Taiwan at a Glance

I went to Taiwan for a little less than four days. I went to attend a Single Adult conference for my church. I met a lot of AMAZING people, at fantastic food, and I left wanting to see more of Taiwan. Within 24 hours of being in Taiwan I saw people being pulled over for speeding on the freeway, rest stops with western toilets and free toilet paper, and a McDonald's menu with apple slices and a bagels with Cream Cheese. It's like another world across the Formosa Strait. I met people that knew about Minneapolis because of the Minnesota Twins baseball team!! As I participated in the Conference I met people of fantastic faith, and I strengthened my own determination to life righteous principles.
Along with me assigned team I engaged in a service project, cleaning at an experimental school. As I spent time in the surroundings, I realized the difficulties that many of the students their must face. How they are highly dependent on others to engage in rudimentary activities. It helped put into sharp focus that I am not really different from them, I too depend on many people(many unknown) to meet my families' needs and my own. Our world is so connected. The more independent and metropolitan we are...actually the more dependent and helpless we are in times of crisis. When cities loose electricity or become isolated due to weather or any other catastrophe it is painfully obvious how dependent and useless many of the "modern conveniences" are without electricity or access to clean water. I love that we need to engage in serving our neighbors, whoever they are to truly learn their worth and our own. Only by truly giving do we receive.

When I was in Taiwan, I was able to spend time with people that are of the same faith. This not only gave me renewed strength and love for my God, but a stronger desire to serve those around me and be a better example. Many find the life choices I make weird, unnecessary or old fashioned. But I can say without a doubt that they make me happier and freer from mortal vices. Sharing my testimony with new friends, and learning more about the unique struggles that people of Taiwanese and Chinese heritage have while trying to live the Gospel gave me a greater understanding of the place I live and of the difficulties that face come from our own culture and those that we love.

While in Taiwan I ate some amazing things.  I went to a small night market but had some great things.  There is this egg seafood sort of omelet above.  And to the right is a fish cake soup.  I still don't know exactly what was in this soup.  I asked, but I by that point in the evening I had stopped asking for clarification when I didn't understand and just nodded my head knowingly and joyfully spooned myself some soup and omelet.

As a die hard fan of stinky tofu, I had been told a great deal about the superiority of Taiwan's Stinky Tofu.  On a fateful Saturday evening at a small night market in LuGang, I learned why it is famous.  Stinky Tofu(pictured above right) is deep fried in smaller pieces than in Hong Kong, and served with a cabbage salad on top with the traditional tomato/vinegar slightly spicy sauce that it is served with via impaled sticks in Hong Kong. Above left is a photo of the booth that I bought different types of Cow Tongue Cookies at...don't worry the cookies don't actually have cow tongue in them.  They are just vaguely shaped like cow's tongue.  (btw, if you are open-minded enough cow tongue is actually pretty good when prepared well).  Well, hopefully I will make it back to Taiwan soon, especially since now...HK stinky tofu just makes me miss Taiwan even more.

Back to Seoul

The beginning of October I went back to Seoul, South Korea. I stayed with my friend Min, and we had a lovely time. Min always gives me great insights into my character and kindly helps me move toward improvement(I love you Min-Jung!)

The second time in Seoul, I felt at ease using the transport system and finding places I had been to before. I also traveled to Seoul with my good friend Letizia from Shenzhen, we met our friend and former schoolmate Suly Lee on her home turf and she made sure we had a ROCKIN time. We had a picnic in Hangang Park and watched a fireworks display, ate raw fish and wriggling Octopus legs at Noryangjin fish market, danced to the fountains and music at Banpo Bridge, and indulged in the Kimchi museum. Seoul is a city that is extremely bike friendly. I REALLY like that about it, I was sorely tempted to buy a bike in Seoul and bring it back with me, however - that would probably be a silly decision(even though there were SUPER cool bikes there). I enjoyed the early Autumn air and the ability to wear a jacket and scarf most days. I also ate meat. I ate A LOT of MEAT. For those of you that don't know Koreans know how to cook MEAT, and I definitely took advantage of that.

The BEST thing I have eaten in Asia aside from Tim Hou Wan Dim Sum, would have to be Pumpkin Duck. My high school friends from Kansas, took me and some others to a famous place north of Seoul, they only serve one dish.

It is duck meat cooked inside a pumpkin. It is eaten with a variety of Korean side dishes and it is HEAVENLY. I would go back to Korea just for this dish. I am not joking, I am completely serious. If I didn't absolutely dislike teaching English, I would move to Korea quick quick and live there in happiness with my friend Min :) However, I do absolutely dislike teaching English and I currently am quite happy to live in China, even though at times it is difficult and frustrating, I absolutely love my life. I will embed some videos here as well, the first is of the octopus legs that we ate, I LOVE these, I had them the first time I went to Korea and they were AWESOME. So I'm really glad to have had them again. The second is Leti eating the octopus for the first time. The third is me at Banpo Bridge, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banpo_Bridge. It is famous, read up.

Autumn...kind of

so I know it has been another 5 months since my last post....shameful I know. I have traveled China a bit more. I was in another city for 7 weeks at an internship that bored me to sobs(even though the people were excellent and I really learned a lot), and I have started school again. At the end of my spring semester I did a little traveling with a lovely pal named Laura from church. We went to Xi'an and saw the terracotta warriors, we went to the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, and I revisited Beijing and saw more that I hadn't seen last time, and some that I had. Xi'an is an interesting interior city, large and growing - developing at China-speed. However it is still experiencing many of the growing pains that all other areas of China seem to be struggling with.

The Shaolin Temple is actually one of the more interesting Buddhist Temples I have been to since coming to Asia. I have seen MANY buddhist temples since coming here, but this one was more diverse. We even got to see a little kung fu performance. I got to see more of Beijing, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, the Great Wall again.

At the beginning of May I bought a Giant road bike(OCR3500) and I've been adding some kms to it pretty steadily this summer. I was really dedicated while I was at my internship in Guangzhou(for lack of anything else to do really) but I've slacked off a little since returning to Shenzhen. Now that school has started again and I need to budget my time better I'll have to see what I can do to adjust my schedule appropriately to make room for daily 45km rides. Here's the sunrise from Shenzhen Bay as seen on a recent ride.

too long coming

So, it has been far too long since I last posted. Chinese New Year has come and gone, I went to the Philippines, South Korea and Beijing.

Currently I'm back in school, studying my ever-lovin brains out. I just had a reading and writing exam, but I failed it miserably. At this point I've decided to focus on speaking and possibly the reading and writing will come to me later. I think I'm going to pursue a career in business so speaking is most important. Chinese is a language that is one of the hardest to learn, there are too many homonyms, it is unfortunately quite a vague language - but because of that I doubt it will ever become THE international language.
My Dad and I went to the Philippines for Chinese New Year, and it was really relaxing and lots of fun. Maybe too much Daddy - Daughter time, but it was still nice.

I went to Seoul at the end of March beginning of April to see my old bestie from high school Moon Min-Jung. It was AMAZING to see her, and it helped that we were in Seoul, possibly one of the coolest cities I've been to in Asia. Seoul has an amazing arts community and a plethora of museums and culture to see and learn about. It is absurdly easy to navigate around too, and not just the metro, the bus system as well! Not to mention two of my favorite things in abundance: Korean food and SHOPPING!!
The more Korean food I eat the more I like it. Just like the more Korean music I listen to the more I like it! (I love you Big Bang!)
I went to Beijing the end of April beginning of May for the May-Day holiday. I went with some schoolmates. One Russian girl and a Ukrainian Couple.

Although they didn't plan the trip super well, I still enjoyed it, and I got to meet up with some Beijing YSA and I got to see the BYU Chamber Orchestra and best of ALL, Amanda and Jared Cook!! Amanda and Jared are old friends from BYU Film school and now work for BYU Broadcasting and I was able to see them in Beijing that weekend and two weeks later in Guangzhou. What a treasure to see them in what has come to be "home" for me.
So summer has started again in South China, which means that pretty much if I want to sauna - I just go outside. Seriously, I live in a steam sauna climate. Try as I might, it will be pointless to straighten my hair for the next 7 months.
Until December, I'll only need a sweater in case the airconditioning is turned too cold(very uncommon).
Currently no immediate travel plans, but summer looms and I want to see more things!!
I might be scoring an internship in Hong Kong though this summer, which will mean no travel, but more exploration of the SAR and getting use out of the $30 hiking book I bought last autumn.
Too bad that time in Hong Kong won't exactly improve my Mandarin.

Worst of Both Worlds

So I discovered two fine lines under my eyes that won't go away any more.
They are here to stay.
Yeah, ok...I don't take the greatest care of my skin, especially under my eyes.
I accept this.

However, about a week ago I discovered my first wrinkle.
It's center left on my forehead.

I'm 26 and I have a wrinkle. Aren't I too young?

Fate has played a cruel trick, because although I now have a wrinkle I have also learned that said wrinkle seems to be a prime location for acne to set up shop.
Yeah, just what I need. Acne scarring on top of my wrinkle.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Talk of the Town

So, something that people can't stop talking about these days is the rise of China.
We talk about it ourselves over here in China all the time.
This past Monday I was in Hong Kong with another young American and he was bemoaning the loss of power and respect that the USA has suffered the past 10 years. I said, "all good things must come to an end, and mostly it is our fault"
Regardless as to whether you agree with me or not, the fact is that China has grown in strength and power in the past decade. It has grown rich, and it has grown proud. Not unlike the United States. And just like the United States it feels it is right about certain things and because it is powerful it can express those opinions more aggressively.
I've mentioned before reasons to not fear China. China's economic standing is strong currently but it is on shaky ground. This is a great piece from Hong Kong's largest english language daily to help describe the situation: http://topics.scmp.com/news/china-business-watch/article/Todays-miracle-tomorrows-crisis
There was an issue of the Economist this past autumn that had a few articles on how India's growth is going to outpace China's. I very much agree with this, http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2010/10/13/ahead-of-the-curve-%E2%80%93-indias-growth-to-outpace-chinas.html a commentary on the issue as a whole.
India is a democracy, and therefore seems less scary to the West because it has copyright law that is better enforced than in China. India's university system is also producing more qualified and dynamic graduates than China's. We really shouldn't have a reason to be afraid, other than that their innovation industry is very dynamic and will overtake ours quickly, especially in regards to developing products and solutions for the developing world. Hopefully India won't so much overtake us, as become a healthy competitor in innovation.
Either way, competition and challenge are healthy. Isn't that what we believe as capitalists? We don't believe in monopoly of business, so why believe in a monopoly of economic and political power.
I know that this seems naive and overly idealistic. But believe me,
I'm not naive.

Can't Sleep

So I realized that this time a year ago I was debating taking up skiing or snowboarding.
A few weeks later I decided instead to move to China.
I didn't even realize that I needed a change so badly. Not that a desire to take up expensive winter sports is a sign that your life is boring. But for someone like me that enjoys cheap thrills, it should have been a a flashing Vegas style sign that I was not being challenged enough. Not that learning how to gut and fillet fish on your weekends isn't fulfilling, but I needed something altogether challenging. When I'm a little scared each time I walk out the door that something isn't going to go according to plan(because it usually doesn't).
I'm really glad I decided to buy a plane ticket instead of a snowboard. I think it suits me better.
Because I think everyone can tell you, I fall down way too easily to secure both my feet rigid objects on slippery surfaces.
As for new steps...
I bought my first CD by a Chinese artist today. Han Geng 韩庚, he used to be a member of the Korean boy band Super Junior, but now he's gone SOLO, and I bought his album. So the music video for the single from this album is a little weird, but I'm just so happy that I understand like three lines of the lyrics that I don't care. Enjoy.