At this very moment I'm sitting on a train. The seat next to me is empty, across the isle there is a Taiwanese man reading a book, the train is over half empty. The train is very peaceful, smooth ride, a little wobbly, and well lit. Just as I was typing this the train conductor walked through and stamped everybody's tickets. I guess mine was OK with him so I hope that means I'm on the right train. I'm glad I brought my laptop, so I can have my little web entry all typed up and ready, I have 42 minutes of battery life to type it in.
This morning I woke up at 5:15, took a shower, ate a banana and a purple lump of sticky rice that I bought last night, threw a bible, notebook, Watchtower, and this laptop into my backpack, and shot out the door like I usually do. Today was English special assembly day in Taizhong, it's a tad over two hours away so I had to get up early. I met up with a brother named Chris 5 minutes later at my home MRT station, Guting, exit 2. I was five minutes late, he was 7 minutes late, it was 6:07am. We had 38 minutes to get to the bus station and on the right bus. Without making the story any more complic

...OK that was way less than 42 minutes, my battery died. It's getting old. Now I'm using an old fashioned pencil and notepad.
Chris and I made it to the assembly with 30 minutes to spare. I'm glad Chris was there with his superior Chinese and experience or I'm not sure I would have found it, it was held in an elementary school's multi-purpose room, we had to walk across a brick red running track to in the front door. I wasn't in very far when I met an old Taiwanese man with gold teeth and a cute little baby perched on top of his big pot belly. I feel like he is worthy of being described, very friendly, quite a character. This man knew Chris from the English congregation, he spoke very loud and he stood below my chin, which isn't very high, his arms and hands were twice as thick as mine. I remember them because he waved them around and gestured with them like the Italians do in movies. The baby was not even a year old I think, so the man pointed to Chris and the baby looked at him, but then she looked at me and she showed me her two little front teeth, the only teeth she had and pointed her tiny little finger at me smiling and laughing. Why is that you feel so special when a little baby points and laughs at you? Nothing feels better. I attributed her laughing at me by my new lack of hair, I buzzed it down to 6mm yesterday, I imagine in the heat I looked very pink too.
It really is amazing to hear talks given in your mother tongue. I didn't realize how much I'd missed hearing English talks. Now I can appreciate more why we want people to learn the truth in their mother tongue. There were about 300 Filipino brothers and 100 others from various English speaking countries, many of whom are not actually in the English field here, but in Chinese like me. There were 7 people baptized, all 7 were Filipino sisters, the majority of the territory is Filipino, I've heard that they actually speak about 3 other languages, but they usually know a lot of English and there aren't enough of them yet to have meetings in their different mother languages so they get by with English. In the program each speaker had a different accent, some I'm not sure where some were from. Of course at the end we were all surprised, I was almost shocked, to hear the new meeting arrangement, which you've all heard by now. That's a big change.
Chris and I realized we had extra time when we first got there, so we both snuck out in search of food. Taizhong has far less foreigners than Taipei, so we were pointed at a lot, especially by kids, Chris (Coppens) is right, it feels like you're famous, I like it.
After the assembly I hopped on the back of Chris's scooter. (Chris Coppens, not the same Chris that I came with) His wife's helmet was too small for my huge noggin so I got to wear his slightly bigger one, and he wore hers, it has a pretty butterfly on it. We zipped off to TGI Friday's so we could eat American food like the Americans that we are. So the first time I've ever been to TGI Fridays was in Taiwan, Chris thought that was pretty funny. Funny to have a new American experience in a foreign country. TGI Fridays of Tizhong is probably just like any where, even an English menu, and the waitresses spoke a bit of English for us. The other customers were Taiwanese and out having "American Food" on a Sunday night. Which is still a funny concept to me.
After that I hopped on the back of Chris's scooter again and we zipped off to Jack's house. Jack was already there, he had driven the girls in his car, and when we got there he was singing away and playing his guitar, and singing rather well I'd say. Jack is Taiwanese and knows quite a few songs in English and in Chinese. For the rest of the evening we got to hear Jack, then Chris play and sing, Carol played, sang, and even danced a little with the guitar. Jessica cheered our performers on and encouraged them to keep singing, while Erika sang along and cried. She blamed it on allergies to a cat that I never saw. After each performance Danielle probed the performer's psyche, asking each of them if they felt any embarrassment or shyness. I think we know our three performers better because of her skillful questioning.
And after that, we made a quick stop to Chris and Danielle's place, then Jack took the 3 girls and I to the train and bus station where I got the train that this very "web entry" was written on. And as an after-note: I got to Taipei at 12:15, thinking that the MRT was probably closed already, but it wasn't, I ran, and I caught it, the last MRT train as the doors were closing. I am an MRT catcher now, just a little bit cooler than I was the day before. (edit 320) Permalink