Quick Update from Taiwan

Hello! Sorry its been so long between posts. Life has been crazy - though I only seem to post when things are really out of control crazy, so perhaps things just haven't been busy enough. Next week is midterm week at our school, so last week I was preparing students for their midterms (and writing their midterms a week in advance so I would know what to teach them about). Along with this, I was also planning my slideshow presentation for a conference in Taiwan.

Sometime late last year I was trying to get my old thesis research accepted to a journal, and since I was elbow deep in all the literature again, I decided to submit the research to a conference at the same time. I was accepted to present at a conference in Taichung, Taiwan. Unfortunately, things have been so hectic at work, that I waited until the last minute to put my presentation together. Of course, I know the material well, but it still required quite a bit of time to make all the slides and practice. I also had never been to Taiwan before, didn't know how to get from Taipei (where I was flying in) to Taichung (where the conference was going to be) and didn't speak Chinese. My impression was that the Taiwanese people were generous about switching to English or Japanese when they were able and that I would be able to get by.

Even so, I was really getting nervous. The night before I left I was frantically digging on the internet for information about currency values, venue addresses in Chinese (so I could show a taxi driver)routes from the airport to my hotel in Taichung... there was a lot to figure out and I was imagining myself lost in the middle of Taiwan, getting my purse snatched and being utterly alone. No one was waiting for me, no one would know how to contact me. I decided to approach the trip the same way I approached Spain (my first solo trip abroad). Just keep accomplishing the next step.

1. Wake up on time - check
2. Get to the airport bus - check
3. Check in to your flight - check
4. Get through immigration - check
5. Get on the airplane - check
6. Get through Taiwan immigration - check
7. Follow signs to the shuttle bus that goes to the high speed rail - check

And here the powers that be decided to step in and help me out. While I was on the shuttle, a woman leaned over to me and said, "Hey, are you going to the conferece? The one in Taichung?" Why yes, I was! We started talking and it turned out that she is also teaching English in Kobe. Her parents are (I believe) Taiwanese, but she grew up in New York City and married a Japanese man. She is fluent in Chinese, English and Japanese and will be met at the train station by her good friend and fellow presenter who has a car and will take her to her hotel. (Her hotel is different than mine, but on the same side of the city). She'll ask her friend if I can come too. Seriously. So I tag along.

We talk the whole way, and by the time we get to Taiwain, I feel like I had always planned to meet up with her and we've known each other a long time. We meet her friend, who is incredibly gracious and doesn't bat an eye at picking up a stray. They decide it would be better to go get lunch together and then go to the conference to check in before going to our hotels. This works out better than I could ever have hoped - I hadn't figure out eating or registering for the conference yet. We went to a restaurant that specialized in Taiwanese food for lunch (delicious), chatted the whole time, had a special Taiwanese dessert I will post more about later, and then went to register for the conference.

While there, the lady that had picked us up from the station ran into another visiting professor (this one from Nebraska) and started talking. I introduced myself, and it so happened she was staying at the same hotel. In fact, she was on her way to the hotel now, so we could share a taxi. I went and got my things, said a temporary goodbye to my first two guardians and headed out with a new guardian and her friend, who she had just met a week earlier in Taipei. We stopped at the friend's hotel for coffee and then headed on to our hotel. I checked in (the room was lovely) and at 5:30 - met back up with my new friend and her family to go to the welcome banquet.

I'll write more about the banquet soon, but for now, my mind is just blown at how completely I have been taken care of in spite of not knowing anyone or anything about this weekend or what it would be. I was hoping that I would meet people I could hang out with once I got to the conference, but this is so far beyond what I had imagined. I am very appreciative to everyone I have met so far.