We've been home for over a month now and I feel strangely unstrange.
During the weeks leading up to our return to the U.S. my mind was constantly occupied with a mix of emotions: anxiety (will I be able to find a job?), anticipation (I can't wait to see my family!), hunger (Oh for the moment that I bite into a deluxe chicken enchilada at Chuy's!) and sadness (I will really miss this place that is so far from home, yet strangely feels like home now).
One thing I despise about my nomadic tendencies is saying goodbye. I turn and walk away from so many situations that will never be repeated. They will never happen again. I don't do this because I dislike were I'm at - I almost always find myself with awesome people and enjoying my circumstances. It just becomes the next step in my journey. Maybe it's God calling me. Maybe I'm eternally restless. I don't really know, but whatever it is, it keeps happening. And perhaps this repetition is making me numb.
For the past month, I have rarely though about what we just did. I've hardly felt sad about leaving the amazing experience of living on the other side of the world. Why is that? Everything I had heard and assumed about returning home told me that it would be a really intense experience. "Reverse culture shock", some people call it, "you have to re-acclimate to your own culture." It sounds rough, but I have experienced none of the symptoms. I got off the plane, said hi to my family and returned to life as normal. How can that even be possible? How can my world not be rocked? How can it feel just like it did when we left?
I really hope the cause of this is the fact that we are still in a transition stage. I am looking for work, preparing to move into an apartment, trying to be an auto mechanic, considering a career change, and doing a multitude of other things all simultaneously. This probably has me distracted enough to prevent me from reflecting on what just happened. I'm hoping that once life settles down again, I'll really have time to sit down and process the amazing experience we just had.
Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Parents and Taiwan
My parents were able to visit me and here is proof that they actually came!
Outside the National Palace Museum. My mom got really good elbowing her way around to see things. She's pretty much Taiwanese.
At the temple for a dog.
I finally got a picture of this. My battery died the first time we came when I went to get a shot.
Another look at Yeliu.
Phil and I had not actually visited a Hot Springs until my parents came. Here is the picture of the bath in our room. It turns out that there actually is a cold for this bath, but we did not figure that out until the next morning. We filled the bath all the way and then realized that we were going to give ourselves third degree burns if we got into the water. We decided to wait about 1/2 hour. When that didn't work, we began adding cold water from the shower nearby. That took another 1/2 hour. By the time we actually got into the water, it was nice. We still felt like it was sitting in a bath at home with rusty nails.
I have a great video for this suspension bridge. As soon as I figure out how to post it, it will be up. Oh, this is at Taroko Gorge.
The parents.
We decided to drive over Hehuanshan to get to our school, which stands for Snow Mountain. The drive was incredible, but we will never do it again. We made my mom carsick by driving this road. Oh and the last hour was terrifying. You can see the road we just drove on in the distance:
This is what the last 1 hour looked like, except you can't see the massive drop off to the right and left:
A better view of the road. We don't want to find out if the guard rail will hold us. In fact, we had to back up at one point because in most parts the road is only 1 lane and a large truck was coming the other way. Oh and like driving in Taiwan, they do pass you if they can.
We were really sad when my parents left, but were excited when we could make:
And tonite, we get chili!
Outside the National Palace Museum. My mom got really good elbowing her way around to see things. She's pretty much Taiwanese.
This is either the national theater or the concert hall. One of our students will be playing there this coming Wednesday. We would go if Taipei wasn't 3 hours away and we didn't have classes early the next morning.
At the temple for a dog.
I finally got a picture of this. My battery died the first time we came when I went to get a shot.
Another look at Yeliu.
Phil and I had not actually visited a Hot Springs until my parents came. Here is the picture of the bath in our room. It turns out that there actually is a cold for this bath, but we did not figure that out until the next morning. We filled the bath all the way and then realized that we were going to give ourselves third degree burns if we got into the water. We decided to wait about 1/2 hour. When that didn't work, we began adding cold water from the shower nearby. That took another 1/2 hour. By the time we actually got into the water, it was nice. We still felt like it was sitting in a bath at home with rusty nails.
I have a great video for this suspension bridge. As soon as I figure out how to post it, it will be up. Oh, this is at Taroko Gorge.
The parents.
We decided to drive over Hehuanshan to get to our school, which stands for Snow Mountain. The drive was incredible, but we will never do it again. We made my mom carsick by driving this road. Oh and the last hour was terrifying. You can see the road we just drove on in the distance:
This is what the last 1 hour looked like, except you can't see the massive drop off to the right and left:
A better view of the road. We don't want to find out if the guard rail will hold us. In fact, we had to back up at one point because in most parts the road is only 1 lane and a large truck was coming the other way. Oh and like driving in Taiwan, they do pass you if they can.
The temple at Sun Moon Lake. We live 5 minutes from here.
We were really sad when my parents left, but were excited when we could make:
And tonite, we get chili!
Monday, April 20, 2009
First Impressions of Taiwan
My parents are coming this Thursday evening around 9:30 pm and I am absolutely excited about it! I want my parents to know what to expect, so here are some of our first pictures we took when we arrived in Taiwan.
These are the view from the airplane before the flight attendant told us to put our cameras away. Actually, he yelled something like "No cell phones. No MP3 players. No cameras..."
Not as exciting as Thailand's streets, at least color wise, but this is Taipei.
Typical (ugly) apartment building in Taipei.
A view of 2 parking lots. One is for cars (Top lot) and the bottom is for, you guessed it, scooters.
If you have spent a day with Phil, you know he likes original (gross) drinks. Here is an example.
We were hungry after getting fed multiple times on our way over from the states, so we were excited to find crackers with sea weed on them and, yep you guessed it, Ramen noodles in our hotel room. We were hoping that the picture on the front looked like chicken. Who knows...
We also can not wait for my parents to come so we can impress them with our amazing Chinese skills. We actually have been asking our students how to say a lot of things so my parents will think that we are fluent in Mandarin after only learning it for one year. (I can communicate on a pre-toddler level, at the moment, but that is only if I can use some English words. Just don't tell my parents.)
These are the view from the airplane before the flight attendant told us to put our cameras away. Actually, he yelled something like "No cell phones. No MP3 players. No cameras..."
Not as exciting as Thailand's streets, at least color wise, but this is Taipei.
Typical (ugly) apartment building in Taipei.
A view of 2 parking lots. One is for cars (Top lot) and the bottom is for, you guessed it, scooters.
If you have spent a day with Phil, you know he likes original (gross) drinks. Here is an example.
We were hungry after getting fed multiple times on our way over from the states, so we were excited to find crackers with sea weed on them and, yep you guessed it, Ramen noodles in our hotel room. We were hoping that the picture on the front looked like chicken. Who knows...
We also can not wait for my parents to come so we can impress them with our amazing Chinese skills. We actually have been asking our students how to say a lot of things so my parents will think that we are fluent in Mandarin after only learning it for one year. (I can communicate on a pre-toddler level, at the moment, but that is only if I can use some English words. Just don't tell my parents.)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
KTV
In November, we had a retreat with several different organizations in Taiwan. While there, our director rented a bus to take us to some tourist attractions in the area. The bus had one additional feature. It was a karaoke bus. Yeah! Here is a video of Phil, singing. Enjoy!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Dream Mall
Phil and I recently went to Kaohsiung in the southern part of Taiwan. Kaohsiung is one of the largest shipping ports in this area. We decided Thursday afternoon that it had been too long from eating Mexican food, so we headed to Kaohsiung and ate Mexican food Friday. After that, we had no plans and because it took us 3 hours to drive there, we decided to stay for the weekend. (BTW the Mexican food was some of the worst I have eaten in my life, but it was the best we have eaten in a long time) Saturday evening, we went to the Dream Mall, the largest mall in Taiwan. (Phil will probably post about what we did Saturday afternoon, so I won't bore you)
Pretty much any mall in Taiwan is full of stores that sell products that cost more than I make in a month, so we just wandered around looking at everything. While there, we stumbled upon the Japanese style floor and there was a store there entitled Hankyu Department Store (I may be wrong on the name). It had a lot of stuff in it that was impressive. I started picking up stuff, like paper lanterns, picture frames and kitchen stuff because we would be moving soon. The problem was that there was no prices on anything. I looked all over the package because sometimes the package will have the price on it, but it wasn't there. It also wasn't above the stuff like some stores do. Because we had no idea what the price was and our numbers are a little iffy in Chinese, we mainly just wandered around looking at stuff but we didn't ask how much stuff cost. Finally we got the nerve up to ask and the guy looked at us strangely and said that the stuff was 39 NTD (about $1.25 or so). We then asked about everything in the store and he said that it was 39 NTD. We realized then that the big signs everywhere with 39 on them and the Taiwan dollar sign next to it meant that we had become that cartoon.
You know the cartoon with the guy holding something asking "How much does this cost?" when there are signs everywhere saying that "Everythings a dollar."
Yes, we are teaching the youth of tomorrow.
Pretty much any mall in Taiwan is full of stores that sell products that cost more than I make in a month, so we just wandered around looking at everything. While there, we stumbled upon the Japanese style floor and there was a store there entitled Hankyu Department Store (I may be wrong on the name). It had a lot of stuff in it that was impressive. I started picking up stuff, like paper lanterns, picture frames and kitchen stuff because we would be moving soon. The problem was that there was no prices on anything. I looked all over the package because sometimes the package will have the price on it, but it wasn't there. It also wasn't above the stuff like some stores do. Because we had no idea what the price was and our numbers are a little iffy in Chinese, we mainly just wandered around looking at stuff but we didn't ask how much stuff cost. Finally we got the nerve up to ask and the guy looked at us strangely and said that the stuff was 39 NTD (about $1.25 or so). We then asked about everything in the store and he said that it was 39 NTD. We realized then that the big signs everywhere with 39 on them and the Taiwan dollar sign next to it meant that we had become that cartoon.
You know the cartoon with the guy holding something asking "How much does this cost?" when there are signs everywhere saying that "Everythings a dollar."
Yes, we are teaching the youth of tomorrow.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Last few days
Phil and I are trying to not think about going to Taiwan. Don't get us wrong, we are excited to go but... Well, Robyn Davidson puts it well in her book, Tracks. She writes,
"There are some moments in life that are like pivots around which your existence turns - small intuitive flashes, when you know you are on the right track. I watched a pale dawn streak the cliffs with Day - glo and realized this was one of them. It was a moment of pure, uncomplicated confidence - and lasted about ten seconds.
"Diggity [her dog] wriggled out of my arms and looked at me, head cocked, piglet ears flying. I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back. It's all very well, to set off on a train with no money telling yourself that you're really quite a brave and adventurous person, and you'll deal capably with things as they happen, but when you actually arrive at the other end with no one to meet and nowhere to go and nothing to sustain you but a lunatic idea that even you have no real faith in, it suddenly appears much more attractive to be at home on the kindly Queensland coast, discussing plans and sipping gins on the verandah with friends, and making unending lists of lists which thrown away, and reading books about camels." (Robyn Davidson, Tracks, Pantheon Books, 1980. p. 19.)
While we do have a better plan than she does, we are at the moment where we are wondering if we have just had a lunatic idea, as she puts it. Well, we will find out shortly!
"There are some moments in life that are like pivots around which your existence turns - small intuitive flashes, when you know you are on the right track. I watched a pale dawn streak the cliffs with Day - glo and realized this was one of them. It was a moment of pure, uncomplicated confidence - and lasted about ten seconds.
"Diggity [her dog] wriggled out of my arms and looked at me, head cocked, piglet ears flying. I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back. It's all very well, to set off on a train with no money telling yourself that you're really quite a brave and adventurous person, and you'll deal capably with things as they happen, but when you actually arrive at the other end with no one to meet and nowhere to go and nothing to sustain you but a lunatic idea that even you have no real faith in, it suddenly appears much more attractive to be at home on the kindly Queensland coast, discussing plans and sipping gins on the verandah with friends, and making unending lists of lists which thrown away, and reading books about camels." (Robyn Davidson, Tracks, Pantheon Books, 1980. p. 19.)
While we do have a better plan than she does, we are at the moment where we are wondering if we have just had a lunatic idea, as she puts it. Well, we will find out shortly!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
