Taiwan day two

Saturday, January 18 was the day Hanna and Austin were getting married.  We had breakfast at the resort and by 10 am, a bus was ready to bring us to the church for the 11 am wedding ceremony.
It was a lovely wedding, which had some Taiwanese and some US wedding traditions.  The banquet consisted of a ten course meal.  There was so much food, as you can see in this movie!

I was privileged to be able to attend their wedding.  They both have committed their lives to Christ and it is evident in what they said in their vows (Ok, they were in Mandarin and I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I had an English translation in my ear) and how they talked to their parents.  It was a good first day of their marriage.  May God continue to bless them in their married life.

Taiwan day one

On Thursday, January 14th I traveled to Taiwan so I could attend the wedding of a student teacher we had at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) last fall.  We took an evening flight out of Narita and landed in Taoyuan where Taipei's International airport at 1:00 am on Friday morning.  It was a short taxi ride to the hotel we stayed.

This was taken from the window in my room at the hotel.

Friday morning, we took a taxi to the Taoyuan station to catch the bullet train to Taichung.  

They have Starbucks here too!  :)  

I love palm trees.

Our train

My ticket.

Here's our train!

We met Hanna and her friends at the Taichung train station, grabbed something to eat and than headed on over to Morrison Academy.  It was part of our Pro-D experience on our trip.  Morrison is Christian Academy in Japan's sister school. We met with the K - 8 principal to compare notes about how our school is run and the issues we are facing.   After that we were given a tour of their campus.  Morrison has three campuses, this is the Bethany campus.  

The tall cream colored building is staff housing.

Entrance 

The doors of the classrooms all go to the outside. Elementary wing.

Covered gym and they have a regular gym.

Soccer field.

Brand new pool, not quite open yet. 

Brand new wading pool, hoping to open it in three weeks.

Staff room

Student art work was displayed in various places on campus.

We were also able to go visit one of the student dorms.

View from the balcony

One of the dormitories.  These are the dorm parents, Stacey's.

Livingroom.

Common table in the main room and some of the students who lived in that dorm.

 After visiting Morrison Academy, we took a taxi to West Lake Resortopia, where Hanna's family were staying.

View outside of my room on the grounds. 

 That evening we met up Hanna's family and wedding party for dinner.  We saw a lot that day and were quite blessed with the opportunities to see and experience so much.

Back at it again!

Sometimes it is hard to to believe we just had Christmas break.  We have had three days of school already and it seems like we are in the rhythm of school.  I am glad we had a couple of weeks to slow down and get some rest.
During break, Flat Stanley came to visit over Christmas break.  Here are some pictures of what Flat Stanley did.

Making croquettes

Hana and Flat Stanley

Going for a walk

At the Yanase-Gawa on the border of Saitama and Tokyo prefectures.

Yanase-Gawa

Staying at the VanderHaak's

Playing card games on New Year's Eve.

Traveling to church on the train

Tokyo Union Church

Omotesando

At the Meiji Shrine  

There were businesses, houses and schools with a number of light shows.  Tokyo area has special light shows, but these were just around the neighbourhood.

Anman Pan

Some of the lights were natural.

I also was able to go to see Star Wars The Force Awakens in 4D!

Flat Stanley with the 4D glasses

I know Flat Stanley lost an eye.  You know what they say, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."  We had to do perform eye transplant surgery.  

Evidence that I went. 

Every day, Hana and I would go on at least one walk.  Sometimes we met friends at Starbucks, sometimes we walked to the Yanase-Gawa or just around the neighbourhood.

Good morning, sunshine!

Mt. Fuji

Photographers

Another good morning!

Sitting at Starbucks

Hana loves to sniff on our walks.  Sometimes she gets her nose so deep into a sniff, it's like she's in another world!

I certainly cannot complain about the break I had.  I am very grateful for the time I was able to spend resting and enjoying God's creation in this part of the world.
Now it's time to get back into the rhythm of school weeks and weekends.