Beach

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 view from the bus area:

Jiufen - View from Bus Stop from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

Here's a view from walking up the stairs.

Jiufen, Taiwan - Stairs to Marketplace from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

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.

Fulong Beach - View from Bridge from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

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 :)

5/9 - First Full Day

Hello everyone, or should I say nihao. :)

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.

Finally in Taiwan

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:
    

    Quarantined on the Plane (Briefly) from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

    
    
• 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.

At the airport

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.

Packing

Nothing like packing at the last minute... hey, I've still got 16 hrs until we leave Boone ;)

Boston HD Video

I was looking at a site to host HD videos and stumbled across this. I couldn't help but post it.

Ultimate Boston - Letus Ultimate 35mm Film from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Itinerary

• Thursday May 7 - Depart Charlotte at 9am EST


• Friday May 8 - Arrive in Taipei, Taiwan at 7:25 PM (their time)


• Saturday May 9
  
  
  
  • National Palace Museum
  • Jinaguo Holiday Flower & Jade Markets
  • Taipei 101 - The Tallest Building in the World (for now)
  
  


• Sunday May 10
  
  • Fulong Beach Resort
  • Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area
    
  
  


• Monday May 11
  
  • Babangan Spa and Hot Spring Resort
  • Yingge Ceramics Street
    
  
  


• Tuesday May 12
  
  • Giant Bicycles Inc.
  • I-Cheong Machinery Inc.
  • Saxfone Museum
    
  
  


• 
  Wednesday May 13
  
  • Presidential Office Building
  • Hsimending
  • Singing in a Karaoke Box
  • Massage Therapy for Relaxation
    
  
  


• Thursday May 14
  
  • Joy English Enterprise Inc
  • National Taiwan University
  • Calligraphy Class
    
  
  


• Friday May 15
  
  • AGV Beverage Inc
  • National Chung Cheng University
    
  
  


• Saturday May 16
  
  • Farewell Party (to Taipei friends)
    
  
  


• Sunday May 17
  
  • Arrive Tokyo, Japan at 2:10 PM (their time)
  • Subway to hotel - arrive around 5PM
    
  
  


• 
  Monday May 18
  
  • Meiji Jingu Shrine
  • Welcome Party at Gakushuin College
  • Flower Arrangement Class
    
  
  


• Tuesday May 19
  
  • Japanese Calligraphy Class
  • Japanese Tea Ceremony
  • Japanese Business Class
  • Ernst & Young
  • Social Activities with students from Michigan State University
    
  
  


• 
  Wednesday May 20
  
  • Kimono Shop
  • Japanese Business Class
  • Evening time with Japanese students
    
  
  


• Thursday May 21
  
  • Harley-Davidson Japan
  • Sumo Wrestling Tournament
    
  
  


• Friday May 22
  
  • Sony Inc.
    
  
  


• Saturday May 23
  
  • Nikko World Heritage Site (optional)
    
  
  


• Sunday May 24
  
  • Yokohama Harbor City (optional)
  • HSBC or Navin Gupta's home for tea
    
  
  


• Monday May 25
  
  • Leave for Charlotte at 11:30 AM (their time)
  • Arrive in Charlotte at 3:20 PM (our time)