Some Observations and Such

Since the last post not a whole lot has happened, except for a lot of hang out time with friends. About a day after the day that ended the last post, we got on a train to return to the other side of the island. We stayed in Jhongli for a day and hung out with some of our friends there and then made it back to Changhua, where we’ll be staying for most of the remainder of our time here.

I Woke Up to a Better View than You.

Rested and relaxed from a couple days in Jhongli, Eric, Levi, the family that leads the Jhongli Navs, and I woke up very early to catch our trains to Hualien on the east side of Taiwan. In between trains we had an hour or so to wait in the train station and actually ran into our friend, Peter, and some other guys in the Taipei Navigators as they were beginning a bike trip through the area. It also turned out that they would be staying in the same town that night. Talk about a chance meeting. After chatting a bit, we parted ways and my group continued on with the journey via the less physically exerting means of transportation.

Penghu? Peng-you!*

(*Sorry, lame wordplay)

Although it has been only a little over one week since I have arrived in Taiwan, it seems like twice that. Not in the way that it has gone slowly but because we have packed so much into one day that it seems like it had to have been so much more.

The trip started out with a drive to the Detroit airport at about 5:30 in the morning—less than 12 hours after I got home from Miami/Oxford. From there began a string of three straight flights: 1 hour from Detroit to Chicago, where I met my partner, Levi; about 12 hours from Chicago to Tokyo (the land, or at least the airport, of very sophisticated toilets); and then another 3.5 hours from Tokyo to Taiwan. This concluded with a couple hours’ drive to Changhua, where our leader, Eric, lives and where we stayed for the night (and where I got to ride my first scooter!). In the morning we left with the Changhua Navigators for the island of Penghu: another flight, only about 45 minutes.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hello from Taiwan!

Sorry I haven't written much--I know there have been a lot of people eagerly waiting; sitting all hours of the day at their computers, hitting refresh every minute in hopes that I have updated....

Well here it is.

And a second apology: sorry it's not much....

We've been really busy on the island of Penghu with an English/Christian camp for the kids here the past two days and I haven't had much of a chance to do a lot on my own--like go on the internet! I'll try to let you know more later when we're back on the main part of Taiwan (2 or 3 days) but for now I have to go to bed because I'm getting up in 3.5 hours to see the sunrise!