I'm late writing the blog this week, but not a whole lot happened apart from the typhoon. Monday, October 19th, started with our work-out, followed by a stop at the store. When we came home, Terry modeled the fun egg box we had used up. Inside the box, the eggs are just randomly stacked on top of shredded paper. It's a fun box and the eggs are pretty fresh. Next there was a church staff brunch meeting he attended.
The boys did school. Porky keeps a close eye on them. Ezra is constantly distracted by Porky. Later on, Ezra had his first new Exploratory class at Morrison - woodworking.
Evie has a goal every week to make dessert and dinner at some point. This week she made a large chocolate cream cheese swiss roll. It was amazing, but she was bummed b/c it cracked. They all crack on Bake Off and somehow still taste good.
Tuesday, October 20th, was just a normal day with no photos until Terry and Evie went to Taipei for EC Talk. Evie helped another girl lead her table discussion! She's such a grown up.
Terry's table group.
Heading home on the train.
We did talk to Noah that morning and heard about how our friend Jason had replaced the window in Noah's old room.
Terry had previously screwed the old window shut since it was so drafty. This room should be much warmer now.
On Wednesday, October 21st, Terry and I worked out and I shopped afterwards. On our way home I took this photo of the construction apartment next to us without the tarp on it! Our "blue view" out the back windows is much improved.
Evie was just leaving as I was coming in. She is completing challenges for her Writer's Workshop this month and was heading to the park to "write in a tree." 😂
I grabbed a lobby coffee before I headed upstairs.
When I walked in, Terry was walking out to go to Chang Gung University for Abraham, Sarah, and George's Cru meeting and evangelism afterwards. Today they had two students come.
Afterwards Terry and George evangelized together, which worked very well.
People seem to be more friendly and open to foreigners, so George was able to contribute and take part in more of a conversation than he usually can - generally he gets a lot of No.
All done and happy.
Evie went to Morrison "help" with costumes for the upcoming Morrison play. She felt like she hadn't really been contributing but when she asked Eleanor if they really needed her, Eleanor said, "I always need you." So Evie of course went back. That's Eleanor's mom, Rachel, who is primarily organizing the costumes.
Noah sent us this beautiful fall photo from campus that day.
Thursday, October 22nd, began with poor sleep but we got our workout done. I had BSF on Zoom and Terry had a meeting also on Zoom. We finally checked our weather apps b/c someone told us a typhoon was coming. Turns out they were right, haha. It was only a day away!
Ezra took one of many "breaks" from school while Terry worked.
Samuel had to take his trip essentials to the school during lunch to have them checked. He was going to a large trip to Sun Moon Lake with the 10th grade class the following week and they really wanted to make sure the kids had what they needed. Terry drove him b/c it was raining lightly.
After Samuel's meeting, him and Evie went downstairs to our complex gym and did a HIIT workout that kicked Evie's butt, while Samuel didn't think it was all that bad. He's getting so big and strong! He is very nearly as tall as Terry.
Ezra rode his bike to practice through the rain but Terry drove Evie and Samuel there for the fall music concert.
I wanted to go but didn't because I wanted to have dinner at a more reasonable time, and also so Evie could get to her meeting afterwards.
Terry drove them all home through the rain. Ezra came home on his bike and was pretty soaked. But he doesn't mind. After dinner Evie went to Simcha's house for their Astronomy club. Her life is so fun.
We were a little concerned that the typhoon was arriving so quickly, so Terry went out at 9pm to grab some milk, eggs, and bread "real quick." An hour later, after a followup stop at 7-Eleven, he returned. The store was crazy busy and all the meat was gone! This line is halfway through the store.
Ready or not, here comes the typhoon..
For Friday, October 23rd, it was all dim and rainy so we all slept in. Evie, who loves to get stuff done, spent most of the morning writing. She even called Noah and they wrote together for an hour. Terry made sourdough pancakes, we watched The Price is Right, and I vacuumed the house.
Originally we kind of assumed the gym would be closed since it was a "typhoon holiday," meaning schools and government offices were closed. But the gym was open! So we opened our umbrellas and walked down there. It wasn't raining or blowing too hard yet. There were plenty of other people there, maybe more than normal.
We got leg day done.
Leaving the gym. That's the church office apartment complex behind Terry.
There were plenty of other people outside. We crossed the street to buy fruit, b/c the fruit store was open as well.
Terry calls this larger umbrella his "man umbrella." It works well b/c he got a lot less wet than I did. It was pouring pretty good on our way home.
That afternoon they all played some games together. Pretty dim outside.
Right at sunset the light turned brown. It was so strange. Our friend Oliver texted the bible study group and said, "The skies are iodine brown colored." I scampered up to the roof immediately but by the time I got up there, it had passed already. It was still very odd-looking, more brown than this picture. I had a scary moment where I was looking up into the clouds and praying when the wind whipped up and shook the metal shingles creating a loud and deep resonating, reverberating sound. It scared me! It was like God was answering my question...
Saturday, October 24th, was a second typhoon holiday and we did almost nothing. Well, Terry did have an event, but besides that it was a blah day.
I took this photo to try to capture Porky and how white the rain looked, almost like snow.
Terry went ahead with his pre-arranged English game event that he had been planning with Rex's help at En Cafe. He would like to try to build up an English community here in Linkou similar to what he does on Tuesdays at EC Talk. Rex is willing to host it if people will buy drinks and we're eager to help his business succeed. We were unsure if people would come b/c of the typhoon but six came! The level of English was lower than Terry had planned but it was a good time. He is in contact with one of the men to meet again and both practice English and Mandarin respectively.
Samuel went for a run in the afternoon, the kids played games, I deleted pictures and videos from my phone to make more storage, and I made pizza for dinner. Noah had dinner with my folks that evening!
On Sunday, October 25th, the typhoon had finally passed. It was interesting walking to church to see how everything looked. Primarily we just saw a lot of fallen leaves and small branches on the ground. But later in the day I was in Taipei and saw several fallen large trees.
Pastor Nanson did this cute kids sermon before his adult sermon. Flora translated to Chinese when necessary.
Everyone but Terry had plans after church so he went out with Oliver, Annie, and Susanna to McDonalds.
I was invited last-minute by Lillian to go with a group of Morrison moms to Taipei American School's Romeo and Juliet play. Joyce, who works in the admissions at Morrison, drove us.
We didn't have time to sit down to eat so we got some snacks from 7-Eleven and ate in the school lobby. Philana, on the right, has three daughters and the oldest one did makeup for the play. So we were supporting her in addition to enjoying the show.
It's a large school and they put on high-quality shows. I was glad I was able to go. But wow, I could definitely tell I was in an American school by just walking into the theater. American vibes.
Heading home after the show.
Meanwhile, Evie was on her way to TAS to see the same play with her friends.
She loved it. How she wishes she could still do high school plays. She's got the theater bug still.
And that's the end of week 42!
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