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| This was on my apartment door when I arrived! Artwork by the West family children |
Wow.
I've been here for 8 days now, and let me tell you one thing that I know for certain:
Taiwanese tea is AWESOME.
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| The Da She (Dashe) District! We come here to get tea or go to markets! |
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| My first Taiwanese tea: Grapefruit Green Tea! |
I mean, sure, I've learned about and experienced a myriad of things since I got here, but hey, one revelation at a time! The tea here is unfathomably delicious and comes in at least 300 varieties amongst the tea shops I've seen so far. Did you know that Taiwan invented Boba tea? Boba is actually the phonetic respelling from the English pronunciation "bubble". I ordered my first tea all by myself today and got to ask for bōbà (1st tone, 4th tone), also known as zhēnzhū in Mandarin. Why am I on this tea trip? Great question, reader. I'm talking about tea because tea is something I thought I knew pretty well. I'd had good ol' sweet tea in Arkansas, delicious English breakfast tea in London, and all manner of hot tea in the comfort of my own bed. This tea, however, breaks every description I thought was true for tea.
Can you smell the metaphor? The last seven days have taught me so much about my motivations, my weaknesses, my fears, and my joys. I had expectations just like everyone else in coming to Morrison, though I think I'm the only new hire that had never been to Asia before. I never voiced my expectations outside of "I know I'm gonna love the school!" and "Yeah, I hear it's hot, but that's just like a summer in Arkansas," so it came as a shock when my expectations were shattered. Every description of what I thought Taiwan would be like has been broken. What I think I understand about my life here will continue to evolve in the weeks and months to come, and I'll keep finding new favorite teas and shops and meals and places to explore with friends. The tea breaks my expectations... and that is so very good.
There is HOPE in the firm ground on which I will stand. My foundation will be in Christ alone.
Lord, guide me into the next week of teacher training. Continue molding me into the teacher you want me to be! Amen.
Here's some more shots from the last week!
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| My first cup of coffee in Taiwan with the immaculate view |
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| A few of the new hire friends reunited! |
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| A stationary shop in Da She. |
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| This gave us a giggle! I was so close to buying it. |
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| 1. Multi-story grocery store. 2. magnetic escalators that latch onto your cart. 3. A chip lane. Welcome to the future. |
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| Taisuco, the largest grocery store I've ever seen. |
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| A typical fried rice dish with flavor anything but typical. This was DELICIOUS |
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| Mango bing= condensed milk + shaved ice + mangos + mango syrup + magic |
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| Life-changing. |
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| Because the currency here is about 1/33 of a USD, it's taken some time to get used to seeing prices like this! |
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