New Beginnings

After almost two days of travel we are finally lying down in what will be our apartment for the next year.  It has been a great trip so far.  After flying about fourteen hours we landed in Taipei expecting a ten hour layover before we flew to Kaohsiung in the morning.  When we landed, however, we were greeted by some friendly China Air personelle who informed us that our flight had been changed so that we would land at midnight in Kaohsiung.  Allegedly this was due to some immigration policy (uh huh.).  Anyways, originally we were going to be picked up at the airport by some people from the school, but since we landed at midnight we thought we'd just sleep in the airport lobby.  This too is allegedly against immigration policy (right.).  So we were kicked to the rainy midnight streets with nothing but our English language skills and American money to help us out.  We looked at a Taxi driver and said, "Hotel."  He shot us back a glance that spoke more eloquently than all of his English abilities combined, which basically amounted to, "what kind of idiots don't know what they are going to do when they land in a foreign country?"  

When we finally arrived at the hotel of his choosing, the illustrious Golf Hotel, we learned that they didn't accept American currency (what a shock.).  Fortunately, the taxi driver was willing to exchange with us.  It was probably the worst exchange rate in all Taiwan, but it got us a ride, a room for a night, and a hot breakfast.  All in all, it was great, and probably better than just flying in in the morning.  This way we were able to start fresh with a shower in the morning.  I'm not sure how well adjusted we are to the time difference yet, but I imagine the jet lag will not be too bad.  We stayed up most of the flight and fell asleep about midnight here and slept for about eight hours.  

I emailed the school from the hotel and told us to pick us up at the hotel this morning.  From that moment on it has been non-stop running from place to place, getting acquainted at the school.  Lauren and I can't help but feel somewhat overwhelmed with the whole deal.  It's a lot to take in, but we'll make the adjustments we need.  We just hope we don't go crazy living with these people who we are sharing the apartment with.  The guy is pretty obtuse and the apartment is crazy with clutter.  We can't fathom how they accumulated so much junk in just a year.  We will not follow a similar path, that's for sure.  We are excited to turn this into our apartment because it is really nice, spacious, and well furnished.  With all of their clutter it's a mess, but it will be nice once Lauren and I are able to clean it up.

This is the view from our kitchen window and above is the front of the hotel we stayed at. I wish I had taken a picture of the whole hotel but I suppose this will do.