Dispatch from Taiwan

Editor's note: Dr. Terry Kriesel of Puget Island will be teaching this school year in a Taiwanese seminary. We invited him to share his observations of life in Taiwan.

I just got back from a day of fishing. Actually, it is not fishing as we know it. There were two ponds that were fed by a stream. You paid about $3 to fish for the day.

The fish kind of looked like a cross between a crappie or bream and a carp. If you want to keep the fish you catch you have to pay extra for them; we did not catch any. I guess the flesh is white and mild and good to eat. We saw some people who caught several fish each. They also sell to restaurants in the area.

Tomorrow evening there is a Christmas concert at the Civic Center with a 100 piece orchestra from another local university and several area Lutheran church choirs participating. They are performing four selections from Handel's Messiah.

(For the Christmas holidays, Kriesel's wife, Carol, and daughter Christa joined him in Taiwan, and they traveled to Hong Kong. Upon returning to Taiwan, he posted the following message.)

Christa, Carol, and I took the high speed train today from Hsinchu to the southern tip of Taiwan and the town of Zuoying. It took only about 1 1/2 hours each way. But the train speeds are up to 186 miles an hour.

It is cold here in Hsinchu but Zuoying was warm and nice since that is about 225 miles or so south. The train takes you through cities and also rural farming areas and also some mountainous areas so it is a nice variety. The train stations are modern since the train only began last year.

It is expensive. Even with Carol and I as seniors at half price it cost $145 for the three of us round trip. The trains are clean and quiet and really nice.