Starting Out

Well, here I am. I'm on a plane to Houston, my first stop on my flight to Taiwan. What to expect at the end of my journey, I don't know. In fact, I don't know what to expect on my way there. My knowledge of travel by airplane is limited to my one flight to Honduras, where somebody else took care of all of the details. Now, I'm alone. Rather exciting, yes?

Actually, I don't like travel. To me, it is better to stay home and stay safe, rather than venture forth. There are plenty of things you can do and see without going places. I tend to exploit this through the internet, where I can find people like myself, with the same interests, who I can converse with almost whenever I want. If I want to have some fun with a person, I hop on my computer, initiate skype or some other voice chat program and fire up a multiplayer online game. There is no need to travel to enjoy myself.

So then, as some of you might be asking, why am I here, on this plane, on my way to Taiwan? Well, first of all, there is the experience. This is my second flight that I can remember, and my second time out of the country to some place other than Canada. As I mentioned, I'm doing this alone, so I get to learn how to travel in this fashion if I need to in the future. I'm also going to be doing a lot of things in Taiwan, although I only have a vague idea what exactly. All I know, is I volunteered to join an expenses paid teaching program in Taiwan (excluding the flight), and that I will be doing something along the lines of teaching English to elementary/middle school children. Other kids in the program are said to be Chinese Americans like myself.

Also, I am going on this trip to see Taiwan, experience its culture, and meet new people. My mother was born in Taiwan, and moved to the United States while in her 20s. She has not had the chance to go back to Taiwan, but she has always wished that my siblings and I could go see her homeland. This program, funded by the Taiwan government through Summer AID, is my chance. When I get over there, I will also have a few extra days to tour Taipei and the surrounding area. To my joy and relief, a few of my mother's friends and relations of friends have offered to help me during my stay. After staying at one of their houses, I will be traveling to Taitung (ti-dong), where I will live at the university there for the program.

To conclude, I'm a bit frightened. I've never been away from home for so long, not to mention alone. I am also still recovering from a bad cold. For the past week, I have not been able to sleep much at night due to sore thoats, fevers, and nasal congestion, as well as a student orientation at MSU, where I had to stay overnight and come back yesterday. When I get off this plane, I have 35 minutes to get on my next flight, which is a 13 hour trip to Tokyo. I hope I don't run into too much trouble.