Being in taiwan is pretty much thinking of food and trash everyday.

Food is such a part of life that trash has to be too. Because if there is food, there is trash.

Which leads me to talk about my splendorous day today. I wish I can type out my day everyday.

10:30- woke up and started using the internet

12:30- walked outside to find a good restaurant, ate and was eavesdropping on 4 business people. Sounded like they wanted to make a deal that involved cheating and bad business ethics. Yuck. Me eating.

2:45- dad drove me to dentist. Found out I’ve been brushing my teeth completely WRONG. My teeth feels super clean! I look forward to brushing my teeth for 10 minutes today. Maybe I can watch tv while doing it.

4:30 – found 85 degrees C, a cafe and had the most salty creamy green tea thing. went to the biggest electronic place in Taiwan, not on this earth. Found a USB hub for 200 NT which is like 6 bux.

…..etc.

Being in Taiwan has been really intense, full of memories rescued, tears, thoughts, opinions, dreams, and life in general.

Some thoughts that came to my mind today- I better write it in a poem.

I believe in God.

But sometimes He seems far far away, silence

The silence like that of my own, 10 years. Can you rescue the unsaid, though silent for 10 years?

What can you say? What can you do?

It’s like emotional constipation, it hurts so much, at the end when you can shout, scream, laugh

you can only stare into the rain, the cloudy gloom

and wait for a breakthrough

fear is a funny thing, it crouches at your foot, it snatches the courage you had, in your imagination

all the things you wanted to say, why? and what? and how?

irrelevance

and how, does that translate into my life now?

Whys? Taiwan, a small island of irrelevance.

I AM-

I am but a speck of dust on this big earth

Taiwan, an island floating

I am but a speck floating from place to place

in and out of peoples’ lives, I belong nowhere, I stand nowhere,

I fly and float

Some call it lucky

I call it “the more knowledge the more grief”.

As grief, perspectives combined into persons

Persons, cultures, languages, prejudices

I am, understanding, but hanging outside the periphery

looking in

to the hate, bitterness, that each culture

carries

I can only explain for the other

and love this place

as I wonder, like a wooden nothing

floating into oceans and lands, I am.

We then wonder why there is so much grief, is not each human being marked by the fall, by grief, pain, hurt. Each human, born, soon to be marked by others, as fragile, weak, vulnerable, just a child. We tell others what to do, but our own lives are a mess. We judge and yell. We look down on others, but us, a soiled mess. Is not life fragile, here but gone the next minute? Each second that passes by is a reminder of the brevity of life. Why waste it hating?

People meet me and think I’m stupid and naive. Some think I’m too nice, some too this and that. Maybe I’m too good at acting, or maybe I don’t really care what they think. I am just being me and life is too short to play the people game. Oh, someone please cry me a river, please cry humanity a river. God save the queen.

I finally made it to Taiwan after many random misunderstandings and cultural shock in Shanghai. I took some glam shots in Shanghai that I thought I would share with you. My adventure seems to just have started. Whenever I arrive in Taiwan, I feel that a part of me comes alive and a part of me has reached home. Even though I know my home is neither really Taiwan nor LA, my home is in Christ and in my relationships with family and friends. In a way, home is everywhere I go.

More updates soon!

Hi everyone!

WordPress finally loaded! Today was the last day of teaching class in Hunan Shin Shin school. Yeppie!

Several Funny & interesting Moments:

• I gave 3 of my old shirts to the kids. This one girl He Rong tried on my long shirt and it looked like a dress on her. She is freaken ADORABLE! I love my kids! Who knew my old rags would be such a delight to the kids.
• Sarah (my teammate) who sleeps next to me woke up in the middle night (3:40am) and said, “rebekka?”. Because I’ve woken her up 3 times at the same time to go to the bathroom together. The bathroom is far from our room and it gets DARK at night.
• Sarah again got stuck in the pig pen area (she was taking a shower) and the folks shut the lights on her. Long story…
• Daisy and I got our hair washed for 6 yuan (less than one dollar US) and we’re going to get our face washed and massaged for 25 yuan
• I love the kids! I’ll post pictures as fast as I can, but for now…

In 2 days I’ll be on the train back to Beijing for 25 WHOLE hours! I’m going to sleep all day, the whole 25 hours, besides eating of course.

It’s hard to be thankful when 1. you are hot and sweaty 2. your heat rash is itching like pricks and you cant sleep 3. youre coughing 4. your 30 bug bites (5 on your butt) itches like a madwoman 5. its 104 degrees 6. your throat hurts 7. you teach in classrooms without fans….. 8. you have asthma and cant breathe Anyawys, thats what i wrote partially in my journal. But honestly, I gotta praise the Father because my cough has decreased, I feel I am no longer sick, and I can sleep better, and the naps are helping. Otherwise, teaching the kids have been okay. Just really hot in the room. A lot of the kids dont wear shoes and get splinters. One of our kids is really naughty! She yells and doesnt listen to me, fights with the other kids.

So I’m sitting here in the computer lab, talking to my teammates and colleagues.  One of the Tsinghua guys tells me “I  bet in China, you can find a lot of guys here”. I said, “why?”

“Because you have a very outgoing and lively personality”- person

“oh! really?”- me

ahahaha…=.——–

The first day I got to Hunan, after the 23 hour train ride, I got sick. The next day I got a fever, and then I was stuck in bed. But those few hours in bed was quite precious. I did a lot of reflecting. I think I really needed the rest. Aw, my nose hurts from wiping it! 😦

By the way, all my teammates in Hunan have picked up my sayings “ahhh Chincha”, which in Korean is an exclamation “ohh really!” Also my teammate Sabrina said this hilarious thing..

to a mosquito- “I hit you once, I hit you twice, I KILLL YOU!” In a really hilarious accent. LOL.

So for all of yall that don’t know what I’m doing in rural China. I’m teaching music to migrant kids who are not that well off. Some of them don’t wear shoes. Today and yesterday, my voice was gone so teaching music was really difficult. Good thing my partner did all the speaking. He’s korean, but he knows Chinese quite well.

Sigh, we are sitting in a classroom, getting trained to teach at Hunan. I totally thought we would be able to take a nap, but my hopes have fallen to ashes and dumps.

So since I have the time, here are some 798 art district pictures.

From my thoughts this morning:

Being in a relationship unlike what people say actually intensifies your insecurities…and everything that you’ve lacked in love- that you desire from your love, but you know that people can’t fulfill you 100%, only our Creator can, and when you realize this, G should be the one to fuel the love in the relationship.

Otherwise the desire to control the other person, guilt-trip them, or to control situations by not responding or being silent becomes human driven and in the end, a worthless effort to keep and get “False security & love”.

I need to go sleep soon.

This is the happy family at KTV. There was obviously more people.

I got that floral jumper from China btw. Cute.

Lost so much calories dancing! It was crazy. Tuesday is our presentation, I have a few things to present about. But I haven’t started my slide show at all! 😦 Tomorrow we have a full day of classes and field trip to the Olympic park. Everything is a whirl of energy, sounds. and BABY BABY BABY OHHHH (justin bieber stoopid song is stuck in my head).

CAUGHT BIG BIG FISH.

This is a little boy of my friend’s friend’s brother’s son. He is adorable! And very smart…He refused to open his eyes…-.- lol.

The back is the beautiful first Beijing retirement home/condos in renovation. They are extremely beautiful but expensive.

Fish caught!!! This one was one of the smaller ones.

The crew fishing~ I fished for like 10 minutes but got bored.

Anyways, because wordpress is so slow, I’m just going to type here. It was pretty amazing visiting the Beijing National Movie Museum. I got to see some of the ways the Chinese made movies. I asked my friend why Chinese movies are all depressing, she responded “we are a nation of suffering”. It is sad. She said, “there’s nothing to show about our happiness”. Something along the lines of that. But eating with them at this retirement villa, I was amazed by everyones’ friendliness. They were definitely true Chinese, lots of chatting, talking and “face” time. This time, in a good way.

Big fish, big dinner. They seriously (the cook) cooked it in like 15 minutes. We went to the bathroom after fishing, and walked in. Like 13 dishes sprawled out on the table waiting for my hungry stomach.

Mosquitoes. I think that’s how you spell it. I can’t believe I’m staying up to fight mosquitoes. As I was about to doze off to zZzz land- I hear mosquitoes buzzing in my ear. I tried to swat it, but when I turned on the light, I noticed my wrist was swollen from a bite. You little MOSQUITO! MUST DIE!! Plz TAKE IT AWAY, leave my room. I’m prying it will miraculously like die and fall to the floor. It’s so tiny, I can’t find it. Must buy bug spray soon…good nite.