Enter His Gates

"Ooii...just because you're back, that doesn't give you a reason to stop blogging you know!"

Yes Diana, I heard you loud and clear :) But it just seems that life has kicked into normal gear again. I had my grace period for about a week and I've put my backpack on once again and continuing where I left off prior to Taipei.

It's been quite the restful and go-with-the-flow couple of weeks, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I've got lots of birthday shoutouts which will come in my next entry...today, I'm here specifically for "Enter His Gates".

I can't begin to describe how it felt when the team played the song on Saturday, above and beyond that, that the congregation actually enjoyed and worshipped along! It was just....an amazing feeling.

It happened one night when I sat at my piano and said, please God...I want to write You a song, it feels all pent-up inside and I really need to let it out. The desire to write songs has always been there, but it was never the time, it never came out right or could fall into place together. I've always had trouble with the technicalities too and so I didn't know what was going to happen but I supposed, the best way to start, was to write something birthed from scripture.

So there I sat at the piano, I just worshipped...and turned to one of my favourite psalms, intending it to be a slow emo-worship song. I flipped to Psalm 100, and realized, "eh...it sounds too happy!" and....so came the tune for Enter His Gates.

I had many many many tries recorded on my phone (which sounded really *erks*) but finally got it down to pat, immediately called Daren (whom I was co-leading with this past Sat) and sang it to him before I forgot it...from that moment on, there was no turning back:
[+] June 17th (Tues): Recorded a vocal only clip & sent it out to Daren & Grace
[+] June 20th (Sat): Daren, Grace, Jon, Eu Jin and myself did a raw recording as reference for the team, worked out the intro, some kinks and wrote out the chords,
[+] June 26th (Thurs): The Sat worship team picked it up and made it sound even better during practice
[+] June 28th (Sat): Sang at Saturday service!

In less than two weeks, everyone has managed to help the song come to life and I'm so grateful. But more than ever, I'm amazed at what God can do with the little that we have and the little that we place before Him.

You must understand that I'm not one for technicality, yes I play the piano but I've forgotten pretty much everything and have to rely on just my hearing - as long as it sounds like it and sounds good, it's good to go. Song-writing, actually, even less than that, putting a tune to something is more than I ever dreamed possible - and it's breathtaking to see it come to pass.

I really can't describe how it feels like to hear something you wrote....being sung, played or even liked by others - its truly truly amazing. All the more amazing, when the final product is an offer of worship to God.

If this is the one and ONLY song I ever write, I'll not have any regrets, ever.

Then I'll know, it's time for something else.

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands.”- Psalm 138:8



For all those of you whom have encouraged me from the very start you heard the vocal recording, thank you so much for supporting and believing that the song was something of use, I'm very very thankful! You know who you are, thanks so much for making it happen!!

Thank You, Lord, for entrusting me with this one song, this one gift. It's a new season and it's a new day, I pray that new songs will continue to be birthed (by whomever!) and sung to You. Father, anoint their lips and their hands Lord, let Your spirit fill and inspire them. Make them Your instruments of worship. Let the song of praise in Heaven be translated and heard here on Earth. In Jesus' name, Amen!

The Hotelier and the Flight Attendant

So Jeen really took it seriously when I said I was very anxious to be here for the first time, not knowing the city, its people or....much fluent mandarin.

Being the sweet person he is, he immediately called up a friend of his and told him in not so many words - take her out, see to it that she's okay!

Andy, called and turned up at my doorstep last night with Cheery, also with the airline to have dinner with me. They were a blast to hang out with....and gosh, I hadn't heard so much profanity in quite a long time. Don't worry Andy, I still like you all the same :)

We had some really delicious dinner at this restaurant whose name I, ofcourse, can't pronounce and then off to simply yummy tang yuen soup.






Counting down the hours till I get home....loves!

High-Cultured Tourist

Last weekend, well Sunday to be more exact, I decided that I needed to be a little bit more cultured - learn more about Taiwan and what bit I could see while I was still here. So I decided to do the touristy thing with landmarks along the metro line...

First stop, the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, built in memory of the founding father of the Republic of China.

As I went on this rendezvous by myself, I constantly suffer from PBTCS (person-behind-the-camera-syndrome), so I thought of the only way I could feature that I was actually there...


Pretty little flowers outsidet the art expo...

Got a chance to be a high-culture tourist - they were also hosting an art expo and here are some of my favourites..

And look what I found...a nice little token from Singapore...

Vast expanse of a garden....I had to walk across it to take a the first picture of the memorial hall..

Next stop, the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
Built to the commemorate the life of the leader of Nationalist China who moved his government, the Republic of China, into exile on Taiwan after his defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong in 1949.

The big archway that leads to the memorial hall, the national theatre and somet other building... hahahaha....

The dude that help me take pictures.....he was waiting for me to catch up with him so I could help him take his photo!

Finally, a picture of me!
Arrghh...stairs, never-ending stairs...

The landscaping is beautiful.... If I were an olden day princess, this would be my palace grounds.... :) This is me right before I have to climb down the same set of stairs..and walk across grounds...again....

And I encountered this little cutie on the way!

Its never complete without these willow-looking like trees....



Final stop, Longshan Temple...
A matchmaking temple of sorts that's situated in one of the original districts in Taipei called Wanhua.

Disclaimer: Please don't be stumbled, I merely visited this place as a tourist, walked in, said a prayer and walked out :)

Big fat koi fish...they're seriously gigantically huge... like probably the size of my arm!

And I finished off my day with some McDs... :)
Hey!! I earned it after all that walking okay!!! And besides...I just wanted to see if it tasted the same....and it did!

And now I am reminded that this is my second last day here in Taipei, I'm beginning to miss it already but I look forward to coming home....

*out*

Out in the City

This is where I spent the better half of my day yesterday...

In reality, I think expos are not really any different the world over, well, apart from the language. Spent my day just experiencing and watching the many people that walked through the booth, which mean I pretty much stood there just looking to see if I could give the next person that came up to me a good, clear mandarin answer :)

Because the expo was situated right opposite Taipei 101, I got in another decent picture of the building, and with more light this time. Lan (my colleague) and I took advantage of the pretty clear blue sky (which is rare these days as its been raining) and walked between the shopping area just so I could see what it was like - so here's part of the city.

I'm glad to see that at least some things are still universal...

Ended my day with this, just wanted to see if it tasted different..

The chicken tasted a bit weird....hahahahaha....

The highlight:

I got in a good night's rest yesterday! Woohoo! Got in some good reading as I pored through my bible and then went to bed with no problem whatsoever, thank God! :)

Did you know that people speak the truth when they look at a rainbow or a picturous mountain view and say, "Look at that, how can people not believe God exists and created all this?"

I stumbled upon this yesterday...

"19.....since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made..."

Romans 1:19-20

The entire creation points to its Creator. Naturally, you're just supposed to know, with all that is made, and just be everything that you see with your own eyes, that God is God.

That is so cool.

*out*

Chiang mai ah?

Translation: How much is this?

Yes, that's probably my most spoken phrase here in Taipei! Then again, only by default because I don't speak much of the language...ekekekeke...

But yeah, this is my third night market in the 10 days I've been here. I liked it because it was photo pretty - they had a chinese looking archway! Hah!

Here I am with Elsa, who's the Associate Director for the tech team, just after our walk-through (with our goodies!).


Halfway through we decided to fill our hungry tummies with some rice (yay!) and porks - it's really another version of bak kut teh, though I still think the Malaysian version is much much tastier.

Here's Elsa, Jane and Zhien when the food just arrived (yes, you can tell they're quite happy).

Elsa and Jane shopping for some blings...

Just a snapshot as I was walking along the night market. This was taken when I first arrived and as you could probably tell, I got too distracted with all the goodies to take any more photos! ;p

I just realized, I have 8 days more to go before I head home - I'm beginning to get used to being here and actually enjoying Taipei for all it offers. But me being me, I love having people around, familiar smells, familiar faces - I hate being alone.

For all its worth, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my stay here because it's actually quite awesome!

Tomorrow, manning the booth at an expo....another experience as a banana trying to speak chinese! hehehehe.....

Love much, miss you guys even more.

*out*

My first earthquake!

You heard me right!

I experienced my very first earthquake yesterday and let me tell you it was such a freaky experience!

I couldn't really sleep last night, it happens when I'm in foreign places and sat up in bed just to drink some water when suddenly, everything started shaking! Obviously I thought it was a dizzy spell but when the door started shaking, I knew for certain it was something different altogether.

Called the front desk and asked if I should panic (in not so many words)....

Yen: Hi, this is Yen from 807, was it me or did we just have a tremor?
Front Desk (FD): Not you, we did.
Yen: Should I be doing something? Like come down to the lobby or be ready?
FD: No no, everything's alright, just stay in your room and rest.
Yen: Is this normal??
FD: No ma'am, its not.
Yen: Does it happen very often??!?!?
FD: *chuckles* No, actually it does not...
Yen: Eeerrr....
FD: Really, its okay, just rest, have a good rest.
Yen: Okay...??!!??

And yeah.

I was just joking with my colleague that I supposed now my Taiwan experience is complete... and she said, well almost, if there was a Typhoon, THEN it'd be more complete.

Thank God I'm too early for Typhoon season :0/

*erk*

Backlog!

That's the thing about not blogging for a couple of days but still taking pictures - backlog!

've been busy working on my presentation and finally presented it on Friday, had a lot of fun and they clapped and laughed at my funny "office prezo", so I guess that's good - enough about the boring stuff already!

This is how I spent my last four days....

The Tech team in the Taipei office (from left to right):
Sabrina, Chiao-Li, Jane, Elsa, Lan, and the rest from the other teams, Claire, Kathy and...er, I'm not sure what her name is!

Saturday

Spent yesterday with Lan as she showed me around the city to eat some scrumpylicious Japanese beef curry and ofcourse, a little history with the National Palace Musuem. Taipei is as you would expect it to be - busy busy with lots of buildings.

Would've taken more photos at the Musuem but musuems being musuems, it was prohibited for shots to be taken but I really appreciated the time we spent just looking at things - it's something I really love to do, one day....I really want to go to the British musuem and spend the supposed two hours it takes to finish up.

We were going to head to the gardens after but the rain had to follow me all the way from Malaysia - apparently for the next couple of days, its going to be thunderstorms and rain til sometime Tuesday, and even then, it'll still be cloudy.

I'm glad for the cool weather but that meant no gardens or Dan Shui for us yesterday, so we traipsed off to Xi Men Ting, the Orchard road of Taipei - where lots of happening kids (and I mean youth) hang out. Lan and I were feeling so shyyyy....cos we were older than they all were!

Spent the time walking around the huge shopping area, met up with Lan's boyfriend Max, and then had a standing dinner (literally) at the famous Ah-Chung noodle shop. Check-out the number of people at this Min-sin stall!

Sunday

Took a good long sleep last night and finally woke up with the early afternoon sun :) Took my time and finally headed off to Wu Fen Pu, this mass shopping area with endless alleys and streets just filled with nothing but shops!

You can only imagine how happy I was...hahahaha...what made me prouder was the fact that I got here all on my own with the metro, thanks to some pretty good directions from Jane. Damage for the day: 9 items for RM 174. Pretty good wouldn't you say? *happy*

Any case, running off to bed soon...long week next week with the upcoming international event I'm helping out with. Perk: Malaysian media coming up to Taipei and I know them! Will be happy to go gallavanting with them when they get here :) Coolios....

Over and out from Taipei...

Loves.

p/s: Jeen, Andy called and we're catching up for coffee soon, thanks again!