Taiwan

I traveled to Taiwan last week to present a paper at a conference. It was my first time to Asia and I really enjoyed it! It's fun for me to see different cultures, hear different languages, try different food ... and at the same time, to see how similar we all are regardless of culture, race, etc. I also got to catch up with one of my favorite professors from undergrad days years ago and that was really fun. He's a great guy and it was refreshing to talk to someone so intelligent that shares a lot of the same values and ideas that I have. I think he's one of the most intelligent people I've ever known and I was happy that he thinks well enough of me to want to spend time talking with me.

I was gone for a week, but being so far away from family made the time seem a lot longer than that. I had a bit of a rough time adjusting to the new time zone, but it wasn't as bad as adjusting to Europe. I didn't sleep very well while I was there and only had about 2-3 hours' sleep on the 17 hour flight home. When I finally did crash last night, I slept so hard! I ended up sleeping for 15 hours and missed the whole day of work today. Waking up at noon kind of messed up my plans, but that's ok.

My wife let me borrow her camera, so I took a ton of pictures. Here are just a few.

A statue of a dragon in the hotel where I was staying. This dragon has some spiritual significance, though I won't do their religion the dishonor of attempting to explain it.

The LDS temple in Taiwan - I presume the lettering on the steeple says something like "Holiness to the Lord", but those letters mean nothing to me. I met some LDS missionaries there and I told them how amazing I thought they were for learning Mandarin. I have learned German and some Spanish, but I didn't have to learn a new alphabet. All of my languages are part of the same family, so they all have a lot of words that are similar. Asian languages are TOTALLY different. I did learn to say "Hello, how are you?", "Good morning", "Thank you", "butterfly", and a taxi driver even taught me to say "Hello, beautiful", but there are NO similarities to the Latin-influenced languages.

The entrance to the hotel where I stayed. Through the arch, you can see the tallest building in Taipei.

Taipei skyline including the tallest building in Taipei and what used to be the tallest in the world.

More of Taipei's skyline.

I loved seeing the Chinese lettering everywhere.

My hotel from a distance.

An intersection in Taipei. I saw a LOT of mopeds as I walked around.

I found a McDonald's and Subway. Once again, I love the lettering.

 

I found a park and snapped the two pictures above.
 

A closeup of part of the architecture of the National Museum. I walked to the museum and underestimated the heat and humidity. I was out for a couple hours and arrived soaked in sweat and pretty tired. I sat down for a few minutes in the air conditioned lobby to relax before going inside. As I got up to go in, the man next to me jumped up and followed me. In my exhaustion, I had left my wife's zoom lens on the bench. He jumped up to return it to me. By the way the man was dressed, I believe he was a Buddhist monk. Thank God for good people of all religions. He gave me a huge smile and I gave him one back. We bumped into each other a few times in the museum and exchanged smiles since we couldn't exchange much in words. I felt a connection to this strange, kind man and a warm feeling inside each time I saw him. I know a little of Buddhism, but after this experience, I have a desire to learn more. I read Siddhartha in High School, but that's about it. I've learned a fair amount about Hinduism and have a lot of respect for that religion, but I know much less about Buddhism. Any suggestions on where to start?

A piece of crystal in a store. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but there were some amazing Jade sculptures there. This was the best I could do outside the museum.

I was a little surprised to find a Bible in my room. It was neat to see English with the Mandarin next to it.