Benjamin (27)-This past year has been both exciting and transformative. It started with my new favorite toy, a Nintendo WII, and saw another child born, another international move and a new career. I started the year with a stable contracted teaching position at a fine kindergarten school in Taiwan and ended several jobs and many adventures later developing curriculum and writing a book at a charter high school in Arizona. With all the changes and adventures this year none is as important as the birth of our second daughter, Cordelia Anne Shaffer.
Traveling Taiwan was great this year especially because we had so much good company. It started with one of the most magnificent hikes I have ever taken to the summit of Jade Mountain (the tallest mountain in Northeast Asia at 4000m/13,000 feet) with my father-in-law, Ken, and his wife, Lorie. Then my brother, Adam, and sister, Anni, visited and we had a great time in north and central Taiwan cities, my parents then arrived with my brother, Daniel, and we toured many temples, parks and museums in Taipei, and last but not least my sister-in-law, Emily, and niece, Kelsey, came and we went to the east coast of the island and took the famous cross island highway through the marble gorge and over the mountains. Hopefully a full account will appear soon on our blog for those who are curious.
When we did fly home to America our adventures had only just begun. First we visited southern Arizona and crossed the border into Mexico. Meaning we traveled to 3 countries on 2 continents in less than a week. We then took a few of our belongings and moved into a tent in the mountains of Utah to spend the summer at Boy Scout camp. I had been a counselor at the camp a few summers as a teen and wanted to share that special place with my family, so we soon found ourselves adjusting to that. Elnorra learned to speak a lot more English (it took her only a week or so to find out that Daddy and Baba were the same person.) After a few months there, a few more mountains climbed and some cool stories and new scars, we moved to Arizona. We planned to stay with my Mother-in-law for only a few weeks while I found a job and apartment but it took longer than expected. I found a job at Alta Vista High School where I was asked to teach World Religions and other electives of a more exotic nature than I expected. I was given no curriculum and so have compiled and written an annotated Tao Te Ching with English, Spanish, and Chinese versions in columns, which was fun to do, and compiled volumes of material on many other religions. Finally our lives slowed down a little and we enjoyed our holiday season with family traveling to us. We were blessed with many wonderful gifts beyond our modest expectations and are now progressing more in our daily pursuits.