Happy Chinese New Year!

I was able to travel with my friend, Miya, to visit her family in Keelung on the northern coast of Taiwan. It was a great time seeing some beautiful sights with her family and experiencing my first big Taiwanese family get together for the biggest holiday of the year here!

Miya took me to try some of her favorite foods at the Keelung nightmarket.


The northern coast of Taiwan.


Miya with her father and brothers. Note the fascinating rock formations!




The traditional ancestor worship altar in the living room of the home we visited.


New Year's dinner! Yum!


We wrote blessings/wishes on 3 different lanterns and sent them flying up into the sky.




Mine was the only one written in English (though I did sign my name in Chinese! It said, "May all people know peace and love in Jesus Christ. Happy New Year!" :)


Singing with one of the aunts New Year's evening.

Dad's Here!

I was blessed to have my dad out for about a week. He met my kindergarten students (we were still having kindergarten classes when he arrived), some friends showed us all around the Chia Yi area, and then we got to sight see in Taipei before he headed back to the States. It was really cool to see him interact with the friends he and my mom had met during their visit last year. I think people were mutually encouraged through my dad's time here.

Here my dad and I are standing by a HUGE piece of fossilized wood at a rock/fossil museum where YiWen and Yule took us in Chia Yi.

Yule and Dad are drinking tea together at the museum.


We took many many more pictures, but they are all on my dad's camera. Mine stopped working after this day. I hope I can see those pictures sometime soon...
:)

Cousin Time

My cousin, Michelle was able to visit in January. Good times were had by all. Well, except for when I was stressed out because it was the last week of elementary classes and tests needed to be graded and grades calculated. I'm afraid I didn't make for the perfect vision of a hostess, but Michelle was patient and helpful! And she did get to enjoy the end of semester field trip with us, so that was super cool! :)

CELA Globe Trekkers :)

Here is a group shot at the World Harvest center. One evening we went there to see a short video about the tsunami two years ago. This building is where I have many good memories from last year, but since we had such a large group this time, we stayed at a hotel rather than the center.

Old Friends

These are two dear friends I met last year in Aceh. They both still work in Banda Aceh city, so we got to hang out for a short time. It was so wonderful seeing them again!

Fellow Teachers

This is a picture of me with some of the English teachers in Aceh.

A Helping Hand

To be respectful of the culture in Aceh, before leading the workshop each day, every woman in our group covered her head with a scarf. We didn't know how to do it very well, so two workers at the hotel were very kind and patient and helped us each time we tried to cover our heads.

English Teacher Workshop

Here are some of the teachers from Taiwan and Indonesia that helped lead or attended the workshop. The workshop was held at one of the governmental middle schools in Banda Aceh city. This school had been flattened by the tsunami, so the school building in the background is new within the past two years. Actually, I went to this school last year while they were building it, and they were had finished one section and were still in the process of building the other sections.

Dinner in Jakarta

In Jakarta, I met up with some old friends. :) A former professor of mine and his wife were on their way back to Banda Aceh to teach for two more months after teaching there six months last year. I also was able to see another teacher who is from my home congregation in Wisconsin! It was very encouraging to see these old friends. This was at an Indian restaurant. It was delicious!

Back to Banda Aceh

Last week, the CELA office consisting of 15 foreign and national teachers took a trip to Banda Aceh, Indonesia to lead a two-day English teacher workshop for the junior high teachers in the city. Though I was feeling busy and stressed leading up to the trip, not really looking forward to it, God blessed it in amazing ways. I saw many friends from my visit last winter. I met many new friends. The people filled my heart with their warmth and friendliness. The workshop went well and the feedback was positive. Jokes and laughter came easily with our new friends, and I think each person from Taiwan, and hopefully from Indonesia too, will cherish their experiences of the last week.

(I'm having difficulting uploading pictures at present, but hopefully I'll post some pictures from our trip soon.)