Pre-Taiwan 2011

We are going to Taiwan tomorrow. Yay(sort of). Elaboration:

I usually don't look forward to going to Taiwan.

I usually don't look forward to going to Taiwan with the family (even though I usually end up enjoying it anyways). It's not just the little annoyances like the long flights and the humid weather, but it's mostly that to me, my time spent in Taiwan is time I can't be having fun with my friends. It's not that I don't like spending time with my family, but that's basically all we do in Taiwan. We don't really do "exciting" things, but we basically just sit around all day with relatives, and it kills me to think about all the fun all my friends back home must be having without me. I hate the thought of going on vacation and coming back and not being part of the inside jokes or hearing about memorable experiences that I missed out on. I can't stand that I didn't spend as much time with friends as I could have, and all I can think about is the great fun that I must have missed out on.

This lost connection with my friends is only magnified by the fact that we rarely have internet access in Taiwan. I know that Taiwan's all modern and everything now, but our family always just lives with our grandparents, who have never really used the internet and don't have internet set up in their homes. Add that to the inability to call and text friends back home, we basically are completely cut off from our own worlds for nearly a month. It isn't easy. My dad says that when we go back to Taiwan, it's like going to Amish country. It sucks.

I'm not really dreading going to Taiwan this year.

That all said, I'm not dreading going to Taiwan as much as I normally do. Most of the kiddies that I normally hang out with over the summer are still in school, and there isn't that one person that I need to talk to every day, if you know what I mean (so I guess this year might be harder on Iris). Even though internet access will probably only be periodic, hopefully we can still kind of see what's going on in everybody's lives via Facebook or Twitter, and hopefully some of the kids back home will be online at crazy hours in the night for us to talk to. The only thing that kind of sucks is that I just got home, and I won't be home for very long, so having to leave immediately is sort of a bummer. But that's okay. I'll be with the family anyways!

Random statement that may or may not be true: Becoming a little less attached to hanging out and being more comfortable without constant communication with friends is just part of growing up.

Random note: I want to tell the story of our crazy trip up to Cedar Campus, so hopefully I can do that in Taiwan with all the spare time that I have.

Prayer Request: That our spiritual lives won't just crash and burn in Taiwan. Iris and I are going to bring some Christian books to Taiwan, but it's hard to get alone time, and especially because we are living with family that is very anti-Christian, it may be hard to spend quality time with Jesus.