Christmas in Taiwan
This was my Christmas in Taiwan in the year 1990 when I was an English teacher at a university in Taichung.
I’m sure I’m quite crazy — dancing with a dog and singing Christmas carols to harp music in a missionary’s home in Taiwan. A thrill ran through me yesterday when I looked around my class of friendly Taiwanese girls while singing an off-key “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to them.
My Christmas Eve was wonderful, with variety — my spice of life — predominating. Rose joined me for a Christmas Eve celebration at the church Emily had taken me to when I lived in her house. It was fun to see some of the people who had been so kind to me my first four months in Taichung.
Then, I returned to Providence University. Standing all the way on the bus, my mind wandered over other roads I have taken around the world. At the convent at Providence University, I had a leisurely chat with two of the American nuns. They said that the Catholic Church was becoming less rigid. I told them about the night I woke up in the mountains of the Sinai and saw more stars overhead than I could have ever imagined.
At midnight, I attended a touching Mass with the nuns. They wished everyone pin an, the Chinese word for peace. It seems a futile wish now as Iraq prepares more and more for war. The Mass was all in Chinese with a very capable Chinese-speaking American priest. I wished him shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. Besides hearing Chinese, I could tell I was in the Chinese culture because they brought incense as a gift to Jesus, and had a Chinese gong.
When I got locked out of the building where I was staying for that night, I was led by the hand of a Chinese angel named Angela to an open door.
Tags: Christmas in Taiwan; Taichung, Taiwan; Providence University in Taiwan, Travel
