Had another great breakfast in that beautiful Grand Hotel breakfast room….
ate Chinese noodles today full of garlic too!....I don't know which was worse...the garlic or the leftover smell of bleach from my still unsuccessful attempt in Handong to get rid of the yellow stain (curry?) from India. I didn't rinse the Tide pen cleaner there and let it dry in the sun so it yellowed. Abraham loaned me bleach but multiple applications didn't seem to work so I poured it full strength on the shirt and left it overnite! It was better in the morning since it was dry and I didn't want to pack a wet shirt, I never rinsed it. Then today I ironed it and the bleach smell is STILL strong! Probably not smart right? Anway, maybe the bleach smell of my shirt and the garlic smell of my chinese noodle breakfast cancelled out.....RIGHT! 
Scott Hovater (Christ College’s Academic Dean) and his wife Jenny picked me up for church. They had been down south to the Morrison Academy yesterday for their son’s sports events. They had some car trouble…rain with no wipers…and still couldn’t use it today so we took a taxi. We went to the International Church
that meets in the American
School…a pretty amazing facility as you can see from some of the pix…including Astroturf field. 
The elderly woman in the middle of the BAD picture of the stage band is apparently an ICON in Taiwan. She began the well known TV and radio station (Christian one) and has led it for a long time. Still does I think. She is a dynamite trumpet player too! Not bad for 75!!!
I regret that Scott and I didn’t get to talk yesterday or that much today as we weren’t able to have breakfast together as planned. He did say he hopes the CCCU connection can help them identify faculty.
He handed me off to Jennifer Lee (SD VP) and to Judy and a young lady named Kiddy Huang…a senior at CC. Brother Shen the college driver took us around the corner to a great restaurant.
Had the best dumplings I’ve had…one set with shrimp, the other with even tastier vegetables. The beef dish was tender, the chicken and cashews was amazing…sweet, and a special item was the shrimp and crispies served in a rounded leaf of lettuce. Mmmmmm.
Jennifer recounted the history of the college. Since she had served as Dr. Graham’s assistant she knew a lot. He seemed to basically run (and apparently even “own” ) the college single-handedly. Because the first college he had started was “lost” when the board precluded any outsiders from being president while he was away on furlough, he founded CC and apparently worked very hard to make sure that loss didn’t repeat itself. The original school is no longer Christian but still exists and apparently prospers. It’s emphasis is in science and technology. Scott had clarified and Jennifer further still, that the dilemma for CC is that they originally moved ahead to be registered with the government as a private school. That would give them recognition and listings with all the other many universities in the country and help their recruitment. The law said that such private schools COULD require chapel IF they had incoming students sign a statement that they understood this. Then having put down the large sum of money required in escrow to start the process, the government changed the rules, revoked the “waiver” idea and created a new category for “religious” schools that supposedly would accomplish the same thing….except that the new category had/has a limit of 200 students max!! So now they are caught between two options neither of which works. And what’s worse, they cannot back out of the first application for private status without breaching contract and forfeiting the escrow money…which is quite a lot and would probably mean they’d lose their fantastic campus and property. So obviously they MUST continue with that process at least raising the balance of what’s needed ($2m?) and then back out of it. But the alternate route as a religious school won’t work long term either. So they must either create multiple colleges (each allowing 200 students…eg. In music, English, etc.) OR find a partner in the US that will “buy them” and let them operate under accreditation from the US. I asked about this because I had been thinking of it when I wakened this morning. Some today had already thought of this and thought it was the best idea! It was interesting to hear that confirmation of my analysis. I’ll be praying they get through this.
We visited the National Palace Museum
which contains many of the 600,000 items brought to Taiwan by Chiang-kai Shek in ’49 when the communists took over China. Of course today’s mainland China sees these as stolen…but the good news is that at least they were not destroyed in the cultural revolution…so even mainlanders can be grateful I think. I enjoyed the jade, and looked to buy some small pieces but they were too expensive.
So we returned to the hotel around 4:30 and I’ve been trying to pay bills or arrange for reimbursement for some expenses and a few other things. I did get a bowl of Mango Hagen Daz….amazing what you come to crave.
Listened to chinese music while I ate and worked....beautiful instruments. And I did get to talk to EM today…after waking her up at 6am yesterday. Poor girl! And I’m loving the pix of Loren…..now that she’s a big girl and eating solid food!
Thanks Jennifer, Judy, Kiddy, and Brother Shen for your gracious hosting today.
ate Chinese noodles today full of garlic too!....I don't know which was worse...the garlic or the leftover smell of bleach from my still unsuccessful attempt in Handong to get rid of the yellow stain (curry?) from India. I didn't rinse the Tide pen cleaner there and let it dry in the sun so it yellowed. Abraham loaned me bleach but multiple applications didn't seem to work so I poured it full strength on the shirt and left it overnite! It was better in the morning since it was dry and I didn't want to pack a wet shirt, I never rinsed it. Then today I ironed it and the bleach smell is STILL strong! Probably not smart right? Anway, maybe the bleach smell of my shirt and the garlic smell of my chinese noodle breakfast cancelled out.....RIGHT! 
Scott Hovater (Christ College’s Academic Dean) and his wife Jenny picked me up for church. They had been down south to the Morrison Academy yesterday for their son’s sports events. They had some car trouble…rain with no wipers…and still couldn’t use it today so we took a taxi. We went to the International Church
that meets in the American
School…a pretty amazing facility as you can see from some of the pix…including Astroturf field. 
The elderly woman in the middle of the BAD picture of the stage band is apparently an ICON in Taiwan. She began the well known TV and radio station (Christian one) and has led it for a long time. Still does I think. She is a dynamite trumpet player too! Not bad for 75!!!
I regret that Scott and I didn’t get to talk yesterday or that much today as we weren’t able to have breakfast together as planned. He did say he hopes the CCCU connection can help them identify faculty.
He handed me off to Jennifer Lee (SD VP) and to Judy and a young lady named Kiddy Huang…a senior at CC. Brother Shen the college driver took us around the corner to a great restaurant.
Had the best dumplings I’ve had…one set with shrimp, the other with even tastier vegetables. The beef dish was tender, the chicken and cashews was amazing…sweet, and a special item was the shrimp and crispies served in a rounded leaf of lettuce. Mmmmmm.Jennifer recounted the history of the college. Since she had served as Dr. Graham’s assistant she knew a lot. He seemed to basically run (and apparently even “own” ) the college single-handedly. Because the first college he had started was “lost” when the board precluded any outsiders from being president while he was away on furlough, he founded CC and apparently worked very hard to make sure that loss didn’t repeat itself. The original school is no longer Christian but still exists and apparently prospers. It’s emphasis is in science and technology. Scott had clarified and Jennifer further still, that the dilemma for CC is that they originally moved ahead to be registered with the government as a private school. That would give them recognition and listings with all the other many universities in the country and help their recruitment. The law said that such private schools COULD require chapel IF they had incoming students sign a statement that they understood this. Then having put down the large sum of money required in escrow to start the process, the government changed the rules, revoked the “waiver” idea and created a new category for “religious” schools that supposedly would accomplish the same thing….except that the new category had/has a limit of 200 students max!! So now they are caught between two options neither of which works. And what’s worse, they cannot back out of the first application for private status without breaching contract and forfeiting the escrow money…which is quite a lot and would probably mean they’d lose their fantastic campus and property. So obviously they MUST continue with that process at least raising the balance of what’s needed ($2m?) and then back out of it. But the alternate route as a religious school won’t work long term either. So they must either create multiple colleges (each allowing 200 students…eg. In music, English, etc.) OR find a partner in the US that will “buy them” and let them operate under accreditation from the US. I asked about this because I had been thinking of it when I wakened this morning. Some today had already thought of this and thought it was the best idea! It was interesting to hear that confirmation of my analysis. I’ll be praying they get through this.
We visited the National Palace Museum
which contains many of the 600,000 items brought to Taiwan by Chiang-kai Shek in ’49 when the communists took over China. Of course today’s mainland China sees these as stolen…but the good news is that at least they were not destroyed in the cultural revolution…so even mainlanders can be grateful I think. I enjoyed the jade, and looked to buy some small pieces but they were too expensive.So we returned to the hotel around 4:30 and I’ve been trying to pay bills or arrange for reimbursement for some expenses and a few other things. I did get a bowl of Mango Hagen Daz….amazing what you come to crave.
Listened to chinese music while I ate and worked....beautiful instruments. And I did get to talk to EM today…after waking her up at 6am yesterday. Poor girl! And I’m loving the pix of Loren…..now that she’s a big girl and eating solid food!Thanks Jennifer, Judy, Kiddy, and Brother Shen for your gracious hosting today.
No comments:
Post a Comment