Moving Day(s)!

This was an incredibly exciting day for me because the last time I flew in an airplane was my 9th grade Advanced Social Studies class trip to Washington D.C. when I was about 14 years old (like 11 years ago). The time before that, I traveled to New York with my mom for Spring Break in 4th grade when I was 9… so my experience was few and far between. This was a long trip but I was ready!

I woke up earlier than I needed to be and triple checked everything. Shipping anything to me was going to be out of the question so I needed to get this right. We went to airport when it was still pitch-black outside. My stomach felt twisted. But we got through security pretty quickly and on a plane I was.

In total, it was about a 24 hour flight that had us leave the Mosinee Airport at 5:50am on Thursday and had us land in Taoyuan at 6:45pm the following day, Friday (because of the 13 hour time difference). The longest trip was of course the flight from San Francisco to Taoyuan at about 13 and a half hours. It did feel very strange to take off at 2:25pm Thursday and land 6:45pm Friday but it made me feel like a time traveler!

We flew United Airlines for this trip and overall I thought it wasn’t too bad. I do get motion sick very easily which did make me get sick when we landed on the first plane ride. My stomach was a little in knots after that, making me feel nauseous for most of the second. By the third though, it was amazing. The plane was so huge that the little bumps here and there didn’t bother me, the food (and free wine) that was provided was actually really delicious, and I got to watch some my favorite TV shows and newly released movies, all while wrapped in a blanket that was already on my seat when we boarded the plane. When we finally landed in Taoyuan, I got to see the ocean for the first time with my own eyes (not as a picture). There were so many things that were able to be thrown at me, but we made it to Taiwan and that was just the first step.

But our journey was not over yet!

Our travel adviser met us at the airport (and the hot air outside the front door hit me like a brick wall) and brought us to the hotel we would be staying in for the night in Taoyuan where we could rest up before we traveled to Puli the following morning. I was a little suspicious. We hardly encountered any delays in flights, going through immigration went very smoothly, and we got our all our luggage really fast. I thought so many things would go wrong but it was so painless, I finally slept soundly after days and days of prep and panic.

Onward to Puli, Taiwan!

We got picked up and checked out of the hotel the next morning after breakfast and a little relaxation, ready for the 2 hour ride to the town that I would call home for the next year. We had apartment viewings right away where we looked at 7 different places, all very different than the apartments I am used to back home. No apartments had kitchens, the shower was not separate from the toilet and sink, the washers were on the baloney (with no dryer), and only the moderns ones came with mini fridges or a TV. The one we ultimately ended up going with one didn’t have anything really but we would be leaving for a training for a week shortly after and our landlord agreed to install and washer and air conditioner when we were gone. We paid her, she gave us the keys, and just like that, we had an apartment! It had some furniture in it but it needed some serious rearranging and some touches to make it feel like home.

I must admit, I felt shock immediately. I am used to certain amenities in the stats and couldn’t hide my discomfort during this whole process. Everything was such a whirlwind that I didn’t even have time to really think about my options or what I thought I needed but I do really like the place we will be calling home. I will go into more details about living and working in Taiwan in a later post. What questions do you have?

Thanks for readings! Things are moving so fast and the culture shock is setting in but stayed tuned! I will talk about our first few days more in depth in my next blog post.

Until next time, this has been
Emma Eiden, An ESL Teacher Abroad