Small Town USA

My favorite country song on the radio right now, and since i've been back from Taiwan, is "Small Town USA" by Justin Moore. Perhaps it's because of how much I missed the United States while I was gone, or because i'm partial to a country that speaks the same language as me. Either way, everything I see about America, and especially Northern Michigan, the Autumn trees exploding in color, tree's in general, Lake Michigan, meat and potato dinners, and clean smelling air, makes me say I love this place.

Currently, I am a college student at Baker College in Cadillac, Michigan. I'm in my first quarter there and studying for my degree in Medical Assisting. I'm looking forward to poking people with needles, learning about diseases and working in a clinic or small Doctor's office someday.

Spiritually, I've been tremendously encouraged by a bible study i've been apart of for a few months now. It's an honest, sincere, open, college age group that has been reading through the book of Judges. The thought provoking questions, funny comments and parallels that are brought up in discussion help me to understand the passage and apply it to my life. Scripture is alot easier to understand when you read and work it through in a group setting. Other perspectives really increase your comprehension of the text.

In my own personal bible reading I have decided to take on one of the most (personally) daunting books of the Bible: Isaiah. Not only is it super long and not all that cut and dry, it has just been one of those books of the Bible that i've avoided for a LONG time. However, if I can understand and learn from the stories in Judges I'm pretty sure I can do the same with Isaiah. It would be really FANTASTIC (and one of the main purposes of this blog) if those of you reading comments and questions I post, would share your own thoughts regarding the book of Isaiah or other topics posted. Consider this blog an open discussion board. We all got a lot of different backgrounds, ways of thinking, and perspectives. When it comes to learning about God, understanding the Bible, and applying it to my life, I say, "the more the merrier". :)

Dragon Boat Festival Vacation

Megan and I had a 5 day vacation from school in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival! So we packed up and headed to Taipei to meet with Michael, Emily and a few others before traveling to Fulong. Fulong is a great little surf town about an hour and a half from Taipei. We camped on the beach for free with 8 people and 1 tent. Several of us slept on the sand in our sleeping bag, waking up to the cool air and sound of crashing waves. One of the days we went out hiking on the Taoyuan Trail which goes up a mountain and follows the ridge for 6 hours. It was a really great hike although super tiring. This was a great vacation. I loved it.

Lessons from God Part #2

Most recently God has been teaching me about abundant living coming from service. The more I get to do for people on my own initiative, the more abundant and fulfilling the day seems- even if i'm not running around doing wild things and riding motorcycles. *grin* An example of this is Megan and I had my 6th grade girls over to make cookies one Saturday. I have made cookies a hundred times before.. I can whip them up in no time at all. These girls have NEVER made cookies before. Much to my surprise, it didn't bother me at all that flour was everywhere and eggs shells had to be picked out of the cookie dough. Might as well not worry about it. No need to pick up the flour right away.. we'll probably spill more in a few seconds. So what if all the cookies aren't the same size. All this to say that 2 hours later we finally were able to eat some fresh baked homemade cookies! And we ate them ALL! haha The highlight of the afternoon for me was introducing the girls to the wonders of eating cookie dough out of the mixing bowl. They were like "oo really?? eat it out of the bowl??" One taste and they were all hooked. " O my gosh! this is soooo good!!" I'm just sitting there thinking, "I KNOW RIGHT?!?!!!!". We bonded over cookie dough. The 6th grade boys are eagerly waiting for their cookie day to come...

Lessons God has been/ is teaching me while in Taiwan

It is impossible to completely and adequately express this in written words. We'll see how close I can get..
First off God taught me, by way of removing me from people to whom I'd "anchored", to only anchor on him. Other people can't hold me up forever. God can. This has probably been the hardest lesson I have learned and I have to keep relearning it unfortunately.
Another thing God keeps reinforcing is to trust daily. Some Mondays I wake up and realize that I have zero experience, zero knowledge whatsoever about teaching English and here I am responsible for 172 kids English speaking abilities. Add to this moments where MY English appears challenged. For example, last week I spelled Caterpillar wrong on 29 first grade projects. whoops. Apparently, just because I say a word one way does not mean it is spelled the way I say it. And naturally our homemade Sowash words do not translate. Amazingly enough these days that start out seeming impossible always turn into the best classes of the week when I pray out loud, " God this day is in your hands and I really am going to need help." It's great because when I pray that I really believe it. I still feel incompetent or tired maybe but I know God is going to do something and that really the worst that can happen is that first grade spells caterpillar "Catapillar". They'll survive. Thanks for reading! More lessons when I learn them.

Easter Event

I am terribly behind in my blogging. So I will start with the Easter event we had at my school. This idea was totally from God and he gave me the energy and desire to carry it out. Usually I get all excited about ideas I have but never get past the planning stage. This event was planned and executed to success! There were a total of 80+ kids from my school who came at 8am on the Saturday before Easter. I had 4 other teachers there to help including Megan Jefferies. Splitting the kids into 4 teams aided with "crowd control". I was the egg decorating station person. Each team went through a rotation of games and Easter egg decorating. The eggs ended up so beautiful and the kids loved making them and taking them home to eat. First time they have ever done this. The most popular game played that morning was the water balloon toss. Thankfully, the weather was hot and sunny after a whole previous week of rain. Megan gave a wonderful Easter story message and everyone was very attentive. Praise God that it went so well. I know the kids had a great time, the parents and teachers had a great time and I had a
great time!

Shoes

I've decided that I definitely couldn't live in Taiwan forever because I would go totally broke buying shoes. Shoe here are like the most wonderful things ever. Generally I try to avoid common "girl- y" things but I must confess that I too (like every other girl in the world) love shoes. Red shoes, blue shoes, yellow flats, silver gladiator sandals, black heels... love 'em. These are of course all described (by me) as accessory shoes- neither practical, or necessarily comfortable, and goodness knows they aren't actually needed so much as wanted. However, having this facination towards shoes has great increased my Chinese vocabulary. Not only can I describe the size, color and style of the shoe I desire to purchase, I can also ask how much they cost. In getting the price of the shoes I usually make a little gasp and shake my head.. " O no. Much too expensive" I say. And then we go back a forth once or twice and then I walk out of the store happily wearing wonderful new shoes for a price equivallent to 6 American dollars. Payless Shoes has nothing on Taiwanese shoe shops. They wouldn't stand a chance. *smile*

I think i'll keep 'em around

I have a fan club of several little 2nd and 3rd graders at my school. They bang on the door to my dorm yelling "teacher Jenna!!" and follow me around all wanting to hold my hand at the same time. If you are ever not feeling beautiful come to taiwan and hand around a bunch of little kids. Even on my worst hair day ever they tell me " O teacher Jenna you are so pretty." I tell them to follow me around anytime they want. *grin* This video was totally spontaneous. I was hanging up laundry in our laundry room and my little fan club came around and was just chattering. I have no idea what they were talking about but it was cute. Then they just started singing and waving their little arms around. HAHA! it was the funniest thing ever and it made me feel so special. It definately made my day. *smile*

On the right is Vivian, middle is Amy and in back is Nina :)

Quiet weekend

This morning I got to sleep in till 7:30am!! Wow! haha It was great. I have a quiet weekend planned compared to the last few weekends. I made a morning walk down to the breakfast stand by the temple to buy breakfast and walked for an hour or so listening to some podcasts on my ipod. A few of the kids from school came around to play and I let them listen to some songs and we all danced around the track together... (well i danced, they watched me) *smile* Then I brought out some orange juice to share with them and we had a little "picnic". We had a good time together. After playing with these kids I been wondering about the concept of the see-saw... They just love sitting on that thing and bouncing up and down, up and down. I get on and it's like " oooh, ahhh. My goodness are we done yet?" haha.
My morning tutor class was canceled so I am free until 3:30 when all the 6th grade girls are coming over to make cookies with Megan and I. Chocolate chip, M&M cookies.. ( the 6th grade boys were jealous they weren't invited.) So I guess even for a quiet saturday I am staying occupied.

Weekend trip #2

This past weekend Jill and I rented mopeds for 2 days and drove around 100 miles along the east coast of Taiwan. I will write more about the trip in the future. For now these pictures pretty much sum it all up. How amazing is that water??!!! I can't believe I was really here!

weekend travels #1

Surprise surprise! A friend of mine showed up in Taipei 2 weekends ago to visit me! And I was so surprised that I didn't even know how to react. She stayed with me at school and on the weekends we ventured out into Taiwan. The first place we visited was Pinxi. We took a train which stopped at several old mining towns and at each place you get out and look around. There were alot of hiking trails that interested us here. So we packed up her backpack with both our stuff for 3 days and set out. To make the trip even more interesting it poured down rain the whole time. Not just sprinkles or mountain mist- DRENCHING rain. Fortunately, we actually managed to stay quite dry ( we had umbrellas and waterproof jackets) while hiking all weekend. The highlight of the weekend was our stop at the Sandiaoling waterfall trail. This was probably the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life. Jill and I hiked an hour on a tiny little trail through the jungle. Over rocks and through some rivers. (we left whatever clothes we didnt want wet and our shoes on one side of the river and continued on) It was a very rugged train and I admit to feeling like a wild, jungle woman. I loved being a wild, jungle woman! haha. It was so great! It was rainy and we were climbing along this path.... And finally we get to this waterfall that was breathtaking. Even better we climbed up the mountain and got directly behind it. Since we were muddy and already wet we just got right in the water and swam around. It was so cold (and the next week we were both sick for 3 days) but there was nothing in the world that could have kept us out of that waterfall. Unfortunately, all our pictures from this day are on Jill's camera so I can't post any yet. They will come as soon and I get them. I would most certainly recomend these hiking trails to any outdoorsie backpackers looking for a jungle jaunt.

Adventures of the day

I had two adventures today and both made me laugh. I decided to get up early and head into town to explore and buy food. I headed out on my bike and 8am and stopped at a breakfast stand across the street from the grocery store because I saw sandwich's on the counter and I super wanted one. So this older man, who ran the place it looked like, saw me coming and started talking to me about something or another...I was like "Um I don't understand what you are saying but you seem really nice." Well I bought two sandwiches (one for Megan at home) and left not really knowing what was said but I think we are friends now. The owner and I. He was helpful and seemed glad to have me there. And next time I need a sandwich I will go back there and say hello.

Secondly, I was headed out to read by the ocean and the entrance to my school was being paved so I couldn't get out. After looking over the walls surrounding the school I decided the bike might break if i threw it over and then climbed the wall. So I postponed the trip to another day. As I was locking the bike back up however the school cook came up to me and started talking away...again I have no idea what she was talking about. She was carrying a mesh bag filled with something that looked like chicken strips. I know it was not chicken because I've seen this stuff laying out in the sun to dry... I don't think you should do that with chicken. Anyway, I pointed at it and asked what it was and received a detailed explanation, of which I understood nothing other than you eat it. THEN.. this woman fill my hands up with whatever it is and walks away! Um now what do I do with it?!?! HAHA Megan isn't sure what it is either. Right now it is sitting on our kitchen counter until our Taiwanese dorm mate can tell us what it is and what to do with it. I have found these events rather humorous mostly because I had no idea what was going on as they happened.

Melodious garbage

The garbage trucks here play classical music like ice cream trucks in America. I told Emily Jefferies, "Wow the ice cream truck comes by a lot!" That was when she informed me not to go running after it. It's the trash car. The Taiwanese are huge on recycling. At the English Village camp we "foreigners" had a trash class- where to throw what. It is not so simple as just throw something away. There are bins for plastic, paper, cans, bottles, leftovers, general garbage and juice boxes. For our benefit as well they added an unknown category (when in doubt put it in unknown garbage). We had signs and instructions on how to throw everything away. Makes me think twice when I use, unwrap or open anything I might have to throw away. Also, trash cans are rare. You can never find one when you need it. So be grateful when all you have to do is toss your trash in a garbage can. And if you come to Taiwan and hear the pretty music... don't go looking for ice cream. :)

Spongebob?

During English camp I learned a few new Chinese words from the kids. It is interesting, someone pointed out to me, that when a foreigner in America speaks English we don't think anything of it. We expect it. However, here in Taiwan I say "Ne-how" and they exclaim among themselves in surprise how good I did. All I did was say hello...
So this funny little kid taught me how to say spongebob squarepants and when I repeated the word my whole class erupted into excited chatter; " She speaks Chinese!!". Later I found out that the boy teaching me used a strange "hillbilly" country Chinese accent and was teaching me wrong just for fun. So my Chinese vocabulary has gone back down to "hello" and "spongebob squarepants". I don't find the latter too particularly helpful in everyday life but my kids think it's rather hilarious. haha

Camp Elections

Today was camp elections. Each team at our English camp chose one member of their team to be their "presidential candidate". Earlier in the day all the teams were buisily making posters supporting their candidate and thinking up creative slogans. Some of my favorite slogans included: " Vote early, vote often, vote Johnny" (we had to explain you could only vote once..), "Just do it! Pick Peggy! the right choice!", and " Power for president- no regrets!".

We had an election debate as well where the candidates each had to answer questions like: why should we vote for you, what changes would you make as the camp president etc.. It was so great how serious they all took this election. The candidates ( 8 in all) prepared their answers and had speeches prepared to introduce themselves. My personal favorite candidate was Power. He promised to make all day play time and institute American food like hamburgurs and french fries for lunch. That statement created quite the stir among all the students. Well he got my vote! 12 year old William was our elected president with 24 votes. The runner up had 19 votes. Tomorrow we are all looking foward to hearing his first presidential speech.

For some reason I have always pictured Asian people as all the same. The same hair, eyes... everything that made them distiguishable from each other. Since being here in Taiwan and actually meeting some Asians, I have learned that this is as far from true as you can get. They are all different in so many ways! There is crazy Frank that looks like he just woke up.. beautiful and spunky Gina who has the cutest haircut ever, Douglas the favorite of everyone and tiny little Angela who made cookies with a hundred kids today.. These are just a few of the amazing people I get to spend this week with. The kids who are at our English camp this week are also very unique in many ways. Some of them speak English really well and others are still learning. Most are well behaved but there are a few im glad I don't have to deal with every day :) Lots of activity going on here and it is alot of work keeping all these kids entertained and happy. Thankfully I am with a very competent group of American and Taiwanese college students that are becoming my friends. Pictures up soon. Bye!

Good morning. Today I am feeling so rested and ready for the day. Yesterday was a busy day! We went to Danshui on the metro/train (called the MRT) which is all the way north in Taiwan. Got to see the ocean and a very lively town and night market. I had some popcorn squid ( I call it that because it looks very similar to popcorn chicken), and some tofu and fish noodle stuff. The food is good to try but after the first few bites thats enouph for me. During the Chinese New Years eve meal a few days ago, our hostess asked me how I learned to use chopsticks so well. I am so thankful for the many Asian exchange students we hosted at our house while I was growing up. While they lived with us I remember using chopsticks for about everything just for fun. We ate cereal, rice, chicken, french fries.. anything. haha. Now I am so glad we did that!

The sun is almost shining today, which has put me in a great mood. And having Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast was almost just as helpful for starting the day right. Megan and I are heading our now to plan for our English camps next week in Taoyuen. Bye!

Hot pot
Chicken wings, Squid balls, Tofu, and some other stuff I'm not sure about :)

Emily making breakfast!! French toast, eggs and coffee.
The kitchen.
Balcony off the kitchen at Michael and Emily's. Overlooks the street.
Bubble tea from the night market. mmm!

Bubble tea, night market and scrabble...

Today I had my first Chinese lesson with Emily. She is a fantastic teacher. For a few hours we sat together in the kitchen making various noises that are apparently words. I enjoy learning though. For the Chinese new year there is a greeting that everyone says that congratulates the person you are talking to for not being eaten by the devils. After this I decided I needed a nap and fell asleep for the next 6 hours.
Everything is so different here in every way. At my home in Michigan the lights are out and everyone is in bed by 10pm. Today we decided to head out to the night market for dinner and it was already 9 at night. The night market is super fun. Lots to look at and people are everywhere. We ate at a pasta shop and then I got a bubble tea. A bubble tea is black tea with milk and these tapioca balls in it. You can have it cold or warm. It tastes sweet and you drink it with a thick straw so you can drink up the tapioca balls, which are kinda chewy-ish and look like fish eggs or something :) I very much enjoyed this drink. After walking around we headed back to the apartment and Michael, Emily and I started a scrabble game during which I learned that snafu means a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation. Now it is 2 in the morning and I think I should go to bed. My clock is all off. Goodnight!

Touchdown in Taiwan

Wow I have never sat still for so long in my entire life... Thursday morning we headed to the Kalamazoo airport at 5 am. Unfortunately our plane had mechanical problems so our 29 minute flight to Chicago was delayed 2 hours. From Chicago we had a 13 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan (which was also 2 hours delayed). Most of the time I slept or watched the movies provided. 13 hours is a long time to sit still. Felt like forever.. but the trip was not over yet. After another 3 1/2 hour flight to Taiwan Megan found us a bus and we rode into Taipei city. With the help of a nice bus driver, Megan's Chinese skills, a fantastic taxi driver and a random woman who knew where some foreigners lived we came to Michael and Emily's apartment around 2 in the morning. A grand total of 21 plus hours of travel.
This morning Emily, Drew, Megan and I went out to breakfast. We had something like a breakfast burrito at a shop on the street. I am trying to adjust and now fully understand the meaning of "culture shock". Ya.. I'm there. This week we will be staying with Michael and Emily in Taipei. The following week the English camps will begin and school starts February 2nd. More about that later. Thanks for all your prayers!

Miracles

God has worked so amazingly this week! A major prayer request has been for the processing of my visitor visa. I had hoped to get it all sent in before Christmas, however, that never happened. After finally taking all the paperwork to the post office I realized, 3 hours later, that I had forgotten to put the passport pictures in the package. Miraculously, the package had not been shipped yet and I was able to add the pictures. All this to say, that 5 days later I recieved my Passport with my visitor visa to Taiwan. :) My brother's visa took three weeks to proccess. Only God could have arranged this so perfectly. I leave in eleven days!

Preparations

In 21 days I leave for Taiwan! I'm so grateful that God opened up this amazing opportunity for me. Since October I had been praying for a more long term mission trip. Just to show you how differently God and I think, I had been praying for a medical trip to Brazil where i would give people shots, draw blood, I could learn Portuguese and experience South American culture ... Well instead he is stretching me and sending me to Taiwan to teach English to elementary school kids for 6 months! WOW! I'm excited because I want to be stretched. And i'm positive this is going to stretch me more than I know. Already God has provided amazingly for me and this trip. My travel expenses are all covered as well as my living expenses. I hope to keep you all updated as much as possible while I am gone. You have no idea how much it would mean to me to hear from you every once in a while too! A few prayer requests:

1. That my visa would come in time
2. That I would be flexible
3. Somehow I would pack what I need for 6 months in one suitcase

Thanks!