Well, my Asian adventure has finally come to an end. It's 5:00AM Monday here right now. My bags are at the door and ready to leave. I will be out-of-touch until probably after 6pm EST. Actually, it may be even longer, so don't worry. I'm sure we'll be safe.
I'll post more pictures and details once I'm home and settled. it's been a great adventure and we met some great friends along the way!
Well, I haven't had a chance to post much, but it's Sat. morning and it's our last full, free day. We are running around everywhere. We have some free time tomorrow too, but we have a meeting and we have to pack. We meet in our hotel lobby at 530am on Monday (our time) to go to the airport. This went by so fast! I'll still try to get more pictures and videos up though.
I have not had much time to post, but just to let you in on what we've dealt with here so far...
As you know, the swine flu has been a popular subject in Japan for some time. They are actively boarding planes and quarantining those that are sick. Well, even with all their precautions it appears that some students have it... and they are in Tokyo (where I am right now). http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awF_0oQDV9c0&refer=worldwide Keep your fingers crossed for us. We'll be leaving in a few days (hopefully with no quarantines). I guess some Michigan State students got sick too when they went to visit the southern part of the country. We were supposed to see them the night they found out. Crazy time!
Sorry about the last few days of not posting. I didn't get lost ;) We've once again been running around like crazy for days. We've been leaving by 9am and staying out until the wee hours of the morning.
I bought my internet card for the day (obviously) and should have more time to post later on. Can't wait to show some more of my adventures.
5/18 - Monday Here's some pictures of one of the main buildings where we are staying:
I'm writing this post at 7:40AM on Monday in my room in Tokyo. We finished our travels yesterday. Tokyo is an hour ahead of Taipei, so 7PM our time is now 6am the same day at home. Here's a random picture from the in-flight map:
Here is what we were served in-flight:
And if I haven't mentioned it yet, the recycling programs over here seem to be pretty advanced (picture below). Of course, another thing I don't think I mentioned is that there are HARDLY ANY trash cans around. I guess it's because they don't walk around with food and drinks, but for us it becomes a big pain when we do... lol.
Another neat thing is the use of cartoon characters in official things. For example the in-flight safety video or on this customs document in Japan:
The in-flight cameras are really neat. I took a video of the downward view and recorded our landing:
After landing we had to take a train from the airport to near where we are staying. There were a lot of rice patties along the way:
We made it to the hostel. What a walk!!! We took the subway to a place near where we are staying, but we had to roll our luggage around 1/2mile before we got to the room. We even had a few bag's wheels break. Luckily mine was not one of them. Here's a map of the campus where we are staying:
The Japanese, as we've been told, are a very formal and rules based society. As such, they separated our group; girls are on the 7th floor, boys are on the 3rd. No food or alcohol is allowed in the rooms either. Strangely enough, we do have a small fridge though, so I guess I need to look into that rule.
BTW, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned the cockroaches and rats we saw in the street in Taipei outside the hotel. Well, I finally managed to capture a picture:
Also, I now have internet in my room (for a fee). What a relief!!!
Well, we made it to the Taipei airport. I checked both bags this time and squeeked in under the weight limits. At the hotel we were a little worried we wouldn't have room for all the luggage. We ended up filling underneath and the whole back row of the bus with luggage. Now there is a half-hour until we board and I figured I'd take advantage of the free internet terminal.
They keep telling us how busy and crazy Tokyo will be. Apparently we will be riding the metro for 2 hours to get to our hotel - with MANY bags too. This should be interesting!
Well, this post is starting on Saturday night at around 11PM. I really just wanted to check in and say I may not be able to post much tomorrow. We leave for the Airport at 630AM on Sunday (630PM Saturday for those at home). I'll be sure to put up more videos and pictures when I can.
As for today, it started out a little rough. For some reason the screen on my NEW camcorder decided to quit working! Luckily, we are 1 block away from the camera street here in Taipei! There must be 20 different camera stores within one side of one city block! I tried to get the old one fixed first, but they don't do that. So I caved and bought another new camcorder. I just couldn't be without one for the rest of the trip; We still have Tokyo to go! The new camcorder cost about the same as the last one I bought. Although this one has a MUCH better camera in it and actually takes much better video too! So I guess it wasn't all a loss. I am very happy with this new camera. I was able to barter some with the lady in the store too. That is another nice part about the culture here. While she wouldn't move much on the price, I did get her to throw in some extras (battery, bag, etc...).
We finally got our massage today. It was great at some parts, but downright PAINFUL in others. Those ladies twisted and turned us in ways that are just flat out unnatural ;)
After the massage it was on to an all you can eat and drink buffet. The food was excellent there too!
We walked over to Taipei 101 after that and some people went up in the tower. I didn't go again though. There was still a few stores I had to check out around town.
Well, it's about 90 degrees and humid outside right now (where I'm posting) and it's 11:15PM. I need to get finished packing since we leave in 7 hours. I'll post more soon.
Once again I'm a day behind my blog posts. It's Saturday night and I'm ready to talk about Friday night. We're told we will have internet access in Japan in our rooms, so hopefully I will be better then. For now I'll have to continue posting from outside our hotel room (where it's 88 degrees at 10:45PM and humid!)
Friday we took a 3+ hour bus ride to a company called Taiwan Biotechnology Inc. They are a subsidiary of AGV Beverage. The company makes drinks that are meant to improve your health, e.g. lower cholesterol, etc.... Their plant was really amazing! It was 95% automated. The automation allows them to keep a sterile bottling environment. They told us that the bottling area is as sterile as a hospital operating room! They fed us there while we listened to a presentation. The food was great! It was rice and turkey (and a few other odds and ends in the mix).
After AGV we went to Cheng Chung University and visited our pen-pals. I continue to be impressed with how well everyone seems to speak English. We ate more food with our pen pals and made a scented perfume purse. These purses are said to ward off evil spirits.
We stopped for food at the 2nd largest city in Taiwan on the way home. Some members of the group ate at Chili's. Melody and I continued to be brave and went to a local eatery. What a mess. This particular location did not have people that spoke English serving the food. I "thought" I knew what I was doing, as I had eaten the pork on a stick before. However, this time it turns out that you are supposed to take the pork of the stick and drop it into a broth as a soup. The lady tried to tell me, but I couldn't understand a word. She took my bowl and filled it for me to save me any more trouble ;) She then tried to ask if I wanted noodles or dumplings with it (in Chinese). She kept pointing at the menu (in Chinese). Thankfully our professor was nearby. Charlie was able to translate and save the day for me. :-)
We went out again at night. We went to a bar called Barcode at first. However, after waiting literally 30 min for 1 drink we were left. We ended up back at the same bar we had gone to a few nights before - Barbados. The bartender was impressed that I remembered her English name (Alison). I mentioned that it was our last real night out and she was sweet enough to come up and tell us a story. The short version is that the bad man went to hell and the good one went to heaven. The really impressive part is that she was cutting a piece of folder paper as she told the story and the pieces of the cutout spelled out Hell and then had a cross. I had her sign the cross for me with her real name. Here's the picture:
Well, it's Friday night for us now, but I'm still trying to catch up so here is Thursday's post.
Thursday we went to an organization called Joy English Enterprises. They teach English to locals here. From what they told us the school children here have their normal school time and then leave to go back for more school at night. Part of the additional schooling is math and science, or in this case, English classes. Apparently the kids here start learning English in 1st grade! It's no wonder they all seem to speak so well! We were originally going to have a couple of random people from Canada come with us for the company visit, but they had just flown in the day before. Seeing as we have to take our temperature 2x a day just to ensure we can meet with our friends in Japan, we definitely don't want to risk any swine flu problems.
After that we went to National Taiwan University (NTU) and went through a case study with some students. Here's a view of Taipei 101 from NTUL:
At night was Taipei 101!!! What a great view! One of the students from NTU came along too. The elevator was crazy! It went up 89 floors in 33 seconds! Your ears actually pop on the way up! I don't have a video of that part, but here's the ride down:
And btw, no Dunkin Donuts in Boone, but I definitely stopped at one in Taipei. It was $1USD a donut, but the Boston Cream donuts were great! They were slightly different though, they have a hard chocolate shell instead of a softer glaze like in the states.
Ok, yet again I only have a few minutes in the morning before we start our day. The days are so full here. We generally have some free time every other night, but I'm pretty exhausted then and typically just pass out.
Wednesday we went to the presidential palace. It was the typical historical tour that you'd expect. Although, for this particular tour we had a "substitute guide." He hadn't given a tour in English in 15 years - you can guess how easy it was to understand. Some interesting things there, but the tour was 2 hours. That was especially rough for some in our group that were quite hungover - and no, I was not one of them. I've been pretty good thus far on the trip. :)
We then went to a karaoke bar to learn how to do business in Taiwan. This bars are private rooms for karaoke for a group of 15 or so to go and have drinks and sing. It started slow, but was actually quite fun!
I'll have to post the videos and pictures later. Hope everyone is having fun back home! Thanks for following!
This is a somewhat random video, but something that has taken me by surprise a couple of times since we got here. This video shows the general concept of how the public restrooms work. The sinks are usually shared by men and women outside the bathroom. This particular bathroom was even more open for the guys. Yes, that is just a swinging half-door behind the urinal. The girls bathroom was just past this. Good thing I'm not shy ;)
Since I am in Taiwan I figured I'd show you an aspect of the culture I KNOW you'll like. This is a picture of a girl selling "betel nuts" on the side of the street. We have not had them yet, but from what I've heard they are somewhat like tobacco - addictive that is. No doubt the girls outfits draw extra business from some people.
I didn't take this particular picture, but I did want to show what they look like.
Ok... Not much time again. Today was a company visit with Giant bicycle. Followed by lunch with local business people. We then went to a winery and on to a local specialty... "the love hotel". Pictures to follow. Now we are heading out for drinks. Talk more soon. :-)
Here's some windmills that we saw on the way to Giant bike.
Love Hotel videos will have to wait. That place was CRAZY!!!
I noticed I'm missing Monday's details too. Monday we went to make ceramics (I'm terrible at it.. lol). We then went shopping a little. We had noodle soup for lunch. It was an all Chinese menu, but the waitress spoke some English. The best part was going to the spa and relaxing and then going to bed early for the first time in days!!!
Here's another random tidbit... everyone here is so friendly! Very polite!
Heading to the beach... two hour drive... more to come later...
OK, I finally have a chance to upload some stuff from the beach. It's now Monday morning around 8:30AM. Yesterday we went to Fulong Beach and stopped at a cute little town called Jiufen too. Wikipedia can explain Jiufen better than me right now (not enough time).
It took us about 10 minutes to get up there, with many steep stairs.
Here's a clip of Fulong Beach. Apparently it's in a resort called Bellevue hotel, or something similar. Mel has a picture of me with the sign in the background. I'll get it later.
And since I'm writing this later and saw Dad's comment... here's what we had for our "fast food" lunch yesterday at the beach. We had called in an order ahead so they packed it up for us in little boxes. Only one box had a fly embedded in the meat... most of us didn't learn that until later, but I'm not sick yet... so I'm still trying the food while I'm here. BTW, no silverware here for meals... thank goodness my parents taught me to use chopsticks while I was young!
OH! Someone just reminded us about our dinner experience yesterday. I'm not quite sure what we had for appetizers, but they said Chicken innards, another was Cartiledge, and the last was some beef looking something.
that's all for now :-) Today is ceramics and the spa :)
It is now 12:10 AM for me here on Sunday. I started this post at 9:10PM on Saturday, but my laptop died. Now I'm finishing the post, so...
It was our first day to really go out and about. We had a full day planned. We started with half of our group getting an "extreme makeover." We each got dressed up in Asian attire and had our pictures taken by a professional photographer. It was a lot of fun, but with a group of 20 people it took us 4+ hours to get it all finished. I don't have any pictures of me in my costume on my camera, but here's Melody.
Next we went to Chiang Kai Shek memorial. Impressive building and park nearby! We went on a tour for some charitable organization after. It was rather funny. We were literally surrounded by photographers and staff when we went on a tour. The professors said it was because they are trying to promote tourism and apparently... we qualified. I've never had so many cameras around me at one time :)
Well, my battery is still dying since the outlets all shut off when we leave the room. So here's the abbreviated ending. We went to a museum and then by a night market... SOOO MANY PEOPLE!
P.S. We attempted to go out to a local club tonight. Our professor wrote the address in Chinese for the taxi driver. Our taxi got us there; I confirmed it with the bouncers. However, the 2nd group of students didn't make it to the club. We waited for a while and decided to head back to the hotel. Now we're sitting outside the hotel, having some beers with some ASU students that are now studying for their MBA here in Taiwan. What a day... more to come. Sorry I haven't had a chance to put more videos up. Hopefully I'll be able to soon.
Well, we finally arrived in Taipei tonight. Here's the high-level detail of the trip:
Leave to meet at the school 4am.
Leave for Charlotte 4:45am (our time)
Leave Charlotte for Dallas-Fort-Worth 9am (our time)
Arrive at Dallas airport 2-3 hrs later.
Leave for Tokyo Japan almost as soon as we arrive in Dallas. Tokyo was a 13+ hour flight. I got to watch a few good movies, but what a long flight!!!
After we arrived in Tokyo we had to stay on the plane and wait for the Japanese health officials to clear us all. I have some videos of them boarding the plane and walking around collecting our paperwork.
By the way some of our group (me included) were lucky enough to stay quarantined on the plane for an extra 20 minutes while they led away someone that was sitting behind us with a fever. He had blood taken and it was negative for the swine flu. Thank the lord! Here's video of it:
We waited in Tokyo for a few hours before our flight to Taipei, Taiwan. By 11PM on Friday May 8th we arrived at our hotel. That's 11Am on 5/8 on EST - that means from 4am on 5/7 until 11am on 5/8 I was traveling. That's a whopping 27 hours worth for those of you counting!!!
Pictures and videos will follow later. For now, it's 1:15AM our local time and we need to be up around 7am.
Finally got some sleep for a couple hours on the bus ride down to Charlotte. It was a coach bus with plenty of room for us all. Now we're waiting for our flight to Dallas to depart at 9am and thanks to the free internet, I can post on the blog. I'm not sure when I'll get to post again.
Also, I have "flat-Danny" joining me on this trip. I'll be posting some pictures of him at our various destinations. For those that don't know, flat-Danny is a class project where elementary school children are introduced to different locations by having flat-Danny "travel" around and send pack pictures to the class.
With that being said, here's flat-Danny at Charlotte's airport.
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