san francisco

This past weekend we got to spend a couple days in San Francisco. Even in the brief time I got to spend there I loved it. Mild weather. Large bike scene. Cultural variety. Good food. Cheap bubble tea. Lots of Asians :). My kinda of town. It was awesome to get to play at our guitarist's home church and get to know some of the people there. I will be back San Fran!

vibrafun!

chris wong rockin' the vibraphone

back from taiwan, off to canada

After a week of training back in good ol' Willmar, MN I'm back on the road with tea
1421. Our first stop was in our team leader's home town in northern Minnesota. Our next move is to roll across the border and put the 'I' in CTI by spending the weekend in Manitoba, Canada. Calvin, our token Canadian, is excited to be heading to his home land.


Oh and in case you were wondering, my three weeks in Taiwan were a blast! It is a country full of wonderful culture, beautiful people and splendid sights. Our team was partnered with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who organized where we would be playing and gave us an apartment in the city of Dansui to stay in. It is amazing how much more receptive the people over there are to our music than most of the groups in the states we play for. Met some really cool people throughout our stay. The majority of our concerts were with universities and churches in the cities of Dansui and Taipei, many of them outdoors. Playing 28 concerts in less than 20 days does not afford much free time. We did get a day off, though. We spent our time riding a gondola to the top of the jungled mountains near Taipei where we wandered from one tea shop to the next drinking in the different views they had to offer rather than the plethora of homemade teas. After riding back down the the mountain in a glass bottomed gondola we hopped back on the MRT and made our way to the second tallest free-standing building in the world: Taipei 101. YES. So freakin' cool! 89 floors. 37 seconds. A view of a city glimmering with the lights of buildings creating blocks separated by glowing streets. Staring down from 1500 feet above the earth gives a sense of being larger than life that is soon countered when feeling the structure that stretches higher than few others dare sway under the power of the wind. I have to admit: I loved Taiwan and wish we could have stayed longer, but it is good to be back in th US of A.