Blessings and pain...and a party

I've been looking back through my photos from this year, and realizing just how much I've been blessed lately.

I know that probably looks bizarre and/or egotistical in print, but please don't take it that way. That's not my intention at all. It's just that,  going along my merry business here in Taiwan, exploring the countryside, getting to know my host family and co-teachers, celebrating the holidays (all of them, Western and Taiwanese) here, and puddle-jumping over to Thailand for a bit, I caught myself losing sight of what an enormous privilege it is for me to be here in the stress and little details--and that is completely unacceptable. Day-to-day life can sometimes obscure the fact by its sheer inanity, but the truth is that I am enormously blessed to be here, and I don't want to forget that. It's humbling.

So, rather than yammer on about the minutiae of my daily life, I thought I'd offer up this blog as a thank-you. Because, ultimately, the navel-gazing that this blog sometimes (unfortunately) becomes has no place in the midst of all these blessings. They have nothing to do with me, and I am not in the slightest bit worthy of them. All I can do is look back at them and be grateful for the opportunities I have been given.

If you've made it this far in the blog, you've realized that I'm in a contemplative mood; that means that, even when looking at my blessings here, I can't help but look at the things (or, more accurately, people) missing. Like my brothers. And my parents. And my friends in Corvallis and Seattle and Eugene--and Chicago and DC and everywhere else they've scattered to that I don't even know about, thanks to my own round-the-globe move. I miss them acutely tonight, for no apparent reason other than that I do.

So there it is: the two-edged sword of my existence here. Humblingly great experiences coupled with the neverending knowledge of something missing. I wish they could be separated, but they can't.

...

Lest you think I'm getting too emo on you, though, here it is, today's one new thing!

Thing 12:
I went to a party at Professor Spring's house! This was new on several levels, really:

• I am on a party-attending, first-name-using, almost-peer basis with a professor;
• I attended a party hosted by a Taiwanese person who is not a member of my host family;
• I rode in an elevator with a dog (Spring has 3; 2 were there, and we wanted to see the roof!);
• I saw fireworks over the Love River (from a distance, of course);
• There are probably several more reasons but I'm too tired to think of them right now.

The party was great! Spring cooked for us, a massive Taiwanese meal rich with crispy veggies (a rarity here; I feasted on a fresh stir-fryed carrot, green bean and snap pea mix!), sumptuous duck, Zuoying specialty dumplings, a delicious cabbage-and-pork dish, and far too many other things to describe in any detail. The point was, it was lovely. After we ate, as I described earlier, we went up to the roof and watched the nightly fireworks they shoot over the Love River for the Lantern Festival, then came down and chatted with Spring about her life, her dogs, and various controversial things supplied by Brittany and Steven. (Actual recreated exchange: Brittany: "Let's talk about something controversial!" Steven: "I'm ready. Say something controversial!")

So yeah. Pretty great evening.