Life Lately

Nothing really exciting to share...I just feel like writing a post! We have been doing really well. The Christmas season is here, as much as it can be in a rural southeast-Asian island community. :) Our friends have been holding lots of gatherings to decorate, watch movies, etc. We have also been busy shopping for Christmas gifts for our family members. That's always a fun part of living over here - getting people things that you know they don't have already!

With the cold weather setting in, I have also taken up my knitting again, which helps me to feel productive and creative. I've even dabbled in crochet, which is still pretty new to me - but I love learning new techniques and making new projects! Right now I'm in the process of knitting my first hat in the round - which means using 4 needles instead of 2, and knitting in a circle so that you don't have a seam when it's done. It has been pretty tricky to get the hang of, but I think I'm improving, which gives me hope!

Ben has been studying for the GRE, since he's going to be applying to graduate school in the next few months. He actually seems to be enjoying it, and has already gotten a good handle on all the "A" words. :) We've both been having a good time thinking about our future and making plans. Not that those plans will necessarily come about, but it helps to have something to work towards.

We've also been planning a trip to Malaysia for January! Ben has to go somewhere to renew his visa, and I have a week off from school for the kids' final exams, so it worked out perfectly. We're pretty excited about having a little vacation, especially to such a new and exciting place! :)

Other than that, things are pretty much normal, but we have been content in a way we haven't felt in a long time - maybe even since we first came here! It's kind of sad to think about only being here 6 more months...so we just aren't thinking about it. :) We are going to make the most of the short time we have left here, so that we'll be sure to have plenty of joyful memories to take with us wherever we end up next. It's pretty exciting!

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湖下 (Hu Xia) our Hometown

Here are some pictures from the little town we live in called 湖下(Hu Xia) it means "under the lake." I just decided to get up and take some pictures on a whim. Hope you enjoy!

plenty of abandoned traditional houses for good photos

This is the house in front of ours. Tis abandoned

A row of big traditional houses with an old western style house at the far end.

An old building next to our house. Also not inhabited.

This is looking through a window to the house in front of ours. Looks like a meteor went through the arch.

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A Kinmen Thanksgiving 金門的感恩節

It's always hard for us to be away from our families on the holidays, and this Thanksgiving was no different. Thankfully, we are so blessed to be surrounded by a community of American believers here who rally together every year to create a Thanksgiving celebration worthy of any American household. This is the second year we've participated, and it's always such a joy to work together - shopping, cooking, decorating - to provide a little taste of home for one another (and a little taste of American culture for our Taiwanese friends).

This year, Ben was given the special honor of being in charge of the turkey - and he did his job with flair! We arrived at the dorm at 3pm, at which time he gathered wood and bamboo and built his fire, which he tended until 5:30, when the turkey was ready to go in the roaster.




God bless everyone, hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

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More National Park Chinglish!

You can already tell this hike is going to be awesome...

This sign is a little vague...am I prohibited from dieting or prohibited from eating? Or are they encouraging me to adopt the eating practices of the 1920s?

Twice the crap of normal wetland centers!

I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't have thought to electrocute or bomb the fish until they saw this sign...

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The anti-smoking brigade

A couple of weeks ago, Ben and I were climbing aboard our scooter to leave church when one of the ladies there came running up with a clipboard in her hand. Here is the conversation that ensued:
(English is regular, Chinese is italicized.)

Yaya: Ben! You have to sign this paper!
Ben: What is it?
Yaya: Uhhh...no smoking.
Ben: I don't understand. Why do I have to sign it?
Yaya: It's ok, just sign it!
Ben: But I don't know what it is.
Yaya: No smoking!

At this point, I look at the paper in her hand to try to figure out what it is. It seems to be some sort of pledge that the signee agrees not to smoke inside their house.

Me: Just sign it so she'll let us go. It's just an anti-smoking pledge.
Ben: But I don't want to!
Me: It's ok, just sign it. She won't let us leave until we do.

Ben signs the pledge.

And that was it. Sure enough, she was satisfied with our signatures and we went on with our day, not thinking twice about it.

Until about 2 days later...Ben had just left for work, and I was home by myself when there came a knock at the door. We never have unexpected visitors, so I was a little leery and didn't answer at first, hoping they'd go away. But no, they kept knocking...4 or 5 times they repeated their knock. So finally, I went to the door. There were 4 people standing there - one middle-aged lady with a clipboard, a younger man, and an old lady with her grandson (the old lady was just a neighbor who helped the other two find our house).

Clipboard lady: Is this Mr. Fu's house? (Fu is Ben's Chinese surname).
Me: yes...
Clipboard lady (to younger man): ok!

At this point, the man proceeds to walk into our house, sniffing into every room. When he comes back, he says to clipboard lady, "Ok, they haven't been smoking in here."

Old lady: No, usually the house next door smells smoky though.
Clipboard lady: We're going to put a sticker on your house. Please sign here.
Old lady: How much do you pay every month to live here?
Clipboard lady: How much?
Me: Ummm, we don't pay anything, our friends are letting us live here for free.
Old lady and clipboard lady: Ohhhh, ok, great!
Clipboard lady: Thank you, bye bye!

And with that, they left. When they were gone, I went outside to see what they had stuck on our house. Sure enough a huge sticker was plastered right under our house number with a cartoony picture and the words, "Smoke Free Family."

I guess we've learned our lesson not to sign any more mysterious petitions...

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The Taming of the Shrew

Since we've moved out into the countryside this year, our biggest frustration has been the intrusion of mice into our humble abode. In my opinion, mice are worse than roaches or spiders because it tugs at my conscience to kill them. I certainly wouldn't be able to step on one and squash it. I mean, it has bones! And blood! Not to mention, they're just creepy looking, running along the edges of the walls with their creepy little eyes.

So, after trying various means of mice extermination, we settled on our trusty catch-and-release trap. After all, we were only spotting 3 or 4 mice a week, and they were sticking pretty much to the courtyard and kitchen - places that are relatively easy to avoid. Our plan of "don't eat food in the bedroom and the mice won't care about coming in" seemed to work seamlessly.



Until this week. Suddenly, after only 3 weeks of pleasant fall weather, the temperatures dropped 20 degrees, basically overnight. And without any form of central heating (anywhere on this island, not just in our house), it's almost impossible to get warm.

So on this particular night, I was home alone, waiting for Ben to get home from tutoring. I had already taken a hot bath and put on my warmest pajamas, and decided to spend the rest of the evening reading my book in my bed.

*As a side note, this particular evening had been more mousey than usual already. Our trap already contained one mouse, and I had spotted another one running under a shelf in the kitchen. I should have taken it as an omen.

So I snuggled down under the covers and started reading. I had probably been there 20 minutes or more when something in my peripheral vision caught my eye and caused me to look up from my book. There, IN THE BED, wriggling out from under the covers, was one of the biggest mice I have ever seen in our house. I screamed louder than I think I ever have, and started flailing the blankets about, I think in an effort to fling him across the room and out the door. Unfortunately I only succeeded in scaring him underneath the bed, at which point I promptly left the room and called Ben. Sounding frantic, I explained the situation to him and begged him to leave his tutoring gig early and come home to help me (he was going to get off in 5 minutes anyway).

I hung up the phone and went right to the computer chair and put my feet up off the ground - which turned out to be a good idea, since about 2 minutes later my little bedmate came scurrying out of the bedroom into the living room where I was! I tried to keep my eye on him so that Ben could catch him immediately upon arrival, but sadly he disappeared somewhere into a corner, never to be found.

And as it turns out, he (and all those who came before him) wasn't a mouse at all, but a shrew! An Asian house shrew, to be exact. You can read about them here.

So, sadly for my allergies, it seems our days of keeping our bedroom door open to the courtyard are over. But I think I'd rather be sneezing and sniffling all winter than have a repeat of this little adventure. Definitely one of the creepiest things I've ever experienced.

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My Funny English Post

This is all I got:


it's a shirt that says "Mike love not war." Mike love is the preferable kind of love. Special thanks to Becky Francis who bought me this shirt and to my best friend Mike Rimes who makes it 更笑! Love and Peace

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