Beginnings...
The trip over was pretty uneventful. First stop was LAX for a quick, 2-hour layover, then straight to Taiwan with EVA Air.
I had no idea what to expect from EVA but they were cheap and, well, you get what you pay for. There's not a lot you can do to spice up economy class overseas, but the flights on British Air had more comfortable seats for sure. The food was pretty good, though.
13 hours and two movies later (Nacho Libre and The Sentinel), I landed in Taiwan. After gathering my bags, going through customs, and passing the attack beagles who were sniffing for imported foodstuffs, I met Luis, my guide.
I'm fairly certain that the Taiwanese are the friendliest people on the planet. Literally going out of their way to make guests feel comfortable. Luis and his wife gathered up all my bags into their minivan and whisked me away to my hotel in Jhongli (pronounced Jong - Lee) about 45 minutes away.
Luis is one of the managers here at the factory and his wife teaches elementary Chinese. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to learn a little Chinese while I'm here. Of course, that hope died shortly.
You know how, in English, we have two accents (long and short) per vowel? For example, there's the long 'a' as in "tomato" and a short 'a' as in "tomato." :) Anyway, you get my point. In Traditional Chinese, there are 4 accents per vowel. And if that weren't hard enough, in the Taiwan dialect, they have 8. Are you kidding me? Needless to say, my Chinese is not improving at all.
I had no idea what to expect from EVA but they were cheap and, well, you get what you pay for. There's not a lot you can do to spice up economy class overseas, but the flights on British Air had more comfortable seats for sure. The food was pretty good, though.
13 hours and two movies later (Nacho Libre and The Sentinel), I landed in Taiwan. After gathering my bags, going through customs, and passing the attack beagles who were sniffing for imported foodstuffs, I met Luis, my guide.
I'm fairly certain that the Taiwanese are the friendliest people on the planet. Literally going out of their way to make guests feel comfortable. Luis and his wife gathered up all my bags into their minivan and whisked me away to my hotel in Jhongli (pronounced Jong - Lee) about 45 minutes away.
Luis is one of the managers here at the factory and his wife teaches elementary Chinese. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to learn a little Chinese while I'm here. Of course, that hope died shortly.
You know how, in English, we have two accents (long and short) per vowel? For example, there's the long 'a' as in "tomato" and a short 'a' as in "tomato." :) Anyway, you get my point. In Traditional Chinese, there are 4 accents per vowel. And if that weren't hard enough, in the Taiwan dialect, they have 8. Are you kidding me? Needless to say, my Chinese is not improving at all.
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