Vivian is Her Name and Speed is Her Game

Well, our dreams have finally come true. Laura and I have been looking for a scooter to buy since we have arrived here in Taiwan. When Laura told me stories about the traffic here, I was not so sure about driving a scooter. Once we were here and I saw it for myself, it was not as intimidating as I thought it would be. We talked to our friend Terry about our desire for a scooter, and asked where a good place to buy one would be. He said there was a guy in the church who owned a scooter shop, and he would introduce us to him. That Sunday we talked to him about buying a scooter. By the end of the conversation he had offered us a scooter to borrow for the year... FOR FREE!!! THE PEOPLE HERE ARE SO NICE!!! Now we just had to wait a few weeks while he had it all worked out for us.
On Tuesday of this week Terry called me and said the scooter was ready to be picked up. So he picked me up at our place and we started our epic ride to the scooter shop. The ride that I thought was only going to take twenty minutes tops, ended up taking almost three hours. Apparently the scooter shop is on the opposite side of Taipei City from where we live. It was a good crash course on riding a scooter in Taiwan. I had to ride back home, following the experienced Terry (with a helmet that bobbled around my head with every bump).

We have had her now for four days, and she has become apart of our family. We named her Vivian. She is a sweet ride. So far we have rode her on nice days and crazy rain storms with our beautiful yellow garbage bag like ponchos on. It only costs three dollars to fill her up and she gets us where we need to go way faster then the bus system can. So here are pictures of her all you people demanding pictures.

Vlog 9

Please know Taiwan, we are not laughing at you. We are laughing with you.

Vlog 8

Sorry this Blog is so late, but we were having trouble downloading it until now.

(this was made August 16th)

Dinner Time!

The night life in Taiwan is totally different from back in America. There are so many things to do. Last night Laura and I were sitting around, not knowing what to do with our time and suddenly the phone rings. It was our host brother/father (confusing I know) Andrew. He wanted to know if we were interested in going to IKEA (or as they pronounce it... EKEA) and then go get some dinner. Let me tell you a secret... it is hard to talk on the phone with someone that does not know English as well as we do, but we love them and know it is probably just as hard to talk to us in English. To make a long phone conversation short, we said yes, called Molly to invite her to come along, and eagerly began to wait for Andrew to come and pick us up.

The first half of our grand adventure that night consisted of going to IKEA and looking at all the great stuff that we could not buy. If you have never been to an IKEA you are missing out. We spent a long time walking around and dreaming dreams of houses we may buy some day and rooms we could 'IKEA'fy. After we dreamed these dreams for awhile, Andrew told us we should maybe get to the restaurant, in case it was closing any time soon. The adventure was beginning to reach its climatic moment. The place we went to eat was like nothing I have ever experienced. It was an all you can eat buffet (very American you may think) where you cook your own food at the table you sit.

The first step in the process is going to a buffet of raw fish, crab, vegetables, and many surprises. After filling up your plate you return to your table and toss it all into a pot of boiling water in front of you. I was quite embarrassed to find out I was cooking my food wrong when Andrew instructed me that I was putting everything in the pot in the incorrect order... but in the end my food still tasted great. There were so many new things we discovered that night. First, soy sauce and garlic mixed together is probably what God dips his food in. Second, chopsticks work muscles that we Americans never use (my hand and forearm were cramping all Sunday morning and Laura's hand was tender in every spot that the sticks touched). Finally, I discovered that boiled squid is really good. If any of you are in Taiwan or somewhere where you can try it, DO IT! It feels like you are chewing rubber and make sure you get the ink pocket out first or your mouth with turn black.

By the end of the night it was way past Molly and Laura's bedtime, and they were "acting drunk" says Essence. It was a night to be remembered.

Well, there is some more of our grand adventures. Please keep praying for us and go here http://picasaweb.google.com/LauraRCarpenter to see some of our pictures we have taken so far.

Vlog 6 & 7

Mailing Address

Here is our mailing address if you would like to send us something.

Faith Church 1F, #140,
WanDa Road, Taipei, (108) Taiwan R.O.C.

We love you all!

Fun Times In Taipei!

We are writing this blog from inside a little Tea House on Youth Street, which is next to a huge amazing park, drinking two huge ice coffees (by huge we mean bigger then a Starbucks Venti). Just so you know the ice coffee here beats any ice coffee we have had in America. Any who...

As we are thinking over all the great stories we could tell just from the last three days, we do not know where to start.

Here is a list of funny things we have discovered here in Taiwan
1. They play club music in nice stake houses. (Back Street Boys could rock my world forever)
2. Apparently, if you are going to walk 4 hours or more in a day... heels are still a must.
3. Microwaves are bo hau (not good) for your body.
4. 6 year old kids are brilliant.
5. Traffic laws are just a suggestion. (the lines on the road mean nothing, so speed up or get out of the way)
6. The locals consider Taipei to be a small city... I guess we are crazy to think 2.6 million people is on the larger scale, for a city. weird...


We love it here! It is pretty and the people are so nice.

We love you all and will post more later about our fun times. Please continue to pray for us and for all the people we will meet.