The To Do List

 "I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything." 
-Jerry Seinfeld

I assure you, I am still alive! Last week I inundated Bowman's Corner with an onslaught of new and exciting posts, and then dropped off the face of the planet. There's a reason for this. Things have drastically picked up at ORTV. I film six TV articles and record three radio articles this week alone, and I have started going on English activities and cultural encounters at schools, both of which will be written about in due time. The unfortunate truth is, blogging DOES take time, and since I have to finish writing a large article by tomorrow, I'm just about out of time. I promise you, I will do my part to keep you up to date on my whatabouts and whereabouts...

...but all in due time!

Awesome Little Thing #5: Chinglish

I'll admit, it's hard as an English speaker to have a bad day in Taiwan. There are many reasons for this, but it is particularly difficult not to smile when you are enjoying a nice cold "snow corn" or stopping by your friendly neighborhood "Starbutts".

Yes, I have only been here for a couple weeks and already I have found it pretty difficult to miss these little jewels.

So if ever you're feeling down, and could use a little smile, just go out for a walk. I'm sure you'll find something eventually.

…awesome!

"Jason's Church"

Woke up early Sunday morning, which makes sense since I ended up sleeping all day Saturday. 

After making it happen with the captain, I hopped onto Mr. T's wild ride and made my way over to what we call "Jason's Church". (I call it this because I can't remember its real name). Jason's Church is all in Chinese, so I had to fake my way through a lot of the service, especially the interactive part.

"You said: 耶穌愛你，對不對？"

As difficult for me to understand as it was, it was amazing to know that even though we weren't speaking the same language linguistically, we were speaking the same language spiritually. We sang, prayed, and took communion, and after the service, there was a time of fellowship, and free lunch.

Sweet!

It was a pretty awesome experience, and praising God, in no matter what language, is one thing I look forward to doing again. Thanks Jason, you've got a pretty neat church!

Awesome Little Thing #4: Eating an Entire Sleeve of Oreos

The Oreo cookie. A sweet  layer of pure creamy bliss gently caressed between two crumbly, crispy chocolaty wafers. The cure to any failed term paper, loud obnoxious coworker, or a blind date gone wrong. Just one taste of that familiar chocolaty goodness, and you're taken back to better times. When the only thing you had to worry about was eating all of your peas so you could get dessert.

There are some days that are so bad, continuing your diet just adds insult to injury. So I say, take a load off. Put on your favorite movie, curl up on the couch, and eat those things by the sleeve, because tomorrow will be a better day!

Awesome!

Blue Sky Holiday?

So FridayI was all high and mighty saying I was having a wonderful time here and life was just peachy! I spoke a little too soon, and ended up jinxing myself. Saturday was just all around a bad day. Oh it had it's good parts to be sure, but I ended it on a sour note, and I don't think I left a good impression. Allow me to explain…

I guess I haven't been sleeping very well, because I spent most of the day half-awake, and half-dreaming that I was hunting flying squid while riding a giant tyrannosaurus rex with Conan the barbarian.

…doesn't do much for my social life

Anyway, I had made plans to meet a bunch of people for lunch, but being a complete newbie, I had no idea how to get there. I decided to follow Naomi, who I discovered, ALSO had no idea how to get there. Naomi and I grabbed a cab and directed him towards the general area of the restaurant, which we knew wasnear a hospital. We obviously confused the driver because he kindly dropped two completely healthy people off at the emergency room, and left. So we started walking out into the unknown city. 

Long story short, after walking a good mile or two, a couple more cabs, and a tour of what seemed like the entire north Taipei area, we found the restaurant where everyone was waiting for us. Getting lost in a foreign country where you don't know the language and everyone is always watching you = not very much fun. If I was in a better mood I would have laughed it off, but I am normally very good with directions, so this made me more homesick than anything.

For dinner, I had told a bunch of friends that I would show up to their "Thai Tie" party that night. Unfortunately, after lunch I went straight home and fell asleep, only to wake up hours later long after the party had ended. Feeling like a complete failure, I curled up on the couch, turned on an episode of Friends, and sulked over a bowl of fake Cheerios. Not a fun day. Pray for me as I approach my third week, and will surely experience some culture shock sometime soon!

Friday Night Live

So as I've mentioned before, every Friday night, we at ORTV put on a Bible study event called Friday Night Live. It's designed for people to come use their English with the teachers that they've seen on TV and heard on the radio, fellowship, worship, and learn new things from the Bible. I will start teaching at Friday Night Live soon, but for now, I am just sitting in.

There are several students that have been coming to Friday Night Live for years, but there are usually a few new ones each week. For them, we have what is called Bible Basics. Those are classes that introduce the basics of the Bible and Christianity, in an easy to chew format. It's fun to meet new people, and give some of them a little taste of Christianity, which many of them seem completely open to hearing.

After FNL, I found myself surrounded by students who were eager to hear about who I was, where I came from, and just what was I doing in Taiwan anyway? In fact, just about everyone asked me that question. I guess it didn't make sense to them that I would leave California to come here. Either they have a different view of Taiwan or they know something I don't, because I've been having a great time here, and I don't foresee that changing anytime soon!

Awesome Little Thing #3: The sound your voice makes when you talk into a fan

Being a grown up is no fun. Rundowns, staff meetings, and indexing… who cares!

There was a time in each of our lives when we didn't need a constant barrage of TV, internet, and music to be entertained. When we built skyscrapers out of boxes and tried to see who could shoot berries out of their noses the farthest, (or whatever it is little girls do). 

When a kid sees a fan, they know exactly what to do. Stick your face right next to those spinning blades, make your biggest smile, and go: "W-o-o-o-o-o-a-a-a-a-a-h-!-!-!-!" Because it's the little things like that happy little sound that make life so…

…awesome!

Sticky Pics

Thursday Night I had my first Taipei night market experience. For those of you who don't know what a night market is, imagine a mall in the states… except instead of a building you get a set of streets, instead of American Eagle you get "Poon's Pants", instead of Hot Dog on a Stick you get Stinky Tofu on a stick, and instead of a few goth teens you get an explosion of 10 million locals all speaking Chinese and stepping on each other's feet.

No loitering!

Naomi, Kaylah, Audri, Deb and I perused the premises for a good while, looking at all the knock-off stores and illegal street vendors who will literally vanish into thin air at the first sign of cops. We tried on a few hats, I bought a new pair of aviators for a couple dollars (I'm sure they're real), and then we got down to the food zone for some awesome chicken wrap things that I will never be able to eat again because I don't remember the name.

It's all good though, because now I look awesome.

Eventually, Kaylah and Deb took off, and the rest of us went over to puppy lane where locals can buy dogs that appear to be specially bred to look more like large mice than the K9s they descended from. Of course, it's so crowded here in the city that any dog bigger than your hand would end up looking like a goldfish in a bowl anyway, but that still doesn't make them dogs in my book!

After laughing at the freaks of nature, we made our way over to get some shaved ice, imitate Brian Regan a little, and take some sticky pics.

These are sticky pics. Note: the word "manly" doesn't seem to translate well here.

It was a great experience, and it's something I recommend everyone does when they travel to Asia. It's also the only place around where you can buy a baby porcupine, so there's that too I guess.

No Soup For You!

Allow me to apologize. I realized that I’ve been here for two weeks now and I still haven’t really explained what it is I’m up to. Mostly that’s because I’ve been up to a whole lot of nothing lately, but that’s also because I’ve been quite sick, and that puts a damper on my productivity.

Regardless, I have been quite busy at ORTV, so I’ll try and highlight some of what I have been doing, and how everything here works.

So there are three magazines at three learning levels that we produce here. Let’s Talk in English is the beginning level magazine, which has an accompanying TV show that goes by the same name. Studio Classroom is the mid-level magazine, and also has it’s own, albeit slightly different TV show. Then there is Advanced magazine, which, rather than having a TV show, has a radio program.

The magazines feature articles that are mostly written in-house, and are generally about current events or trends. We have some good writers here, although they may have me write an article or two, so that could change very quickly.

Each article is intrinsically tied to it’s corresponding TV show. They are filled with vocabulary words, and labeled with the airdates for when that article, and its vocab words, will be covered on the show.

As for the shows, Let’s Talk in English (people here call it LTE, but I call it LT ‘cause I’m that much more lazy), has more of a drama aspect, while Studio Classroom (or SC) is set up with more of a newsroom feel. If you want to learn a little more about SC, you can visit the Studio Classroom site HERE.

About a week ago I walked into the TV studio for my first recording session, known here as “teaching.” I “teach” for the show Studio Classroom, which is the mid-level English learning TV program tied to the magazine with the same name. That means I’ll be getting up there every once in a while with another aspiring teacher, and trying to explain to the world what things like corporate espionage and iceboating are without using extravagant vocabulary. It sounds simple enough, but once you get in front of a camera, you end up sounding like porky pig trying to give the Gettysburg Address.

That being said though, my first time up there I did a six-minute segment in one take, which felt pretty good. It also helped that I was doing it with Chip, who is one of the veteran teachers on this show, and makes me look like the rookie I really am. He saved me more than once, so I've still got a long way to go before I've got the complete hang of it all, but at least I have someone good to model after.

I had a chance to have lunch with Chip and Campbell (another teacher) yesterday, at a place called Brother Noodle. Now there’s something you should know about Brother Noodle... their noodles are quite delicious, and they come in a variety of flavors. They have a rich, zesty “lion’s head” meatball, and their soups smell of freshly cut garlic. However, the guy who runs the place is a bit of a tyrant. He mercilessly patrols his restaurant, yelling at anyone who doesn’t finish all of their food. “You want to keep eating at Brother Noodle? You eat all your noodle!!!”

That’s right, New York might have the soup nazi, but here, we’ve got the noodle nazi!

"No noodles for you!"

Anyway, at one point our lunch was interrupted by some students who recognized Chip and Campbell, and wanted to take some pictures with them. Pretty cool, you might think, but I could see that getting pretty annoying, since you’re almost always being watched by somebody. 

br$#(*gf child gg^$(f#b!

However, having hobbit feet, and being Caucasian, and six feet tall doesn’t help me blend in very much, so I guess that’s just something I’ll have to get used to. Luckily, I don’t go on the air until January, so I still have a few more months of anonymity. I’m sure it’s coming though.

Anyway, it’s time for me to study my Chinese for the day. 



It’s turning out to be just as hard as you would expect learning Chinese to be, but I guess I just gotta keep on truckin’ so I can finally order that soup I want instead of always putting up with that same fried chicken they seem to think all Americans like.

Thanks a lot KFC!

So does anyone know how to say lobster bisque in Chinese?

Awesome Little Thing #2: The Sound of Thunder

The air is still and quiet.

Leaves fall from an ebony tree and rustle through a nearby park where parents gather their playing children, and head for their home. Glints of crimson sunlight are opaqued and eventually extinguished by the menacing storm clouds. Children rest their chins on cills as they star out the window.

Nothing stirs.

And then, a silent flash fills the sky. It's coming. One of the most raw and powerful sounds in the world.

I turn into a kid every time I listen to the gurgling roar of thunder, and that is no different in Taiwan. Every time I hear that sound I'm taken back to my grandparents house in Arizona where we used to sit on the back patio and watch the summer monsoon. I used to wonder how something so massive, so powerful, and so dangerous, could be so beautiful. 

I experienced my first Taiwanese thunderstorm the other night, and though I may yet complain about the rain, I am constantly reminded that God is truly the perfect craftsman, and I thank him for making something so powerful, so beautiful, so... incredibly… 

…awesome!

Awesome Little Thing #1: Collecting Smiles

You're having a bad day.

You were late to work, you forgot it was your mom's birthday, and now it's raining. But then, somebody you don't know throws you a smile. Smiling back is only polite, but it somehow makes your day better.

Not so in Taiwan though. Maybe it's because I'm caucasian, or maybe it's cultural, but people here don't smile back. They stare. 

However, as I walk down the street filled with dozens of people distracted by the colorful red and neon signs, I look right in their eyes and smile. Eventually, amid the stares, one old woman will look, and give me a big toothless grin back. Maybe it did nothing, but at least I can hope that maybe.. just maybe, I made somebody's day better!

…awesome!

"Five Day Ryan"

Let's try this again...

Right, so it's been a while since the last update, but that's not because I haven't tried. A couple days ago I had a couple beautiful posts lined up for you ready to go, and then they somehow got deleted so I got all moody and put-off. Now, however, I'm back in a good mood, and ready to have another go!

I have been adjusting quite well to life in Taiwan. A little too well actually. Within a ten minute walk of my home, there is a Starbucks, McDonald's, Subway, KFC, TGI Fridays, Chillies, NY Bagel, and a pancake house.

They even have In-&-Out!

So anyway, a lot has happened since last week, so let's start with what I did last weekend…

I slept in until 10am Saturday morning, waking up only briefly during a random thunderstorm in the middle of the night. I was invited out to lunch with Brandon and his friend Hunter, who had attended Friday Night Live with us the night before. Friday Night Live is a bible study, with an opportunity for students to use English, where all of the ORTV teachers are group leaders. It happens every Friday night, and it is a great opportunity for the students to get to know their teachers, and vice versa. Hunter is one of many students that I will have the opportunity to get to know through this program.

After lunch, I was invited to go on a hike to a waterfall. It sounded epic enough, so I obliged!

I went to Neihu and met up with Hunter, Gabe, Kayla, and Rachel. Here I also met Aidan, who is a really cool guy, and his friend Cindy. The seven of us headed out of the city and up the trail into the jungle.

It's amazing here. You can find yourself standing in the middle of a bustling city metropolis, but walk 5 minutes away and suddenly you're in an Indiana Jones movie!

It's even better when you have the theme song stuck in your head.

The path, which consisted of more stairs (again?), was covered in moss and looked like it had been there for a thousand years. It wound and twisted it's way through the jungle until it came to an abrupt halt at a sheer rock face that dropped down quite a distance on one side into the jungle below. 

We crossed the gap easily… or at least, we would have if the log bridge that was there before wasn't destroyed in a recent typhoon. All that remained was a single vine, bravely clinging for dear life to the side of the rock like some kind of makeshift tightrope.

Some of us got scared at this point

Hunter, our friend from Friday Night Live, got the willies and ran away. 

Literally… we stood there watching him run back down the trail. Poor guy. 

The rest of us pushed on, making a short climb up another rock face. It was a dangerous climb to be sure, but once I reached the top I no longer cared about my safety; I was too wrapped up in the view.

Off to the right, the valley poured into an endless sea of green broken only by distant city buildings which seemed to float on the hills as they spilled and rippled into the ocean below.

Then I turned and saw the waterfall. 

How can you not praise God after seeing such beauty?

After meeting some native Taiwanese people who were just leaving the falls, we got busy swimming, catching frogs, rope swinging, cliff diving, taking snap shots, and dancing for the curious locals who were watching from below.

After the hike, I went to an all English fellowship group called Impact which was meeting for the first time. At the time, I had only been in Taiwan for five days, so after introducing myself to so many new people, it somehow became a bit of a nickname. We'll see if it sticks, but if anything, at least I've got some good stories with which to remember my fifth day!

A Warm Welcome

The sky was clear and the sun was shining on my walk to ORTVs main office.

Today was to be the beginning of my journey at ORTV. I had no idea what to expect, but luckily there was no need for low expectations here. The people of Dazhi (the area where I live and where ORTVs office is located), are unbelievably nice, and since so many of OTRVs teachers live here, they are accustomed to seeing foreign faces. I said good morning to a few locals before I turned the corner and saw the ORTV building.

I walked through the front door and received nothing but smiles and friendly hellos. Everyone at ORTV speaks impressive English, which is expected at an English teaching media company, but welcome nonetheless.

I immediately recognized several people. Cindy Tu, a mother of one of the students that attended the summer university program that I have been involved with at APU, greeted me with a big hug, and a thank you for taking care of her daughter. I also ran into Jack Kao, a former classmate and friend of mine also from APU. In fact, I discovered that there are many connections at APU, which is a welcome treat.

After chapel, I got to meet just about everyone in the building, and then it was time to see my desk

No complaints here.

I have a desk with a beautiful view of the city and a balcony on the third floor in the English department. This is where I will be working on articles and other projects that I am assigned outside of the TV department, which is located across a small street.

In fact, as soon as I was situated, it was time for me to head over to the studio. ORTV has a state of the art film studio with a virtual set, so the actors are filmed, and then placed inside a 3D studio through a blue screen. I will be "teaching" using this set starting on Tuesday, which means I will be one of the actors for Studio Classroom.

Very cool.

I've already been put right to work at ORTV, and I've gotten pretty busy, but it feels nice to always have something to do, and it feels even better knowing that the work done here is for the glory of God!

"All of these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefor God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." - Hebrews 11:13-16

The Moon Festival

The morning of September 22nd, I woke up and prayed like I have never prayed before. Having felt so much angst over what is surely the craziest thing I have ever done in my life, I still somehow felt at peace. While I am still yet to see how God will work through me, I have no doubts that He will.

Wednesday was the moon festival in Taiwan. It celebrates the full moon, or the coming of autumn, or something. All I know is, everyone got a day off work, which means I got to meet a bunch of my new friends. 

Brandon invited me to go hiking with a bunch of the other teachers and, in my quest to be social, I obliged. I did NOT, however, anticipate hiking one of the most calf-straining, toe-scraping, sweat-inducing hikes of my life. I decided that I wanted to make a good first impression, so I wore jeans and a polo shirt. I will never wear either of those things again! After the first few minutes of walking around outside I looked like I was slapped in the face by a typhoon, and was dripping with sweat.

I'm standing just to the left of this picture.

Brandon and I walked over to the MRT station (or as I now like to call it, "Mr. T's"), where I met some of my new coworkers.

Naomi is a super nice, super thoughtful girl. Originally from Canada, she's been in Taiwan for five years, working for ORTV the whole time. Being a conversationalist, she spent a lot of time asking me about my life, and in turn, I got the chance to get to know her a little as well.

Next there's Gabe. Gabe is very tall, very thoughtful, and he has subtle sarcasm, but a caring heart. One word I would use to describe him would be "chill". I recognized him from some of the ORTV material where he played a nerdy bow tie-wearing  character named "Tom". Luckily, in real life, he is extremely down to earth. Gabe is also an APU alumn, so we had the chance to talk a little about our favorite professors and hot spots. He was also born in Taiwan and has lived most of his life here, so he is very in-touch with both cultures.

Kayla is one of the newer ORTV teachers. She has been here for about seven weeks, and it's possible that I may be co-hosting with her on Studio Classroom. She is very outspoken and friendly, and she has a good sense of humor. She is very much a conversationalist, and she has already played an important part in making me feel right at home.

Rachel, if I'm correct, only volunteers at ORTV on the side, and is actually an English teacher at a nearby school. She is friends with most of the ORTV teachers, and like everyone else, is a very devout Christian. She has also been in Taiwan for a couple years, though the story of how she got here is an interesting one. Rachel is absolutely a servant at heart, and I look forward to getting to know her more as well.

Once we all met and everyone took the opportunity to mock my attire, we set off for the endless stairs (self-named) over by the grand hotel. One minute we were walking down the busy streets of Taipei, and the next, we were in a thick lush jungle, split only by stairs that seemed to never stop going up. The hike was grueling and miserable, due mostly to the fact that it was 93 degrees and humid beyond belief. The trail was absolutely beautiful though. Up ahead you could see the randomly placed stones of the stairs climbing up through the overgrown jungle bush. 

Turning around revealed a different picture.

Along the trail you could see beautiful vegetation and interesting people doing yoga on specially built platforms designed for that purpose. There were also spiders the size of your face, which are pictured below. If you can't see it, try looking on the right side of the picture. If you don't think that thing looks big, just know that my hand is much closer to the camera than the spider is, and it's web was about 10 feet tall. Let's just say that falling in this things web would most certainly make me cry harder than anything else ever could!

I call it "facespider"!

Anyway, along the trail we met an old man named Andy. Andy approached us because he recognized the teachers from the show. Little did we know that Andy would become our tour guide, and self-proclaimed best friend. After leading us up and along the trail, he helped walk us to the main road, where he started singing worship songs. Turns out, Andy is a devout Christian.

After we said our goodbyes to Andy, we walked past a temple of some sort where they were doing the changing of the guard, and then I made my way over to see Doris Brougham (the woman in charge of ORTV) in person. She is a beautiful woman of God. Exceptionally welcoming and very giving, it is easy to see why ORTV has turned into such an amazing ministry.

For lunch, we had breakfast. We went to a place called New York Bagel, which served much more than just bagels. It was extremely nice, and classy, and we were all abled to get to know each other a lot better over some french toast.

Later in the afternoon Brandon again invited me to go with him and Rachel to a moon festival at an orphanage nearby. the kids are among the most sweet, and loving kids you could ever meet. Many, if not all of them, suffered from a parent that had an addiction of some kind. We had a barbecue on the roof for the moon festive, and several people from a nearby church came and attended with us. The experience was extremely rewarding, and I look forward to spending more time with them in the future!

That's it! My first full day in Taiwan. It's not all written down, mostly because I've been suffering from jet lag and I'm extremely tired, but the major points were hit. 

Since then I have started my job at ORTV, so stay posted for a taste of life in ORTV

The First Day

This is it. The first day of school. 

Mom would do everything in her power to make sure that you were ready. Were your shoes tied? Did you bring your lunch? Did your clothes match?

Of course nothing could prepare her for that moment. The moment you get out of the car. The moment you see your new classmates. The moment you wave goodbye.

I looked into my families eyes as they stood there in the terminal, and I gave them one last "I love you" sign before I rounded the corner. I knew that I would not see them again for a long time, but I also know that God has a plan, and I knew that I was about to embark on one of the most epic journeys of my life.

The engines hummed and eventually roared as I watched LA disappear into the fog. I eased back into my very comfortable seat when the man sitting next to me, one of the only other caucasians on the plane, introduced himself as a Canadian Electric Car Designer. Not knowing how to respond to this, I gave him the polite nod, and almost immediately fell asleep.

While I was awake though, the flight was very nice. The seats were soft, the engines were quiet, the movie selection was good and so was the service.

They even had flowers in the bathrooms!

As my plane touched down into Taipei, I prayed a deep long prayer. A "this is it" moment passed over me as the reality of it all sunk in. I got off the plane and headed over to customs, where they let me through without a single question. I got my things, and walked outside not knowing who I would find, or rather, who would find me.

Finally, I was found by my new roommate, Brandon. Brandon, though a little quiet at first, has a lot of wisdom and is completely selfless. I have a lot to learn from him. He's been a teacher for ORTV for two years, and he's been in Taiwan for three. He graduated from Liberty college, and his family from Tennessee, has never visited him in Taiwan.

We took a van down a freeway which I had taken only nine months prior, so I easily recognized where I was. That alone made me feel more at home, as I didn't feel as much like I was going somewhere new, as I felt like I was returning somewhere familiar.

Our driver turned down a narrow alley lined with scooters and people barbecuing. My heart stopped when he pulled up in front of one of the most ghetto-fabulous buildings I had ever seen. This would become my new apartment.

Ugly though it may be on the outside, it is actually quite nice on the inside. It's quite roomy, there is a kitchen, a living room, and two bathrooms, and I get my own bedroom, which is awesome!

I rolled my only remaining possessions into my new room, and plopped onto my bed, and when I say plopped, I mean shattered. The mattress is about as soft as a Die Hard movie.

"Yippee kayay!"

Unfortunately, we don't have wifi, so communication will be difficult, but I am working to get it. We do, however, have a TV, which gets a bunch of English channels. Brandon turned it on, and we proceeded to watch animal planet until we couldn't stay awake any longer.

I wandered into my room and sat in bed spending a lot of time in thought and prayer. This is a whole new world, but I know God has a plan, and through every challenge, there's a reward.

Welcome to Bowman's Corner

I decided to go with the cheesiest name I could think of... it somehow makes it easier to remember! Anyway, I'll be using this blog throughout the course of my journeys as a place to share my experiences, thoughts, and prayers. There will be a lot more features to come in the future, but in the meantime, please feel free to forward this blog to whomever you think might take interest, and please take the time to share your thoughts in the comments section!