First day craziness

Well I am finally here in Kaohsiung.  After what seemed like traveling for a week, even though it was only 26 hours I landed, got picked up and managed to make it to my apartment, which by the way was changed at the last minute.  I of course could not sleep, so I unpacked most of my things and watched one of the 5 channels I get in English before finally crashing.

I woke up this morning and got to skype with mom, dad and Syd which was wonderful.  I could not wait to hear their voices.  It made everything seem somewhat normal.  I then made my way up to my new school.  It was totally different than what I expected.  The whole campus it wide open with plants and water fixtures everywhere.  I loved it!  The middle of the campus is a track and soccer field and they are in the process of building a new cafeteria.  I met some of the people I work with, most of them were native to Taiwan, but there is one lady from North Carolina, Beth.  It was so nice to hear a southern drawl.  She is a retired teacher from the mountains, super nice and friendly as most people in North Carolina tend to be.

After taking my first cab ride by my self, and giving the cab driver the little slip of paper which says "please take me to ..." I made it back safely and decided to venture to the grocery store.  This store was in the basement of the mall I live beside.  Kinda crazy but they had everything I would want, I just had to look at the pictures on the packages because I could not read anything.  The mall was crazy though.  It is 2 times the size of any back home and is literally on the corner of the street I am on.  This could be trouble.  Now I am sitting here.  I have to say I am a little homesick, but I hope after tomorrow when I get to meet all the rest of the new hires that will get pushed aside for a little bit.

I would say so far this has been a pretty successful day.  I am overwhelmed but I know I will eventually get the hang of everything.  It is just really weird to be one of the only Americans in a city.  I know that is not really the case, I just have not seen a lot.  I will have to say everything is a lot nicer than I thought.  Especially my apartment.  Below are some of the pictures of the place.  It is two bedrooms so PLEASE come to Taiwan and visit!