The Flight, The Sights, The fun.

Day 1:

Broadcasting loud and clear from Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Leaving from DFW airport we flew 3 hours to LAX, a short flight compared to the transferring flight to Taiwan. 15 Hours. This wouldbe my first international flight. I sat next to a man named Jack.

Now to understand this story you have to try and visualize what Jack looks like. The man is unkempt, unshaven, and wearing and un-matching leisure suit from the 1980's, solid blue smoke saturated jacket, with what looked like black and white tweed pants, pleated of course. Jack appears to have been drinking since early that morning, and reeked of booze. After taking our seats on the 747, Jack began to make, through slurred words, small conversation. He first said that he hated sitting on the inside aisle, and I apologized for this, as if it was my fault. A baby began to cry a few seats ahead of us, and he began to mutter under his breath something expletive about how he hated crying children. I tried to be engaged in the conversation, however difficult. He asked where I was flying and I explained the class trip I was on saying, "I'm studying abroad". new acquaintance. He answered he was going to Bangkok, his monthly trip. When I asked why, he replied, "I'm studying a broad, or two". What a first class skeez. In my astonishment to the fact that this man was talking openly about his personal life like this, I tried to change the subject by commenting on how long this trip would be. He agree but then assured me that he could manage because he had taken some "intense uppers and downers" before he got on the plane. This man was blowing my mind. He had now drunkenly told me that he had popped pills on his flight to Bangkok for cheap hookers. Soon after that he passed out breathing the smell of Crown Royal towards me. 14 hours, 5 or 6 in flight movies, 2 in flight meals, and a couple of hours of sleep later we started our decent into taipei. Jack and I had flown 7000 miles with each other and as time progressed he stared acting more and more strange. He started to have the shakes really bad. Like debilitatingly bad. He asked for a cup of water, and when it was put into his hands spilled it on himself from the shakes. I asked if he needed anything and he stiffly answered, "a drink". When we landed, I departed fromJack and wished him the best of luck. Welcome to Taiwan Riley.

We hopped on the tour bus and met our tour guide named Allen. He was entertaining, and gave us useful maps, and made small conversation with the group until we arrived at the Jintan Overseas Youth Activity Center. It functions as a hostel of sorts. Kinda like and overseas form of YMCA. The rooms were nice, the beds were inviting and I was beat.

I left Dallas at 9:30am on January 5th. I arrived in Taiwan at 10:30pm the next day. 37 hours? Jet lag was about to destroy my sleep cycle.

Here's a view from my room at the Jiantan Center.

In the distance, the tall building is the Taipei 101...the second tallest building in the world.