What an insane last couple of days it has been. Seriously, I'm very late on my blog. But in all fairness it is because I have been getting ready to go to Taiwan. Which (by the way) I am in right now. As of right now I am at the airport waiting for Dylan to pick me up. I had a miserable 2 hours of sleep on that god-forsaken 14 hour flight and I am HERE! But I can't just skip to the end I have to tell you what happened for me to get up to this point.
Last Sunday was my official going away party and I have to say it was pretty great. Kenny and Isaac came over to make Mojitos (because they can't make it through my front door any other way) and they were great. Quite a few showed up for the party - which was cool - and I put on a little slide show for them. At this point you may or may not be thinking, "Oh boy (sarcastically) what a party animal," and on any other ocation I would agree with you but this was an urgent matter. There were just too many people thinking I was going to Thailand instead of Taiwan.
Look at this map above. Just in case you were mistaken as well this is what Taiwan looks like on a map. This is it's location. It is by China (makes sense seeing as how I'm in Omaha Chinese). It is in no way shap or form Thailand. Thailand has Thai people, Taiwan has Chinese people. Now there is a reason I am being so serious about this whole thing. Imagine a conversation between two Witnesses, one of which does not recognize the difference between Taiwan and Thailand. 'So were did Mason Moore go off to?' 'I - I think it was Thailand.' 'Oh that's nice. Are there a lot of Chinese people that live down there?' 'I don't know for sure. Well, how about this I will check on Google.' 'So, what does it say?' 'It says that the majority are Thai.' 'Oh, so why is he going down there?' 'Not sure.' 'Isn't there a big prostitution problem in Thailand?' 'Let me check... Yep.' 'So, how long is he going to be down there?' 'Three to six months.' 'Huh.' 'Huh.' And that ladies and gentlemen is how false rumors get started. So please, now that you know the difference between Taiwan (that's were I'm at) and Thailand (not were I'm at) please correct those poor people who get the two of them mixed up. It's better for everyone that way but mostly for me.
Later in the week I was able to resurect the old band and jam for a bit on Thursday, did my old bible studies with Steve Clemens on Wednesday,on Saturday was the last day of service with me and the group. But also on Saturday (lord have mercy) was the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who. And boy did I have a blast.
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| 'Did someone call a Doctor?' 'Did someone call a Doctor?' |
That's right me and my little brother Remy totally Cos-Played as the 11th and 10th Doctors. It's even better when you show up to the party and you are the only ones who have come in costume.
Sunday was bitter sweet. I had my plane delayed so I got to spend a little extra time with my friends from the hall. But then I had to say good-bye and that was sad. However, not as sad as saying good-bye to my family. Remy gave me his sonic screwdriver and I just about cried like an infant. I sorrowfully departed from my family and headed out to Taiwan. A few amazing coincidences happened right away though. It turns out that (since I didn't have a scale to use at home) that my single travel bag was over weight by 4 pounds (that's 50 extra dollars). But I totally ran into an old work mate of mine and she totally waved the fee for me (SWEET). Then I got upstairs and found that my flight was now very delayed and I had a chance of not making my next flight. But I once again ran into more former work mates. I gave out hugs and planted mental suggestions to see that I would be taken care of (well I'm not perfect, don't look at me like that). I did get a pretty substantial set of meal vouchers for the rest of the flight. My flight left and I calculated that I would maybe have 5 minutes to get to my next terminal. So I said a prayer and geared up. I ran out at full speed and found out (thankfully) that my next terminal was only about 200 yards away. So with giant backpack and ukulele in hand I ran like my future depended on it. I did thankfully make it. So that flight was awesome. But nothing could have prepared me for the abysmal horror that was San Francisco to Taipei, Taiwan. Well to be fair the international airport wasn't that bad. I stumbled around pretty tired from the days events and found my way to China Air's check in.
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| Chinese Chinese everywhere and not enough time to preach. |
That was easy enough seeing as how all the employees spoke English. This was significant because it was a little taste of what it was going to be like in Taiwan (minus the employees that spoke English). Then I headed over to customs.
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| No sir what I said was 'your' the bomb. |
That also was easy enough. And to be honest after that I had a lot of free time to kill. My flight didn't leave until well past midnight so I had to entertain myself. I remembered the long list of food vouchers I had though and I set my mind of Hot Wings (and beer...).
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| (Wink) |
After that I just kind of vegged out at the terminal. I had a very interesting crowd to hang out with down there though. There was a gaggle (I want to use 'gaggle' as the measure word here but I think herd, swarm, and nightmare child also apply) of Buddhist Monks in wheelchairs. There were also (ironically) a lot of Thai, Taiwanese, Indian (the real Indian), of course Chinese, and like two other Americans. I just busted out my computer and played on my PS1 emulator to kill the time. It was kind of cute, though, that these two little Chinese two year old kept on trying to watch my computer screen as I was playing my games. But every time I would look around and smile at them they would run away and hide behind there mom's leg. So after all the time in the world had passed boarding commenced. Now if you remember the Buddhist monks I described before (the Nightmare Child) they got to go first. They seriously took an hour to board. No kidding. This Thai guy I was sitting next to was making fun of all of them much to my enjoyment and the terror of all the Taiwanese guys sitting around us.
But we did all eventually get on the plane, at midnight. I was on a really cool giant plane by the way. It was a double decker plane that majored in awesome size, movie screens in the back of seats, a number of games and movies to occupy yourself with. It however minored in things like room, comfort, and passengers that didn't smell like total BO. But no big deal, it was only a 14 hour flight (yes that was sarcasm).
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| In Monstro where I was sitting. |
I could try and tell you exactly what happened in that flight but the truth is it was like being in limbo. Not the limbo that had Leonardo Da Caprio and that crazy (but kind of hot) French girl in it. I mean the limbo that Catholics scare their kids with. But I did get to watch 'Now You See Me,' and 'Pacific Rim' (well most of it). I also saw 'The Wolverine' but lets stop talking about sad things, this is a blog for good things.
When I touched down in Taiwan I just about threw up. Not because of the excitement but because of the body odor. I'm being factitious, I really couldn't hold in my excitement.
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| Drat. |
I had to go through immigration still though. It was easy.
Then I just had to wait for Dylan to get me. For those pay a weird amount of attention to dates (freaks) you may have noticed a discrepancy in the dates. That is because I started this blog on Tuesday (Monday for you) and I am just finishing it now on Friday (again Thursday for you). Dylan didn't really take that long getting to me. And getting on to a public wifi in Taiwan, which involves navigating through terms of contracts writen in traditional Chinese characters, is really really hard to do (plus I had jet lag). However, we just got our own internet connection today so I finally am able to keep up on this blog. But I'm done defending myself from you people. Get off my back, you read 'my' blog so just deal with it. Anyway, who wants to hear about Taiwan?
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| Drinking? Us? No... |
The first cool thing I got to do was ride the superconductive bullet chain. See Quantum Mechanics is good for something (you dirty hippies). That was cool, very cool. Also here is what my first meal looked like.
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Noodles, a fried duck egg, and ketchup.
Yesssssssss... |
To be honest though besides service being awesome I haven't had any crazy adventures yet. I have seriously just gotten over my really bad jet lag. But I will end this entry with a bang. Lets take a tour of my new diggs.
When you first walk into the apartment you immediately notice that it may not be the cleanest place on earth but it certainly has charm.
Instead of walking right into the door lets go to the balcony straight ahead. from there we can see a pretty sweet view of my neighborhood. That Taiwan ladies and gentlemen. Every meal costs, seriously, anywhere from 1.50 to 3.00. It's pretty sweet, and awesome. Well now that we are on the subject of food I guess we can digress from the apartment to see a bit of the local cuisine. You don't mind right? Sorry can you repeat that? I still can't hear you. Oh that's right, your just a reader and have no say in what it is I do on 'my' blog.
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| Seriously good folks. I tell no lie. |
That is a spicy beef noodle soup. In the upper left hand side is the best eggplant I have ever had. Directly above the Beef Noddle Soup are delicious chicken strips. Above that is someone else's Wanton Soup. Way, way better than anything found in the states. Ok, I think that is enough for now. I'm getting hungry, back to the house.
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| Living/my room |
Leaving the balcony behind and going through the front door we enter the living room. This doubles as my room. I have a modest bed and a nice desk to work at. Actually, it's a pretty freaky paradox that you are looking at my computer, the very same computer I'm using to write this blog. Cool. Anyway, next!
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| Kitchen |
Turning right walking five steps and turning to your 10 o'clock is the kitchen. Yes, it's dirty. But all Chinese kitchens are. When we first got it it took Dylan and Harry a whole day to clean all the grease out. And after all that effort it now looks like this. We really don't use it though. It's actually cheaper just to eat out.
I ran out of room so to be continued...
