Taiwan

One of the highlights of my year was my trip to Taiwan at the end of September. I qualified for this all-expense paid trip by reaching placement goals with AYUSA. It was a fabulous experience!

I flew alone to San Francisco where I met up with the other 18 AYUSA staff members that were going on the trip. Our flight left at 1:30 a.m., which was nice because we slept a lot of the flight, making the 11.5 hours go by more quickly. We arrived in Taipei at 4:30 a.m. and loaded onto the bus to head to Taiwan's AYUSA office. Our host families greeted us there and took us home for a few hours before our crazy schedule began.

My host family had two childen: a 10-year old daughter and a 17-year old son who was an exchange student to Florida last year. He was the only one that spoke English, so when he wasn't around communication was difficult. The family was warm and friendly and did everything they could to make me feel comfortable. From what I understand, many Taiwanese people use beds, but this family did not. Here is my room:

AYUSA Taiwan packed each day full of activities, so we really didn't spend much time with our host families. We got to see many great cultural sights, and experience so much that I'd have to write a book to tell you about all of them. Here's a couple of my favorite highlights.

We visited a prestigious private school, where we were treated like royalty. They applauded us as we got off the bus and walked inside the school. Then three students were assigned to each staff person and gave us a tour of their school. Here's me with my wonderful tour guides.
One evening, they took us to a special district of Taipei that is famous for its foot massages. Each staff member got a 45-minute foot massage, which was the most wonderful thing since sliced bread. The place was set up like a salon, with enough beautician-style chairs to seat about 30 people. First, we soaked our feet in hot water, then the professionals took over and massaged them until we purred. It was truly fabulous!

We were served authentic food for every meal, so there were many firsts for me and a few "no thank you's". I particularly had a hard time with jellyfish and sea cucumber. In the middle of one of our sightseeing days our leaders got us McDonald's for lunch. I had a Rice Burger...which was the same as the regular McDonald's sandwich except that the "bun" was rice grilled into the shape of a patty! Different, but very good!

For some reason, I am unable to upload any more pictures, so I'll try again later.