my 4 months in taipei (2)

Meeting old friends is a joyful thing to do when returning to the place you came from. There were many reunion parties I went to, from little ones to big ones, rural to metro, public or private, planned or impromptu.

Two major ones were both from my college classmates: One guy invited us to the rolling orange hill estate he purchased a few years ago right off the silicon city of north-central Taiwan. Everybody got a full pack of organically grown, delicious tasting oranges on their way out, after a pleasant afternoon of scenery walk in the farm and happy chattering in an elegant cottage house they built. 

The other was held in a newly renovated and converted chic old house Italian restaurant in Taipei city for fine dining. We were each issued a VIP membership card at the end--courtesy of our "honcho" classmate whose company sponsored the renovation and the event--that allowed for a few free gourmet coffees, for example. That I actually took advantage of afterwards because the restaurant was just a few minutes walk away from where I lived.

One little reunion was with a couple elementary schoolmates, at the backyard of a city dwelling, which is kind of unusual, judging from the expensive real estate landscape here. But there we were, 3 couples sitting around the patio table drinking, snacking, sharing stories of old and new in a delightful sunny-blue-skyed Taipei city afternoon for a good time.

Another little get-together was with a few college friends in a residential setting as well. This ingenious college classmate of ours created a chip design ahead of its time and started his own company many years ago that has been doing good and sustainable business ever since. He bought one floor of this nice apartment building for residence and another for office so his daily executive job is to walk downstairs, and up. We had an exotic dinner his wife prepared and then sang Karaoke in his well suited entertainment room, realizing some of my college classmates have many otherworldly talents than just knowing electrons. 

And I led a bike-ride reunion with a few campus fellowship alums, to finish one last leg of the great bike routes around the city and its outskirts that I started trekking on some 4 years ago and continued to do so every time I came back. 

I also met my usual "street scholar" friend who's been teaching Greek in a seminary school while ministering to street people every weekend at the seedy part of the town, and another guy who's been living and working in North Africa translating Bible to local language in secret for years and just got back to Taiwan a couple years ago.

And here's another campus fellowship alum, a girl who's been doing a ministry called "Telling Tales to Adults" that uses movies or arts or literature as discussion materials to explore the true meaning of love, life, and faith. Going to her events is like going to the movies, which I did a couple of times: 

One showing was a Korean movie (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/milyang-secret-sunshine/) that depicted a young woman who's been clammed up in deep grief after losing her husband and then her son tragically until she found God in church but then lost her faith when she found out "God has forgiven the killer of her son before she did".

The other was the true-love story between C. S. Lewis--the famous Christian writer--and a divorced American woman (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108101/). 

Yet another one she and her crew was working on that I watched while visiting their work session was about how a campus shooting killer's parent struggles to put his life back together after that tragic event (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798243/). The light rock music in the movie was pretty good, too.