My Traveling Support System

I have a good friend who is leaving for Thailand only two weeks after I leave for Taiwan. That means we are both in the hurdles of getting visas arranged, moving out of our apartments that were leased for only a short term, and we've both been finishing our studies for the semester.

(Disclaimer: she's been finishing for the semester, I've been finishing my degree. But she's in grad school, and I'm finishing my undergrad. So it's similar but different.)

We have lamented to each other about the slowness of some process or another, like visa applications, questioned each other about housing situations abroad, confided in each other over the feeling of confusion as to how to choose what to pack and how to get rid of what you don't need. Maybe it's just fun to have a friend experiencing the same things that I am right now.



By the way, I can't tell you how comforting it is to know that Rex and I are not just going to Taiwan, we're going home. We're going home to his family, his roots, a place he understands and can navigate even if I can't yet.

Grammatical Arsenal

Awhile back as Rex was working on finishing his paper before a deadline I was unable to assist him for a time because of my own scholarly deadlines. For that reason, I called in the grammar and punctuation arsenal: my own mother. She is my secret weapon when proper form in my writing sincerely matters.

I have an inkling where my mom got to be so good.

There is another lady in our lives, Grandma Ruth (also known as Grammaruth), who is an impeccable defense against the woes of poor spelling, misplaced commas, and dangling modifiers. As children we would get our letters returned with no response "because she couldn't understand what we'd written" until we had written a letter with all the corrections she had suggested. Perhaps my mom got to be so good because of her mother.

I suppose that I am generally able to help Rex in his writing because of the legacy of my ancestry (if you want to call it that), but I know my mom and especially my grandma are able to catch at least 10% more mistakes than I can detect.

Thank You Cards and Degrees

I'm sure you've gotten a thank you note in the mail at some point in your life. They look so pretty and perfect, but behind the scenes is this:

On a similar note, a college degree (bachelors, masters, doctorate, or whatever) can seem like just a nice paper hung on the wall and something pretty to put in your resume, but behind the scenes is something a lot like this:

You might notice the presence of coffee in both instances. Thank you cards are certainly easier to produce than PhDs, but the making of both are far better with a welcoming cup of steamy coffee.

Don't Give Up!

Does anyone remember those days when swinging felt this awkward and unsure? Thankfully that stage doesn't last forever.

I took this photo this Summer, and when I stumbled on it, it just seemed like the kind of thing to share.

If anyone reading this is feeling like a total rookie at something new and unfamiliar, I encourage you to keep up the good work. One day, you may even find that task or thing to be fun and easy - kind of like swinging.

How to use a year abroad?

If spending a year or a year and a half in Taiwan, what will be the most meaningful thing to do with my time and energy?

The most obvious answer is to develop the relationships with my in-laws, family who are practically strangers to me in some ways. I say that to mean that they are people I have only met a few times and spent limited time with. And yet, they are my family who have hosted me, taken care of me in a variety of ways, and accepted me simply because Rex has accepted me.

How do I develop relationships with my in-laws? Learn to speak Chinese.

How do I learn Chinese?

We looked into language classes as well as scholarships that are available. That could be an option.

Another option, or tool, is a 300 page eBook someone once sent me about learning a language by developing relationships and using those relationships to learn language, and use the language learning process to build those relationships. I looked for it in my email, and I'm excited about what it has to say.

It will be helpful, I take it, to go back and review the articles and videos I've read and watched from people who have learned to speak Chinese. There are a few TED talks as well as some articles I found through a google search. One article simply describes the technological tools available to us for learning Chinese that previous generations did not have access to, such as an online translator or a keyboard on your phone that converts Latin characters (Pin-Yin) to Chinese characters.

A few drawbacks to most of the Chinese language curricula or apps I have looked into is namely that Taiwan uses Traditional Chinese characters, while Mainland China uses Simplified Chinese characters. Furthermore, the pronunciation found in apps is generally a Mainland accent. I would rather not have to learn a word twice, unless I'm first learning the Taiwanese pronunciation and learning the Mainland pronunciation later.

Below you can find a few links to some of the resources I've found:

How to Learn a Language in Six Months
Simple Method to Learn Any Language
6 Tips for Learning Chinese

There is one in particular I found a couple years ago, but I have so far been unsuccessful in finding it.

Chinese Cultural Influences - Interacting with Elderly

I've noticed a change in how I interact now with elderly people in my life and I think it comes largely from my husband's influence. Yes, he is from a country with a strong Chinese culture, so that certainly has a significant effect on how he thinks about and interacts with elderly people.

As an example, I have watched my interactions with my grandma change for the better, and I have observed that the number of friendships I have with people who are part of my grandma's generation or my parents' generation has improved as well.

To put some context on this I'll describe what I saw in Rex while traveling in Taiwan a year ago.

When we went to visit his grandma, Nai-Nai as she is called, we had gone out together for a walk through the town. Since her eyesight is bad and tripping is a potential danger, he held Nai-Nai's hand and carried her handbag for her. Even when we were sitting together in her apartment, Rex began rubbing or massaging her head while he was sitting on the couch and she was on a stool in front of him. He stayed a night in her home during our stay and asked her questions about when she got married. Nai-Nai was Rex's main caretaker during his first three years. Nai-Nai is also treated like a queen by the cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. in Rex's family.

While there is so much I could write about Nai-Nai's wedding experience (it's very interesting, she had an arranged marriage) I will return to the topic of my relationship with my own grandma.

Rex always encourages me to take time to visit Grandma, or if she needs a car ride somewhere he tries to find a way that we can accommodate her. I can feel like a burden allowing Grandma to feed me a meal after I give her a car ride, but considering that it is an opportunity to build the relationship better I have been accepting her invitation for lunch when its offered. I also feel that our relationship has become more candid with more genuine interactions between us. It really has been quite rewarding to be able to see these types of relationships develop on a deeper level.

"Out of the Mouths of Babes"

Every now and then a child says something to me that is in some way profound.

Yesterday was my last day of work. I was telling one of the kids (a fourth grader, I believe) my quandary about whether to attend one last work meeting that takes place next week - after my last day of work. There is a bit of an inconvenience involved in attending work meetings because they are in the evening and extend until about 8:15 or 8:30, but this coming meeting would be my last chance to see some coworkers before I leave for Taiwan. It would also be a Christmas party with a sock exchange (which I've heard is really fun) as well as some other fun activities to do together.

My young friend told me, "you should go." So I asked him why (because I wanted to hear his reasoning, not because I was being sassy.) He told me, "Because it will be fun and because then you could say goodbye to your coworkers for the last time."

I guess it was nothing I didn't already know, but it was a good reminder to value those relationships I've built in spite of it meaning I should leave my house on a cold December evening, drive all of the 7 minutes to the Parks and Rec headquarters, and go give socks to a random coworker.

Furthermore, my coworker was also telling me I should come, which I think is her way of showing that she enjoys my being around. When people learn to enjoy your presence it is good to value that because we interact with so many people regularly and the chances of forming any deeper connection are slim, unless significant effort is made and time spent. I think this is my cue to honor the relationship that has begun between us, as well as the many others that have formed in other contexts.

I really am sad about leaving my work, it has been one of the best jobs I've ever had.

Visa Completed - Taiwan, Here We Come!

Last week I wrote about the maddening process of applying for a visa.

You'll be happy to know that this week the necessary papers finally arrived at our door. We sent everything to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago on Tuesday and it arrived in Chicago on Wednesday. We called to make sure I would have my passport back before we fly out, and we were told that indeed it should return to us within a few days. In fact the visa is scheduled to arrive before 3:00pm today.

The moral of the story? If you have important documents to send, go with FedEx or UPS, because the United States Postal Service is about as slow as molasses in January.

Just for the record, we leave in 18 days. You read that right, eighteen.
Today is my last day at my job. This marks an incredibly bitter sweet moment for me. I am saying goodbye to those who are close and dear to me and going to my other family - my in-laws overseas. It is always a good reminder to me when I hear Rex say "We're going home" rather than just "We're going to Taiwan." I have to remember that Taiwan is to me a home I don't yet know, and it has been Rex's home. My home, Wisconsin, is for him a home away from home, and a home where he will always be welcomed back.

Revision? Nah!

I went to read my own blog today. I didn't read very far. My opinion of re-reading my own work? Boring.

It is for this same reason that I typically turn in my college assignments with little to know revision. I don't want to read my own work!

As for my college papers, I have one more to write before I graduate. Today I finished lesson 8 of my class, BI4402 - Teaching the Scriptures. This is the end of an era, my friends.

Wherein Rachel Re-Thinks Her Bullet Journal

I use a bullet journal. Ever since my sister showed me the concept it has been useful. This year it has become a more integrated part of my life. Perhaps buying a journal designed specifically for bullet journaling has something to do with it. Perhaps its price placed in me a deeper respect and motivated me not to fill it with twattle. (Twattle is my mom's word for garbage literature, things that lack quality and are not worthy of our time. Think Barney the purple dinosaur.)

Now, looking back at my journal, I don't like how it looks. It's full of the ramblings and scribbles I might designate to a cheaper notebook - things I write just to sort my thoughts before they are really presentable. It is also easy to forget which pages were important to me because they look like ramblings and scribbles. So the ideas are not integrated into my life the way I wish they were.

While browsing at Barnes and Noble recently, a title caught my eye. The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll. "Perhaps," I thought, "if I look into what other people have done with their bullet journals, I will be able to incorporate the technique in a more streamlined way. Maybe my scribbles and rambles can be arranged in such a way that I will recognize which things were important to me and which were not."

Finding the audiobook on Scribd and looking at posts on BulletJournal.com has been helpful for me to see how other people have used this tool, and recognize what I can do to make my Bullet Journal more useful than it has been before.

In the past I have looked at other people's videos about bullet journaling, and I realized that most of them were not so much about the method, but about how to decorate it and make pretty pages. I was disappointed in this because it stands in the face of the simplicity of what bullet journaling was initially meant to be. Yet, the decorating process is also a part of me being able to recognize later which pages were meant to be revisited, and which were simply just for that day.

Listening to Ryder Carroll's book has been helpful to see once again how simple bullet journaling can be, and how sorting through information and saving those things which truly are important to you can help you use your time purposefully and keep sight of your long term goals and purposes.

If you're curious about the bullet journal, check out these two sources:
https://www.youtube.com/user/bulletjournal
https://bulletjournal.com/blogs/bulletjournalist

Prayer, Devotions, and Perseverance

I recently heard a talk from a lady who is 79 years old. She may be 79, but she seems so much younger because of her attitude, her spunk, her humor, and just how spry she still is. She has worked in Japan as a missionary for 45 years or so and she was asked to talk about perseverance in a recent church event. She described perseverance as something that is enabled by our time with the Lord each day, our devotion to him, our prayer life, and a habit of Scripture reading.

Recently I have found it is difficult to incorporate my regular devotions into my routine. I used to read and pray almost every morning without fail and again at night before bed as well. But with the life transitions of getting to know Rex and then marrying him, my normal routines have shifted. Let's just say it's requiring some work to incorporate a regular routine the way I once had. On the other hand, I have experienced times where my devotional routine was just that - a routine. The joy had gone out of it; I was treating it as a chore. No longer was it a joyful, peaceful time to learn and hear from my Creator.

So I have been thinking about this topic a bit.

When to read and pray?
How long to read and pray?
What is the purpose of reading and praying?
Are there other ways to enhance my devotional life like devotionals, music, or prayer walks?
What about calling a friend to compare notes on what God has been teaching us lately?

I have heard a few things on prayer lately, including the recommendation to journal in two places - one place where you write your actual prayers, another place where you write down what is distracting you from prayer in the moment. I also heard from the afore-mentioned lady about her own habit for a devotional time. She prioritizes her devotions above breakfast, so she doesn't eat until she has had time with God. She reads a chapter, and then thinks about it, re-reads it, and she writes down what she thinks God has for her for that very day - something to apply to her life. The book mentioned in my previous blog, Rare Leadership, recommends having conversational prayer time with the Lord and writing what he has to say to you. But in order to make sure you're not just making up random stuff or to help ensure that this is really what the Lord has to say to you, the authors of the book recommend sharing your prayer journal with brothers or sisters in the Lord for confirmation and for wisdom. This way you're not relying only on your own wit to make sure that what you think you're hearing from the Lord aligns with Scripture and the Spirit of God.

Finally, in my classes at Moody I was reminded about the commands in Deuteronomy for people to write the words of the covenant and bind them to their door posts, to their arms, to their foreheads, to speak about God's words when they sleep and when they rise, to speak of them to their children, to remind each other what God has done for the Israelites as a people so they do not forget and so they remain close to the Lord all the days of their life.

Visiting Uncle Oliver and Aunt Gene about a month ago was a reminder of what that looks like. We sat down to a meal on Sunday singing a prayer. After the meal Uncle Oliver read some parts of a devotional to us all. He told of the Lord's work, he recited the Lord's Prayer for us in Malagasy, and sang several hymns and songs in Malagasy and then in English.

This really was a true life example of what perseverance looks like: 90+ years of perseverance and dedication.

Books

I have been reading a lot more in the last year or so than I have been previously. I don't mean reading for school, but reading for my own enjoyment. Or should I say listening? Because most of my books have mostly been in the form of audio books.

They have included titles in many categories including the following:

-- Novels --
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Mansfield Park
The Help
Little Women
Go Set a Watchman

-- Children's Fiction --
The Trumpet of the Swan
The Little Princess
Nancy Drew - The Secret of the Old Clock

-- Children's Stories --
Lentil
Make Way for Ducklings
Burt Dow Deep Water Man
Blueberries for Sal
One Morning In Maine

-- Mysteries --
The Reckoning
Murder at the Brightwell
Murder at the Vicarage
Evil Under the Sun

-- Biographies and Autobiographies --
The King's Speech
Einstein
When Breath Becomes Air

-- Life Advice --
French Women Don't Get Fat
At Home With Madame Chic
Bullet Journal - The Method
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
What the Most Successful People do Before Breakfast
The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People
Rare Leadership
Love and Respect
The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex
Taking Charge of Your Fertility
The Meaning of Marriage
Sheet Music
His Needs, Her Needs
The Language of Love and Respect

What I've noticed is that where I used to just enjoy stories (biographies, autobiographies, novels, children's literature) I am noticing a trend where I am reading about how to do things. Notice, that wasn't books about how to make things (which has historically also been a favorite category of mine) but how to do things that will prove useful in life. The question is: has this trend come from a long while of studying at Moody, or from watching Rex research things he wants to know how to do better at?

School Assignments that make you feel vulnerable

The other day I had to post a video on YouTube of me teaching a Bible lesson to an audience. I invited two of my coworkers over first to play the role of elementary school kids, and then to switch roles to real adults and review my performance.

I didn't particularly like how I did on the project, and I feel vulnerable having to actually post it online. Good thing I have the option of making it a private video where only people with the link can access it, such as my professor.

It's just a class, so it's a safe place for mistakes and failure, but I think what makes me feel vulnerable is the fact that I have to receive a grade back for it - something I'm not particularly looking forward to.

Mail and Visa applications

We move in 27 days. That's not very long from now.

We are in the process of applying for a Taiwanese visa. We have all the papers together in a file ready to be mailed. They have been sitting in the filing drawers for several weeks now.

Why haven't we mailed it?

We are waiting for the final detail to arrive in the mail: a document that has been express-mailed from Taiwan at the beginning of November. It was supposed to arrive within 10 business days, but it's stuck in Chicago somewhere.

We received a letter last week from USPS International Research something or other. It was a paper asking if we had received this letter, that the Taiwanese government was asking if it had come or not. I returned it with an X in the spot stating the letter had not come.

Rex called USPS today to try and find where it ended up. He waited on the line for 40 minutes. No one picked up. Finally, he hung up the phone. There are other, more urgent things to do today than track an express letter three weeks late - things like finish a doctoral paper before its deadline tomorrow.

One day the document might come and we can continue the application process. Until then I'm checking my mailbox daily - and hoping.



Disclaimer: I'm not too worried about the situation (only frustrated) because I know I can go to Taiwan for an entire three months without needing a visa for entry. This process is for a residence visa as the spouse of a Taiwanese citizen. This route is the way the we've been told we need to do it. We are just becoming aware of how little control we really have over the mailing system.

Scribe?

I figured it out. I'm a scribe. Or maybe a secretary, I'm not sure which.

I have been helping my husband write his doctoral thesis proposal. He's a verbal processor, so sometimes I let him talk while I type what he says. It makes the painful process much easier for him.

I have learned about dendrites, endothelium cells, neurovascular coupling, electrical signals, blood flow, and pericytes just from helping him type and explain concepts to me in order to ensure they are simply enough expressed to be understood by people outside his own field.

In ancient times, the scribes understood quite a lot of information including the law because, as they copied down the words, they learned the material inside and out. I have not reached this level of expertise, but perhaps one day I will be if I continue transcribing doctoral level work.

This reminds me a little of the mom in Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes. Mr. Gilbreth was an efficiency expert and, together with his wife, he would find the most efficient techniques to move and do work in factories, etc. He even developed a time efficient way of bathing and taught his children how to bathe within the time of a record (not a long record, apparently). He died while his family of twelve was still not yet grown, and Mrs. Gilbreth began traveling and showing his work to others. People who were the recipients of her presentations were often surprised to see a woman show up to their conferences and events thinking that she would be a man. In those days women were not often involved in that kind of work.

So, for now I'm acting as scribe and slowly becoming more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the brain.

Long Distance Relationship part 2

Today while listening to music I heard a lovely cover of a song which included these lyrics: "I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again." It took me back to the distinct memory of a feeling like my heart was being torn out as I took off from Chicago nearly three years ago after saying my goodbyes to Rex and my parents in the airport. I know that sounds dramatic, and I'm not much of one for drama, but it truly was quite dramatic. When I left at that time I didn't know if I would be staying 3 months, six months, a year, or perhaps forever. I was leaving and putting the results of the relationship into God's hands. Hearing the song again today left me in tears.

Switchfoot's "Enough to Let Me Go" has a similar affect on me. It was a song I listened to over and over as I was preparing to leave for Romania nearly three years ago, and which serenaded me on Spotify as I would work on projects in the room where I was staying.

As the sequel to my introduction of the topic of long distance relationships, today I will describe some of the challenges we faced using the same bullet points I used in my last post.

1. Time difference

We know, of course, that people on the other side of the world sleep while we're awake and are awake while we sleep, but Rex and I also learned that talking at 7am his time and 3pm my time found us communicating in entirely different moods. He would be slow and sleepy, I would be in high gear, full of energy to get things done. Deep or meaningful conversations don't happen too easily in this kind of scenario. Regardless, we found ways to work around this.

2. Figuring out when schedules allowed for talking

Rex and I wanted to be involved in friendships and responsibilities around us, and not simply become distractions to each other. So, we looked decided that there were three times of the day that we were allowed to text or make a phone call. That was usually my morning before 8am (12am CST), 3pm (7am CST), and my night time at or before 10pm (2pm CST). Any other time of day we were restricted from texts and phone calls which would distract from work. We liked to use,
-   Google Docs
-   Email
-   Voice recordings
-   Video recording (although we didn't do this often)

Usually we talked at his 11pm and my 7am often for about an hour. I know it sounds like a lot, but we had a lot to say. As we hung up we were never sure whether to say "good morning" or "goodnight." Also, weekends aren't necessarily free days when you're working in missions because you ministry happens when the people are available, such as weekends and evenings.

3. We didn't want to distract from other friendships or responsibilities

We really learned from observing what didn't work so well for us. For example, there was a time some guests came to eat dinner at the home where I was staying, and I was invited to join. I remember being largely absorbed in a texting conversation with Rex and later realizing that this was inhibiting me from connecting well with the people around me. So we really tried not to be on our phones talking to each other when it was a beneficial time to spend time with other people. But we had to be careful to prioritize our time with each other as well - especially if it was a scheduled call.

During much of my time in Romania I had limited or no cellular data, so that meant I also couldn't make or receive calls unless I was home or at another place with WiFi. Eventually I realized that it was totally worth it to pay for better phone service with international minutes as well as more GB and faster internet signal. This paid off the week I went camping and the time we went on a walk together - he along Lake Michigan and me along the Danube River. That way we were able to walk next to water "together."

4. Having marriage in mind (and the accompanying pressures)

We both were of the mind that our dating relationship was ultimately for the purpose of understanding each other well enough to know if marriage was right for us. Rex made it a point to ask my dad's permission before we made the relationship official, and the topic of marriage had come up a couple of times before I left for Romania. If he weren't someone I were considering marrying, I wouldn't have bothered with a long distance relationship anyway. I would have said goodbye and not looked back. But having seen some of his character and realizing that guys like him are hard to find, I decided to take the risk, to pray about it, to get to know him better just as he was getting to know me. If we reached the point where we realized the relationship shouldn't continue towards marriage, we would revert to being just friends.

That being said, there were tons and tons of questions in my mind that I wanted to talk with Rex about. Someone once suggested that it was healthy to limit our conversations to texting during the week and save phone calls for the weekend. In the end I realized that this only created unnecessary pressures and strain on an already strained situation. Texting is far less efficient than calling anyway, and, eventually I would just call him in the mornings before heading out for the day.

This made life much better because I got things off my chest when they were bothering me instead of trying to bottle them up and save them for the perfect time. And if I had free time when Rex was busy or sleeping I could always get the message to him using email, google docs, etc. While I was away I learned to confide in Rex about most things and we became very close this way.

5. Not getting to hang out with each other or in each other's social groups

From the beginning there was this sense that being long distance meant we couldn't go out to eat together, go on walks together, play games together, spend time together with people who are important to us. Rex said that looking at it this way was only going to put a negative spin on things, and it was much better to look for things we can do together.

For this reason we looked for ways to create special moments in unique ways. We played Words with Friends on our phones, we played Sudoku on video calls, ate breakfast and dinner together in a video call (remember the time change?). We sent each other gifts on birthdays, sent a few letters and post cards in the mail, and we even arranged a three way call between us and his family in Taiwan. This involved three time zones. Sometimes our phone conversations were a Chinese language lesson. I also taught him a few things in Romanian, mostly terms of affection, of course. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the walk we took along a body of water - albeit different bodies of water.

6. Others

People generally didn't understand our relationship. People didn't know what we were like together, some were skeptical of our relationship (including my dad and Rex's mentor). Many people thought we had met online. Friends or roommates would make fun of me if I told them something Rex did that I thought was very sweet. Some people would just ask me if I wanted to marry him, and I was definitely still in the stage that I really didn't know yet. It was a process that we were working through. I found two people I could talk with about our relationship, my sisters Laura and Ginnie. They didn't make fun of me, they helped me think about what was healthy, what was not. They let me confide in them, etc. Honestly, because of being gone for so long and friends in the US feeling distant and friends in Romania not feeling close enough to be confidants, I ended up confiding in Rex more and more.

Not getting to hug or hold hands was especially hard as well. I'll be honest, there were several times I dreamed that Rex was right there in the room with me, he was so close, but I still couldn't hug him or hold his hand.

I should also mention that not knowing when I would return was very hard. It became especially hard when I realized the funds I had would last longer than the six months I had originally estimated and I could stay closer to nine months. I was torn. Should I work in Romania longer, should I return to Rex like I so badly wanted to do? When I told Rex my dilemma, he reassured me repeatedly with the words, "Rachy, I'm here for you. I'm waiting for you. I'm not going anywhere." I think he already knew he wanted to marry me.

That was my first glimpse of the vows he said on our wedding day, but they were comforting words, words I needed to hear at the time.


This sums up my description of most of the challenges we faced in a long distance relationship. I hope eventually to write about some of the benefits involved as well as the unique aspects of coming home at the end of my time in Romania.

Long Distance Relationships part 1

Two years ago today I arrived home from 8.5 months abroad in Romania where I was volunteering with a missions organization. Just before I had left for Romania a friend of mine (now my husband) and I had developed an interest in each other, and so we were in a long distance relationship for the extent of my time away.

I looked forward to arriving home again with so much anticipation. It was truly a joy to see him again for the first time waiting for me in the airport, flowers in tow.

While the distance was a difficult hurdle, it was also a very meaningful and formative time for us.

I'm thinking I'll present the topic here in this blog and expound on it further in subsequent blogs. I may also include some of my sister's pointers from her time spent in Thailand for six months during her engagement to my current brother-in-law.

So here we go, here are the challenges:

1. Time difference
2. When schedules allowed for talking
3. Needing to be fully present for things going on around us (work, etc)
4. Having marriage in mind (which creates its own pressures)
5. Not getting to hang out with/in each other's social groups.

The benefits:

1. Understanding the value to place on the relationship from early on
2. Having a tangible challenge to endure together.
3. We developed a strong sense of trust
4. We confided in each other and had a close relationship because we talked regularly

Since our relationship developed so profoundly while I was away there were some expected and unexpected occurrences after my return. I'll share those below.

The aftermath challenges:

1. People not realizing you've been dating for close to a year
2. People not understanding how we interact as a couple
3. Having to get to know the other's idiosyncrasies in person
4. People not realizing you're in a serious relationship
5. People thinking you're ready to get married tomorrow (oh wait, I guess that's all relationships)

The aftermath awesomeness:

1. Getting to hang out together, go places together, share experiences
2. Getting to be in the same time zone
3. Holding hands and hugging
4. Being able to observe how the other interacts with other friends and in various social groups

I think I'll describe each of these categories in future blogs. The international dynamic of our relationship might also deserve a few blogs as well. For example: conversations with future in-laws needing to be translated, anxiety of the unknown culture in question, the inability to get to know future family in person, etc.

While I was gone in Romania I had also found a few blogs, articles, and videos talking about how to do well in a long distance relationship. I might try and dig those up as well and post them somewhere.

Am I a Health Nut Now?

I didn't realize until today that after a few months not even having sugar in the house and eating almost entirely food made from scratch that there has been something of a change in me. Granted, I still consume sugar - when I stop at my parents' house and snack on something sitting out, when I buy myself a bit of dark chocolate, when I add a drizzle of honey to my oatmeal or something similar, and when sugar happens to be hiding in something that is not generally considered a sweet food. You also have to realize, I don't say no to desserts, I just don't eat a ton of them.

The change is this: after eating a plate full of breaded, sugary, glazed chicken with fried rice and only a 5th of the plate actually holding vegetables, the result was a mild headache and lack of satiation which led to an overall frustration and hangriness. To my dear husband: I sense I am beginning to understand your low mood after consuming sugary foods with more empathy.

I had noticed that I have been enjoying the naturally occurring sweetness in vegetables where I had previously not considered it to be that sweet - carrots, onions, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and much, much more.

At the same time I find the food I'm consuming to result in more contentment and good energy over all. Think of the potential of eating chicken soup for breakfast because it's on hand rather than a bowl of cereal. It has a significantly higher ability to fuel me for the day and leave me feeling satisfied until my mid-morning meal or snack thing. Yes, I often eat mid-morning because I eat breakfast around 6am, so four or five hours later my belly is asking for more.

So, although I'm not really much of a health nut, I find myself becoming more of one than I thought I was. I am because of my husband's needs, but perhaps it's really for my own needs as well.

Phone Repairs

My mom and I went to the Apple store at Mayfair mall today so I could get my phone battery replaced. We pulled into the parking lot and walked into the nearest store.

Surrounded by books and eye catching titles, we browsed and chuckled over various titles.

"Grammar: Know your s*** or Know you're s****"

There was another with advice on how to be lazy. The advice was given by a sloth.

There were colorful and mesmerizing covers for old classics: Charlotte's Web, Murder on the Orient Express, etc.

There was a whole shelf of cook books, which I glanced at but didn't actually peruse over.

"Bullet Journal Method" caught my eye, since I use a bullet journal, but want to use it to a fuller extent than simply a calendar and to-do list.

Then there were the New Releases and the Biographies and Memoirs shelf that we had to look over for a friend's newly published autobiography/memoir. Unfortunately we couldn't find it.

In spite of the book store, eventually we made it over to the Apple store and waited our turn to have it worked on over a plate full of Sesame Chicken from Little Tokyo in the food court. Much to our dismay, it was mostly sugar, with only a few vegetables, and nothing particularly Asian about it except the name. I guess businesses know how to cater to American tastes.

Moral of the story: if you ever go through a bookstore to get to where you're really going, expect to be delayed.

The Not-So-Serious Drawings

Some days at work I find myself sitting by the front door of the school so parents can sign their kids in and I have to open the door for them. On those days I often make odd drawings. These drawings sometimes end up in my conversations with the kids, so that in itself adds a fun dynamic.

Awhile ago, I drew a common housefly.

Another day I drew a water dragon and I returned to the same drawing to complete it another morning.

Another day I drew an iguana. Unfortunately, I didn't finish and it landed on a poster for a kickball tournament. I don't have it anymore.

Lately I have also drawn a lot of patterns and designs where the emphasis is all about rhythm and repetition. It also gives my hands something to do while listening to sermons or sitting through long meetings for work. It helps me listen better, helps me have a physical outlet while my ears are taking in the material.

Sparking Interest part 2

In the mornings at work we typically require the kids to have some reading time at least twice a week. This is hard to reinforce since many of the kids are already required to read for a certain amount of time at school and since they are antsy to just get outside for awhile before classes start.

I found a printout recently about incorporating math and literacy into an active program in the forms of scavenger hunts, puzzles, word searches, yahtzee, Farkle etc. It is incredibly difficult to integrate some of these into the morning because of the structure we have and the fact that we are in the gym - a simple fact that seems to encourage a lot of running and tag games in the middle of reading time.

A couple of things I have actually been able to integrate (at least minimally) are penpal letters which I deliver between my morning site and my afternoon site, and some out loud reading of a Nancy Drew chapter book. I have actually found some of the kids asking me to write letters or to read Nancy Drew. This is the part that fascinates me most - the kids are now beginning to look forward to these things and remind me when I forget. This became particularly obvious after I lost some of the penpal letters. The kids chided me, "Ms. Rachel, how could you lose them?" I was glad to see that a couple of them were willing to start over and write new letters to their now designated penpal.

Sparking Interest?

For class the last few weeks we've had to read and watch a lot of material about teaching. A lot of it is just helping people bring their audience into what it is they're trying to teach and be engaged with the material, or simply finding ways to facilitate students' independent discovery process. It has been very exciting.

I had the chance to begin to apply some of these things at my work.

In the afternoons I work with a group of about 20 kids from 4K to 5th grade. The majority of the group are kindergartners and 1st graders. This means that as leaders it is very difficult to invent things for the younger kids and leave the older kids to find something to do on their own. But that's not engaging them or helping stir them on to creativity and discovery.

After a conversation I had with one of these older kids I decided to go to the library and pick up a plethora of books that are capable of stirring interest - you know, the kinds I pored over when I was a kid. I got drawing books, a few DIY books, a bird guide book, some gardening books, and one with photos of Korean architecture. I made sure that all the books were visually stimulating, full of pictures (not too many words) because this was exactly the kind of thing that stirred my fancy when I was a kid. I also want to look into instructions for how to build things out of cardboard - a resource of which we have plenty.

The point is this: to get the kids thinking of things they would like to learn more about and we can help facilitate their curiosity by providing more books of similar topics. Who knows how it will go, but I'm excited to see what happens.

Checkpoint: Final College Payment

Well, it's been done: my very last and final payment has been made to Moody Bible Institute. All loans and payment plans are finished. I won't miss having that money disappear from my bank account each month, but I think I might miss being a student at Moody.

I tell people I'm glad to finally be done, but I think that applies more to the practical end of things. I'm glad to be attaining a degree that will help me fill positions that are more advanced, help me qualify for bigger things. I'm also glad that I won't have deadlines set on my learning goals in the same way, I'll have more freedom for discovery and exploration outside of the confines of assignment requirements.

But I'm realizing that what I have been enjoying quite a lot (in spite of how much stress it can cause me) is the learning experience. I get to research things, learn about things, write about those things, interact with the material, etc. I feel I have become more of a habitual learner over these past four years at Moody. I already was a habitual learner, but I learned mostly how to do this or that. I now interact more with analytical, thoughtful ideas, approaches, etc. I have learned strategies and techniques for study habits and learning. I have learned how to observe what I've learned and tell someone else about it.

Strategies for Eating in the Chen House

Food requires strategy.

Well, in our house it requires strategy. I don't like to spend money in restaurants because I don't like paying for the extra labor, unless it's some kind of special event and the restaurant is nice. Restaurants don't always serve what satisfies my appetite, and if they do it usually costs upward of $10 for a single meal.

Also, when you're in school and work, when your husband commutes to work and needs nourishment, thinking about food at the last minute doesn't work well anyway.

So here's what we often do. Every few days we will make a relatively large batch of food - enough to have fed my family growing up (7 kids) for one meal. It could be a large batch of vegetables, grain, meat, or a combo of some kind.

These we just warm up at the moment we're hungry or we will freeze several servings of one meal or another to be used when needed. This is nice because then Rex can grab a meal to go if he is commuting to Milwaukee. I don't usually use these frozen meals since I have largely been studying from home ever since the school year began. That being the case, I can just warm up what is in the fridge and determine the portion sizes based on my current appetite.

I like this approach to managing food because I don't have to cook every meal, I only have to clean up after every meal. I also don't necessarily have to cook every day, but most days I prepare some kind of food.

We learned this approach from some friends of ours. In their family, both the parents are working on PhD level and beyond kind of work and they have a young daughter. They recently had another baby, so I'm sure they are busy in another way now. The daughter goes to daycare during the day, but the parents with their demanding schedules pack meals that have been prepared at the beginning of the week. They will make three types of meals and freeze about 12 portions at once. They then just grab the meals as needed throughout the week. No worries about food going bad because it's frozen, no worries about food not being there when its needed.

That reminds me of another way they inspired me. Before getting married, there was a time I got stranded in Milwaukee while visiting Rex because of a snow storm, so I stayed at their house for the night. In the morning I was given a bowl of lentil soup. As a child my mom used to make lentils, but they weren't prepared in a flavorful way, but my hosts had created a very tasty dish. I have since incorporated lentil soups into our meals on a more regular diet. Rex loves them, they are a good source of energy, and when you add the right kinds of spices and other diced or chopped vegetables, it becomes truly delectable.

Food - An Adventure of Its Own

Lately food has been a little bit of an adventure for me. Not surprising, since I just got married, right?

But food has had a particularly nerdy aspect to it. How can I create some of my old favorite dishes that Rex typically can't eat in a way that he can eat them without detrimentally affecting his body, his mood, ect.

This was his birthday dinner. I got out the China dishes and ate a little of basically all the food we had in the house at the time. The candles were Rex's idea.

Shortbread has been one thing that has solved the issue of Rex being unable to eat most desserts. I make it with whole wheat flour and flax meal, and use a little stevia and honey for sweetening. I don't sweeten much and allow the fruits served on the side to provide the sweetness to complete the treat.

Coleslaw has also been one dish I particularly enjoy, but Rex will generally not eat because he believes it's full of bad ingredients. He's probably right about the typical coleslaw, but I found a way to make it using sesame oil, some vinegar, and withholding significantly on sweeteners. It's still very tasty and satisfying - without any guilt or repercussions.

Honestly, cooking isn't generally my favorite thing, but when I'm sharing food with someone else, I'll get a little more extravagant. I also cook because I don't like spending money in restaurants. I'm discovering that I am enjoying my food more and more as well.

Rex and I were observing that when you're not constantly adding sugar to food, as many are in the habit of doing - even to savoury foods, you begin noticing how sweet foods are already. Squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and many other vegetables provide a unique sweetness all their own.

One of our favorite things is frozen berries. We toss these into the microwave and about 30-60 seconds later we have a delectable fruit sauce. In my opinion it's far better than many fruit sauces typically added to pancakes in any typical family diner.

Here is something that doesn't happen too often, but it was fun to make and eat. This was a little spread of random snacky things that became the equivalent of a filling and satisfying meal. You can see pears, tea eggs (a Chinese food item), almonds, white cheddar cheese, carrots, olives, artichokes, and pickles here. We may have added some salami and Rex added tahini to his carrots and nearly died and went to heaven he was so happy. 

Transitions

This is my dilemna, I have had so many things I'm thinking about lately, but I can't really understand what I'm thinking about or tell other people about it so well until I have slowly and painstakingly written about it. Not painstakingly, just taking the time out of a busy schedule to actually do these things. So the other day I have literally spent a couple of hours typing up about topics that are on the forefront of my mind, or that have been stewing in the background. I find that there is just so much information that I am not sure where to stop.

The reality is, I feel inspired to express these things, but I often feel that people are disinterested in engaging in real conversation about these kinds of things. But I think I have had many interesting experiences, I just don't know how to relate them to other people very well.

It's hard because everyone has seen the missionary photos, everyone has heard the assortment of missionary stories. I even forget that with my brother having lived in Tanzania for nearly a year, he was practically camping for that whole time until he came to visit me in Calarasi, Romania, which was like a gradual reverse culture shock for him. Since that part of Romania is not as extreme a situation as Tanzania is, but it is a more extreme situation than Waukesha or Weyerhauser Wisconsin, it was for him a type of gradual transition back to first-world civilization. I know he learned a lot from and grew loads from that time in Tanzania, but sometimes I don't even know how to understand it better.

I think I've been in such an interesting time of life, too, because I have had so much back and forth, so many moves, so many changes throughout all my adult life - so far. When I was 20 I went to Romania for a month, I came home and worked at my jobs discontented and longing to travel again. When I was 21 I went back to Romania for a month and a half, this time with some knowledge of the language (although limited in understanding oral speech). Again I returned home to my jobs discontented and with the desire to go again. I studied my Romanian, kept in touch with friends abroad, etc. and aimed to go to Romania long term. The thing that stopped me from going long term, aside from not being fully funded, was that my sister was getting married in the Summer. In my mind I would "go home for a visit" but God extended my visit into about one and a half years. The next time I went to Romania "long term" I was in the beginning stages of my relationship with Rex. That year I moved 8 or 9 times just between different housing situations in the ministry, not to mention my regular overnight stays in one of the villages. Often when going to Romania for a month or two I would do so at the same time as terminating my current employment situation and then return home mostly broke and having to restart again from scratch. So I changed jobs a number of times over these years because I was a wanderer who wanted to find my home abroad.

I suppose that is now what is happening, in a mid-term sense of the word and with a change of direction. I am now about to go to Taiwan for a year, start a new job from scratch, learn the language, get to know my new family more closely, and hopefully be a light of God's truth to them. It's home, a home I've only experienced for three weeks, but home nonetheless. I'm going to another home with my husband. It's just a much more adventurous home (for me and my limited Chinese abilities) than being at my home here in Wisconsin.

I hope to teach English. I've never done that before, but I am glad that God has put me in some teaching/leading positions with children to begin experiencing what it takes to lead a large group well. I remember how hard it was to do just that using a second language in Romania, but my Romanian is far more advanced than my Chinese. So I really don't know what will be involved on a practical level there.

School Assignment

Recently I had to write about the passage in Proverbs 3:1-8 for my class, Teaching the Scriptures. I thought I would share it here. Admittedly, the passage that gets the biggest highlight here is not the one in question, but Psalm 23, which had more of a story line to it.


Growing up, my mom would put me and my four roommate siblings to bed, tuck us in, say a prayer, recite a few Bible passages, and sing a song. It was like a liturgy, familiar, repeated, regular, comforting, something I envisioned as I drifted off to sleep.

“These six things doth the Lord hate, lying lips… feet that are swift to mischief, hands that shed innocent blood…”

“...Let not kindness and truth leave you, bind them on the tablet of your heart.”

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want… Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” and she would sing a song with the ending lines of the 23rd Psalm.

Night after night, I would envision in my mind the green grass pastures, the still and calming waters, the valley of the shadow of death with the narrow path of righteousness stretched out ahead, the rocky red-orange cliffs on one side and a steep precipice descending on the other. I would envision a table spread before me in the grass, and Shirley Goodness following me. She didn’t teach on the passages, she just recited them with and to us.

As I grew older and read more of the Scriptures, I understood that binding kindness and truth on the tablet of your heart is much like binding the words of the covenant to your forehead, to your arm, and to your doorpost, in the Mosaic law and Jewish tradition.

When getting my husband’s suit tailored for our wedding, we were serviced by a Jewish tailor from Azerbaijan, who spoke at least five languages. On his doorpost was a part of the Talmud, perhaps a Psalm, rolled up into a small clear container attached to the door. He said it was for good luck, and I wondered if he knew it was for a reminder. It reminded me of the passages in Deuteronomy which talk about keeping the words of the covenant close, talking about them each day and passing them on to the next generation - just as my mom did in our nightly ritual.

Minnesota Trip Part 2

Today I have three different assignments I could (or should) work on, but my mind is still processing a very full and rich weekend. That means I'm not going to study now, I'm going to spill my thoughts. Anywhere is better than nowhere, so I'm spilling my thoughts here on my blog. 

I have a second cousin who attended an Ambleside school in Minnesota. His parents hosted us (the Chens) and Shira in their home over the weekend. Last year I taught art in an Ambleside school, The Augustine Academy in Merton Wisconsin, and it was quite the learning experience for me. Ambleside Schools International take a very unique approach to education and learning, so it really has had a profound impact on the way I think about education, and even the way I complement people on their work.

In light of this, I asked my cousin's wife, Kim, to share some of the ways that having her son in an Ambleside school has affected her mindset on technology. I asked this because at The Augustine Academy we once read an article in teacher's meeting or training about this idea of creating more than we consume, especially in this area of consuming media and entertainment. I know that at the Augustine Academy there was an increased exposure to real life things, and what I mean by that is kids would go outside, collect things from the out-of-doors, and draw them. This is called nature study. They would also copy artwork from well known, classic artists. They would create "handwork", which included things like sewing, paper quilling, etc. I was really only involved in the art classes and didn't have extensive exposure to the curriculum as a whole, but I got some glimpses of these things and I liked what I saw.

Kim told me how their family has already had a similar philosophy on technology, but when their son entered an Ambleside school, it limited exposure to video games, smart phones, and technology in further ways. He struggled with dyslexia and in that my mom had plenty of rapport with Kim because my mom struggled to teach two dyslexic boys how to read and write. One brother took eight years to learn to read. Kim said that the handwork portion of the curriculum also helped quite a lot with her son's dyslexia because it required him to focus on just one point and to create.

On an even deeper level, Kim said that the mindset of having healthy relationships with those around her, having community, and the view of children as being whole and individual persons had quite an effect on their family and continues to do so today.

She then began to describe a book she has discovered called Rare Leadership that discusses some of these relational aspects of leading, leading with joy rather than with fear based motivation, etc. In this book the founders of Ambleside Schools International are actually described in their work to create a unique school setting where children learn for the joy of learning, not for competition, not for a good grade, but because learning is a worthy task to put oneself to. People, and therefore children, have a natural curiosity that can be fed and nurtured, and this is much of what Ambleside Schools seeks to do. They further have a mindset that even if something comes with greater difficulty to a student, they don't have a cop out or an excuse not to do the task before them, but rather they are trained to persevere even when "head and hand are tired".

So, Rex downloaded the Audible version of the book and we were listening to it in the car ride home. We are about half way through, but there is so much to think about that it will really take some processing and working through the topics before they are really grasped.

Minnesota Trip

Visiting my relatives in Minnesota is like visiting living history books.

You see, my grandpa's little sister, Joyce, died at the ripe old age of 91. My own Grandpa Arne is about 96, I believe, while is other sister, Gene, is about 94, and his older brother, Oscar, would be 97 had he lived this long.

The special thing about this trip is I got to take my new husband with me. We don't see this side of my family very often, they're far away and usually it requires some significant reason to drive 5 hours in the car. I don't know if it is because of his Taiwanese culture or simply his curiosity (of which he has plenty) but he wanted to understand how these relatives are related to us and the family tree at large. But with an explanation of the family tree comes also the stories from long ago.

There are the stories of my great aunt and uncle, Oliver and Gene, who served as missionaries for many years in Madagascar. Their son, in whose house we stayed, was born in Madagascar, and my mom remembers receiving the air gram announcing his birth. He and his wife are shown in the picture attached. I suppose she was about 10 at the time. Uncle Oliver was telling us stories about seeing crocodiles and shooting them. But apparently there was another story about a local approaching my uncle and telling him not to shoot a crocodile because it was an ancestor, and it was taboo to shoot it.

We heard stories of how Uncle Oliver's parents were born in Norway, his dad was a pastor in Montana, and then they moved to Madagascar as missionaries soon after Uncle Oliver's birth. They spoke Norwegian at home, and in Madagascar French is spoken as well as Malagasy, which means my Uncle would have been able to speak four, if not five, languages.

We saw a picture of my grandpa's family as children in the mountains with their mom, Esther Kvaalen (after whom I am named) looking at a bear cub. They lived to tell about it, but they probably should not have approached the bear so closely.

My own grandpa was not in Minnesota for the funeral, his health has been worsening, and so has grandma's. So it is hard or next to impossible for them to travel anymore. Regardless, my grandpa is going to a reunion of old Navy buddies in Florida by himself sometime soon. The family is not too pleased about him going alone, but I guess he's determined to go.

We also heard about my aunt Joyce who died. She was a doctor's wife, they had five kids, I believe, and she was a classy lady. Uncle Harley was a quiet type, he didn't speak a whole lot, but he was friendly and welcoming. He had been head of the radiology department at Mayo Clinic. Aunt Joyce was great at welcoming guests into the house, always serving breakfast (apparently on her China dishes, is what we heard) and always making the effort to be well dressed. In fact, Aunt Joyce had a way of always having her hair simply, but beautifully done, wearing something pretty, but classic and functional, and always she wore her coral colored lipstick. As her son said in the eulogy, she was not vain, but rather she made the effort to look good in order to show people respect.

She was always very personable, was curious about people, and often had many people in her home as guests. There are stories from her sons about going to the breakfast table and realizing that there was no other family at the table at the time besides themselves, and yet it didn't seem odd. After her husband passed away, she felt so alone in the big house that she decided to call up Mayo Clinic and ask if there were any medical students who needed a place to stay. It was said that Joyce had a way of collecting strays.

Although I have only visited Aunt Joyce a handful of times and the memories of our visits become increasingly foggy, her approach to beauty has been influential in my own philosophy of beauty. She wasn't into her looks, but she was certainly not a slob. She carried herself with class and dignity and poured into people with generosity.

This weekend was a blessing for my little family. With Rex along and his great skill at pulling out the stories people have to share, I probably got to learn so much more about my family than I could have without his being there.

More on Hermeneutical Spirals

When I'm studying for my classes, this is how I wish I could study:

But this is how I feel I need to study:

How many of you can relate to those assignments that don't touch on any of the things the reading or lecture made you ponder and think deeply about? That's me, most of the time. The reading brings up a lot of thoughts, but often they are not on the same topics as the ones my classes require me to write about.

I suppose it does require discipline to fulfill the assignment requirements, but it leaves my own curiosity stunted, sometimes.

Moving Overseas?

Well here's a whopper of a topic for you: moving overseas.

What does it entail, and what does it look like? Coincidentally, I can tell you a bit about it since I am in that process right now. I have also applied in the past for a five year visa in Romania, but someone else handled all the paperwork for me at that time, so I can't really describe to you what's involved. I can tell you it cost about $500, if I remember correctly.

Actually, a friend of mine is also in a similar scenario, so I think it would be fun to collaborate with her sometime and maybe write our best tips and pointers for the process as we're learning and/or after we've learned about it.

My husband and I are moving to Taiwan for a year, and my friend, Amy, is moving to Thailand for a semester abroad. The basic things required include airfare, housing, visa, and plans for what to do while there. Since visa is the part most interesting to me right now, that is what I will share about at this time.

The reasons Amy and I are travelling are completely different, she is going for school and I am planning to teach English in order to take my turn as bread-winner for our little home while Rex serves his country (which is mandatory, he doesn't have an option). After that we intend to return to the US for him to finish his PhD in electrical engineering.

For me this one is pretty interesting since I am applying for a residence visa as the spouse of a citizen. This involves kind of a three step process, and it can at times be a bit confusing. It's really very long and complicated to explain it, but if you're interested you can look at the end of this blog and see what is involved.

First we have to get me registered into the family registry in Taiwan as a Chen, then we have to apply for the visa, and then once in Taiwan we have to complete a third step.

Here's the odd thing, if you thought that it was expensive to buy flight tickets, that really only came to about half of the actual cost of going to Taiwan and coming back again. You see, we had to pay $565 to assemble and submit the documents necessary to apply for Rex's residency when we return to the US which will take probably a year to process, and it cost about $327 to assemble documents and submit them to apply for my Taiwanese residency. In addition it cost $127 to update my name on my passport after getting married. The flight tickets cost us $1200 for two, but that was only one-way. That means we have to buy tickets again to come back to the US. Hopefully we'll be able to fly at a cheaper time of year than the month of December.


APPENDIX: What does Taiwan want us to provide in order for me to live there?

First: we have to put me into the registry in Taiwan showing that because of marriage I am now part of the Chen family and receive a document back stating this to be the case. For that we needed to submit:
- a power of attorney form for his mom to do some official tasks for us
- our marriage certificate
- a translated, notarized Chinese marriage certificate
- a document authorizing the authenticity of all the attached documents
- a declaration of my taken Chinese name (陳瑞秋)
- a notarized copy of my passport
- a notarized copy of Rex's passport
- $60 money order
- self addressed priority mail envelope (costs $7)
And all this has to be mailed for about $7 to Chicago and then they have to forward it to Rex's mom (another mailing which costs something)

Second: we have to use the document received from Taiwan in conjunction with a plethora of other documents to apply for the actual visa. These include:
- A document from local law enforcement stating that I have no criminal background (costs $5)
- 3 passport photos of me (costs $10.50)
- Physical examination verifying I don't have syphilis or tuberculosis and that I have gotten vaccinations for measles and rubella (Costs $25, perhaps more)
- My passport (not a copy, this time) (It cost $127 to update my last name on that, by the way)
- Notarized copy of Rex's passport
- Taipei Economic and Cultural Office approved English marriage certificate
- Stamped return priority mail envelope (Costs $7)
- $190 money order

Third: We have to follow up with something within fifteen days of arriving in Taiwan. I can't remember what that is exactly, but I don't feel I have to understand that now because I'm working on understanding and completing the second step. Therefore, I will not bother to explain that to you, yet.

Bugs and Kids

Currently at the playground where I work as one of the city playground programs staff there are two brothers who have a fascination with bugs of all shapes, sizes, colors, and types. Every day one of them catches something, be it a grasshopper, a giant June bug, or a hatching cicada. To one of them I recommended researching the bugs he found and/or drawing them in order to better learn about them.

Recently, while listening to the cicadas buzzing in the trees, my husband has remarked to me that he loves their sound. This was surprising to me because I had always thought of the sound as being the sound of the heat of the sun (as a small, ignorant child) and it corresponds to that drowsy feeling of the dog days of Summer. His love for their sound has sparked for me a curiosity regarding cicadas, their habits, and how they even make such a unique sound.

I looked up cicadas and how they make that sound. Apparently they have tymbals on their sides which function in conjunction with the other parts of the cicada's body to act as a mini speaker. They are capable of making sounds up to about 110 decibels (if I remember correctly), and are considered to be one of the loudest of all insects.

My husband showed me recently an app called Google Scientist which lets you tap into all the sensors on your phone to measure things such as decibels and much more. Shouting into my phone as loud as I thought proper for indoors and with neighbors outside, I measured my own voice at a maximum of about 75-80 decibels. Basically, those cicadas are singing louder than I was willing to shout (without hurting my voice).

My curiosity has been quite happily satisfied, then, to have been able to observe a couple of young cicadas hatching out of their nymph skins with their brand new wings. Those wings are a beautiful kind of teal color before they're dried. I've never seen such a thing before! It was quite fascinating.

I must admit, on a field trip yesterday I was quite pleased to allow the six kids in my group to hold the cicadas we found in a short nature walk. We were looking for as many bugs or birds, or whatever we could find (within a very short fifteen minutes) as we were able. We spotted a couple of dragonflies, bees, cicadas, cabbage butterflies, ants, but we were most fascinated by the slow, clumsy, and totally harmless cicadas. My coworkers were sincerely repulsed to discover the kids holding and carrying old cicada skins and the hatched adults in their hands. As much as many find this kind of activity repulsing, it hearkens back to my own childhood playing in dirt, leaves, sticks, and more. In this kind of play there were no rules, the imagination was key, and the possibilities were endless.

As for the two brothers who catch endless insects, I further discovered that their mom encourages this type of thing as her field of study in college was related to conservation and the environment.

Hermeneutical Spirals

In the first week of this class I was reading yet again about hermeneutics and the hermeneutical circle or spiral. Whenever reading for my classes I find myself lost in thought and hardly able to pay close attention to the reading at hand. I realized while reading that this is in fact part of the hermeneutical cycle. I am reading things that stir up thoughts which then stir up problems that desire solutions or some type of further thought or figuring. While some thoughts unrelated should just be jotted down on a pad of paper, others deserve serious thought and should not simply be shooed aside with the label “unnecessary” or “irrelevant.” 

If you have not heard before of a hermeneutical spiral, it is basically the idea that we come to a new idea with our preconceptions and assumptions, but as we listen, read, or experience more of life we reshape our conceptions and assumptions. Thus, our mind is formed and transformed by the taking in of new information.

Back Stories 1

Last year I had posted all the artwork in my current gallery. I was reminded, though, that sometimes simply seeing an image is not enough to help viewers connect with it, people enjoy hearing something about the back story and the process involved in the creation. So that is the purpose of this blog today.

 A couple summers ago I was able to take a day trip with some friends into the mountains of Romania. It was a pretty impressive trip for me since it was really my first time seeing sizable mountains. Being that it was a cloudy, misty day I actually was tricked a little. You see, I was looking at these amazing mountains when suddenly, in one small city, a cloud scooted over to one side and I was amazed to see the true height of a nearby mountain. I had to look a good 45 degree angle upward to see the summit of an immense geographical formation stretching above us. It was beautiful, rugged, and greyish-blue. Walking through the town to get lunch a lunch of shwarma, we were able to buy small cups of raspberries from an old gentleman who had picked them from the mountains earlier that day.

This particular scene is from a photo taken from near the top of one such mountain. There was a resort of some kind on the top as well as a ski lift painted red that could repeatedly be viewed overhead as we criss-crossed up and down the winding mountain road.

When I painted this scene I had recently just purchased a set of watercolor paints and was quite new with them. This took about three hours to make, which is about twice as long as I usually spend on a piece. I really enjoyed the process of getting to lay in the rich colors of the tree branches and the more subtle colors of the mountains beyond. Most people would paint the scene with no telephone wires, but I have found a fascination in telephone wires and the lines they can create in a composition, thus I left them in. Not to mention the color contrast with the basic blue and green hues that dominate the scene.

The scene above is also from a misty, foggy day, but in quite a different setting. Many of you may be familiar with Pewaukee Lake. My sister and I used to work as nannies for a family in the area and sometimes would drive to and from work together. This place happens to have been on our "commute" home, and sometimes we would get out, walk around, rent a canoe, or get coffee at Brewer's 2 Cafe. For this painting I actually had my paints with me but no paper, so my sister let me use a piece of hers. We were in a coffee shop and I was really just painting some photo from my phone because I often use painting or drawing as a way to unwind when I am just too tense.

In this painting I wanted to experiment using some of the colors I never seem to touch, purple for example. (Who likes purple anyway?) But purple actually works quite well as a shadowy color and it played it's role quite well in this piece.

What I really loved about this piece is the way the misty trees come together to form the backdrop, the brilliant color of the man's jacket out on the pier, and something about the monochromatic scheme it took on. Everything works together to create this quiet and thoughtful scene.

This piece was actually purchased by some friends in 2015 when I was raising money to travel to Romania, but later given back to me when they were downsizing from a home to a camper. It was later chosen by some other friends of ours when we wanted to give them a gift and let them pick from any of my ready-to-hang pieces.

Restart

It has dawned on me that blogging, while not that complicated, is something I have not been doing the last couple of years. I'm not generally one to broadcast all the goings-on of my life, but I thought it might be worthwhile to return to sharing some of the things I've been discovering or experiencing since these might be beneficial to others as well.

I'm not sure whether to stick to art in this blog or to use my other blog for some of these more general categories. The problem with this choice is the blog names and original purposes of my blogs, some of which are a little obsolete for where I am currently in life.

While my other blog still exists, the Calarasi Chapter of my life has finished, not the relationships formed thereby, but that season and chapter has shifted and phased into something mostly, but not entirely, different.

Blogging with missions updates on the Calarasi Chapter was always a struggle for me because I wanted missions in Calarasi and/or Romania to be a long-term goal. But even when it comes to missions and serving him, God can change our long-term goals.

Blogging my artwork for the purpose of allowing people to enjoy it or even in the hope that it will eventually sell is not something I have had a lot of time for.

I am a student at Moody Bible Institute and a student of life. I work with kids, currently through the Parks and Recreation department of the City of Waukesha and the local school district, and this allows plenty of learning opportunities for me to learn to teach and to interact better with the people around me.

Rather than going to Romania long term, I went for the better part of a year and was praying about direction and God's guidance through that time. There was at that time a relationship brewing between me and a Taiwanese grad student at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and as it turns out, we just got married in June exactly two months ago today.

Thus, my name is no longer Rachel Richardson but Rachel Chen and I will be moving to Taiwan at the end of this year for the year of 2019 due to my husband's obligatory year of military service in his homeland. This year has been difficult in some ways, joyful in many others, but the year to come and the years ahead of that one will be much the same - difficult and yet joyful. I am anticipating getting a teaching job in Taiwan, learning more Mandarin Chinese, and further developing the relationship with his family, which I have had little opportunity to do so far.

In the topic of art, this year has been quite an interesting one for me because I had the lovely opportunity to teach art at a wonderful school called The Augustine Academy in Merton, Wisconsin, a school which I would highly recommend. I learned a lot about simplifying what I have honed and practiced over the years for the minds and ears of young people many of whom have never had the opportunity before for formal art instruction. I saw some of the most interesting pieces from my students and it really was a joy to see how they were able to develop and progress over the year.

This is a longer post, but I am writing with the realization that blogging can be simple and it can be regular. I want to challenge myself to do something along those lines and perhaps share some of what I am learning as well. The types of things I am thinking of writing about include the following topics:

- Study strategies
- Accelerating formal education with standardized tests
- Learning Styles
- Teaching Tips
- Communication with students and coworkers
- Drawings and Ideas for drawings
- International Travel
- Long Distance Relationship tips
- Things I've learned about relationships
- Language learning
- Studying cultures at home and abroad

I don't know how this will go, perhaps it will be too "drawn out" and not be very focused, but I want to start somewhere.