So it begins

How do I begin to describe all I have experienced already?
The twelve hour flight was not bad, though a little boring. I did make a new friend though, I ended up talking to a guy from Korea who was sitting beside me. He took some pictures of me and is going to email them to me! I arrived at the airport at around 3:30 local time, which was about 12:30 am back home! I was met by a taxi driver with a sign that had my name and we drove through the city. My first impressions were that there weren't as many palm trees as I thought, and that the traffic wasn't as bad as it was in Brazil! Not to say it isn't scary to cross the street! The walk lights have this little green running man who runs faster when the light is going to change. It's really cute actually. Anyways, last night I met some people and managed to stay awake until 9, which was not quite the 24 hour mark! Today, I met the others I will be working with and we went to church. On the way we passed through the night market (intentionally I'm told) and saw every kind of food for sale that you can imagine, and tons of people squeezing through a tiny aisle, including scooters and little carts. By every kind of food I mean piles of vegetables, freshly de-feathered chickens (with head and claws still attached), fish, and fruit. You can imagine that there is nothing I didn't see or smell today. The church service was amazing! It was bilingual, which I'm told is unusual (usually the english speakers would have to get a headset and listen to a translator through that), but there was a guest speaker from New York there. The worship was so powerful, it was really amazing to be singing alongside 1000 other people singing in Chinese. It was a really huge church!
We went for lunch, and I managed to master the chopsticks decently without embarrassing myself! I'm really liking the food so far, but then I have always loved chinese food! After that we took the subway down to the waterfront, close to where the river meets the ocean, and walked around for a few hours, we saw both historical buildings and really busy marketplaces, where i discovered that you can buy almost anything on a stick, from chocolate covered bananas to squid! Neither of which I tried today... maybe i'm not that adventurous quite yet!
I get along really well with Hope, the girl I will be living with, she is super nice, we have a lot in common too! I found out that we will be in Taipei for another week, or a little more, and then we are going on a tour down the east coast, where we will be putting on some school rallies, and then Hope and I will go to Yuli where we will be teaching. It looks like we will be there semi-permanantly, though we could take a side trip at any time!
Anyways, i'm sure there's a million other things to talk about but I am getting sleepy ...

Comments

  1. Anonymous9:08 pm

    Hey dude,
    Good on you!!! Glad to know that everything went smoothly... I knew it would. Oooo, and exploring already. That is great!!! I am glad that the people there did not leave you alone for the first day... jet lag or not, I think it is really important to engage, lest the fears and reservations gain a foothold.
    Mmmmm, well have fun. Let me know how your classes go.

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  2. Good to hear everything is going well... but I have a few questions for Hope... does she like tea? Does she like to draw?? Will she sit around telling stupid future husband stories??? (well actually it's probably better if she doesn't do that one) I just don't know about this one char... maybe you had better request a new roommate... they could send you another one, one named jo...

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  3. Hey, Charlotte! Fun blog! You said such sweet things about me too! Hi, Jo! In answer to your questions, I can take or leave tea. Here, I have been drinking a lot of iced tea and milk tea, but it has a lot of sugar so I don't think I will keep doing that. My Azerbaijani sister-in-law bleeds tea. Well, I have never seen her bleed, but that's what my brother says. She does drink it a lot.
    I draw, but I am not good at it. Today I drew a John Kerry cartoon and a stick figure of a king, but that is a lot of drawing for me in one day. It's just because I had a white board right in front of me and a little free time.
    I need to hear more about these future husband stories to decide if I will sit around telling them. Would doing so be a good or bad thing? What would it entail? I need more context to decide.

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