Sunday 23, 2012
There’s a reason for my blog’s tardiness but there have been
complications as of late. Please forgive me and accept my humblest apologies. (Note: Saturday's Tea Party blog has been updated with pictures) (Note #2: Not all the pictures can be added in on this post yet because there are too many. I'm working on it) Shall we dive straight in then?
Good lord! And I don’t mean that as my usual version of ‘oh
my gosh.’ I am talking about the original and direct version. Akiko and I
adventured off to try a church in Taipei with a bilingual Christian service. We
thought it would be good to find a home church and learn a bit of Chinese in
the process. This church is located near the Gongguan MTR station (the same as
Saturday’s Rotary Tea Party). Following the directions Akiko found online we
find a building with the title “Hsin-Yi Friendship Presbyterian Church.”
Content with seeing the words ‘church’ we head off to grab
breakfast at a shop in close proximity, about fifty feet away. The shop’s sign
made me laugh at the Engrish grammar with the words “Is Coffee.” Phahahaha I
still love it! The door also advertised an American flag with “USA poultry and
egg export.” I was sold! So in we went and I ordered a lovely breakfast of
chicken & veggie toast sandwich with iced coffee. I didn’t realize how much
I like iced coffee until that cup. No more expensive, calorie loaded Starbucks
frappuccino! Just give me an iced coffee! :D Of course not too often. Frequent
caffeine no esta buena para yo. ;P 
The sandwich itself reeked of the United States of America.
First off it had the exported chicken but then went further to have innards I
loved to have in Texas. Lettuce, cheese, tomates and WHEAT BREAD! HELLO MY
LOVE! I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU! Duuuuuude, I loved the breakfast endlessly. Wo
yao (I want) again!
After our bellies were oh so happy, we headed off to the
church. Confusion leapt into our path as the service times we read online did
not match the church’s posted times. Finding the assistant pastor who spoke
English, we inquired and quickly found out why. This was a different church
than the bilingual one Akiko found online. Fortunately this “Friendship Church”
had an English service but it was 30-60 minutes away and I didn’t have the
availability to stay the full time slot they had which was 11:00-12:30. So
instead the man, who was very nice, directed us to another church down the
street that he believed to be the one we were originally looking for. Traveling
down the road, we immediately realized that this was yet another different
church from our desired one. This one, I think called “True Hope” was a
Lutheran church. Truthfully, I don’t know the difference between Presbyterian,
Lutheran, Protestant, Baptist, etc. Can anyone clue me in?
Akiko and I just wandered around the area, successfully
finding about three or four Christian churches in close proximity. They ALL
were not the bilingual church we wanted. How strange that Taiwan’s population
is only 3% Christian, yet I seem to run across many people of that faith AND
churches. From the Taiwanese people I’ve asked, only about 20% were not
Christians. But then again I don’t know the degree of their faith and what a
Taiwanese definition of a ‘Christian’ is.
In the end, we just attended the “Friendship Church” because
we felt slightly guilty for asking where another church was. I just want to point out I do not desire to
offend anyone of a different religion or am I trying to convert them in anyway.
I am simply blogging about my experience, which was refreshing and
rejuvenating. I’ll leave it at that. See? No harm done.
Moving on, I headed off to Taipei Main Station to meet up
with a chica called Shirley. Now I actually never met her before then but was
recommended to me by the awesome Phillip German-dude-living-it-up I mentioned a
couple weeks ago. Shirley is a total sweetheart and an amazing girl for only
being fifteen years old. I don’t mind age differences at all but I wonder how
it’s viewed in Asian culture. I don’t know. Regardless, we had a wonderful time
at the Taipei Zoo. Twas my first time to go and I’m so happy I did. More than
anything, seeing a panda in Taiwan was a must. I think pandas were the main
highlight in the entire park. For only two pandas (one pregnant), they had
their own building, tourist line, gift shop, restaurant and panda statues.
Basically, the pandas are a big deal. THEY ARE ADORABLE, FUZZY BLACK AND WHITE
CREATURES OF CUTENESS! Buggers to get a clear picture in a moving line through
glass, I JUST WANT TO CUDDLE THEM! They made me super happy. ^_^
The rest of the zoo was small, especially when compared to
the one in Houston, but nonetheless enjoyable. It was a little sad that the
bird section was closed off. The bird lover in me inwardly cried but the horse
lover was bouncing up and down because they had Prezalswoki horses! WAH! I
loved these darlings to death in elementary school! I remember doing at least
one (maybe two) projects over them in fifth grade! Andrea was happy, happy,
happy!
(The train that takes you to the top or bottom of the zoo)
After our fill of gazing at magnificent creatures in hot,
hot weather, Shirley and I took the Maokong Gondola up into the mountains to a
favorite restaurant of hers. MOUNTAINS! WO XI HUAN (I like) MOUNTAINS! How I’ve
missed mountains! Just to be surrounded by trees with that refreshing
mountainous air was so reviving! It was beautiful! I’m very grateful I was
taken up there. It was almost like a retreat to nature with good food.
Dinner was vegetable pasta, some kind of
mushroom-corn-unknown soup, bread, actual orange juice (not sugar water), milk
tea and a dessert of ice cream waffles. FYI, this was spread out over one or
two hours so it wasn’t like we downed the food in twenty minutes. :P Shirley
and I just talked about things here and there. Twas a pleasant talk. I quite
enjoyed it. She’s such a sweet girl, there’s no way you can’t have a good time
with her. I loved it when she described her iPod as her boyfriend, her iPhone
as her finance and her laptop as her husband. It shows it level of commitment
she has to each one respectively. ;P Playing along, I would comment that she
needed to feed her finance soon or he would faint. XD
The ride back down the mountain on the gondola was
iiiiinteresting. Each gondola carriage would hold eight people maximum. We were
close together but not squished. Peacefully taking in the beautiful view at
night, all of a sudden I feel a growing weight on my left shoulder. That weight
was the older man next to me, falling asleep as gravity pulled him towards me.
Startled but not having any problems with this cute little act, I just let him
rest. Soon though he popped awake and my shoulder was free. Not long after, the
weight returned as he fell asleep again. This pattern happened several times on
the lengthy gondola ride. It was adorable how he kept falling asleep and
leaning on my side.
And I shall end the post on that light-hearted note. Good night/morning!
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