go back home to help out locally. The majority of all the people that come in and out are Japanese or Koreans. This is really just because a plane ride to Japan or Korea is only about an hour or so away from Taiwan. But, in our congregation in particular there are a good number of Westerners from the States or parts of Europe. If you do decide to come to Taiwan you will find that both a good and bad thing. As I am sure for the Japanese and Korean friends as well; sometimes you just need to hang out with your own culture and speak your own language. This makes the initial adjustment period a bit easier but it can be a snare. What I found out myself was that I would go to some meetings and talk mostly in English to everyone afterwards. Now I came here to lean Chinese so that hurt when I realized that I was doing that. However, that can easily be avoided by just finding more friends that don't speak English. I picked out a few people who had moved here and were about the same level as I am and just started to speak to them in Chinese, very broken Chinese.

The need for preaching here is huge as well. The ratio of Witnesses to locals here in Taiwan is somewhere between 1 and 2,500/3,000. Just to give you an idea of what that actually means our Watchtower study editions for a while had special articles about serving in foreign lands with a focus on South America. In a lot of those areas the ratio is 1 to 500 to 1 to 700. I believe I saw a 1 to 900 in there as well but I could be mistaken. Still that ratio is dwarfed by Taiwan. A large reason for this is because only since the 1980's has the preaching work been really getting off the ground. And with most of the help coming from smaller countries such as Korean or Japan the man power is just lacking. Also, there are other areas of the world very close to Taiwan that need help to a much larger degree and Taiwan kind of gets lost in the shuffle. When I came here at first I was a little afraid of preaching because of my very poor Chinese. But people are more than helpful taking you on there Bible Studies and teaching you presentations. Most people feel comfortable getting a Bible Study after being here for about 4 or 6 months. This really just depends on you though. If you want a Bible Study you can get one. Eastern Asian cultures are very polite and they really like Westerners.

There is a down side to the preaching work here though. Mind you it is not a very big down side, but it should at least be mentioned. The people here are not as desperate to find the truth as some other cultures are. Some have very happy lives and take a Bible Study just out of curiosity. What I find is the case with the progressive ones is they really don't realize how much they have been missing until they really get into the study. That being said Taiwan has had a 15 to 20 percent increase in growth in recent years. The preaching work is just exploding. Also worth mentioning is that here in Taipei most of the preaching is done in the city. So if you come over expect lots of preaching in apartments, preaching over an intercom, and preaching in places of business. All of it is done on foot, but they take lots of short breaks. I personally love the breaks because it is a really easy opportunity to get to know everyone. Plus it just feels like you are having fun.

The friends you meet in the ministry and at the hall will definitely be unforgettable. In my personal opinion this is my favorite part of Taiwan. Meeting all the new friends that I did is something that is truly unforgettable. While you do meet a lot of people that speak English the real fun is becoming friends with someone who doesn't. Mind you though that now a days in Taiwan most everyone that is under 40 will be able to speak some English no matter what race they are. But the whole process of talking with someone who has a completely different background than you do is enthralling. To talk with some of the Korean brothers who have had to spend time in prison due to conscientious objection in joining the military really gives you a whole new out look on what the  preaching work is like. Getting to know the Japanese brothers and their work ethic as well helps you get a much more full picture of the world wide brotherhood. It is also quite funny seeing how the local Taiwanese friends handle all these people constantly moving in and out. I dare to think what their phone books look like.

As I finish up this post I am sitting in LAX airport reminiscing about the last couple days I spent in Taipei. My leave was a bit too sudden for my comfort but I still had wanted to have a bunch of people over to my house. My last official night was what truly sold me on coming back. People I hardly had come to know for 3 months flooded my small two bed room apartment while we all ate a very unhealthy amount of junk food and played "Mafia." I tried (also failed) to narrate the game in Chinese. All the while brothers and sisters who literally had come from all over the world talked and laughed in my house. I really don't think that what I saw that night can really be seen in to many other places. It is really the ultimate testimony that Jehovah's Witnesses have the true religion. How else can people with completely different background and relatively nothing in common on the surface get along so flawlessly. Even the language barrier (4 different languages being spoken at any given time) was no problem. That was always the sort of thing I wanted to experience and now I can say that I have. After the party we all went to play soccer and met up with even more people. We stayed at the field well past midnight laughing and taking pictures. My next and final post will show all that madness.

In all seriousness I really can't recommend Taiwan enough as a place to serve where the need is greater. Yes, there may be places that need more help. But all in all there really aren't a whole lot of places that need as much help as is needed there. The very so imposing challenge of learning Chinese is felled quite a bit. This is especially true if you are taking Chinese classes but it isn't really necessary. When you first start preaching you may feel scared but trust me, you will place so much literature. Placing 30 magazines in one day is not unheard of; actually it happens quite often. You may think it hard to make friends with everyone that doesn't speak your language but again, it is totally easy. If you totally want to make lifelong friends just learn to say a simple phrase in Japanese or Korean and say it to the proper person. It is especially entertaining to watch the Koreans basically do cart wheels around you when they find out you know something in Korean (they are just so darn enthusiastic).

I have personally made it up in my mind to come back soon. But if you are reading this and find yourself on the fence, just go for it. This is one of those things that you really can't go wrong with. A common trait of faithful men depicted in the Bible is always being taken care of materially. I know that is what most of you are thinking. "Can I afford it?" is probably the common train of thought. I already said that a rough ballpark estimate if you share a room in Taipei is about 700 USD a month and that can be shortened to 500 USD when you figure the place out. But outside of Taipei it does get significantly cheaper. In fact I kind of just happened to live in one of the most expensive areas. I really got the money for my three month stay quite fast while only working part time. Obviously people financial situations always will differ, but you shouldn't let it stop you. If you have ever done the trust building exercise of falling backwards into a person's arms you know that the first time is the hardest. But one that first time is out of the way it really isn't that hard to do it over again and again. I am definitely not saying take a blind leap of faith and just move. You always want to be shrewd and count the cost before you do something like this. But at the same time, do you really think Jehovah would just abandon you once you moved to serve were the needs greater? Obviously not.

So there it is reader. In three months everything has changed for me. I changed into yet another new person, and I kind of like this new version of me. Man is really a product of his environment. And what better environment could there be than among fellow brothers and sisters advancing the kingdom interest in need greater areas? There really isn't any. Sorry Bethal, I mean no offence, but this is more my style. If you are thinking maybe this is your style, or this sounds appealing, or you have had a nagging thought in the back of your head saying, "Should I? Should I?" Yes, reader, you should.

Mason's Taiwan's Greatest Hits Vol.1 (And No, We Will Not Be Playing Free Bird)

Since this is my one month (ish) anniversary of being hear in Taiwan I though I would give you a little top ten list. These are my top ten favorite stories from the past month. As a side note, you should know that besides the top 3 I have put little or no thought into the creation of this list. Just consider it a top 3 with a bunch of miscellaneous stories thrown into it. So here we go!

#10 Getting Lost With Dylan Out In Service

Seeing as how this moment was filled with both anger, frustration, and heavy laughter this earns itself a place on my list. The basic overview of the story is that me and Dylan planed on meeting the group at a Starbucks in the evening. Well, I got totally lost and Dylan got the wrong address. So an hour and a half later we found each other and walked clear across town to find our service group. Once the funny Americans who know nothing of Taiwan gave the rest of the group something to laugh about.

# 9 First Day in Taiwan

Even though I was extremely tired from my day and a half of flying time I still had a pretty fun time in Taiwan. What I don't remember because of fatigue I have in pictures. Enjoy a few.

Well I guess I only really have this one.
But just look at me I was clearly delusional.

#8 First Meeting and Santiago

The first congregation meeting I went to was actually after the first week I spent in Taiwan. The first week was out 2 day assembly. So by the time I went to meeting I had already met some friends. And one of the friends I met was a brother name David (Spanish) and his wife Sarah (Australian/Netherlands). They were just visiting because they had to miss their meeting that week because they had a friend from China visit them. So it was a pleasant surprise to see each other. We decided that we would go out to eat after the meeting. There friend Santiago was also from Spain and he was incredibly Spanish. From making jokes with hollow bravado to making small talk with an embarrassed Taiwanese waitress to getting chastised by Sarah for flirting in public he was a trip. The best part was that David's reaction was, "You have got to see what a married Spanish guys is like. Now you get to see what a single Spanish guy is like."

On the left the world famous Santiago.

#8 First Pioneer Meeting

This is a fairly new story. Last Saturday I got to go to my first all Chinese pioneer meeting. It was a really cool event because it was the first time I got to see how many pioneers we have all together (80). Afterwards we had a little party in the missionary home. The reason why this is fairly low on the list is because I was tricked into playing guitar impromptu. I usually don't mind playing music, but I kind of felt like I was being setup. No pictures, sorry.

#7 Bowling Taiwanese style

A few weeks after I got here I was invited by a younger sister to go bowling with a large group of brothers and sisters. The ticket was pretty cheap and we got to bowl as much as we wanted. Bowling is fun enough but arcade games are super fun. And when you buy a bowling ticket you get unlimited play time in the arcade for free. We played Mario Kart (Wii), darts, pool, Dance Dance, and air hockey. Dylan had to leave early for school, but I got to play an extra couple of hours and got to meet some of the friends.

Me third from right with my posse. 

Air Hockey battle!

#6 Ping Pong at the Missionary House

During a Sunday meeting a missionary sister named Huey invited Dylan and I to the missionary home to play ping pong and have dinner. At the house I discovered that the Taiwanese have a long standing tradition of making foreigners get up in front of a group of people and, in Chinese, tell them a little about themselves. You have to do this whether you know Chinese or not. We (me and Dylan) knew that we were going to get owned at ping pong and it turned out to be and accurate prophesy. A team of Japanese brothers killed us and then a team of Taiwanese sisters killed us even worse. The Huey came upstairs to help me, and her husband came to destroy me too. Then Huey quit and the whole thing descended into anarchy. By the end of the night we were hitting the ball off of the walls and back on to the table while getting schooled in Chinese by Huey. If that's not a perfect way to spend an evening I don't know what is.

#5 Karaoke Attack!

Ok, so when someone in America asks you if you want to go Karaoke what you usually think is, "Well this guy is a nerd," or "A bar with a stage and a DJ with a lot of white people singing." I thought the later when a brother named Xie invited me and Dylan to go one day. As we are mentally preparing ourselves up for this night we get there to find Xie, his friend, a couch, a computer, two microphones. That's it. But the night had so many funny moments in it that it more than deserves to be here on my list. If you were there to hear Xie sing his little heart into that mic, you would understand.

The man, the myth, the legend.

It was that kind of a night.

#4 The Two Day 

One of the unexpected bonuses I found out about was that the first week of my being here was the week of the two day assembly. This was the first time I had ever gone to an Assembly in Chinese. It was here that I met David and Sarah, Nikolai and Joseph, all of the elders from my congregation, and a hand full of all the witnesses my age. I found out later that the Two Day marked the day that our congregation was splitting off into two more manageable congregations. Needless to say there where a few loose emotions hanging off of every one's sleeves. I really can't think of a more perfect weekend than that one. It is really a testament to the inter-connection that every witness feels in Jehovah's organization. The good majority of everyone there didn't speak my native language but it really didn't matter, I felt that I was among family members.

The Rat Pack. From left to right; Nikolai, Joseph, myself, and Harry.

The inside of the assembly hall

A picture of a bunch of sisters that me, Joseph, Nikolai, Dylan,
and some older brother just kind of happened to stumble into.

People deal with moves in kind of a weird way here.

So for my top three I didn't think up events so much as I did benefits. One of the reasons I make this blog is to encourage other brothers and sisters who have been thinking about doing something like this to just do it. Everyone will have there own stories to talk about if they move to a country where the need is greater, but if you decide to move to Taiwan here are some of the things you can definitely look forward to. My top 3...

#3 Amazing Food. Glorious, Glorious Food.

In America in recent times a lot of people have voiced their opinions about who we prepare our food. And a lot of people (myself included) have recently developed various kinds of food allergies. I personally had a hard time eating oats and grains largely because of how we process them. If you believe in that sort of thing or not one thing is for sure; the food in Taiwan is a better quality on the whole. Grains and oats really don't bother that much here. But besides the semantics the food here tastes amazing. Because there are a lot of Japanese and Korean students, workers, witnesses living in Taiwan there is an interesting mixture of those kinds of food along with the traditional Chinese style food the Taiwanese make. In the states what passes for Chinese food is usually white rice with a stir fry type of mixture with lots of sauce. The food in Taiwan is very different. Fundamentally it is similar because most of their meals have a meat and vegetable dish served with rice or noodles but the sauce (if there is any) is very light and seasoning is usually more pronounced. The meals are usually pretty light as well. Beside the basic kind of meal you would think of they eat a lot of dumplings (my personal favorite kind is called Xiao Long Bao), noodle soup, hot pots, and for the adventurous eater a never ending supply of amazing food vendor delights. I also mentioned that there is a lot of Japanese and Korean style food here as well. But there are also a lot of Japaneses and Korean friends along with Taiwanese friends. That means that you will regularly get treated to some amazing home-cooked meals because you are a funny foreigner. To complete the picture let me show you some pictures of my favorite meals since I've been here.

At an amazing Sushi restaurant I got this bowl
of amazing sashimi. It made my mouth feel all
happy inside.

A nice Korean couple had me and my roommates over
for a traditional Korean dinner. So good.

At the famous Taipei 101 building in the famous
Din Tai Feng (probably didn't spell that right)
the Xiao Long Bao here are world renowned. And
for good reason. Little pieces of soupy heaven.

#2 The Ministry

I consider #1 and #2 to be interchangeable but I will start with the ministry. In countries like the US a lot of witnesses find themselves in a position where they can not seem to find interest in their native language. So many people tend to turn to a foreign language group or congregation as a means to find more interest. The thing I have always been fascinated about with Chinese is that there are so many people that speak it. You really can go anywhere in the world and find a Chinese group or congregation that could use some help. Many people find that a place like Taiwan is a sort of perfect little gateway to the world of Chinese. The preaching work is not under ban here, there are a lot of other witnesses from all over trying to learn the language with you, and the interest is just as high as it would be in a country in South America. Another reason why it is a good idea to give some thought into coming here to serve is that every congregation has a need for help from experienced brothers. A lot of the Taiwanese elders here have never been to an elders school. Or they have had no real training on the procedures and working of a congregation. So when I say experience I mean that a brother who has been a ministerial servant for a year or two. There are a lot of people that have made themselves free to pioneer down here (the majority are sisters obviously because sisters rule). In my congregation alone there is an upwards of 80 pioneers. And just to give you an idea of how much work there is here every pioneer who has been here for 6 months has a couple of studies. Also, every pioneer who has been here for a few years usually has to turn down bible studies. And if you can't/don't want to learn Chinese there is a pretty big need for help in the English congregations over here. That's right, English is a pretty big foreign language in Taiwan with an ever growing field. The more help the better. Aside from all the spiritual blessing you receive from being down here you will always have something fun to talk about after a day in service. Here are some pictures from some of my favorite moments in service.

After a couple of hours evening witnessing in the rain
we all went our separate ways. Nikolai offered to buy
ice cream for me and another sister. When we go to get
the ice cream low and behold the rest of the group had the
same idea. So we had ice cream and debated if Korean TV shows
or Japanese Anime shows were better. Then I took this awkward
picture. Cheese!

One rainy morning we decide to go to local farmers
market to preach. The morning was very successful
as I placed tons of magazines. I actually think I have more magazine
placements than hours right now. Then I took this awkward picture.

And of course how could I forget my first day in service...
Umm, what happened again? Oh yeah, jet lag happened.
But I can assure you it was a great day. Because they all
are.

#1 The Friends

If I can be completely honest this was what I was anticipating more than anything else. I had always read the experiences of those who serve in need greater countries and though, "I wonder what kind of a person that guy is? I kind of what to meet him." I grew up in a fairly small place and if you were as eccentric as me chances are most everyone had at least herd of you. One of the things I enjoyed most about being a witness for the first few years after I had been baptized was how many friends you can make from all over the world. When I got to Bethal I was even more amazed at how much the world seems to shrink when you know a few people who live internationally. Now I am here in Taiwan and I feel like I can fit the world in my pocket so to speak. You just meet so many interesting people all the time and everyone has an interesting back story. Take Ren Dixiong for example. He had me over to his house recently for Korean food. I actually mentioned him in my last post. He had learned the truth after his mandatory military service was finished. The problem he faced was that, due South Korean law, he was on the ready reserve for and extra seven years. Five times he was put on trail for his religious beliefs and after the fifth trail he had to go to prison for 6 months because of his stand for the truth. When he got out he got involved in an English congregation preaching to people in Nepal. Him and his wife really got involved in it. He at one point went to Nepal and became friends with a Japanese missionary. He described the service as just heading out the door with some snack food and being gone for days at times. Every house they would go to would have them inside, feed them, give them tea, and if need be have them stay in a guest room for the night. He had every intention to move to Nepal and preach but his mother recently has had bad health. So meet her halfway he and his wife decided to move to Taiwan because it needs help to and it is only and hour flight away from Seoul, South Korea which is his home. There also is Terry. Terry is a brother who has really been helping me and my roommates out a lot since we have been here. Terry went to MTS when he was in his twenties. He got assigned to Germany for a number of years were he served in a local congregation for a number of years. Eventually he was then asked to move to Taiwan. He was asked to help the local congregation and was appointed to the COBE as a young man. After he served the congregation and helped them get there affairs in order for a number of years he met his wife who had been serving in Guam where the need was greater. Marrying her and adopting her daughter (because he is a bit of a romantic it seems) he lives in Taiwan and acts as a sort of an ambassador to all the WaiGuo Ren (that is foreigners) here in Taiwan. Then there's Nikolai who is a scientist from the Netherlands taking advantage of his traveling scholar feature so he can live in Taiwan. Then there is David and Sarah. David is from Spain and met Sarah in Australia were they served for a number of years. Just as they were getting ready to leave for Taiwan David, a talented artist, was asked to help out the Australian Bethal's art department. He had to painfully turn it down so he and his wife could serve over here. Then there's me, the boring one, who came to Taiwan just because. But I write about it and that is what is important.

As far as life experiences go this is coming dangerously close to surpassing Bethal and pioneer school as the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. So if you are thinking of making a move to expand your ministry (or just your life) somewhere, I can't recommend Taiwan enough. I barely have enough time to write my blog I'm having so much fun. It takes me being sick to keep me inside anymore. If you are intrigued then my job is done. I will catch up with you later. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Place

For Whom the Gong Tolls (Only This Time Around We Are Accompanied By Music)

Hello everyone. I hope all of you are having a good winter. No I'm not trying to be sarcastic I really do hope for your happiness. The weather could be more pleasant here in Taiwan but we are getting by. I have been feeling a bit sick for a couple weeks now but I am slowly getting over it. The last few days have been surprisingly fun. I thought I was going to have a pretty lame post for a while and then some fun actually came up. I had some pretty cool days in the ministry and just like that it seems I have been here for about a month. I found out that Koreans really do like beer as much as Americans do. And I found out that my roommates know nothing of Ernest Hemingway. But hey, at least we all get along. I have a few pictures to share with all of you guys. Keep in mind that not a whole lot has happened this week a part from these last few days so I will be posting a picture or two to let you guys see the scenery that I got in service but that is about it. So here we go. Oh one more thing! Today will be a duel post day. After this one I will add on an extra segment seeing as how it has been about a month since I have been here. It will be a sort of Greatest Hits post. So now we are officially starting. Here we go!

Since not a whole lot had been going on at home I kind of decided to force myself outside and go in service. Even though it isn't really pleasant to be out  in service while it is raining you still can find at least a few interested people and meet a few new friends. Which, lucky for me and Dylan, happened to us because we went to the wrong service group on Thursday (I think). I really don't mind doing things like that for a number of reasons. First, it is kind of funny and it is great material for the blog. Second, no one really cares because we are newly arrived foreigners. And third, because some good always comes out of meeting new people in service.

As I mentioned previously our congregation  is huge. The two parts we have when put together have around 200 publishers and about 80 pioneers. Unfortunately for our elders there is only about 8 of them. So we all meet together on Friday for meeting and then we split in two for service and Sunday meeting. We had got a hold of the other service groups arrangements on accident and went into their territory in stead of ours. We still had a pretty good time. Since we were the odd balls me and Dylan were put together. We had some cool calls though. Dylan found a guys outside of his apartment and had a brief conversation with him and actually managed to read him a scripture. That was pretty cool because (especially for us foreigners) getting out that much in a conversation is a big confidence boost. After we finished up we talked to some sisters about Taiwan and what we all think of it. Our group was me, Dylan, a sister from Detroit who has been here for about 9 years named Irinka, a Taiwanese sister who's son and herself are very regular, and a new sister from Holland who speaks German as her main language with English as her second. Irinka was the groups main translator since she speaks great Chinese and is just use to translating for her friends. They some how got Dylan to tell his back story of how he came into the truth. They tried but did not prevail in getting my whole back story. And in a cool little turn of events I found out that Irinka, who is planning on heading over to a bigger land mass (wink) has some work she is trying to find a replacement for. So I kind of ever so gracefully (not) brought up that I was looking for work. Since I am a brother and I have a TESOL certificate she put me up at the top of her list for potential replacements. So I might have a job soon.

A lot of places in Taiwan are really gorgeous. Just not
this little beauty I found on Thursday. Oh well, at least
there are trees.

I was starting to feel pretty sick on Friday but I decided to go out in service anyway for Saturday service. I'm really glad I did. I worked with a friend I met when I  first got here. His name is Nikolai, he is from the Netherlands, he works as a research Chemist and has a lab. Not a laboratory but a Black Labrador Retriever. I'm kidding of course. I am a little jealous of the laboratory he has. He is a cool guy and he has a pretty warped sense of humor that is very so common in the Netherlands. I mean, Flight of the Concords did come out of that area. We get along pretty good and we love messing with all of the sisters who don't understand sarcasm. 

If I didn't go out that morning I totally would have forgotten about our pioneer meeting that afternoon. Since I technically am not a full fledged pioneer in this congregation yet I did wonder if I would be able to go to the meeting. But of course no one really cared. That was fortunate because I did enjoy the meeting quite a bit. I didn't really get all of the meeting but I think the first part was about keeping a close relationship with Jehovah and about how to handle meeting someone who doesn't speak Chinese as there first language. The second talk was more about keeping your life simple so you can make more time for the ministry. At least I think that was the main point of those two talks. The good thing about going over to a foreign country after you have been baptised for a couple of years is that you probably have heard just about every kind of outline a brother can give. So when you hear a brother give one of those talks in a foreign language you can get the over all outline of the talk by filling the parts you don't understand with your various memories of the subject matter.

After the pioneer meeting was done one of the missionaries invited the whole group (of about 80!) upstairs for a little party. As I mentioned before our group is huge. As I also mentioned before the missionary home is right on top of our kingdom hall. I had been over there once already to play ping pong. This time around though we all ate Domino's pizza. You read me right, Domino's pizza. Taiwan has one Domino's and it is... a bit weird. I was plenty happy to eat pizza but here are a list of some off the toppings; squid, pineapple (sorry Hawaiian style lovers this is weird to me), artichoke, fish, and a number of other things I just gave up trying to figure out. The afternoon got even more interesting when I found out that we were going to have a little talent show as well. One of the brothers had brought his guitar. This was of course met with thunderous applause from the sisters (chicks dig the guitar). One of the elders me and Dylan were talking to at the time asked us if we knew how to play the guitar. I was going to play it off like I didn't but before I could say anything Dylan blurted out, "He can. And he can play pretty good too." So because Taiwanese culture is all about making people squirm for cheep laughs the brother told me I was second to go. 

This obviously made me feel a little uncomfortable for a few reasons. One, I literally had close to 15 minutes to prepare. Two, there was a pretty big audience there. Three, most of the audience were sisters. And four, about 80 percent of all the sisters were close to my age. But I really had no way out of that situation so I just had to go with it. You know, in hindsight I could have faked a heart attack. Well, whatever. Because I had to make my daddy proud I felt I should play a Pearl Jam song. So I went with Yellow Ledbetter. 

If you can please try and imagine my awkward situation. The first act was a brother playing a Japanese finger picking song with two sisters backing him up with vocals. He played the guitar pretty well and had sisters singing for him. I had basically had myself, a guitar, and a cold sweat. Now after they had finished the brother that had some sort of agenda out against me told the host brother that there was a surprise addition to the line up, me! So the host delayed the party to call my white can up to the front of the room. So I awkwardly walked up there, took the guitar, realized it was tuned half a step down, took out my phone tuner, spent an awkward five minutes tuning the guitar, I then had the ask for a pick. The brother kindly went into the back room to look for a pick. When he was gone I realized that all the 19 to 23 year old girls were sitting right in front of me laughing and making faces. I felt like I was in some badly written Stephen King novel. I was waiting for the pigs blood to fall on my head at any time. Well the brother came back with the pick. I admit that I was pretty nervous, but I felt that I had the spirit of my rock and roll father making sure my fingers were hitting all the right notes. If any of you readers know my father you  will know that there are only a hand full of things he truly loves in this world. He of course has a deep love for Jehovah. He loves his family, a nice Jack and Coke, and he really loves (I mean more than me) Pearl Jam. So maybe it was the intense fear of him finding out I messed up one of his favorite songs in a missionary home. Truth  be told I didn't play the best version of the song ever, but I think I pulled it off. So now there are a load of East Asian witnesses in Taiwan who know who Pearl Jam is. Your welcome dad, please don't punch me. I'm only kidding, my dad doesn't beat me... much.

I also went out in service that night. I don't regret it because I did place quite a few magazines. But the next morning I was just beat. My sickness was starting to seriously affect me. I just barely made it through the meeting. This nice Korean couple invited me and my roommates over to their house for dinner. So I had to feel better before then. I solved this problem by taking a 5 hour nap. The nap did help a bit. But the Korean food helped even more. I did take some pictures of our food. Be warned, images may cause drooling.

Rice with seaweed seasoning. A spicy sour fish stew.
Oven roasted fish. Whole roasted fish. Various pickled vegetables.
And of course, my personal favorite, KIMCHI!

Korean food doesn't mess around. And Korean hosts don't mess around either. Southeast Asian cultures view it as a huge complement if you just gorge yourself with the food they just made. So I complemented the math out of them. I kind of skipped lunch because of my nap so I was really hungry. The Korean couple's Chinese last name is Ren (to pronounce it correctly the "R" sound needs to sound like you  are in the middle of a yawn). Ren jiemei (that is, sister Ren) seriously was stupefied that Americans could like Korean food as much as we did. After all, don't Americans just eat lots of greasy foods that make them fat. Well, yes... But we are different. 

The guys

The girls (Ren jiemei is working in the background).

After the meal Ren dixiong (that is, brother Ren) had us all play this traditional Korean game.

Here is the game board

We used these post things to score points.

Now the rules of this game were a bit tricky but I think I got the gist of them. Rule #1: Have at least one Korean on your team. Rule #2: Just be quite as they play the game for you. The goal seemed to be to roll these small wooden posts like dice and get points so you could move your markers to the finish line on the board. They tried to make it Bible themed, so if you got to the end of the board you go to paradise. If you fall one place short you go to Gehenna. If you land in Bethal you loose a turn. Why Bethal is a bad thing I don't know. But after we played two games the score was tied 1-1. So Ren dixiong said which ever team won the next round would have to buy the other team beer. I began to roll those sticks like nobodies business, I'm not sure why. But despite me mad stick rolling abilities my team still lost. But it wasn't a total loss. All of the Chinese sisters there didn't really like beer so I got theirs. I asked my hosts if many Korean people like beer. They said totally. In Korean draft beers are super popular. This is interesting to me. I have gathered that most of the Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese friends really don't have much of a taste for beer. This was a little disappointing for me because in American culture I now realize that beer is sort of a staple. When close friends come over to your house you make them food and serve them beer. When your friends help you move you buy them pizza and beer. When you want to spend some one on one time with a friend you go get a beer. Americans just like beer. And if you live in the mid west you like beer even more. But in Taiwan they really don't like beer that much. They usually get a bubble tea. So I thought it was kind of cool to find out that the Korean brothers and sisters share a little bit of culture with us Americans. Only they have way better food than we do. Koreans are cool. Compared to the other Asian friends here they do kind of stand out as being a bit different now that I think about it. They make a lot of eye contact where as the Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese do not. They also make a lot of physical contact which again the other cultures do not. When I put on my big coat the sisters thought it would be funny to hit my coat and see if I could feel anything. And as I was about to leave Ren jiemei grabbed my arm and said, "Hey, were did you get this coat?" So after I soiled myself I remembered a Taiwanese sister saying that the she was slightly afraid of the Korean sisters because they are a little bit intense. So I had a nice laugh to myself after I stopped crying. Yet another fun week. Oh and another thing; if I know my readers like I think I do, some of you are probably nerds and geeks. And if I know nerds and geeks like I know I do then some of you are Doctor Who fans. So for a bit of fun if you thought the last episode was amazing please post a comment saying "Thumbs up!" Or if you hated it post, "Thumbs down," and I will be sure to track you down. Thanks again everyone. See you next week. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Place.

Fugue in C# minor (Because I Forgot...)

So first off I would like to apologize for not keeping up with the blog like I should be doing. This applies to my friends, family, associates however. Random blog readers surely have other things to do. But there really hasn't been a whole lot to blog about recently. You see winter time is the rainy season here in Taiwan. While this is preferable to snow and cold weather, rain and cold weather doesn't really make you want to go and conquer the world. But I forced myself out the door yesterday to try and find some sort of adventure. Well, I more or less locked myself out of my apartment while my two roommates were at school but the ends are the same. But this time around I have the whole day to dedicate to this blog. I also don't really have any cool pictures. So I am going to focus on the dialog and go in chronological order with the stories. So here we go.

I'm going out on a limb, but I'm going to say the interesting stuff really didn't happen until last Saturday. You see, pioneering in Taiwan can either be remarkably easy, or remarkably hard. The reason for this is because of how everyone does their service schedule. If you are the average publisher you go out during the morning and then go home and either relax or go to work, there is no afternoon service. If you  auxiliary pioneer you have more mornings for service and you go out in the evenings once and a while, but no afternoons. And if you  pioneer you do pretty much the same thing as an auxiliary pioneer but once in a while you go out in the afternoon to do a return visits (because most people are home relaxing). So for me, a new guy who doesn't really have any calls or studies, getting my time is slightly tricky. I have a few cards up my sleeve, however, and I will get my time for this month. But when you do go out in service you just about  always have a monster of a day. This brings me to my first story. Last Saturday was a rainy day but we still managed to get a pretty good group out with us. Terry, the brother who has been helping us out  since we have got here, was leading the group out. He purposed that we go to the local farmers market to witness. This sounded cool but I still had to ask if this was a good way to place magazines. Terry replied by telling me to bring a lot of magazines. So I brought 12 sets because, to an American, I couldn't possibly place that many (epic foreshadowing). On our trip we somehow lost half of our group that was walking with us. Now, I typically don't like to poke fun at the friends (epic fallacy) but this is kind of funny. You see we basically stick out like sore thumbs here in Taiwan. We stick out even more when we all walk in a big group. I really didn't know where we were going and I didn't need to. All I needed to know was that Terry did in fact know where to go and I should follow him. I wasn't alone in following him either; we made a group of about ten strong. But still, half of the group at some point just disappeared. Seriously, we rounded a corner and they were just gone. The thing was they did show up at the  farmers market with us. I think they just went to some random bus stop and rode the bus there. Anyway, weird. But when  we got there I was truly supprised by how easy it was to place magazines. In a personal record setting day I placed 26 magazines! Please don't see this as bragging (or do) because it really goes to show just how awesome this place is for preaching. I thought it was funny that I had to ask other people for magazines when I brought what I thought was more than enough.

Part of the Saturday morning group. Plus two epic photo bombs.

One extra face from the group.

So after that awesome morning Dylan and Harry told me that some friends of theirs from back in Sacramento were coming in to Taiwan and they were going to meet them. I decided to tag along because we were going to meet them at the famous Taipei 101 tower. It was a rainy day unfortunately so there was really no way I was going to get a decent picture with my phone. However, I was able to get some pretty good pictures from where we ate at inside. Taipei 101 is really famous for two reasons; it used to be the tallest building in the world, and because it has the bet Xiao Long Bao ever. No seriously, you don't get it. The Xiao Long Bao were monstrously good.

These are Dylan Harry's friends.

And these are the Xiao Long Bao. Wait a second, that waitress isn't Taiwanese!
Refund!

We spent just about the rest of the afternoon at Taipei 101. It was nice to see a new area and meet some of Dylan and Harry's old friends. But that day I was really tired. I have been having some problems sleeping recently. I have been going to bed at anywhere from 1:30 am to 3:30 am. I force myself to get up early but if I don't set my alarm clock or pop right out of bed I will sleep until 11:00 am or 12:00 pm. But last Friday I just didn't go to bed. So that Saturday was a true 24 hour day and I was tired. 

Due to the weather no one has really wanted to do anything. But as I said before I was able to do something yesterday on Christmas Eve in Taiwan. By the way did you know that Christmas isn't a national holiday in Taiwan? personally I think that is awesome but Dylan and Harry are a little upset that they have to go to school today. I asked around and apparently Christmas used to be a national holiday here but they stopped because people don't like spending tons of money when they really don't need to. I like Taiwan. Anyway, Dylan and I went out to get lunch before he had to go to school. As he was  asking we what I was going to do the  rest of the day I made it evident that I had no real plans and that I probably was going to just do nothing but try and catch up on my blog (sorry). So after I went back to the house I figured I would just step outside for a little bit and walk around. As soon as I shut my front door I realized I didn't grab my key. I really just had to laugh at this point because it really was kind of funny. I also realized that I wasn't that bad off. I was going to meet Dylan and two of our friends Cameron (featured in the second picture from the top) and his wife Michelle at a Starbucks around 6:00 pm. So it was (run theme music) Adventure Time!

I discovered a few weeks back that there is a really nice Italian bakery really close to my house. I know right, Italian bakery in Taiwan? But seriously this place is legit. I stocked up on amazing treats (because bread in Taiwan doesn't have hardly any painful Gluten like the United States does) and just started walking. I did the math later, but I walked a good 5 miles to a subway station called Longshuan Temple Station. Along the way I remembered that you can totally drink alcohol in public and enjoyed a crappy beer in public. This subway station was amazing because it totally was advertising this temple really, really hardcore. I mean there were stone dragons and stuff lining the outside of this place. But when you  go inside the station and check the place out you see that the entrance into the temple is like some sort of homeless squat house. It might as well have had giant signs that read, "White People, Enter Here To Get Mugged." So needless to say I did not explore the temple. Maybe next time when I equip myself with a whip and a revolver. 

So I found myself in a subway station with a few hours to burn through and not an idea of where to go. So I just looked on a map and picked an edge to go to. The one that caught my eye was Taipei Zoo. So I headed off for there. Now I was somewhere in the middle of Taipei and the subway system in Taipei only really covers Taipei. But it still took me an hour to get to the south eastern edge of Taipei. But when I got there I was flabbergasted. I really wished my phone hadn't died because I really wanted to take pictures. The area I was in was called Maokong. Maokong is a city built in the mountains. But these are not snow caped mountains, these are mountains covered in trees and foliage. It looked like Hawaii. To make it even better I saw that there was a Gondola ride for only 1.50 USD. So of course I went for it. I really, really wish that my phone hadn't died when I got inside the Gondola. I was a rainy day but it was still spectacular to see the mountains and trees underneath you. Unfortunately for me I didn't get to ride the full ride. I noticed that it was five and I had to meet Dylan, Cameron and Michelle at six. So I got off half way and made the hour long trip back home.

When I caught back up with them we all decided to go shopping. They needed some bed stuff and I wanted to find some more alcohol. We succeeded on both accounts as they got there bedding stuff and me and Dylan bought a bottle (with three samples) of Scotch. I'm treating myself to a bit as I write this and let me tell you, it is sophistication in a glass. Mmm, mmm, classy. All in all it was a pretty good day. Once again I apologize to my family and friends who like to keep up on what it is I am doing. So I think tomorrow I will try to make a little supplementary post with some extra pictures I haven't put out yet. And for you Chinese learners I might even make a post on somethings I have learned since I have been hear. But I think I will leave on a high note of the story. In the mean time, stay classy. I'll see you next time, same Bat-Time, same Bat-Place.

Oh and for you Doctor Who fans out there, long live Matt Smith!

Were We Last Left Our Hero (... It Rained)

Good gravy it has rained a lot recently. I apologize for missing my usual posting day but I was a bit preoccupied. You see were our hall is there is a missionary home right on top of it. A missionary sister named Huey (awesome) invited me, Dylan, and a load of other twenty somethings over to eat dinner and play ping pong. So I kind of had to go to that sorry. I was a blast by the way. I really wished I had some pictures to show for it but, alas, I don't. But you can be assured that we got our butts handed to us. Huey is pretty cool though. She is a Taiwanese sister who lived in the states with her husband for a number of years before getting accepted into the missionary field. She first served in Guam and just so happened to move back home where the need is greater. Cool huh? So we played (me and Dylan) against her, her husband, two Chinese sisters, and two Japanese brothers and got curb stomped every time. At least they all seemed to be having a good time. By the end of the night Huey was drilling us on Chinese while we were playing. That is, by the way, one of the greatest ways to learn.
So I have had a lot of adventures and I feel the best way to really show them off is with pictures so be warned; there will be a lot of them.
First off I want to share a little story that happened last week. To preface it, at the two day Dylan and I found a cool arch that was begging to have me stand under it. Dylan said, "This is like the perfect cover for an album." I replied, "Yes, we will call it  Mason Moore and the awkward Ukulele." If you view Dylan's blog at tangdetaiwan.blogspot.com you may remember this. One of my good friends Matt decided this was to good to pass up and went ahead and made me an album cover...

Available in English...

and Chinese!

I really got a kick out of that. Because just look at me! Can you really get more right on? I'm awkward, and I have an Ukulele.
 Prior to the event at the missionary home it was a pretty nice day for service. Last week was pretty gorgeous (sorry mid-west) and service was pretty nice.

Another day in service with team Taiwan.

But of course no week would be complete without me getting lost on the way to service with the group. On Wednesday of last week I had planned on meeting up with everyone. I didn't really know the exact location though but I thought, hey, that's why I usually just go with Dylan. Dylan has been hear a bit longer than I have and knows more land marks than I. But, alas, he was swamped with homework. Now to be completely honest with you I really did not want to go by myself. I was totally content with staying back at home watching youtube all morning. But then my conscience had to go and make me feel like a bad person. So I just decided to go. I had a rough idea of were to go; a subway stop, an exit number, and a bridge. But as I started out I realized that the group was farther away than I had time to get to them. I was going to be late and that meant that I wouldn't see them when I got to the bridge. So after exiting the subway station I tried calling someone who I thought would be out. But my signal keep dropping. Also my wifi wouldn't work so Google maps wasn't an option. So I just stated looking in random locations. About twenty minutes into my search I started to get frustrated. So I said a quick prayer that amounted to, "I will give this another ten minutes and I'm going home." So right at the ten minute mark right as I through in the towel I see a sister from my hall. So thankfully I got a little bit of time in that morning. Plus, it was fun after all.

I bet you thought that story was funny. Well you haven't read nothing yet. The next day me and Dylan wanted to go out in the evening to meet with another group. As you might have induced our groups meet in the actual territories. This can make finding them problematic though. The plan was Dylan would head out after school and meet the group at a Starbucks (they totally have those in Taiwan) and I would meet everyone as well. Dylan gave me the address and I again had a rough idea of were it was. So guess what viewers? That's right, I got lost again. You see in Taiwan they have an address system with a bit of a learning curve. There are street names, then those streets are divided into areas (as in area 1, 2, 3, etc.) In those areas are numbers that make up the collective areas. So you can have area 1 be 1-45, area 2 be 46-90 and so on and so on. Well there are also lanes to keep in mind. Every street has, in one of its areas on one of it's numbers, a lane that can be as long as 1 to 325 or as short as 1 to 20. On each of these street signs (in Traditional Chinese characters) is the place were that streets lane begins. I didn't know all this until the end of the night. If you think you could have figured all of this out please feel free to mock me. But if you are like the rest of the world (if your not a map savant) just try and imagine how confusing that would be. The address was on a lane and I quickly knew I was lost. So I called Dylan and asked for directions. Dylan then revealed that he had made a tiny blunder himself; he had told me the wrong street. We were seriously on the other side of town. We decided to meet up and just try and find the group anyway. So after a while we did run into each other and started the long, long (seriously long) trek to the service group. All in all we were an hour and a half late meeting up with them. Yes, that's right, we had walked for an hour and a half. But at least we could feel stupid together. Isn't that really what friends are for? But once again the service time was well spent.

On to the next adventure! On Friday we had meeting night and just about everyone showed up. By everyone I mean close to 200 people. Seriously, our congregation is huge. Someone told me that they are experimenting with splitting the congregation in two but they still like being together. Below is but a slice of the figurative pie that is my congregation.

Need I even say it? Good grief that is a lot of Chinese people.

I got to meet a lot of new people. And I got to know a bit more about some others. Take my good friend Xie for example...

Xie

I found out he really likes to sing. But enough about that for right now, we will get to him later.

I really have come to really love my congregation hear. I really speak some very poor Chinese. But they really don't seem to mind. Everyone still comes up and talks to me and makes me feel welcome. 

We aren't even close to all the stories I have to post. We also had a very nice meal that is definitely worth a mention. I could tell you all about it but I think I will have Dylan's face tell you just how good it was.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.
That some good sushi.

My other roommate Harry just recently got extra money in and decided to treat us to a really nice meal. Dylan had heard of a sushi restaurant close to our house that is just dynamite. Let me tell you, the hype didn't do it justice. Just look at the plate I got.

This was seriously $9.00 USD.

The fish was probably the best fish I have ever had. My mouth felt so happy. It just tasted so smooth. It had that wonderful oily texture that only really fresh fish can have. My throat had no flem in it when I finished it. It was just fantastic. I guess that's what island fish tastes like. Remember I'm from Nebraska and we are as land locked as you can possibly get. This was a big deal for me.

Dylan and I still felt that we hadn't really done anything touristy though. We have done some really cool things but we haven't been sightseeing or anything yet. So Dylan one day announced that we should go to Taiwan's most famous museum (don't ask me the name it is in Chinese).This is the famous museum that has all of the artifacts that the Republic of China saved from the Communist Revolution. It promised to at least be a cultural experience so I figured, "Sure, why not?" It proved to be a pretty big day though with lots of new sights.

There is something seriously wrong with that bench. Think about it.

I apologize ahead of time. The order of the pictures doesn't necessarily follow the narrative. But it is getting really late for me and I want to finish telling these stories so my conscience can be cleared.

Anyway, we both  found out to our disliking that no pictures were allowed inside the museum. So I "didn't" take any pictures inside the museum. The pictures I have come from another museum were it is totally OK to take pictures of the artifacts. Oddly enough this museum has complete facsimiles of the same artifacts the other museum has. Imagine that. But I "didn't" take pictures inside; that is against the rules. The museum was pretty cool though. It had lots of ancient jade sculptures that must have taken a tremendous amount of skill to make. Old swords were inside, ancient calligraphy, and other cool things were everywhere. It was a lot to take in though. I'm sure glad there was another museum with perfect facsimiles of the real artifacts or else I wouldn't have been able to take pictures and remember the surroundings. After the museum we both were pretty hungry and it was getting late. We were thinking of going home we were close to the biggest night market in Taiwan. It just seemed to cool to pass up so we delved into the night market.

It really was a huge place. We were looking for food but got lost in a whole district that was all clothes. It wasn't until we did a total loop around the place we found all of the food stands. The food district was just completely packed to the brim with hungry Asians. We really couldn't decide on any one thing thing though. But it was then that I saw the most magnificent Xiao Long Bao (little pork dumplings with soup in the center (delicious)). We both got those and just died. Right next to there was a place that sold special bubble tea (milk tea with tapioca pearls in it you suck out with a big straw). So we totally had a complete meal that only cost about 3.00 USD. I love Taiwan. On our way out we saw a Ukulele store so I had to check it out. I am by no means Jake Shimabukuro but I can play a few songs. The Ukuleles were really nice also and the  really expensive ones were only like 160.00 USD which a very good deal on a high quality musical instrument. The shop had a gay guy and a Taiwanese girl in it that probably do nothing all day. So my playing the Uke might have been the highlight of there night. I know this because the gay guy asked to take my picture so, yeah, that happened. That night was pretty fun.

A small piece of the largest night market in Taiwan.

Is this not the best billboard ad you have ever seen?

Inside some museum there was a face copying machine that made a little you and put it in a CGI cartoon.
Here are Dylan and I as a British dandy and an American revolutionary. Dylan is the dandy unfortunately.

Ancient calligraphy. 

Sword in a jade scabbard.

The small rocks are ancient weiqi (or go) pieces.

This is where they put the people who take pictures inside the museum.
Thank the lord I found that other museum.

And hear is the famous Museum. It looks like the palace from Enter the Dragon doesn't it?

I have one more story to tell. This happened to us tonight and let me tell you, it was amazing. If you remember Xie the singer in one of the pictures above the story starts with him. Today in service he was the person I worked with. We had a great time. I usually feel a little awkward in service working with someone who doesn't speak my language while, visa versa, I can't really speak there's. But today was encouraging because I actually had some laughs with Xie. This let me realize that my Chinese is actually improving. Well after service was over he invited me and Dylan to do something. Dylan looked at me and asked if I wanted to go. I really didn't know what Xie said but I was still like, "I'm in." So we cement a time and part ways. Dylan asked me later if I really knew what we were doing. He seemed surprised when I said know but the way I see it is that we are in a land were a knew adventure could spring up at anytime and I need to be ready to catch them all. He kind of laughed at my credo and said that we were going to Karaoke, Chinese style. I was all for this but as you can imagine I was also hoping there would be a lot of drinks at this place. So we met up with Xie later at the place fully (well, sort of) prepared for Chinese Karaoke. We follow him upstairs and see our stage. A small for with a TV, two mics, a computer, and one other guy. That was it. It is always challenging to not laugh at something like. I know that those two guys probably do that all the time. And you know what, that may be totally cool in Taiwan. But to us Americans that is just gold. To our surprise though we had a pretty good time. Trying to sing a song in Chinese it kind of fun. An added bonus was hearing the horrible Karaoke versions of songs like 'Born To Be Wild' (a synth-pop version by the way), and 'Strawberry Fields Forever.' Also amazing and horrifying to see are all the music videos that Taiwan kind of just through together. My personal favorite was Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' (a Taiwanese girl just blowing bubbles for three and a half minutes), 'Thriller' (a nice white couple enjoying a hotel and the random places of Taiwan), and Lynard Skynard's 'Sweet Home Alabama' (random shots of Australia). Xie really, really likes singing too. Seriously he put his little soul into it every time, what a guy. Me and Dylan couldn't help but get into to. I guess we are officially nerds both by American standards and Taiwanese standards.

Freddy Mercury

This was our group and our room.
You know I'm laughing even while writing this.

My boy Xie rocking the mic.

Well that's it. All our latest adventures. It is past midnight hear and I need to rest up for the next great adventure. So see you  next time. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Place.