Mongolian Grill

Some friends and I hit the night market Sunday night after church to enjoy Taiwan's version of the "Mongolie Grill." The food was delicious, spicy, and inexpensive -- just how I like it. :-)

selecting the vegetables and meat. . .
the chef. . .

the seating area

the Doulos ship

OM's Doulos ship harboured in Kaohsiung for these last three weeks. It has now gone on to visit Taichung City and from there it will go to Taipei City. Here are two shots I took of the ship -- one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. The ship had over 100,000 people come on board during its stay in Kaohsiung.

moss...key...toes

I can’t think of anything I hate more than mosquitoes. There are way too many mosquitoes in this city and I have a lot of itchy bumps to prove it. But what is worse than the bites is the buzzing all night long. Two nights ago, I was kept awake for hours by constant buzzing around me. I killed a couple of mosquitoes but still heard buzzing. Finally, I had enough! I had to do something. I told Janice, the next morning, that I was going to buy a mosquito net and she replied, “Oh, don’t buy one; I have one already.” She brought out the net, and it is the laciest mosquito net in the whole world, I’m sure... but hey, I was more than glad for it. Now, normally, you would secure a mosquito net to the ceiling, right? Well, unfortunately, the ceilings in this apartment are made of concrete so there was no way I could fasten it. I’m sure if my dad were here, he would find a way, but he’s not, so I had to come up with my own solution. I made this crazy-looking contraption using a metal clothes rack and a long curtain rod. One end of the rod reaches across the top of my bed (which is only about 2 feet off the ground – so that leaves 3 feet of space for the net to hang). So, now I am laying here in bed, listening to the hungry mosquitoes buzzing around, and feeling extremely gratied to think they can't get me. :-)

Heat

This is an updated picture of me. The weather here in Kaohsiung has warmed up in the last couple days. Right now, it is 11pm and still 27 degrees Celcius outside. It feels hotter than that in my bedroom. I wish I had air conditioner!!!

Chinese Language Study

A few days ago, I enrolled in the Chinese language school, because I really need more help with my Chinese. I took the most expensive route because I have heard it is the most effective -- that is, one-on-one tutoring. I will go to TLI (the school) for three 2-hour sessions each week and hopefully I will see some progress in my Chinese.

The Wedding Pictures

Here are some of the pictures of the wedding I described.

Scooter

I finally rented a scooter a couple weeks ago. I was getting tired of riding the old bicylce everywhere, especially on really hot days. The last time I did it, I got to school and my shirt was totally wet with sweat. yuck! So I'm really happy to have a scooter, even though it's a bit junky. I am planning to buy a scooter at the beginning of next month, because I know a girl who is leaving Taiwan and selling her scooter.

Taiwanese Wedding

urgg! I keep trying to upload a bunch of pictures but keep losing them (sometimes my own mistake; sometimes the computer's problem) SO I have decided to tell you about the pictures instead of posting them, at least for now. Sorry, I know pictures are more interesting. So I went to this traditional Taiwanese wedding banquet in Pingtung County, which is about 45 minutes drive from Kaohsiung City. A friend of mine, whom I'd met last time, invited me to go with him because he figured I would find it interesting. The event was hosted along the street outside the groom's parents' house. The bride was gorgeous and changed gowns at least twice during the hour banquet. The focus of the event was, of course, food. There were about ten courses served at each table. It was amazing. There was a ton of seafood, because Pingtung is near the ocean. I wish I could tell you a lot more of what went on, and what was said, but everything was in Chinese, so I can't. That is why I would really like to post the pictures. Maybe I will try again sometime.

Church

This is the "Bread of Life" English church service last Sunday. It is mostly English teachers who attend, but there are also quite a number of English-speaking Taiwanese who come out. This was their first ever baptism service. They baptised two Taiwanese and one Canadian. It was really cool to be a part of the service.

This is the baptism "tank." The people baptised were not quite fully immersed, but they managed it amazingly well.

Janice really wanted a picture with me by the baptism tub. So here it is...

Yummy Hot Pot!

Janice took me to a famous hot pot restaurant today and the food was absolutely AMAZING!


We went shopping afterwards to walk around because we were so full.
Janice's shirt made me laugh!

Schoolhouse

Here is Schoolhouse Language Center (where I teach)














Here are a few pictures of some of my students.