Church

On Saturday we went to Hsinchu (fifteen minute train ride away) just for fun. At the train station on our return, who should we run into but two missionaries!, straight from the heart of Utah. (Seriously, they could not have been more Utah'n if we paid them. It was awesome.) They stood out like flies in milk. It was so relieving to see them I must say. We had been wondering about the church situation here and trying to figure it out. The phone number for the Bishop on LDS.org was incorrect as I had tried it and so we were planning on just winging it on Sunday and hopefully ending up at the right place at the right time for church. Well luckily we ran into the missionaries in the middle of a billion people and they were able to tell us exactly where to be and at what time for church. Miraculous indeed. I almost took a picture and said, "I'm going to email your parents a picture of us," but refrained because that's weird. (People did that to me all of the time though!)

So this morning we set off for church; pioneer style. We started at 8 am and walked the twenty minutes to the train station. Then waited another forty until the train took off for Taipei. We weren't sure about the train situation so that's why we left so early. It took 1 hour and 55 minutes to get to Taipei with all the stops along the way. Once we got there we took a 5 minute taxi to the church and boom! we were there. We were about 15 minutes late but glad we made it.

It is seriously an awesome building. I'll take more pictures next week because I didn't want to look too "touristy" my first time at this church. It's on the same lot as the Taipei temple.

There's no young single adult ward but there's an english speaking ward, and it may as well have been a Utah ward: packed and full of children. A lot of US Government employees over here for whatever reason. Everyone was super nice and the Bishop introduced me to the young single adult representative for the ward. My first thought was, "Taiwan has enough english speaking ysa's to have a representative?" He said they do a lot of stuff so that should be fun. Might be tricky living farther away but sacrifices must be made for a social life sometimes, dangit!

The Taipei temple.

I have always wondered what church was like in other countries. But really, it was no different at all. Glad to know it's the exact same all over the world and I can finally say that I now have experience in knowing that.

Field Trip

Winter Camp is still going on at the school I'm working at.

School officially starts March First, but I'm shadowing other teachers and have already been overseeing the kids that will be in my class in a week.

This week we went on a field trip to the Zhunan library. It was a short trip (as I am learning more every minute that children's attention spans are about as long as it took you to read this sentence). The library was smaller but still pretty neat. We only went in one room that was meant for kids.

Riding the van-bus.

The Little Mermaid

In the libraries here you aren't allowed to wear shoes.

It was cool.

Also, they're obsessed with arm hair.

Apartment

Sorry for not posting this sooner. Apparently when you move across the world your body needs to adjust which involves a "getting sick" process. Cold, sneezing, sleepiness, runny nose...all the good stuff. But I'm all better now.

So my apartment...

I live in Zhunan. I thought the whole time before coming here that I would be working and living in Hsinchu City, which is bigger city. But false!, I live and work in Hsinchu County. Hsinchu City is only a 15 minute train ride away. But the city is called Zhunan (or Jhunan, or Chunan, depending on what map you look at or who you're talking to).

My apartment is pretty cool. It's not a normal looking apartment. It's comparable to a San Francisco apartment and/or flat (obviously not as prestigious). Skinny and tall; 4 flights up (5 if you count the basement that I haven't been down to). It's a quarter mile from the school so it is only a five minute walk away; fifteen minute walk from the train station. It's in a good area but not very transient or busy, at least at night. And it's near a 7/11 (but it's not your normal 7/11...future post on that). Plus, the school pays for it so no expenses there!

I have three roommates. Luis, Nick, and Kristi (friend from college). Luis is from Boston and Nick from Wyoming. Luis has been here since July and Nick for 18 months. Both are very nice and helpful and respectful. When school starts March 1st we'll probably all see a lot more of each other but so far very little.

Maps (close up, a little farther, and the whole country):

Here is a video walk-through of the outside and inside of my apartment:

Some outside shots:

Home sweet home.

First Saturday

I know I said my next post would be about my apartment, but not yet.

So our school has two principals: Monica and Lucy. I think they're mother/daughter but I'm not quite sure. Lucy was a foreign exchange student in L.A. and has perfect english, so that helps a lot. Monica speaks well too but sometimes I need a translator. But anyway, two very nice people.

Today they took 5 of us foreign teachers out to brunch in Jhubei (about twenty minutes away...I live in Jhunan...not that that makes any difference to you...or me for that matter!). It was so much fun. I had no clue, obviously, where we were going but it ended up being somewhere very ritzy. They brought us fancy drinks and about every five minutes they came out with another plate, one after the other for a good hour, all full of different foods. From french fries to tree roots. All eaten with chop sticks.

I got the Honey Lemonade. It was phenomenal.

No clue what this was but it was delicious.

Above are the roots. They don't look like roots, but they are.

I did not eat it all, but it all was awesome.

So then someone I don't know gave us a ride back to our apartment. We have an electric metal door that goes up and down with a click from our remotes on our keychain. It's actually really cool. Anyway, we walk up to it and find this note:

It says:

"Kristi and Craig - No electricity in the house so the gate won't open. Should have someone coming to fix it around 6 pm. - Luis (a guy we live with)."

It was currently 2:45.

So we had nothing to do but wait in the cold. I guess we could have walked to a local store or something and sit there but we didn't. It's hard to explain the neighborhood we live in but it's not that transient, at least as far as I can tell so far. So we sat in the chilly weather and waited.

This picture is exaggerated but it was chilly.

Not happy.

Finally, around 5 I decided to just press my clicker to see if it would work and lo and behold, the gate went up! So we were able to get in.

It was an eventful (and delicious) first saturday, that's for sure. Still learning a lot about where I am and getting advice on things to go see while I'm here.

Meanwhile, they have this everywhere:

7/11 Heaven!

The Taiwanderer

Well I made it!

I'm in Taiwan.

Emphasis on I'M. IN. TAIWAN.

I know, right?

What on EARTH is Craig Shipley doing in Taiwan!?

That one guy whose very own mission call was to a neighboring, touching, practically over-lapping state (Arizona) of his very own (California) he's been to every summer since 1996.

Surely he's not serious about being on the other side of the planet?!

Well, surprisingly, it's true.

And I'm teaching English to little Chinese speaking kids in an English teaching school.

So on February 13th, my parents dropped me off at the San Francisco Airport for a midnight flight. And I was on my way to the unknown.

First off, I must give a shout-out to my friend Emily for coming up with the creative title of this blog. I thought for weeks what I should name it and finally, day of departure, she texts me "Life As A Taiwanderer." Brilliant.

These are my personal accounts.

Let us begin.

The flight here was 14 hours. Yikes. It was a rather long time trapped inside a tiny vessel. I slept on and off but only about 3 hours tops.

My friend, Kristi, who will be making frequent appearances here came along with me. She's the younger sister of one of my best friends from college, Katie. Long story short, I invited Katie to come with me to Taiwan. She couldn't, but suggested it to her sister who applied and got the job. I know Kristi pretty well from college too.

This is us after just landing in Taiwan at 6 am on February the 15th. Granted, it was 2 pm in the afternoon at home on February the 14th. And with three hours of sleep (only a 1/2 hour for her), we were exhausted and just wanted to crash. But couldn't.

We got picked up by the school we're working at. We were driven by a guy who spoke no english (which at the time was perfect because I was so exhausted that I didn't want

to talk to anybody). The drive was foggy and rainy the whole way. I got a headache from lack of sleep on this car ride that would last the rest of the day. It took about 90 minutes to get to our apartment. (I'll share more on my apartment/roommate situation in the next post)...but for now here is the view from my 4th floor balcony:

They let us rest for about half an hour in our rooms and then picked us back up to take us to the school. It's only about a 5 minute walk to the school, and a 30 second drive. Very close. (Two posts from now I'll do a whole post on the school).

But we met the owners, Monica and Lucy. They speak fluent English (thankfully) and seem really nice. We spoke with them for a 1/2 hour just about contract stuff and then they said I would be with the 6 year olds for the following semester. I'm happy about this. Right then I got to go see my classroom and meet my kids (who were in another classroom for a "winter camp" session). I got to help out and introduce myself to the students for about half an hour. I'm officially "Mister Craig". It was very eye-opening finally putting face to the teaching situation. They're already really smart kids so this will be a piece of rice cake. Hopefully.

But truthfully during all of this contract hoopla and meeting my kids, all I really wanted to do was be in bed. I was beyond tired and had a massive headache from no sleep (I don't sleep well on planes). And truthfully the first day was just so overwhelming.

But we obviously needed to go shopping for a few things. So they took us to the "R.T. Mart" which is equivalent to a Target or Wal-Mart. It was nice knowing we weren't far from a normal shopping situation. It was also my first experience using Taiwan money! (a future post on money will happen). But I've already gotten used to it and it isn't that difficult to figure out.

So after all this they knew we were practically American-looking zombies who just needed

sleep. So we got back to our apartment around 1 pm. I was so high on adrenaline and anxiousness of being in a new place/land/time zone/building/bed that it took a while to calm my mind down. But I knew once I got sleep and had the opportunity to relax that everything would work out and the overwhelmingness would go away.

And it worked! I slept from 3:30 pm to 4:45 am the next morning. Best sleep ever. I woke up refreshed and feeling great and excited. Headache gone. Also it down-poured the entire night, which I love.

So my first observations of Taiwan are:

• It really doesn't seem THAT different from things I've seen in America (maybe I'm blind it all at the moment? not sure...and truthfully I haven't seen that much yet). Obviously everything is in Chinese symbols, but the English letters are usually right beneath the Chinese ones.

• Everyone is extremely polite. People can tell we're foreigners and try to help however they can.

• A lot of people speak English just because they were taught as kids growing up and so forth.

• I'll be offered lots of coffee and tea while being here, of which I don't drink.

• It's actually pretty chilly here during the winter. They don't have air conditioning though so the airport right when we landed was very warm and humid. But once we were outside it was crisp and cold. I haven't seen the sun once yet (only been here two days though). It's been cold and rainy and very windy. My favorite weather! But I've been warned of the hellish summer ahead.

So that was my first day here. I'll be honest and say that I'm glad the first day is over. As I get more in the routine of things and in the groove it will get a lot easier and more home-like.

I look forward to experiences ahead.

Nowhere to go but up from here.

More to come.