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.