Wow...It's been almost a month since I last wrote a blog post...I guess that's what happens when one gets too busy...(If any of my professors are reading this, you should think about suspending class and giving everyone an A!)

Granted, I've been doing some traveling, so that adds up to the whole "super busy" thing - haven't had as much time to study as I would like.

Two weeks ago, I was in Taipei to hang out with a friend - we went to '2012' - awesome special effects, stupid story, and wayyy too much like "Day After Tomorrow" for my taste. I stayed in a small hostel in Taipei recommended by my roommate. That alone should have been a warning, but surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. It's amazing what you can get for NT300 (about $10 USD)

Last week, I went to Kaosiung (in southern Taiwan) to visit a friend and her family. It was a lot of fun to visit new places, and I also visited an island that I went to last year. It did feel weird to go swimming a week before Thanksgiving. I had another lesson in adaptability - I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, with brownies for dessert - There was no ground beef at the store, so I used ground pork. I used flour instead of breadcrumbs, and for the brownies, I used dark chocolate instead of unsweetened bakers chocolate, and just dropped the amount of sugar.

Since then, nothing too much but studying - visited the hospital on Friday, went to Dansui...good times

Last weekend was rather unique - and insane. I decided to meet up with some friends, former TAs(teacher assistants) in Taipei, along with other former King Car teachers, and another friend I had met randomly. Since I was going to Danshui, I thought of inviting some classmates along - foreigners who had never been to Danshui before.

Danshui is a fishing village outside of Taipei that has become a tourist attraction, lots of shops, food stands, and generally a fun place to just hang out. We got to Danshui around 1pm, walked around for a while, ate food, and hung out until 2:15, when I went back to meet the TAs and other teachers at the MRT station. We spent the rest of the afternoon in two different groups. The group from school went to the other side of the river while I was waiting for the TAs and other people I was supposed to meet. We didn't meet up for several hours, and spent a lot of time playing telephone tag, trying to find each other.

It was neat to see friends I hadn't seen in a while, and catch up with what's been happening in their lives. I had a lot of fun just talking, though the whole telephone tag thing was a little frustrating.

About 7, we all met up at Starbucks, and was finally able to see everyone at once. A little while later, everyone split up, and I went out to dinner with one of the friends who had come for the day. We walked around a bit, trying to find a decent place to eat that wasn't crazy expensive, and finally settled for the basement of SOGO, where they had decent food at decent prices. After that, we walked around a little more, and eventually found a tea shop where we talked a little more. By that time, I was supposed to meet up with someone who was supposed to give me a place to stay for the night.

Julie, another TA that I met last year, invited me to her church on Sunday. However, she asked a friend of hers, Earvin, if he could let me stay at his apartment. It took a little while for Earvin to find me, as I'm not too familiar with Taipei, and wasn't sure exactly where I was. He finally found me about 11:30, and I went back to his place. We were able to talk a bit, and I found out that he went through the VOICE program, a Christian intercultural program that was run by IBLP, the group in America that I had worked with, and who was the catalyst for me coming to Taiwan in the first place.

This being the case, he and I knew a lot of the same people - he pulled out a book, with names and pictures of all the VOICE students and staff, and I found a lot of names and faces of people I knew.

We eventually got to bed, and went to church the next morning. I went to an English Sunday school class, with an American missionary from Indiana. After talking to him a little bit, I found out that he's lived in Taiwan for 15 years, 12 of them in Taichung, a city in southern Taiwan. I found out that he knows an American missionary that I know working in Taichung.

The service was all in Chinese, which was ok - I followed along the best I could, but really couldn't get the gist of the message. After church, Earvin and I went to the Chen's house. They're the head of the IBLP staff in Taiwan. Earvin had told them that he was coming, and that he was bringing someone with him. When I walked in the door, they were quite surprised that we knew each other.

It was really neat to see the Chens, other friends that I wasn't planning on seeing.

Overall, it was a great weekend, and I was able to see a lot of friends that I hadn't seen for a while. On the other hand, I learned that it's not worth it to try to get 3 different groups together at the same time, especially if I'm the only one who knows all of them, and that I probably should have just done this in 2 or 3 different trips.