Thursday, December 18, 2008

Season Greeting from Dr. Chen in Taiwan


I sent the following message to my family members in the US. It think it is appropriate to share this greeting message to all of my friends.


Franklin Chen is here. My sincere greeting to you all from Taiwan. I hope you have a great Christmas.

After several months in Taiwan, I finally found a Presbyterian church that I no longer feel I am an outsider of the church. The church is located at Wu-Fong; it is about 30 minutes of bus ride from my place. I met a couple who were our family friends 30 years back in New Jersey. So it is like a home church. I will be joining their choir and senior group bible studies.

As about every Tuesday noon English conversation coffee hour, most of you probably do not know about except Meeilei (my wife) whom I have Skype conversation with her everyday. This special coffee-hour is the time I buy coffee and refreshment for students to join in practicing English conversation. Each week we have a special discussion topic. For example, the day when Obama was elected, we discussed about American civil right movement. This last Tuesday (Dec 8), we discussed the movie ' Kite Runner'. Before the discussions of the movie, I even bought movie tickets for students to watch the movie free. The English-conversation sessions turn out to be my great 'dream' service to the Taiwanese youth.

Taiwanese semester is 18-weeks long (The semester in the US is 15 weeks). This is Week 14. The final exam is coming up very quickly. So, I am very busy in writing the final examination, grading papers and preparing for my wife to visit me in January.


Photo shows two of my 'coffee-hour' students eating 'dumpling' at a side-walk eatery after the movie.




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