Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't had the chance to update my blog sooner but it's been a busy couple of days.
So our flight thankfully took off on time Tuesday afternoon. The flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo took roughly 12 hours, and our route took us up over Canada and Alaska. That was an incredibly long flight, but at least we had free movies to watch to help make the time go faster. I was glad that someone was willing to trade my aisle seat for their window seat. The couple next to me was on their way home to the Philippines. It was awesome being able to look out the window and see everything, especially flying into Tokyo at night! It felt like they were constantly feeding us on the plane though.... I got really full! We got a snack of pretzels, followed by beef stroganoff (or chicken teriyaki) which was accompanied by a roll, salad, shrimp and dessert. A little ways into the flight they came around with another snack which was a turkey and swiss sandwich with a banana and Milano cookies. Before we landed we were given another meal of chicken fried rice with a roll, fruit, orange juice and a hersheys bar. For being airplane food, it really was quite good.
When we arrived in Tokyo we had to try to hurry through security to be able to make our next flight since we had about an hour layover. However due to the amount of time it took us to get through security our next flight was boarding when we finally got through. There were quite a few people to board so luckily we had just enough time for a bathroom break, and what an experience that was! Because there was a line in the ladies room you had to take whatever toilet was available next.... and my luck was to get the squatter toilet (aka a porcelain hole in the ground). It was quite an adventure but I made it! We made our flight just in time. The flight from Tokyo to Taipei lasted about 4 hours and they fed us on this flight as well. We were given some sort of rice with chicken and vegetables in some sort of white sauce, along with a roll, salad, and some sort of desert. Because I wasn't very hungry I didn't really eat much of this meal. After we landed in Taipei we had to wait a bit to go through immigration, but luckily that all went smoothly.
Getting to our hotel was a whole other sort of adventure. After we collected our luggage we caught a bus to downtown Taipei, and then got on taxis to travel the rest of the distance to our hotel. Man are people crazy drivers over here!! By time we got to the hotel it was midnight (we landed at 9) and by time we got settled in and finally made it to bed it was about 2am.
After a very short nights sleep we arose and went to breakfast together as a group. There was an interesting mix of Chinese and American breakfast foods. I went for the traditional American breakfast of eggs, cereal, toast, and fruit. After breakfast we went out to learn the public transportation system, which is a very easy system to ride, even not knowing the language. Dr. Huang provided us with easy ride cards that work for the bus, subway, and a few other types of transportation. We took a bus to the subway station, and then took the subway what seemed like across town to Dr. Huang's fathers house. We met his younger brother who was kind enough to take care of getting track phones for us to use during our trip. We were also able to meet his father before we left for lunch with his brother. For lunch we went to a hot pot restaurant, which reminded me quite a bit of The Melting Pot, with the exception that everyone had their own broth and it was buffet style for picking out what you wanted to make. The bank for transferring currency was right across the road so following lunch we went to exchange the money we brought with. Taiwan currency does not deal in decimal places. The bills range in denominations of 100 and up, and coins are worth either 50, 10, or 1 new taiwan dollars. We all went back to the hotel to get some much needed rest.
Today we hit the ground running. We started our day off with a visit to the Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology to collect zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish are our model organism we work with in research, and many of the tests performed require the use of the embryos to observe results. Our hotel is on the Academia Sinica campus which is the research institution where the research we work on in Taipei will be performed. Our first "test" was after we finished collecting the embryos. We had to successfully navigate the public transportation system without Dr. Huang or his family's help, and get us from campus to the Taipei 101 building, which is one of the tallest in the world. We made it without getting lost, which seemed like a small miracle in itself. We were originally going to get lunch in the food cor of the mall part of the building, however it was so packed we walked across the street to find food. I would have loved to have had the chance to do some shopping, however I couldn't afford to walk into any of the store there, which are all pretty much designer stores.
Following lunch we went to the 89th floor of the Taipei 101 building to see the surroundings. It was such an incredible experience to be able to look out and see for miles. We also went up a floor to the observation deck. The elevator up to the 89th floor is the fastest in the world. It was interesting taking pictures at the building because random people kept snapping pictures of our group as we posed for so, e group photos. Also while we were waiting in line to take the elevator back down, so, e gentlemen in line next to us asked to take their picture with Courtney, or myself. It seemed rude to say no and they were so excited. Since whites are a minority over here, to them having their pictures taken with us seemed like having your picture taken with a celebrity. When we finished there, we went with Dr. Huang to his dental appointment. While he got his teeth cleaned we went to see a temple, which was an incredibly beautiful building from the outside. We walked back to meet up with Dr. Huang and headed back to the hotel.
I am exhausted so I think I am going to end this post here and go to bed. I am hoping to post pictures tomorrow, along with a post of our days activities. Enjoy your day and thanks for reading along!
New foods tried: oyster, squid, seaweed/rice/salmón triangle thingy (no idea what it was called)
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