Yeah, that's right . . . you stick the whole head in your mouth, bite down, and chew. :)
I love shrimp. And constantly having fresh shrimp from living on an island has spoiled me to no end, but I learned last night a new way to eat shrimp. It is possible, if the shrimp has been deep fried to consume the whole creature--eyeballs, legs, shell and all!
And you know what? It is quite delicious that way! :)
As I've mentined before, I am teaching an internet English course this semester. This is actually one of the multiple reasons I needed a bloggy break! :) I added 20 something student blogs to a "must-read and interact with" list on my blog-reader, and I am blogging for them as an example to follow.
Anywho, it has been fun teaching them how to blog and use flickr as well as some other online programs and sites. Some of them have really taken off and are doing cool things with their blogs. Others, well, they are just trying to get the hang of it. :)
I am enjoying this course because it is a way for them to use English for a "real reason." I also enjoy seeing them interact with each other both in real life in the classroom and online.
Now to finally get to the point of this post . . . . One of their recent assignments was to create a slideshow using slide.com to showcase a part of Taiwanese Culture. Some of them have shared the HTML code for their slide shows with me, so I can share with you!!
First, for no particular reason, is Stella's slide show. Her slide show actually covers a few different aspects of Taiwan culture.
Cultural differences come in many shapes and sizes. Some are based on thoughts and beliefs--presumptions about the way the world works and values a group of people hold in common. Some are much simpler than that.
If you were to ask my students about what is culture they would probably answer with things like "food," "holidays," and "weddings." They would be somewhat right. However, culture--the way we live our lives--entails, oh, so much more than that. It involves some great big things and some little tiny things as well.
One of the things I loved showing international students when I was in college was how I made my bed. It is totally different than how they made theirs.
We take all aspects of our culture for granted. And, it can be little
things like keys and light swiches that are really interesting to
people from other cultures.
Some things about life in taiwan that used to seem so abnormal, now seem so normal and common place to me. Speaking of keys lets take them as an example:
Before coming to Taiwan, I'd never seen a round key with holes in it before. I need it to open the basement door of my parking garage staircase.
And, the key with "LACEE" on it above--how cool it that!?!?! It looks like a key to a treasure chest, right? But in reality, it just opens the lock on my moped.
And that pointy key with grooves on four sides? It has a notch in it at the top, so I know which way to insert it into my front door. Pretty nifty in my opinion.
The black rectangle opens the outside door of my apartment building if I come home after 11 pm. Beeped-beep and I'm in.
Why two sets of keys you ask? Well, remember I drive a moped: I don't want my keys too heavy and big while I'm driving with them all exposed.
In the coming weeks, I plan (Lord willing) to showcase here on my blog some of the myriad of little cultural differences that have intrigued me and captured my interst while living here.
So, if there is anything you are wondering about . . . ask, I'll try to get a picture and show you. Send me on a scavenger hunt; I dare you. :)
I have a very special guest staying with me this week.
After a long trip in a envelope all the way from Mississippi, Flat Shiloh, friend of Flat Stanley, is visting me here in Taiwan. According to the letter Flat Shiloh came with, Flat Stanley is "a boy who gets flatened and can travel around the world by mailing himself there."
Flat Shiloh hasn't even been in Taiwan for 24 hours, and she has already made several new friends, tried some new foods, learned to eat with chopsticks, and can speak a few Chinese words! Isn't that amazing!!
I am really looking forward to showing Flat Shiloh even more cool stuff about Taiwan. Actually, she is really excited about her first moped ride later today. So, we gotta go. . . . we'll update you more later on some of the fun stuff she gets to do.
Oh, yeah, that's right . . . an edible teddy bear made of rice!
See what I mean? How Creative!!
Empty classrooms in Taiwan.
The photo above was taken at a junior high school during a break time.
The photo to the left was taken at the college where I teach at the end of the day. You can see the setting sun coming in through the back door.
There is always something thrilling about being in a classroom--whether empty or full. Sometimes I like being in an empty classroom--it gives me time to pray for my students and envision all the possibilites. But, I prefer when the room is full of students rather than empty--it is much more "alive."
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May I suggest you visit my bloggy friend ejia's hunt? I love the way she always quotes Scripture in her photo hunts.
Oh! So many choices!!
I took this at my local "grocery store" about a five minute walk from my apartment here in Taiwan.
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I know I've told that in Taiwan we take off our shoes before we enter someone's home. But, have I ever told you that I teach barefoot too?
All of my classes are in a language lab or computer lab; so, we must take off our shoes before entering the classrooms. "Regular classrooms" do not require shoes be removed.
Why the floors of these rooms must be kept clean I will never know. But, that is the school rule, so that is what we do. And just for the record, the student's don't like it.
I love the fact that the school provides these nifty little shoe cases for the students to put their shoes, but that instead students just pile the shoes in front of the shoe case.
Outside of a computer classroom at my school:
The two weeks that follow Chinese New Year are to celebrate the "Lantern Festival."
Along Love River in downtown Kaohsiung homemade lanterns are on display.
Most of the lanterns, made by shool children, were either pigs (remember it's year of the pig) or about the 2009 World Games to be held here in Kaohsiung, but a few of the lanterns on display were famous buildings in Taiwan.
Here is a pig with the 85-story building in Kaohsiung (Yes, it does appear to be that the building and the pig are in a bathtub. I have no idea why).
__
Here is a Taipei 101 lantern. Taipei 101 is the world's tallest building.
See what architecture other photo hunters found.
Some walk dogs (me) and some walk . . . PIGS!!
This little pig and Gilby did not quite hit it off--Gilby just couldn't quite figure him out.
This is actually not the first pet pig I have seen in Taiwan. And, awhile back, another pet pig made it into the English language newspaper.
And, it is my guess that since this is the "year of the pig" even more Taiwanese will take in pigs to be their pets. And, why, might you ask, would someone want a pet pig . . . well, it is claimed that pigs are clean, don't smell, are affectionate, and don't bark.
Wanna know more about "precious pigs"? Read this.
My students here in Taiwan LOVE chips!!
However, I am not a real big chip eater (unless we are talking totillia chips loaded with salsa). And, when the flavor happens to be Kyushu Seaweed, I don't even eat one! Who wants fishy chips?
Other intersting flavors include "Thai Sweet and Spicy Prawn," "Japanese Teriyaki," "Seaweed" and "Chicken."
Well, happy "Pig Year" to you!!
This is the first time in four years, that I am not celebrating Chinese New Year. I am off in another country--not Taiwan and not America--till the end of the month.
I really wanted to "pre-blog" to show you some short video clips of what Chinese New Year is all about, but, well, life got in the way. :)
So, see you at the end of the month when I am back in Taiwan and winter vaction is officially over!
Happy Chinese New Year!!
For some reason, I am drawn to windows and doors.
I enjoy looking at old doors and windows. There is something calming about them. And, something mysterious too--what is on the other side? How many people have looked out that window or walked through that door?
I also LOVE the old city gates that are sprinkled throughout the cities of Taiwan.
Last week, when Ellen and I were in Kenting, we stopped for little bit and enjoyed the old east and south gates as well as the old city wall.
This year, just like last year, my school had a "wei ya." The WeiYa is a banquet that companies hold in honor of their employees at Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year this year is at the end of Feburary--because the Chinese calander this past year had an extra month. We have leap years with an extra day; they have leap years with an extra month. No kidding.
Anywho, even though Chinese New Year is still so far away, our semester is over, so our school had our weiya.
Here are 9 of the 10 courses served at our weiya:
1. Appetizer, 2. Thick soup, 3. Tasty fish,
4. sticky rice with crab, 5. shrimp, 6. peking duck,
7. baked mini lobster with cheese, 8. chinese herbal something or other, 9. tropical fruit
The one dish not shown was soup.
Here is a shot of the weiya from the 3rd floor of one of our buildings:
That's about 25-30 tables (some not pictured) with about 10 people per table so about 250 to 300 people all feasting at the same time, with KTV and "door prizes" to boot!
In fact, this year I actually won one of the raffle style prizes.
Inside my red envelope was a gift certificite to Carrefour (a super wal-mart kinda place). My first time in four years to win anything at a weiya!! :)
And, one last part of a banquet--wedding, weiya, whatever--in Taiwan is that guests get to take home the leftovers in "doggie bags." How great is that!!
There are a few more pictures on my flickr set for the 2007 weiya. Such as a before and after of the whole (yummy) fish, a close up of the duck heads on the plate, and more.
As you probably know, in Asia people take off their shoes when they enter a home. Sometimes shoes are taken off for entering classrooms or resturants or other places too.
When my students come to visit me, they take off their shoes and line them up on the stairs outside my front door.
I took these pictures as some students were leaving my home after a Christmas party a few weeks ago. Some of the students (and thus their shoes) had already left (were gone) before I thought to capture it on film. When they were all there, the stairs were full and about half were Converse.
Here are shots of my students putting on their shoes right in front of my front door. :)
This post is the start of another random series showing you some of the "corners of my home." I will show you were I keep my shoes in my next "corners of my home" post. (I also need to remember to take pictures of where I park for that other random series I have going.)
Happy Tuesday!
Do you wanna know what verse my kid-brother (13 yo) counts as his favorite verse in the Bible?
I'll give you a hint: it comes from today's chronological Bible reading.
Sam's favorite Bible verse (if memory serves me right) is Job 1:21: "And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'" (And this is coming from a kid who had all of his birthday presents and Christmas presents from 2005 stolen during multiple break-ins in the course of just a few months.)
I, however, tend to favor the verse right before Sam's favorite: "Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped" (Job 1:20).
In a matter of seconds--in the times it takes to utter a few sentences--the greatest man of all the people in the east tragically lost each and everyone of his ten children, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and all but four of his very many servants.
And what does the grief-stricken guy do? He worships.
I love that word: w o r s h i p.
It has become so much more meaningful to me living here in Taiwan. I have seen people worshiping great, big, HUGE idols, people worshiping tiny 12-inch tall idols, people worshiping old trees, people worshiping even the stumps of old dead trees, people worshiping stones and tablets, people worshiping ancestors (both those from generations long ago and those recently deceased).
My idea of what is worship has changed so much since living here. Before it was only something I did with others. It was something I did in Church--it was singing songs and listening to sermons. What I did alone was "quite time" or "devotions." When I was a new believer, I did not know I could or should bow before God of All and worship.
Don't get me wrong. I knew and could teach others and wax eloquent about the fact that our daily act of worship was how we lived our lives. And, I knew that worship is a coperate act we do together when we gather as believers.
Don't get me wrong. I know that people in the western world "worship idols"--TV, football, blogging, movie stars and so on. I know that.
But that is not what I am talking about. This is different. It is markedly different.
We, in the West, do not kneel before our TVs and computers clasping our hands in front of us and make a choice to actually, physicaly bow before a graven image of the "god of entertainment." But, I have friends, coworkers, students, neighbors who do make the choice to kneel before an idol, clasp their hands around sticks of incense and worship.
Watching them worship has changed the way I myself worship the Almighty. I cling to that word "worship" in the Bible more so now than ever.
Job, upon hearing that all he owned was destroyed, did what? He worshiped.
The scholars from the East followed a star and traveled miles and miles, why? They wanted to worship.
What did one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Gideon, do after hearing the interpretation of his dream? That's right, he worshiped.
Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel . . . they all "worshiped."
Often the Bible simply tells us "he worshiped." Sometimes it says "they bowed their heads and worshiped," but, many, many times it is written as "and he fell down and worshiped."
When was the last time you "fell down worshiped"? When was the last time you stopped activity, put aside the reading plan, the prayer request list, and memorization cards, and worshiped?
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying don't do those things. I am not even saying those can't be "acts of worship." But, I am wondering, when was the last time you (and I) fell down, face to the earth, and worshiped the Most High God?
I wanna be like Job, and Gideon, and Moses, and David, and Samuel, and . . . . . I want my first response to the proclamation of good news to be that I worship. I want my first desire after hearing bad news to be that I worship.
And so, after she clicked save, she knelt before the Most High God and worshiped.
It's been a full week of many Christmas parties and tellings of the Christmas story. I sit here now enjoying a mint flavored milk tea with tapioca balls, and I decided to share a few pics from the week with you.
First, last Sunday, I joined other Hokkien Harvest missionaries to worship Christ in a public park and share with others at the park the reason for Chrsitmas.
Then, I hosted several Christmas parties in my home!! And one at school.
I also participated yesterday in two other activities that I've made into Christmas traditions. One is eating is "Wa Gua" or "hot pot," which I've written about before.
And the other is eating "Tang Yuan" or "soup cirlcles," which are really just glutinous rice-based balls of gooey goodness.
Tonight, I am participating in one more Christmas activity at a fellow missionaries' apartment complex. I will be playing my erhu (more on that later) and singing. If you are in the States and read this on Saturday morning--it is still not too late to pray for us, so please do. If you live elsewhere in the world--well, I don't know what time Saturday night in Taiwan is for you, but we'd sill appreciate your prayers!! Thanks!!
My friends, a Taiwanese pastor and
his wife (Peter and Mary), sing "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Taiwanese on this video:
This Sunday, December 17th, Hokkien Harvest missionaries will be joining Peter and Mary's housechurch to worship Jesus in a public park for a Christmas celebration. I invite you to join me in praying for this time.
(HT: video posted by Mary Agnes, one of my good friends and a missionary in Taiwan)
Gilby has recently taken up the hobby of barking while I am not home. The security guards told me about it so I could take action.
The message is not "Your dog barks while you are gone." The message is not "your dog won't shut up."
The message is always either: "your dog loves to bark" (你的狗愛叫) or "your dog's barking ability is great" (你的狗很會叫).
Isn't it interesting that in Chinese their complaints sounds like a complements!?!?!
Now, if I could only find a way to make my dog obey me when I am not home. Hmmm. Any ideas?
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