My 10-hour layover in Taiwan

So this is a few days late, but on the way to Singapore, I stopped in Taipei for a 10-hour layover. I was on the same flight as Jonathan Saethang because he was in San Fran visiting his older brother. We met up with my uncles and grandparents, whom I haven't seen in about 6 years! This is me with my grandparents on my mom's side and my uncle.



They took us to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and showed us around there a bit. Its basically a few really big and traditional looking buildings, with a small museum exhibiting highlights of Shek's life serving as Taiwan's President. We also drove by the President's house on the way to the Memorial.

This is the President's house. Not bad for a photo taken out of the car window, eh?



And here are pictures from the Memorial.









This is me with my other uncle, mom's older brother, and my grandfather.



This is the view from on top of all those white steps.



In Taiwan, they all ride little scooters (like the VIP scooters that the football players ride on campus) and they weave in and out of traffic like crazy. Its quite scary. Here is some guy who had a three wheeled scooter that I just thought looked a little ridiculous.

Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Singapore!

Here is where my journey to Asia for the summer begins... I'm leaving home in a bit to head off to the airport for my flight across the Pacific ocean to Singapore! I am flying with just one other student from my study abroad trip, Jonathan Saethang. He has been visiting his brother here in SF, otherwise he would be flying out of Atlanta with the group. I'm pretty excited about this flight, except that its a red eye and a huge plane that will probably be packed with asian people. At least I've heard that they serve ramen noodles with chopsticks on the plane, which will be fun. I love ramen, even though its so cheaply made and the sodium overload is really bad for you. My favorite flavor of ramen is "oriental", though I have no idea what oriental is supposed to taste like haha.

We are flying through Taipei, Taiwan where we have a 10 hour layover. My mother's family lives about 2 hours away from Taipei and my uncle is going to pick us up at the airport and take us to see the city a bit, then have lunch with my family. I hope thats not too awkward for Jonathan but I haven't seen these uncles and grandparents in over 5 years, so I definitely want to take this opportunity to meet up with them even if its only for a few hours.

We are then flying from Taiwan to Singapore, where I'll have to go through customs and explain why I accidentally typed my passport number incorrectly on their student immigration form, oops.

So my next post will be when I arrive and figure out internet in my dorm room in Singapore, hopefully I can get some pictures up too!