Almost Home

yeeeeeees.... like literally 3 weeks and counting before my feet can touch american soil again.  I am so looking forward to going home and being with family and friends again.  The final two weeks here are always known as "food depression" for me.  Where nothing looks/tastes good anymore..... ahhhhh.... Man i should prob start looking for that long list of places i wanted to go again... hmmmmm

For teachers, the final stretch is always hard.  People think that only students are counting down the days...not true.  Teachers also equally enjoy summer vacation. hahaha.

Lately I've been enjoying my camera.  It's fun and the wide angle feature makes everything look weird (which i like) I notice when I hold the camera vertically, pple look super skinny.  That's a nice feature. hahaha.

cool restaurant in Chiayi with tons of fish

 

when we went to mak for a meeting we got this as a special "thank you" from the principal... i ate FOUR tacos.  they were so good.....

 

what i usually eat every day of my life here... and yes, it is just as gross as it looks....  And yes, it is outside right by the side of the road.

 

Economic Stimulus

So with the economic crisis that is gripping our world, a lot of countries are offering citizens an economic stimulus.  In the US it came in the form of a check.  Personally I don't know if that method was that great because many people just quickly deposited it into their accounts.... other people had it directly deposited into their bank accounts.  Saving that money is kind of defeating the purpose because if it's in the bank, it's not stimulating the economy is it?

The best case scenario is that everyone buys something that they weren't originally planning to buy....  Anyway, in Taiwan the stimulus came in the form of these little coupons.  The coupons had a value on them, and that was the amount of real money that the coupon is worth.  You can't get change back from the coupon so you have to make sure you spend more than the coupons and pay the rest of the difference in cash.  The coupons become invalid after a specific date.  Anyway, I think that this is a great idea b/c now everyone is out there trying to spend the coupons as fast as they can.  Some stores are offering incentives to spend the coupons at their store, like offering free things if you use your coupons etc. 

In the end though, I've heard some experts say that no economic stimulus can really save the economy...but I'm not complaining.  I've done my duty as a citizen and I've spent both my American and Taiwanese stimulus packages pretty much as soon as I got them (in the interest of saving the economy of course).  And I'm still waiting for the day Canada announces that they are giving one out too.

Here is a picture of the Taiwanese coupons, literally moments before I spent them.  I will tell you what I bought at a later date.... har har har.

I should be a hand model, eh? 

Too Scared to Tell...

Recently my Dad visited me here in Taiwan and as always with him always comes a few things that make me really think hard.  We got into many good deep conversations but one that really got me thinking was about sharing the gospel (good news) with others.  I'll be honest and I'll say that I've always been scared to share it with others... although now that I think about it, does being scared mean that I myself have some doubts about its goodness??

For example, if it were free icecream day at ben and jerry's (good news!) I would be sure to

1. make sure I was in line that day for some.
2. tell everyone I know about it so that they could partake in it as well.

But when it comes to these other facts that I know are good things and I'm sure from the bottom of my heart are true, for some reason I feel hesitant and slightly scared to just tell others about them.  Here are things I know are true:

1. God loves each person and has a great plan for their lives.
2. Everyone can experience God if they want to.
3. The life that we are living in right now is only a small glimpse of what is yet to come.
4. Our sin is what separates us from God.
5. Jesus came to Earth to bridge the gap between man and God.
6. Every person can have eternal life as a free gift from God if they trust and believe in Jesus.

Wow, isn't THAT great news?  EVERY person could have ETERNAL LIFE???  Well, if that's not news, I'm not sure what is.  But for some reason I do feel slightly scared bringing it up to friends/ family...

My dad said there is nothing more creepy then someone who is trying to share some good news with you, but at the same time they themselves seem scared and frightened of the news themselves.  Back to the ice cream analogy, if there was free ice cream at ben and jerrys I would say, "HEY!  free ice cream on tuesday!!!!"  I wouldn't say... "hey friend..... (pause pause pause)... ummmm there's something that i wanted to tell you... but hmmm don't take this the wrong way butttttt (eyes shift nervously left and right) ice cream.  yes free.  on tuesday. ok that's it"  Ok how creepy does the second convo seem?  Obviously after that convo you would think that i was trying to poison you or something fishy was going on. 

Maybe I need to start believing in the goodness of what I believe in, and stop being afraid to just tell others.  Obviously after i've said what I've said, the friend could choose for themselves whether or not to get the ice cream or not.  But I know for a fact that i would be pretty angry if someone knew that there was free ice cream but they didn't share the info with me.  In the same way, I think we can be confident in the gospel, share it with others, and ultimately leave it up to them whether they want to take it or leave it. 

It was weird that I had been thinking about all of this... then at night when I was reading the Bible, this passage popped up... (I told my students about this the next day and they all got the chills):

"I have told all your people about your justice
I have not been afraid to speak out, as you, O Lord, well know.
I have not kept this good news hidden in my heart;
I have talked about your faithfulness and saving power.
I have told everyone in the great assembly of your unfailing love and faithfulness"
Psalm 40:9-10

I think that if this were the book of Christina then the passage would go more like this:

"I know about you love and faithfulness and unfailing power
I know that you have always been there for me in my life
I trust your plans for me and I understand your goodness
But I am scared to tell anyone about your goodness
I have hidden this good news in my heart
I have been afraid to speak out, as you, O Lord, well know.

I think for me it's easy to share this type of thing with random person X that I meet on the street here in Taiwan, but harder to share with friends and family that are close to me...even though those are the people that I care the most about... and I really want them to know this, but sometimes I hope they will figure it out through some other means other than me??? hmmm I really want to challege myself to do a better job in sharing the "good news" with those close to me this next year....

Deaf Pt. 2

So I finally went to the ENT on Monday night and they easily sucked out the wax from my right ear (the one I was having problems with), but for some reason had problems with the left.  (after fixing the right I asked them to clean the left too just for the heck of it)  ...well first of all everyone told me that when you have problems with wax, its a simple flush with water/oil/some type of liquid but this was definitely a long metal vacuum type thing.  After some time of trying my left ear the doc finally said it was too hard so they put some liquid in my ear and stuffed some gauze and a big cotton ball into my ear.  I walked out not being able to hear through my left ear for an entire day....

The next day went back to the ENT, and the liquid had (surprise, surprise) dried up, so they had to put more liquid in my ear and let is sit in there for some time (about 15 min)... then the vacuum long metal thing came out again to suck everything out.  This time it wasn't a simple painless procedure like with my right ear... I kid you not, it's like a root canal for the ear (and I should know this b/c I've had two root canals before).  I was in so much pain that I was writhing in pain.  One nurse had to hold my head down, and another nurse had to strap my body down as the doctor kept inserting the metal vacuum of death further and further into my ear.  At one point I felt like my brains might be sucked out through my ears...  Anyway, tears are streaming down my face and I'm wondering if this is normal or not, and why I decided to get this done... but finally it was all over and the doc pulled out a nasty hard and very LARGE chunk of dried up wax.  It was pretty sick but I can hear things I never knew I could hear before.  Things are so clear that I kind of feel like I have a super power or something....

I think the scary part of the whole thing was not so much the actual cleaning of the ear, but it was the surroundings and everything.  Like the ENT doctor wasn't in a hospital, it was just off the side of the road in a little room.  People in the waiting room can see everything that's going on in the "procedure room".  I could even see past the procedure room into another room where the doctors lived? ..and one old man was feeding and playing with a dog.... the room had dirty white walls and various unmarked bottles of random liquids were all over the desk with random unidentifiable metal instruments everywhere.  People would come in and the 100 year old doctor with a huge saucer sized magnifying glass affixed to his head would insert the metal instruments up their (nose, ears, mouth) and suck up all the guck, and then he would dip a swab into one of the random bottles of unmarked serums and then rub it in there.  Anyway, that was what I was watching for 15 min  while i was waiting for the liquid in my ear to soak in.. i guess that was why i was so freaked out by the time it was my turn. hahha but it all worked out in the end.....!

Deaf!

Ok, so finally the Chinese New Year craziness is done so I have time to write something here again... will write about that stuff a little later, right now there is a more pressing issue.  I have recently become deaf in the right ear.  It all happened Saturday night when I happened to glace at one of my shelves and notice a box of Q-tips.  Anyway, I decided that it would be a good time to clean my ears so I stuck one in my left ear and began gently swabbing.  All fine and dandy.  Then my right ear.... instantaneously I felt like I couldn't hear anymore.  Shocking.  I started walking around my house aimlessly and slightly off balance.  It was late so I decided to go to bed and maybe by some miracle of God my ear would be healed in the morning.  No such luck.

The next morning I finally went to the doc and he said that I have a rare type of ear wax for Asians.  Most asians have white flaky wax, but I have the sticky yellow kind.  Anyway, when I was "cleaning my ear" I actually pushed all the sticky wax further down my ear canal.  He wasn't a ENT (Ear Nose Throat) doctor so he recommended a few but they were closed since it was Sunday.  Now it's Monday and I have to go through the entire day of teaching with only one working ear before I can head to the doctor to get the wax sucked out.  It stinks b/c at church yesterday I kept having to say, "Sorry, can't hear you...can you speak into my good ear????"