built for glory

Back in the ROC just doesn't have the same ring to it
I'm back in Taipei, safe and sound, though once again battling the fierce humidity and pollution. The weather, however, has been floating around the low 20s... lovely!
· My flight was interesting... I departed on a Boeing 747 (you know, the double-decker kind) completely full of mostly Korean people. I was squished in between two businessmen who fit into those darn seats just fine (that fourteen-hour flight has inspired me to lose a significant amount of weight before my next flight; I imagine it might be more tolerable if my hips weren't getting pinched the entire time). Of course, even if I had been physically comfortable, there's still the issue of the in-flight entertainment. Over the course of the flight, three (3) movies were shown (do the math: entertainment was provided for less than half of the trip). The first, Just Like Heaven, I slept most of the way through. The next two were Korean movies, with subtitles I could mostly read if I strained to see them over the parents in the front row who were tending to their children. The first was just bizarre: a young man who works for the lotto falls for a young lawyer named Mal-Bul who happens to be in trouble with some mob bosses, so he pretends to be the DA to save her butt, and what mildly resembled hilarity ensued. The second was called The Wedding Campaign and involved a bunch of Korean guys going to Uzbekistan to find themselves wives. In one scene, one of the guys is trying to convince his friend to come along, and the friend's concern has to do with having foreign-looking children. "Don't worry," his friend reassures him, "your genes will be dominant. Your kids wouldn't have blond hair or blue eyes, so it's okay." The general reaction from the audience on the plane: ha, ha, ha! Perhaps it was the context that really threw me, but I was just shaking with rage. In my tiny little seat. Between two Korean businessmen. On a full, 1,000-seat plane with maybe two other white people. It may seem like a small thing, but it really gave me a new perspective on being a target of racism. Once in Seoul, I had five hours to kill, so I fell asleep in the commuter lounge while watching Austin Powers and then had KFC... for breakfast... Eventually I made it to Taipei around Tuesday noon, took a shower and went back to work!
· Pub Trivia was the next evening, and we were first after the first round! One of the questions involved identifying a Beatles tune by its sheet music. (In the bag, baby!) Unfortunately by round three we had slipped to third place. One question that helped lead to our demise? What was the last line of the original Star Wars trilogy? A. Goodbye B. Good luck C. He's my brother D. May the force be with you To our credit, we waffled a bit. Oh well. Hope springs eternal.
· On Friday, I got to help represent our company at the Taipei International Book Fair. Lots of people marching around with large advertising banners and mascots for various companies that included clowns and cows. What I couldn’t get used to, though, was standing around promoting our stuff under a banner with my own smiling face on it.
I went from there straight to Bible Study, so I was a little wiped by then, but one of the ladies in my class raised a great question. "I'm pregnant," she said, "and you're supposed to be able to hear the heartbeat around 6 weeks, but I went to the doctor and couldn't hear it. The next week, same thing. So I prayed and said, 'Lord, if you let me hear the heartbeat this week, I'll give $3,000NT to the church.' And then that week, I heard it." "Wow! That's wonderful! So exciting!" the whole class agreed. "Yes," she continued. "But my sister says I shouldn't bargain with God. What do you think?" What followed was great discussion about Hannah and Samuel and grace. Hurray for the Holy Spirit.
· Saturday, a group of us went to see "Rent." Great show. I've been addicted to the soundtrack and so have been listening to it pretty much non-stop since then. Of course, none of our Taiwanese friends had been pre-warned about the content, and of course they had subtitles (like you get at the opera) to help them catch every offensive word. But afterwards we shared a few thoughts about love and how highly it was prized in the musical, but how it's still empty without God. Then we went to the Frying Scotsman (mmmm, deep fried Mars bars!) and the nearby night market. Good times, good times.
· A group of the girls went to see Pride and Prejudice on Sunday. I’ll admit it: it’s grrreat. Beautifully filmed, delightfully cast (yes, even Keira) and well-jammed into the two-and-a-half-hour confines of a feature-length film. Keep in mind that it’s much less true to the book and the era (gentlemen popping into ladies’ rooms unannounced, people saying things instead of just hinting at them, etc.) than the BBC version, and of course, who can beat this man at playing Mr. Darcy, BUT still very enjoyable, especially if it's your introduction to Jane Austen or you don't usually understand her.
· Tuesday, of course, was Valentine's Day, so it was great to receive a few goodies from folks in the office (though, I'm sorry to report, not so much as an e-mail from North America... just kidding; I didn't send any either!) and this link from coworker Rachel under the heading: "those crazy mainlanders!"
That more or less brings us up to date. I will attempt to stay a little more in touch over the following week.