I hate Layovers...

Right now I am at a computer in the taipei airport terminal. I have a 9 hour layover and I was very excited about this because I thought I could actually go see taipei, unfortunately, they wont let me leave the airport. I was NOT happy. So, I never wrote about China so I will do my best to remember my week and write about it now.

China Day 1

Mostly, two things stand out to me about my first day in China. 1. cab drivers and 2. scorpions.

My cab ride was hilarious. My driver did not speak a word of english so I showed him the chineese map of where to take me and that was as much communication as we could have. All seemed to be fine until I got to the hostel. The meter read 95 Yuan. I handed him a 100. He starts yelling at me in chineese. I try and tell him I dont understand. He is showing me a little pice of paper and I have NO idea what the paper is. I show him my money and try and ask him if its more for some reason. He just keeps yelling. This honestly went on for 15 minutes. I sat in the back of his cab and he would not let me out and just got more and more angry. I put my forhead on the seat in front of me because i was so frustrated and just listened to him yell. A young looking man walked down the street and i rolled down the window and asked if he spoke english. He did not but got is friend who did. The man translated for me that we had gone through a toll and I needed to pay 10 more yuan. I paid and have never been so thankful to get out of a cab in my life.

I went in the hostel, found rich and we went to the night market. This leads me to the scorpions. At the night market you are bombarded with people shouting at you and grabing your clothes trying to pull you into their stand. Before getting to the stands you walk through a little area where they sell a lot of food. They really love meat on sticks in china, but not normal meat. They had lizards, chicken hearts, starfish, seahorses, dog meat, centepides and scorpions all on display to buy and eat. The scorpions, however, came impaled with about 4 on a stick and THEY WERE STILL ALIVE! They were thrashing their tails around and did not look happy to have a wooden spike poked through their bodys. When you bought scorpions to eat they simply threw the squer of live scorpions on the grill... fried them up and they were ready to eat. People said they were really crispy. Rich wanted to try some but didnt get around to it. I was very thankful.

Our hostel was AMAZING. We stayed at the Wangfujing youth hostel and I loved it. It was so clean and we stayed in a a room with 4 other people. One guy named Yohan who was hilarious and three quiet little asian girls. They were the perfect roomates. I had a little bed that was stuck in the wall and it had a little noise maker box and a curtain that I could close when I went to bed. The people there were amazing and I have never met staff that were more helpful or friendly in my life. They had a tiny cafe where everyone hung out and you could just grab a drink or some food and sit around and meet people from all over the world. Staying in hostels is a dangerous thing for me because I honestly though that after traveling for 3 weeks I would get some of my passion for adventure and travel out of my system but meeting people who have so many amazing stories about where they have been and where they are going just made me more restless. People were shocked that I was in china for 1 week and only traveling for a total of 3. People who stay in hostels live this crazy life style where they travel for months and months at a time. They are so freindly, layed back, adventurous, passionate and see life in such an interesting way. Its almost like travel is an artform. I think meeting people at the hostel may have been my favorite part of traveling.

Old men followed by flys

So I will write about China when I have a chance but unfortunately China blocked facebook and all blogs because of the riots they had a few weeks ago. China was absolutely amazing and more than I could have imagined but right now im back in Taiwan. I am tired and would like to go to sleep but will write about my time here the past few days quickly before heading to bed.

I was very lucky because I was in Beijing while the typhoon hit taiwan and I flew to taiwan when the typhoon hit Beijing. The eye of the typhoon did not hit kaoushung, where I am staying, although it caused a TON of mudslides about a half hour from here in kaoshung county and over a hundred people died and a ton are missing. Its really sad. Everything is pretty wind blown here and there were trees down everywhere when I got back.

I felt extremely proud of myself coming back from China though. I found my way around the city without any help from the airport to Jennas apartment. This was amazing to me because I took the subway and did not remember to bring her address. I got a bit lost and it took me almost two hours of travel to get there (and so much walking!!!) but I did it.

That night the air conditioner broke. Being in 90 degree weather with no AC is NOT fun. We got a taxi and drove to one of the only 24 hour stores in the city, bought a fan, came home and realized that it did not work. It was already midnight so i just defeatedly decided not to pay tons of money and wast another hour of my life to take the fan back. Instead, we went to the 7-11 and ate ice cream. It was not a good nights sleep but I made it. Got a fan the next day but did not have AC for three days. It was miserable.

Yesterday, Jenna and I traveled to Kenting and stayed in a hostel there. Its a little beach city at the very bottom of Taiwan, about 3 1/3 hours south of here. The water is usually clear there and the mountains are beautiful. Going 4 days after a typhoon may not have been the best idea but it was fun and im glad I saw it. Our hostel did not have water yet because of the typhoon so the woman took us to her house so we could shower in her little taiwaneese shower. The shower is basically an open room with a toilet, sink and shower and its all tiled. There is no shower curtain and the whole bathroom fills up with water. its an interesting experience. The people here are so kind and trusting. the owner of the hostel has a three month old baby that she let Jenna and i play with for a while and she would just leave the room and leave her daughter with complete strangers for like 20 minutes! Its crazy to me! She was so sweet though and felt horrible about not having water. I cant believe she drove us to her house and let us use her own shower! Another awesome example of how great people here are is i was walking home in the rain the other night and this little old man walk up next to me and motions for me to share his umbrella with him! I love how kind the people here are.

Last night, in kenting, we went to the night market. I got fried sweet potato which was super yummy. I am so grossed out by the squid on a stick that I see EVERYWHERE though. We met two people staying at our hostel, clara and calvin, who are from hong kong and they walked around with us. They are English teachers and were excited to practice their english with us. they loved telling us what different foods were and what they are called in chinese. They were so sweet! they also had this stand set up where there were about 5 men giving messages to people. All five of them were blind! I thought it was so cool that these men were able to be independent and have real jobs even though they were blind. It was just so sweet to see them working so hard and using the gifts that they do have to serve others and make a living.

The water in kenting was also cold and murky from the typhoon and there was trash all over the first day. today it was cleaned up a lot more but there were hundreds of flys from all the trash. We would get up and walk down the beach and they would follow us. Jenna said she felt like we were smelly old men that had flys following them lol. We couldnt take it so we left early, but I got a little sun first which was nice.

I am thankful for the sovereignty of God and that nothing can harm me unless he allows it because that is the only thing that kept me from freaking out in the car on the way back. I have had crazy drivers in other countries before so its not a huge surprise to me to be weaving in and out of traffic but i never really feel safe. I can not comprehend how they dont get in an accident every time they drive. I took two dramamine and still though I was going to throw up. Jenna was pretty sick as well.

Well I'm exhausted from so much travel today! Goodnight!!!

The trashmen make me laugh...

Oh the things you see in Taiwan. Today I saw a little asian mommy with one of those "baby bjorn" things on... its the little strappy thing that you can carry your babys on your back or on the front of you with. Well... She had one infant on her back, and one on her stomach and she was riding her moped down the highway with them. So much for child safety seats. I just laughed. And then said a quick prayer for the safety of those children lol.

I went to the beach with Jenna today and we went to this cute little light house. It was on this little island which is all very beachy. They were selling a lot of squid on scewers and these little snails that you suck the inside out of the shells. It was a bit scarry to me but im getting a lot more accustomed to seeing tiny kiosks full of assorted scarry meat. Jenna and I, to get around, got a little tandem bike haha. It was so funny! It honestly made my day! It was SO rediculously hot though. We had to hike up these really really steep streets to get to the light house. We then found our way to the beach and the sand is all black! you think the sand gets hot and burns your feet in america... try walking on black sand! But the ocean was warm which was nice. We got a little lost on our ferry ride home. Ferry is NOT spelled Fairy by the way... travis corrected Jenna and asked if she was riding on a tiny mythological creatrue when she texted him where we were lol. I found that amusing. Anyway... we to the ferry to the wrong place and had to get a cab home.

Now I am sitting her waiting to go to dinner at Charles's house. He is a friend they made who is taiwaneese. Im so scared to have dinner there beceause I know I will have to eat all sorts of scarry meat. If you know me well, you know I bearly eat meat in america because im scared of most of it. Im excited for the experience though.

right now the trashman is driving by. They play rediculously "cute" music like an ice cream truck would. I guess trashmen are not cute enough to be in taiwan so they needed to do something to make them a little cuter. I find this hilarious. I am laughing right now as it is driving past.

I leave for China super early tomorrow morning. Im nervous because everyone tells me people in china are not as nice as they are here and are not as helpful if you dont speak the language. Well... It will be an adventure!

Bright lights and 50 tea!

A few things I really like about taiwan:

1.Bright lights- Everything here at night is colorful and light up. This makes me very happy. I like rainbow lights. Its pretty much magical. :)

2. 50 tea!! not so much the black tea with ice cream in it. Its yummy but made my stomach a bit queeze. And not so much the tea with pearls (little bubble thingies that are sort of gummy and starchy but not really flavorful at all) because there are so many at the bottom of your tea that you feel so full of starchiness, like you just a ate a bagel. But the honey green tea is maybe the most amazing tea i have ever had in my life. That tea alone was worth my thousand dollar plane ticket to come here. 

3. Don Bing's... There are no words for how Delicious these are. its a green spring onion pancake with a fried egg in it. yes, it sounds gross... but is AMAZING. My favorite part of each day is getting up in the morning, waking to 50 tea to get a green honey tea and then going to get my Don bing. There are not words for how fabulous that is and how happy my tea and don bing make me. The only thing that makes my Don Bing better is the little old asian man who sells them. I wish I could ask him his name! All he can say in English is, sit down, go home and bye bye. He waves frantically every time I walk by the stand to go anywhere and always says "go home!!!" in a joking voice and laughs really hard haha. I want to shrink him to the size of a quarter and take him home with me. He is the happiest man I have ever met. Jenna and Travis dont know his name either so they have officially named him "Don Bing". 

4. HILARIOUS english tee shirts. They make no sense. Half the time your not even sure what they are trying to say in english. The other half of the time what it says has nothing to do with the picture on the t-shirt. 

5. how friendly people are. I have had wonderful conversations with a few people so far. They just come right up to you and ask where you are from in their adorable broken english. They are so sweet and I love them! One girl took a picture of me on her cell phone today and turned around and walked away without saying anything haha. It made me laugh a lot. 

Things Im not such a big fan of:

1. uneven side walks! I seriously think I just might kill myself. I can not tell you how many times I have tripped since being her. 

2. The heat!!! It is seriously nine thousand billion trillion degrees here. Every picture I take im sweaty in! My make up literally melts off my face. I have given up trying to wear it! I get out of the shower and start sweating within minutes. I have decided its a bit like Chinese water torture. Its ok at first and then it just wears on you. You cant get away from it. 

3. bugs... i am glad the mosquito's here dont Carry deadly diseases like malaria because no amount of bug spray seems to keep them off of me. I hate them all an wish they would die. 

4. the air pollution. It smells like warm garbage quite often when you walk down the street. If you walk over a sewer grate you just smell hot sewage. If they are cooking stinky tofu any wear near you can pretty much count on throwing up from the smell. Stinky tofu is made out of tofu and rotten cabbage. 

5. Not knowing how to order anything other than noodles for lunch and dinner. seriously... it gets old. 

Taiwan adventures

So I feel a lot less tired now which is really great. Jet lag is not super fun. I have really been enjoying my time in taiwan and it has actually been extremely relaxing. This may be the most I have felt relaxed all year. I have been going to bed around 9 or 10 and waking up around 6... which sounds early but is a good 8 hours of sleep. I wake up, go get breakfast, take a shower, read a little, check e-mail, maybe talk to justin a little through skype and then by around 9 or 9:30 Jenna wakes up. Its such a relaxing way to start my day. I then get to spend all afternoon with jenna walking around taiwan. Jenna goes to work around 3 or 5 depending on the day and is gone until 9:30. I get to explore taiwan alone all afternoon. I have not had this much alone time in...well... i cant remember. I forgot how refreshing it feels. I usually fill my time with people but since im here I cant really do that. I have lots of time to explore, read, nap, whatever I want to do! I really want to sit by "love river" and read but its so incredibly hot that I need to wait for the sun to go down. Its definitely in the mid 90's. In america I shower every other day. Here, you get dirty so fast! I dont know if its the heat or air pollution but my hair gets greasy half way through the day and im breaking out from all the heat and sweating so much. I never really feel clean. Thats the only thing I have found that I really dont like here. Everything else is pretty fun :)

So I went to the night market last night and walked around which was a lot of fun, not to mention hilarious. They LOVE anything that is really "cute" and sparkly, like really crazy sparkly jewelry or little cartoons and animae. They attempt to write english on things but its so broken and most of the time does not make any sense. Its hilarious! My favorite thing to do is to read all of the t-shirts. Its fabulous entertainment. 

I had to use the bathroom in a department store the yesterday. It was a "squatter" toilet which means it is basically an oval in the ground and you stand over it and pee. There was a sign in the stall that said "line up to keep it fresh" haha. I laughed so hard. 

Out of all of my adventures so far the most amazing of all was my asian message. I have had a head ache since I got to taiwan because my back was so tense from traveling. I tend to get tension head aches a lot but from being on a plane for 23 and a half hours and carrying my giant back packing bag on my shoulders I was hurting. I passed a little store front message parlor and saw that an hour long message was only about 20 U.S. Dollars. I decided that I would get one while jenna was at work tonight. I had NO idea what I was in for. This tiny little innocent looking asian woman with beast hands gave me my message. Now I like my messages pretty hard but I have never experienced anything like this. I was honestly in pain. She was so rough! I kept telling her softer which at first she didnt understand but i kept saying "ouch!!!" and I think that is pretty universal. She finally got it and would be a tiny bit more gentle for a minute or two and the regress to her more brutal state within minutes. Some of the things I was not accustomed to when compared to previous messages was 1. having her message me with her feet while walking on my back. (she would dig her toes into my butt which actually hurt a lot haha) 2. smacking my back with open palms extremely hard (I felt like I was being beaten!) 3. having her take a towel, wrap it around my neck and then, holding the ends of the towel, yank the towel twisting my head violently to the side which cracked my neck a million times (i was afraid i was going to end up paralyzed) 4. stretching my legs to the point I was almost folded in half with my nose touching my knee ready to cry. (I kept saying ouch and she just laughed and smiled at me haha). and 5. cracking my fingers 6 different times through out the message, which, by the way I HATE when people crack my fingers. All of that to say, it was quite the experience. I do have to say that upon leaving my head ache was gone and my back actually felt a lot better. It was very painful but apparently helped a lot. I feel great right now but im not sure its an experience I would want to go through just to "relax". I feel like she should have been wearing black leather and hand cuffed me to the message table she was so rough haha. Well... it was definitely an adventure! 

I think im going to nap for half an hour and then go to the river to read and maybe get some gan mien (dry noodles) because its all I know how to order here. All I seem to eat here are noodles, which I love, but they start to feel like a giant brick in your stomach after eating them constantly. I am actually starting to crave fruit and veggies... which i normally dont like all that much. Starch gets a little old after a while and its only been three days! I think there may be a serious possibility of me turning into a noodle!

Taiwan!

Right now it is 7:48 pm here in taiwan and 7:48 am back in the states. Its crazy how you can fly into the future. If you are reading this from America you are living in july 27th but I am living in july 28th. Im like a time traveler! A very very deliriously tired/jet lagged time traveler who has not slept yet. Im trying to make it till 9 tonight so I can sleep through the night.

Jenna and trav-dad are at work (They work evenings) so I have decided to blog in order to occupy my time and stay awake for another hour and 13 minutes.

I think my favorite part of my flight was when we landed in Anchorage Alaska to refule at 4 am. We all got off the plane and a little tiny stand opened up for us so we famished travelers could also refuel. In this tiny concession stand was a vast array of breakfast foods. They had everything from bagels to cereal to breakfast sandwiches. One menu item caught my attention and my mind quickly returned to kindergarten when I was given the "which one does not fit with these" worksheets for homework. In the middle of the plethora of assorted breakfast items was a plate full of GIANT hot dogs. Now Im not sure who eats hot dogs at 4 AM unless you are in college and have not gone to bed for night yet but I found this strange. Suddenly, I glanced at the sign and realized they were not hot dogs at all but REINDEER DOGS! Yes, Santa's little helpers all ground up and served for breakfast. Who eats reindeer? I thought eating deer was bad enough. Who wants to eat bambi? But now Alaskan children are being forced to eat prancer, dancer, dasher and rudolf. Had I not been so ridiculously tired i may have tried one just to say I once ate a reindeer in alaska at 4 am, but my stomach didnt feel too settled about that idea.

Once I got to Taiwan the first thing I saw as a big metal trashcan. I realized I was at a loss as I had not brought any small animals to "deposit" into the large metal quarantine box. I laughed so hard as I read the sign that kindly asked to make a deposit of all animals into the trashcan looking bin, along with plants and insects. I imagined three small rodents and a poodle all scurrying around the bottom of the metal trashcan, but I didnt look.

I ate a don bing today. my first Taiwanese food. It was a green onion pancake with a fried egg wrapped up in it. I was sceptical at first... but it was surprisingly yummy. I think i will like the food here.

On many of the houses there are red glowing lights at night. Jenna told me that the red light is where people believe their own personal god resides. They go out and worship it and burn incense to different idols many times through the day. The red light is good luck or good karma or something and I guess the gods are attracted to it. It is sad to see so much idol worship. I dont think they worship idols much more than the gods of materialism or success and power that we worship in america... but there is something sobering about watching people bow to metal gods that will not come through for them. My heart feels burdened and wishes they knew the one true God that all other gods bow to. I wish they knew truth and could be set free by it. There is so much oppression here. Jenna told me there is a young man they often pass on their way to work. He has a mental disability and they let him go outside sometimes. When they let him out of the house they chain him to a wall, like hes on a leash, so he cant run off. He just sits in his front yard in chains. I can not think of anything more oppressive. My heart breaks for this man. He desperately needs freedom. But whether someone is chained to a wall or chained to an idol its all the same. Christ came to proclaim freedom for the captives.

As burdened as my heart feels... there is almost something refreshing about how in your face the oppression is here. Its not masked behind quite so much deception like it is in America.You dont have to sort through quite so many lies to see the oppression thats beneath it. Its out in the open. Its everywhere. And all i can do as i walk down these streets is silently pray.

Purpose of travel

I just booked almost all of my flights yesterday. I am so excited about this summer! While most of my travel that I will be doing before Ecuador is more just for pleasure rather than having some bigger purpose behind it I have been praying a lot that that time would not be frivolous or in vain.
So far, I will be leaving June 23 to go to palm beach florida and stay at Nicoles house with my girls from college for some much needed fellowship and hang out time. I fly out from palm beach on the 26th and fly to JFK where I get another flight a few hours later to Taiwan. I will spend a week in Taiwan with Jenna and then to from there to China for a week and then return a week later on august 9th to Taiwan where I will spend another week with Jenna before flying home. I will then arrive at JFK at 11:45 pm, camp out on the ground somewhere and then get my flight to California at 7:00 am at JFK the next morning where I will then arrive at California at 10:20 am very disheveled, exhausted, unshowered and half-dead…and I cant wait. Most people would call this crazy. I'm not sure I will argue with them. I then leave the second week of sep to go to Ecuador for 6 months.There is something in me that is so deeply excited about my trips and I know it is deeper than just my desire to travel. My heart is so convinced that God has so much he wants to do in me during this time and I absolutely can not wait to see what it is and how it is accomplished. Over the past few weeks I have spent time asking God what my vision and purpose for going on these trips should be, other than simply to enjoy the opportunities and life he has given me. I am utterly convinced that if Christ is not first my greatest adventure and second at the very center of every adventure I have then my time will be in vain and I will miss so many treasures Christ has for me to find during this time.
I believe Gods given me a heart to seek things out. In ways, I look at adventure as a way to understand God in deeper ways. I want to know and love my God as deeply as possible. What better way to do that then to understand different cultures, see his beautiful creation and engage with people who are so different from me and yet are all part of Gods kingdom. Its like the more I know about life and Gods creation the more I know of him. I find this beautiful. I look at adventure in so many ways as worship. There are so many reasons that make me so deeply passionate about travel and they seem to be somewhat abstractly floating around my brain fueling my desire to travel. That is why I have been asking God to help me to map this out and put these abstract feelings on paper so I can see my purpose and vision a bit better. These are some of the things I believe God and I have worked through together that I would like to see happen during my time away:

· Learn to be comfortably uncomfortable and joyfully broken and satisfied… This is very scary for me to pray because I know that means I will not be comfortable all the time. I don't like to be uncomfortable. I don't like that I don't like to be uncomfortable. I believe growing up as I have in America has given me a sense of entitlement to comfort that I think is completely contrary to the gospel. We are not called to live comfortable lives and we certainly do not DESERVE comfortable lives. I want to learn to be comfortable living an uncomfortable life. I want to know what it is to be satisfied and joyful while broken. This I have learned a great deal of while going through trials the past few years… but Its something I know needs to continue to be refined in me.

· Understand beauty in humanity in deeper ways and walk into deeper worship as I see more of Gods creation, as well as be better equipped to love people and God better as a result of experiencing them both in deeper ways.

· Understand community and NEED and reliance on community in deeper ways… I can not wait to live in a small village in Ecuador where people depend on each other and live life along side each other. I know I have SO much to learn from them.


· Be better equipped to counsel and walk beside broken people as I gain a broader understanding of humanity from seeing life lived out in so many different ways.

· Learn to be and not to do… I want to learn what it is to live life intentionally while at the same time not living like things depend on me. They don't. They depend on God. I give myself way to much credit for success and am way to hard on myself for failure. I am a vessel that God works through and I need to understand this. I need to learn to trust and rely on God and rest in him. I want to learn to simply be. To love God and abide in him and for all else to effortlessly flow out of that intimate relationship with Christ.

· Learn to pray like my life depends on it and truly live like I believe in its power. I believe in the power of prayer and I always am prayerful but when you have everything you need its hard to pray like you are desperate. I find myself more just talking to God than really pleading with him in power on behalf of others and myself. I do have times of intense prayer… but they are not nearly as often as I would like. This is something I am always wanting to work on and I don't plan on waiting till my trips to keep growing in my prayer life, however, I somehow think that being in a place where I don't have the ease and accommodations I have in America will force me to depend on God to provide…because there is no other provision. That scares me and excites me beyond belief at the same time. I can not wait to see the ways God comes through for me when I have no other options. I am just so excited about seeing how God will move.

So these are some of the things I hope to grow in as I travel. I am sure God will have many other things on the agenda as well. I don't care what happens to me, whether easy or hard. In the end I don't really care what I do don't learn, or do or don't accomplish. I am willing to throw out my agenda and all the things Id like to grow in or do. In the end all I really want is that when I come back I have more of Christ and love him in deeper ways. If I come back knowing and loving God more… my trips have been a success. I feel so blessed to have these opportunities and im just really excited about how Gods going to move in my life…even if im a bit scared that some of these lessons will not be comfortable.