Preparing for Nepal trek

For those of you who are reading this and didn't know, I will be leaving Taiwan at the end of October and heading to Nepal. Ben--a friend of mine who lives here but is from Canada--and I are planning to trek to Everest base camp. The itinerarical :) plan as it is currently set sees us spending 18 days on the way up and around 7 or 8 down because we will catch a plane out of Lukla back to Kathmandu which will cut quite a bit off the return trip. We will top out a Kala Pattar (18350 according to an estimate), which is more than 4000 feet higher then I have ever climbed (which is Mount Elbert, the highest mountain in Colorado--not you Pike's Peak, sorry). Hopefully, if all goes as planned, neither of us will be at the end of the smoting sword with high altitude sickness. Regardless of what happens, it should be an exciting experience.

After we finish in Nepal, we'll be heading to Thailand and then Cambodia for a couple weeks. I hope to explore the ancient city of Angkor Wat. It is one of the oldest cities in Southeast Asia, and the architecture is Mind-blowing. If you don't know what it is, google it. And after I have finished exploring these places, I'll catch a flight back to the states to visit my family for a bit. Or at least that's the plan. Then, in January, it's back to Taiwan. I plan to engage my mind in all out battle against the Chinese language. I may teach a little, but my main objective is to study full time. We will see how long I can do that before I am broke! :)

Overall, Taiwan is a very hospitable place. I have definitely enjoyed my experience here so far. So, if anyone wants to visit Taiwan, give me an Email or Message.

A2 Summer Class

I have been crazy busy for the last three weeks. I have been teaching a summer class for adults Monday thru Friday from 9-12 in the morning. I haven't had much free time because of the class, but its been worth it. The class has be absolutely awesome. It finished yesterday, and it was a bittersweet ending. I was glad that I actually have free time now, but I am really going to miss everyone from the class. I has been one of the best experiences I have had since I started teaching here in Taiwan. All the students were wonderful, and we became good friends in the short period of time. Above is a picture of most of them. Two had to leave early for school, so they couldn't make the picture. The students were: Jean, Freda, Sandy, Ingrid, Wayne, Willy George, Simon, Robby, Lily, and Jibilee. :)

Also, my roommate Moryam is leaving soon to move to India. That's gonna be sad. He leaves this Tuesday night, so we only have four more days together as roommates. Moryam, if you read this, you've been a good chap.

I'll be moving in with several other guys from church. I hope that goes well. They are nice guys, so it should be good. It will be a little further from work, but it is by a big park, so that's nice.

Plans to travel to Nepal are still on the go. I'll be leaving late October, and I plan to return to Taiwan and start studying Chinese as a full-time student. I'll probably be at Zhong-shan University.

Bye:)

Still here, Still Alive

Well, its been over two months since I last blogged. Since the last time, several things have happened. First, I returned to the U.S. It was my mothers birthday, and we got to throw a surprise party for her. She didn't know I was coming. It was very cool. I stayed home for about 2 weeks. It was great to be back.

Since then, I have come back and have been working. My classes have been good overall. In late June, I had a few days of and was able to travel a bit in Taiwan. I went to Tarako and to Green Island, both of which were wonderful.

Tarako is a national park on the east coast of Taiwan, and it has a canyon with marble cliffs that is breathtaking to drive through. I also got to do a little hiking through it. I hiked into a cave/tunnel with waterfalls coming out of the ceiling. It was pretty neat. And the weather was about perfect.

Green island is an island 30 or 40 Km off the east coast of Taiwan. It is sort of a vacation spot, with one of the only 3 salt water hot springs in the world. I took the ferry there and then rented a scooter and explored the island. It takes about half an hour to drive around if your going fast and there is no traffic.

The island is beautiful, and offers(or so i have heard) excellent snorkeling. However, I didn't get the chance to snorkel because a typhoon was suppose to come and I had to leave early. However, I did get to explore and go to the hot springs, which were fun.

Both are places I would like to come back to again if I ever have time. :)

Gongfu!! and Games Cafe

Last night, Moryam and I and our friend Bruce (it was his birthday) went see the movie, "The Forbidden Kingdom". I don't know about you, but I'm stoked that Jacky Chan and Jet Li are finally in the same movie. Moryam and Bruce thought it was "Alright" but I had blast watching it. It's a story after my own heart: the young man suddenly pushed into a new world where he meets unlikely allies, must face great danger and defeat a terrible enemy, and try to save a maiden. Ahhh....escapist bliss!!! Those are the kinds of movies I would make if I were to make movies. Where the main character goes from nothing to something, where good always triumphs over evil.

Speaking of movies, I made a little video about the "Game shop," a cafe I sometimes go to.

April 20th reflections

Time has been flying by incredibly fast since I have been here in Taiwan. Which gives me a little stomach ache when I think about it, because soon, very soon, I will have to decide once again where I will go and what I will do. Whether or not I will remain here another year or find myself walking down a different will have to be decided.

Overall, I can definitely say that I enjoyed the time I have had here. I haven't accomplished all I wanted to, but then, when have I ever done that :). I've been learning more about myself, my strengths and weaknesses, and about this crazy, sometimes dangerous, sometimes wonderful world we occupy. I've definitely been blessed with this opportunity, and I know it when I am thinking sensibly.

But then, that's one of most important things about all we do-our perspective on how we look at it. Whether we consider it another problem or another opportunity.

I definitely miss my family, and my friends back home, and Sampson! and good American BBQ
and Mexican food. And I miss fresh air and starry skies and unbridled horizons and Nebraska sunsets.

But I do love riding on a scooter in shorts and a T-shirt.

And I will definitely miss some of my students, and I pray that somehow whatever I do and say will somehow lead them closer to the truth and God.

My current goal is to make a waterproof case for my camera so I can take it snorkeling. I want to film the Fishes!!

Current song I have been listening to the most: "Salvation is here" by Hillsong United Live.


So, to everyone who reads this, especially my friends and family--I love and miss you all so much!!

God bless,
Jonathan

I got a scooter license

Its been a long time since I've blogged. Too long. Life here in Taiwan has been mostly pleasant since then. I continue to work at Kojen teaching children English, and in the mornings most days I study Chinese at TLI (Taipei Language Institute). The weekend after next is Tomb sweeping weekend, so we will have a three-day holiday. I'm feeling totally jazzed about that, and will hopefully get to travel the island a bit.

Since being here in Taiwan, I have really come to appreciate a two day weekend, since I work on saturday. Amazing how much you appreciate something when it's finally gone.

Last weekend, Moryam and I drove down to a coast city and took a ferry to a small island about 40 minutes from Taiwan called "Xial LiouChou". Its a pretty little island that was once covered almost entirely with Coral. It makes for a nice day get away from the city.

Recently, I got my scooter license. I can now drive legally! Whoohoo!

Nothing really exciting has happened yet. Still haven't saved any maiden or slain any dragons. But I'm working on the second.

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year. At least, it's happy for me, because I'm of from work for a few more days!! Ah, vacation is great.

It has been about a month since I have last written here, but it seems like much longer. I have the great weight of procastination shame on me.

Up to Chinese new year, I have been working and studying chinese. On weekends I ususally attend my church and hang out with friends. I also try to do writing on the side, but too often it gets backtracted. Well, since new year has begun (Chinese that is) I have been having a fairly good vacation. On Thursday, I went to a Taiwanese Aboriginal park. It consists of a village composed of huts that resemble the houses of the aboriginals who lived in Taiwan before the Chinese came ( and who still live here, many on the eastern side of the island.) I had a great time there. We attended at aboriginal concert, and got to see them singing and dancing in their cultural dress. There are 12 different tribes here in Taiwan, and some of their clothes were very beautiful. Very vibrant and colorful and exotic.

On Friday, some Taiwanese friends and I climbed to the top of Monkey montain. Its was a nice fun climb. We saw several monkeys, and I got frisked by one who thought I had food. On the way down, that is where we ran into a little trouble. We started going down, but took a different path then we had on the way up. It ran on for a while, and then stopped at several string of razor-wire. Not to be detered, my friends said it hadn't been there before, and that we could simply climb over it (it was on the ground). Somewhere in my mind, at this very moment, sparks started to go off. They lit up my mind and cast light the the sign that spoke "danger". I couldn't help remembering that an army base lay close by.
We continued anyways, and came to a dead end. The path was completely covered with fallen trees. Someone had purposely blocked the path. Not to be detered, we continued by leaving the main path, I with my heart sinking every moment. The words "exiled" and "expelled" kept popping up.
We found a road, but it was blocked by another string of razor-wire that was lying on the ground. As we were climbing over this, a car came racing up the road, and stopped where we were. My taiwanese friends were informed that we were not suppose to be there, and that we were indeed on the army base. After a little negotiation by my friend (for the taiwanese officer wanted us to go back the way we came), a soldier got out and escorted us down the road to the gate and help us find out way out. I'm just glad we didn't get into any real trouble. So the moral of this story is if you think you maybe getting into some danger and a little voice inside of you says you should stop going the way you are, you should probably listen. That little voice is probably right.

Only in Taiwan

Hello, and Happy New year (Xin Nian Quile)

I had a fun new year. I went with some friends to the Star harbor in Kaohsiung city to watch the count down. It was full of people. We watch the fireworks and had a fun time. One of my friends, Dennis, is in the Taiwanese army. He kept yelling "China is Coming!!" whenever a rocket went off.

There were so many people. A friend told me there were 500,000 people at the star harbor. But perhaps she put too many zeros on the number of people. But it had to be at least 50,000, maybe more.

For New years day I drove to the city of Tainan and did a little walking around. I saw some temples and old things. The funnest part was the picture I took on the way home of the dog.

I love Taiwanese dogs!!

That's all for now. God bless everyone, and Happy New Year!!

Jonathan