The Taiwanderer

Well I made it!

I'm in Taiwan.

Emphasis on I'M. IN. TAIWAN.

I know, right?

What on EARTH is Craig Shipley doing in Taiwan!?

That one guy whose very own mission call was to a neighboring, touching, practically over-lapping state (Arizona) of his very own (California) he's been to every summer since 1996.

Surely he's not serious about being on the other side of the planet?!

Well, surprisingly, it's true.

And I'm teaching English to little Chinese speaking kids in an English teaching school.

So on February 13th, my parents dropped me off at the San Francisco Airport for a midnight flight. And I was on my way to the unknown.

First off, I must give a shout-out to my friend Emily for coming up with the creative title of this blog. I thought for weeks what I should name it and finally, day of departure, she texts me "Life As A Taiwanderer." Brilliant.

These are my personal accounts.

Let us begin.

The flight here was 14 hours. Yikes. It was a rather long time trapped inside a tiny vessel. I slept on and off but only about 3 hours tops.

My friend, Kristi, who will be making frequent appearances here came along with me. She's the younger sister of one of my best friends from college, Katie. Long story short, I invited Katie to come with me to Taiwan. She couldn't, but suggested it to her sister who applied and got the job. I know Kristi pretty well from college too.

This is us after just landing in Taiwan at 6 am on February the 15th. Granted, it was 2 pm in the afternoon at home on February the 14th. And with three hours of sleep (only a 1/2 hour for her), we were exhausted and just wanted to crash. But couldn't.

We got picked up by the school we're working at. We were driven by a guy who spoke no english (which at the time was perfect because I was so exhausted that I didn't want

to talk to anybody). The drive was foggy and rainy the whole way. I got a headache from lack of sleep on this car ride that would last the rest of the day. It took about 90 minutes to get to our apartment. (I'll share more on my apartment/roommate situation in the next post)...but for now here is the view from my 4th floor balcony:

They let us rest for about half an hour in our rooms and then picked us back up to take us to the school. It's only about a 5 minute walk to the school, and a 30 second drive. Very close. (Two posts from now I'll do a whole post on the school).

But we met the owners, Monica and Lucy. They speak fluent English (thankfully) and seem really nice. We spoke with them for a 1/2 hour just about contract stuff and then they said I would be with the 6 year olds for the following semester. I'm happy about this. Right then I got to go see my classroom and meet my kids (who were in another classroom for a "winter camp" session). I got to help out and introduce myself to the students for about half an hour. I'm officially "Mister Craig". It was very eye-opening finally putting face to the teaching situation. They're already really smart kids so this will be a piece of rice cake. Hopefully.

But truthfully during all of this contract hoopla and meeting my kids, all I really wanted to do was be in bed. I was beyond tired and had a massive headache from no sleep (I don't sleep well on planes). And truthfully the first day was just so overwhelming.

But we obviously needed to go shopping for a few things. So they took us to the "R.T. Mart" which is equivalent to a Target or Wal-Mart. It was nice knowing we weren't far from a normal shopping situation. It was also my first experience using Taiwan money! (a future post on money will happen). But I've already gotten used to it and it isn't that difficult to figure out.

So after all this they knew we were practically American-looking zombies who just needed

sleep. So we got back to our apartment around 1 pm. I was so high on adrenaline and anxiousness of being in a new place/land/time zone/building/bed that it took a while to calm my mind down. But I knew once I got sleep and had the opportunity to relax that everything would work out and the overwhelmingness would go away.

And it worked! I slept from 3:30 pm to 4:45 am the next morning. Best sleep ever. I woke up refreshed and feeling great and excited. Headache gone. Also it down-poured the entire night, which I love.

So my first observations of Taiwan are:

• It really doesn't seem THAT different from things I've seen in America (maybe I'm blind it all at the moment? not sure...and truthfully I haven't seen that much yet). Obviously everything is in Chinese symbols, but the English letters are usually right beneath the Chinese ones.

• Everyone is extremely polite. People can tell we're foreigners and try to help however they can.

• A lot of people speak English just because they were taught as kids growing up and so forth.

• I'll be offered lots of coffee and tea while being here, of which I don't drink.

• It's actually pretty chilly here during the winter. They don't have air conditioning though so the airport right when we landed was very warm and humid. But once we were outside it was crisp and cold. I haven't seen the sun once yet (only been here two days though). It's been cold and rainy and very windy. My favorite weather! But I've been warned of the hellish summer ahead.

So that was my first day here. I'll be honest and say that I'm glad the first day is over. As I get more in the routine of things and in the groove it will get a lot easier and more home-like.

I look forward to experiences ahead.

Nowhere to go but up from here.

More to come.