I Am Going to Like it Here....

They're keeping me busy, and I'm still a little jet lagged.  I woke up yesterday at 3:30 AM, so I was a little tired yesterday to blog.  But last night I got 8 hours, so I'm feeling better.  Yesterday was good, Chinese class with Andrew, and then a session on teaching ESL.  We spent the afternoon at the National Palace Museum, amazing artwork.  One of the most impressive pieces was an ivory basket, some parts were carved to look like lace, so thin they are transparent.

And the dragon ball, 17 nested, rotating spheres, the whole thing is carved from one piece of ivory.

And yes, I stole the pictures from Google, you're not allowed to take pictures inside.

This morning was another Chinese lesson, then more education classes all day.  I'm on lunch right now.  I love the fact that lunch is 90 minutes.  They want you to eat for 30 minutes, and then everyone is expected to take a nap before afternoon classes.  I'm on my second cup of tea for the day, I'm not tired.  So I'm watching Pili, a traditional Taiwanese marionette show on TV.  I have no idea what's going, but it's interesting to watch.  I have to go back soon for another afternoon of class, then after dinner, a visit to the night market.

Today started out ok, I had to have help getting breakfast because I had no idea what I was doing.  I took a short walk with one of the "veteran" teachers and we stopped at 7-Eleven and a grocery store.  Lunch was in the classroom, and I finally mastered chop sticks.  The weather is very warm, almost 100 degrees and humid.  

     Orientation was from 1-5:30, we had speakers on teaching ESL and adjusting to life in Taiwan.  Dinner was pizza, very good!  We celebrated Summer birthdays and our arrival in Taiwan:

Birthday girls, Peggy and Soleil

After dinner a few of us walked through a night market, I just wanted to see what it was like.  Wednesday night the counselors have scheduled a night market visit, I definitely want to go back.  Next time I won't be stuffed with pizza and jet-lagged, lol.

The view, the building to the right is Taipei 101, for a while it was the tallest building in the world.

Arrival

Long flight to Taipei, but everything went well.  Immigration was fine, customs was nothing.  Except a bottle of body wash exploded in my suitcase.  But I've had worse things happen when I've traveled.  Got on a bus for a 40 minute ride to the dorm, the rooms are more like a hotel, very nice.  By the time I got to sleep, it was 1 am, that should make for an interesting day :).  I'm going to get breakfast soon, then day one of orientation.

Los Angeles

Flight from Chicago to LA (4 hours) was fine.  They don't give anything for free now, cookies, drinks, etc.  It kind of went like this though: "I'm not paying for your overpriced...ooh, Garrett's popcorn." Got to LAX at 12:30, and navigated to the other terminal.  Not an easy thing to do.  But, this is actually the first time I've ever traveled internationally by myself.  I've always been with at least one other person.  I went into a different building, and there were hundreds of other people waiting to check in.  And for the first ten minutes, I was the only non-Asian in line. Kind of intimidating, not gonna lie.  Went through a second security checkpoint, and now I'm waiting for this next flight, the big one.  On my way to the gate, I ran into my fellow "recruits" Ryan, Ashley, Peggy, and Thomas.  14 Hours, then customs/security, then my first night in Taipei.

Chicago

Uneventful flight, I slept for most of it.  Now I need to find caffeine...

Getting started

Waiting at CLE, I have about an hour until I board.  It was kind of crowded for 5:30 on a Saturday morning.  And it's weird just being responsible for myself this time.  I just want to get on the plane so I can sleep.

Itinerary

I found out yesterday, I'll be flying out of Cleveland August 10th.  I'll leave Ohio at 8 AM, fly an hour to Chicago, then another 5 hours to LA, then 14 hours to Taipei.  With layovers, it's going to take about 24 hours to get there.  I'll post when I get there, I have a feeling I'll be jet-lagged out of my mind.  That should be an interesting post.