Taiwan Day 1

Monday May 11th

Officially it is day one of our study abroad curriculum. Jo and Annabelle are staying with her family during our time in Taiwan. The agenda for the day is to visit National Tapei University (NTPU) in Sansia which is their main campus. We will visit their other campus tomorrow in Tapei City. The school has over 10,000 students. In the afternoon, we will visit Hsinchu Science Park to see one of the most important areas in Taiwan’s high tech industry. The day will end with a welcome dinner from our hosts at NTPU. The day started out with breakfast at 7 Eleven as we had to grab something quick and eat on the bus. Now the 7 Eleven’s are a little different than the ones in the U.S. They offer more than just slurpees, big gulps, and snacks. They seem very popular and are everywhere and offer a simple breakfast. First stop NTPU. Our hosts at NTPU prepared some interesting cultural activities as well as a class lecture on inventory management of Taiwan’s electronic industry. We first learned some karate (self defense) and calligraphy. Next, the lecture gave us a look into Taiwan’s strength in the electronics industry. The thing that really struck me was the depth and extent of their electronics industry. People always think of Japan when talking high tech but Taiwan is the number one supplier of motherboards, notebooks, LCD monitors, routers, and much more in the world. I doubt most people would know that. Next stop Hsinchu. We were given an introduction and history of how the park started from a small farming village but the Taiwan government saw the potential of the high tech industry and transformed the area to a launch pad for Taiwan’s electronics industry. It was no accident they have become such a leader in electronics today. Then it was dinner with our hosts from NTPU and after I finally had a chance to see Jo and Annabelle before heading back to the Taipei Teacher Hostel to sleep. No chance to rest but I learned so much about Taiwan.

Travel Recap

Sunday, May 10th

What a day! Actually it was more than a day. We just spent 25 hours traveling from Detroit to Taiwan and I would not recommend that experience. It was especially tiring traveling with a 15 month old baby. Annabelle was a good baby but the leg from Chicago to Tokyo really tested your endurance. We were all tired and Jo and I could see how tired Annabelle was but she couldn’t sleep. It was almost 2:00am Michigan time when we started our decent to land in Tokyo and Annabelle started crying and was completely inconsolable. All we could do was hold and rock her until we landed. It’s amazing how resilient baby’s are because an hour later, she was playing in the airport like nothing had happened. The rest of the trip to Taiwan was much smoother and there are advantages to having a baby. We were escorted to a special line at customs and made it through in 10 minutes. Now the trip can really start.

Preparations

Traveling with a 15 month old baby on a long international trip will present many challenges, I'm sure. So needless to say, my wife (Jo) and I have been busy preparing. I was surprised at how much time we spent trying to buy a good portable stroller for the trip. Jo did tons of research and asked many friends but the decision wasn't easy. It had to be light and portable but also offer enough comfort for a baby to be able to sleep if necessary. So, an umbrella stroller wasn't possible. Finally, after a month or more, we had narrowed the choice between two models. Each had features we liked better than the other. We finally made the decision. Yea. The funniest thing was it took us another 20 minutes to decide what color to get after that. (If you really want to know the model we picked, email me).