And Now it Begins

So, this morning, I woke up even earlier (six this time). I tried to go out and buy breakfast for Vivi and her boyfriend but they hadn't woken up yet. Vivi's mom took me out to walk to the area's temple (Vivi is the younger sister of my mom's friend). When we came back, we found that the other girl (Vivi's cousin), had come out. We walked around the block, which turned out to belong to their relatives and other family members (1 traditional house and two 4 story houses). Vivi still hadn't got up, so her cousin and I went to the high speed rail station and had starbucks (I managed to pay for parking). By the time we got back (and a little more), Vivi finally woke up, and her boyfriend drove us all to the airport (not forgetting to buy two more topica teas for me—which they refused to allow me to pay for).

At the airport, I met most of my team members. Rode a double story tour bus to Taitung. Took 8 hours--I'm glad I caught up on my sleep.

Touring Taipei

Even though it had been 30+ hours since I slept, I woke up at seven thirty. Took till nine to check my computer, get dressed, etc. and go out into the small living room ourside of my room I was staying in. On the table outside, I found some rice porrige, which had eggs, eggplant, and some salty jello type of thing in it. Went downstairs, found out that we were going to wait for Vivi's (I think that is what she told me to call her) boyfriend to come with his car; learning this, I went back upstairs and finished downloading pictures to the passport drive and typing another blog entry.

Since the other girl had gone off to prep school, Vivi and her boyfriend decided to take me to Taipei. Things we did: went to Taipei's famous beef noodle shop, went to the national history museum, bought milk topica tea, and went and shopped at Taipei 101's mall. While shopping in the area, I bought a pair of poloroid sunglasses for 850 (worth twice that supposedly). We also bought some pinapple cakes to bring to the airport and share with the other students. Concluded the day by watching Transformers, blogging some more, skyping, and downloading pictures.

After a Night of Rest

So yesterday, I managed to get to Taiwan without collapsing from exhaustion. The missionary parent couple managed to wake me up before I missed my plane. This flight, which was United Airlines, was not as good in quality. They seemed almost inexperienced, as it took 45 minutes for them to take off, when it took only 30 for the previous flight to Japan, which had 2 more rows of seats and was packed full. But one thing was good--their seats were just sliiiiightly farther apart, which meant I could managed to get comfortable enough on the tray to get a short nap (risky as it was). Got an aisle seat, which was nice, and they also served another meal. Going into Taiwan, they turned down the lights in the plane. Although it was night in Taiwan, this went hard on me because I needed to stay awake for a couple more hours.

In the airport, customs went really weird. I got in, and there was no immediate line to get through. I had to wander around for a while before I found where to go. Before I got checked through though, I remembered to change my money (there was a guy next to me who changed $4000 US dollars!). I then got in line but realized I had not finished filling out my immigration card on the plane. The lady at the counter told me to go with the special officer. I was starting to get worried now. The guy brought me to a special desk, where he and another guy talked about me. They questioned me about what I was in Taiwan for, and I said I was here to teach English. They slapped their foreheads at this, but once I explained that I was a volunteer and not working for pay, they let me through. Boy was I glad. I thanked them--twice.

The baggage claim was frightening as well. I waited a good 15 minutes before two red bags the size of mine arrived. Grabbing one, I tried it with the key, and it turned out to be the right one. Side was busted good though--bent up pretty bad. I might have done something wrong here, because I walked out the entrance without having to show my baggage claim--was that legal? I don't know. Immediately outside the exit were two girls around 30 years old (I mistook them to be of college age, their reaction which you can imagine) holding up a green sign and shouting "Dan-eel! Dan-eel!". I was saved! To note here, there was supposed to be a famous Taiwanese tennis player coming back at the same time as me, so there was a full camera crew and cheer-leading squad set up. To the girls surprise, I spoke "good" [un-accented] Chinese (or so they told me). They had expected me to be not too good and had even chosen English names for themselves (and the boyfriend who drove the car--his name was "Monkey" curiously enough). Upon arriving at their house (four and a half stories tall), I was able to set up comfortably in the room they had chosen. Talked on skype with my family, then went to sleep at around 12. By this time, I had gone without a good sleep for over 30 hours.

Conclusion about flying: Either I was really lucky, or flying isn't the hardest thing in the world. Things were laid out fairly simply. Kind of like taking the bus, but more complex. I am thankful I didn't have any huge problems. It is now 12:30 (I should probably go to sleep soon if I want to fix my jet lag sooner). Hopefully, I can catch up on the blogging soon.

To/In Tokyo

So, now, I am at Tokyo. Landing was really painful because my ears refused to pop, and now I am partially deaf, as they are still plugged. I have been awake for almost 24 hours now (not to mention I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before). There was no way to sleep on the plane; I was between two other seats. Just to relieve my pain, I ended up going to the bathroom just to rest my head for 5 minutes.

In Houston, I had little problem finding the gate I was supposed to go to. On the other hand, it was a sheer miracle that I actually made it on time. The plane was delayed 30 minutes, and if it hadn't been, I'm afraid I would have missed it.
Also, the plane was both the largest and the most crowded one I have every been on (which isn't much to say). Every seat was full, and there was three seats along the sides, and five along the middle, with two first class areas, and two business class sections after that.

On the plane, the service was awesome--extremely professional. Of course, all seats had little televisions, each of which could stream from the 200+ movies, 100+ shows, and 25+ games on the main computer. Around every two to three hours, the flight attendants would come around with food and drinks. The eight bathrooms were always full.

The movie database contained everything from Casablanca to Finding Nemo. My first movie was Holes, which I heard was a simple, yet entertaining movie--and it was. Other than that, I could not find any other decent non-Pixar films, so I watched parts of The Book of Eli, which was too gory for my taste, Star Trek, which I forgot to finish, the live action Death Note, which was basically the same as the series, and a few clips from What Not to Wear, just so that I could know what it was like.

I also decided to talk to some people. On the plane, I sat between two ladies. The one on my left was a 20+ girl who didn't talk and slept under her blanket the whole trip (to my envy, as she had the wall to lean against, and I had no comfortable position to sleep). The one on my right was an older woman from India who had been living in Houston with her husband and was on the way to Singapore where she would meet him (her husband is an engineer and has as short term job in Singapore). While talking to her, I found that she has 4 children, the last of which is a senior in high school, and that she has lived in Japan before (she described it as a safe and beautiful place with cherry blossoms everywhere and that Japanese are a very shy but polite people). I learned a few other things I found while we were chatting, such as that her son just got married, but I don't remember the details. She also had managed to get very special service for food--a vegan tray for every meal served. After getting off the plane, I met a guy in while in customs. He was from Taiwan, and was going to Arizona to join professional basketball there--his dream. While waiting for my next plane, I met and older American couple from Florida, who were going to see their kid in Taiwan, who about to have a kid and is a missionary.

That is all I have for now. I'll try to get the next post up soon.

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.