The Exodus

While Matt Hauck has been dilligently preparing Bible studies from the book of Exodus, Bryan, Matt and I have decided to take matters into our own hands in order to have an Exodus of our own. After we saw the summer team off, we were able to move out of the Haucks' residence on the sixth floor and move into the first floor apartment. In reality, it was more like a reverse-exodus/exile: out of the land of milk and honey and casseroles and into a land of oppression by mosquitoes and spiders.

That's about as far as this twisted analogy goes, though. The Haucks continue to shower us with generosity inviting us over frequently for meals and we really do thoroughly enjoy the extra space we have downstairs to use for studying and storage. Bryan comments that he almost died of excitement (that's an emotion) when he thought about how he was going to have his own desk, but he's still alive.

Since the initial move, we have been looking for ways to make efficient use of our closet space. After searching through a sea of pink cubbies, we realized that the color selection was scarce. So there we have it. Our very own pink, Hello Kitty cubbies.


Beats
As fellow Taiwan residents, we have also taken to buying some of their music. Bryan and I are going to review our respective purchases while Matt has decided to save his track by track commentary for a future post.

1. Jay Chou - Fantasy (Matthew Lui)
Stay tuned for the upcoming review!

2. Jay Chou - Qi Li Xiang (John Tang)
Qi Li Xiang is the fifth album release of the multi-talented Taiwanese star Jay Chou. This album, literally translated means "seven mile fragrance." I would say that besides being an avid composer, a piano player since the age of three, and a cello player since grade school, Jay Chou is just plain emo. He continues to stay on the pop charts by sympathizing with his emotional fans (admit it) through his carefully composed songs. In this album alone, there are track titles ranging from "Grandma," (really talking about his grandma), and "Chaotic Dance of Spring and Autumn" (i haven't quite figured out what this is about, but in the middle of the song, Jay stops singing and answers a cellphone call to order lunch). Highly recommended.

3. Some kind of mix (Bryan Kim)
It sucks. Seriously, this mix is horrible. Some worker said this was the most recent mix to come out but it sounds like the music from the 80's your parents would sing karaoke to. Just terrible...

4. Lee Hom - Heroes of the Earth (Bryan Kim)
This is an awesome CD. Several songs are really catchy and combine traditional Chinese instruments (the thing the old man plays at Sather Gate) and modern stuff too (synth, drums, etc). Hua Tian Cuo is my favorite track but even after reading the translation I still don't understand what he is saying. Either way, Wang Lee Hom is the man, way better than Jay "Super-emo-can't-smile-because-I'm-trying-to-be-crazy-mysterious" Chou. I bought some Lipton milk tea because it had a picture of him on the front of it. He is that good. Richard Lo, hook me up with some backstage passes man!

Matthew Lui
On July 30, we had the once-a-year opportunity to celebrate Mr. Matthew Lui's birthday! Praise God for saving this precious brother of ours! So far his gifts have included a nalgene bottle, a Wecare cake, a bottle of milk, and some drinks that tasted like bread. Not even kidding.

Since we are on the subject of Matt, let me share with you some words by none other than Matt himself. During one of our [intense] exercise runs at night, Matt jogs up next to me and Bryan all excited and tired at the same time. "Hey guys, my heart hurts," he said, "but not in the emo kind of way."

Bing with Chloe
We ate bing (literally ice, but short for shaved-ice) with Jenn/Chloe one last time before she left Taiwan. A month certainly passes by quickly.

Somewhere around this time, I single handedly converted Bryan into a bean-in-shaved-ice-eater. Believe it or not, he now likes the bing on the right better than the bing on the left. YESSSS.


Job Search?
We have heard back from the oh so close to home Happy Top school (where Gina worked), and neither of us were hired. Praise the Lord for His sovereignty. On another note, we have both receieved our certificates of completion so we can apply for a work permit as soon as we are offered a job now. We are both prepared to work even harder to find a suitable job. Please continue to pray for us to be dilligent and to trust in the Lord.

As a closing comment, Matt would like to say that he is sad that less people are checking the blog now. In fact, he's so sad that we took a picture with him and a peice of lime.

I guess if you're emo enough, you'll understand how serious this is. We would suggest that if you are aware of people that aren't checking the blog, please tell them to do so and to donate comments to increase Matt's happiness.

We mean it.


Oh, and webcam us. It is fun.