The Big Trip

Well it all started when my mom and dad dropped me have at the Charlotte airport at 3:30pm Thursday September 4th 2008. My plane flight was not until 5:45pm, but it is always a good thing to get there early. It did not take long to check my bags and get through the security check so I had plenty of time to just sit back and get a classic Whiskey Sour and begin reading my book "The Deception Point" by Dan Brown. I only got through about 20 pages and felt I would save the rest for the planes since I had three to catch.

After listening to an hour of music it was finally about time to board the plane. As I was seated in 13A and ready for the 40min flight to ATL the pilot chimes in and says the door is having trouble closing, but we should be ready for take off shortly. After 20mins of a stand still I hear a man behind me say "hell just leave the door open" lol it was funny with the tone he said it in as it reminded me of Ron Whites skit on blue collar comedy tour.

We were in the air and back down in no time. I was eager to meet up with Clark and his sister Cheri who is a Delta pilot. She came along to ATL just to be with her little brother a couple hours more. While walking out of the terminal I see a sign with LOGAN REITTINGER and a pretty girl holding it. Clarks sister really broke the ice with her small token of friendship. We only had 40min until our next flight to LA which snuck up pretty quick. Clark and I said our goodbyes to his sis and boarded the plane as she was going to catch the next flight back to Raliegh.

Clark and I had seats next to one another for the 4 hour flight to LA. We were near the front and one of the last ones to get on and had no place for our bags, but our laps/feet. For the full 4 hour flight, my knees did not bend or move in any way which caused a pretty big cramp. We ended up buying a movie on the flight for $6 and watched The Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The movie was pretty good and the rest of the flight we just listened to our I-pods and tried to stay awake so we could sleep as much as possible on our LA to Taipei flight which was 13 extremely long hours.

Once we got to LA we were both starving and had to pee like a race horse since it was too crowded to get up on the plane. We decided to eat at the California Pizza place where I ordered a hawian pizza and Clark a pepperoni with a bud light which really surprised me. We had a 3 1/2 hour lay over. It was very long and boring and I could only joke about our 13hr flight ahead of us. While we waited, Clark watched some cartoon movies on his lap top and I just sat in a seat near the terminal where I met a man in the Airforce about to leave for South Korea for a year. He was married, had 3 kids, worked on F-15 fighter jets, and was leaving his family for a year since he was not ranked high enough to be allowed to bring his family. I would have never guessed him to be in his mid 30's, but he was a nice guy and I wished him well as his plane boarded before mine.

We finally boarded the dreadful flight from LA to Taipei. Clark changed his seating for an exit spot where he had an abundance of leg room where I saw a few cute girls and gammbled on getting a seat beside one of them. In short I was one of the last ones on and was sitting beside an 80yr old man who spoke zero English. The only good thing was we did not have someone between us so I didnt have to squeeze my arms in. I started watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall when the movie went off and I tried to figure out with the remote how to get it back on when I was quickly stopped by a steward who told me I kept hitting the call button on and off for a couple minutes. He eventually had to reset the computer which took 15 or 20 minutes and I happened to fall asleep. It scared the death out of me to see a stranger tapping on my shoulder when I thought it was the creepy old man, but the steward told me the movie was ready just as I lost all interest and was falling into a deep sleep. After I finished the movie I dosed off and was awoken again I think an hour or 2 later for dinner. I had the chicken and rice with pasta salad bowl and a coke. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but my appetite was just not there to finish it all. After the meal I watched What happens in Vegas with Ashton Coucher and Cameron Diaz. It was a good movie with kind of a chick flick hint on it, but overall it was funny and free unlike the ATL to LA flight. I took another nap, listened to some music, and finally (after im not sure how many hours) got up to stretch a bit and use the bathroom. I only took one stretch break because I didn't want to wake old man rivers who seemed to sleep the whole time. He was so old and fragile I didnt want to make him move unless I really had to go which just happened to be the case. With about 3 hrs to go they fed us breakfast and I had eggs, sausage, and a hashbrown. The breakfast was actually really good and did not last long. The long trip finally ended with us flying into Taipei breaking between the clouds with the sun rising at our backs. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, but vanished as quickly as it came with the dark gray clouds/smog of Taipei.

We finally landed and had no problem getting through customs, but my happiness of being off the flight was switched to anger when I was left at the baggage claim missing my large bag with all my clothes. Luckily I keep my medicine, my other bag, and extremely important stuff in my carry on. Once I filled out the necessary paper work Clark and I set out to find Terminal one to catch our bus. After a lap or two around the airport we saw a sign with Skytran to terminal 1 and took the flight of stairs and boarded. Once we were in terminal one our next mission was to buy a bus ticket to the Taipei Main Station. The ticket only cost $125NT (1USD = 31.5 NC) so do the math and you get our price.

We finally get to the train station, but we are dropped off on the opposite side of where we were the last year for my Japan/Taiwan trip so we walked in the first door and just happened to come across the ticket center that was on the bottom floor. We seemed to make perfect timing because once we bought the bus ticket we only had to wait 5 min to leave and the same with the high speed rail. The whole time we are walking around the train station I am carrying one of Clarks big bags that the strap broke and weighed about 48lbs which gets heavy after walking around the whole station dodging people.

We get on the bullet train that goes around 264km/h which I think is about 153mph. We were the 2nd to last stop and the total trip was about 1 hr 30min. It was a fun ride, my eyes were heavy and I dosed off for about 25 mins. We got off the train and headed toward the free shuttle service bus to NCKU which ended up being another 25 min ride with stops and traffic.

We were a little confused about when to get off because the bus driver was only speaking mandarin, so we had to walk through the crowded bus all the way to the front and ask a couple times where the NCKU stop was, he only pointed around the corner and nodded. Well, we got off at the stop (which from looking out my bedroom window is around 6 blocks away) on the other side of campus. We had no clue where to go. So with all of our luggage except (my main big one) I walked into the NCKU medical center and asked for directions. The ladies at the information desk did not speak english, but an elderly taiwanese man walked up and asked if he could help. His english was good, but none of the ladies really knew where the IIM "Institute of International Management" was so they were able to get us into the campus, but still no one knew where the IIM office was. I just remembered I had an email in my pocket with the administrative office lady Silvias number where the old man was willing to make the call. We got in touch with Silvia and she did not even know how to get us to the right building, but she led us around to the other side of the campus where we rolled slowly until we found the building. Silvia came running outside and was very happy to see us. In the office we had two student volunteers to help us get into our dorms and get us settled in. Adam was a sophomore in undergrad and just came from baseball practice still wearing his uniform and Jennifer was a junior in undergrad and both of them spoke decent english, but we had to talk slow. Note that Adam and Jennifer are not there chinese names, but they go by these to make it easier for everyone.

I was extrememly tired and very sweaty from walking every where while carrying the 50lb bag of Clarks with my back pack on. Adam felt the need to walk as slow as he possibly could. We made it finally and I had to fill out all of the intro paper work, pay for two months rent up front and $500NT for an electric card to run our A/C and lights. We finally got to our room and I told Adam they had lost my bag at the airport and showed him the address I wrote down for them to send it to. He quickly asked around and found out it was the wrong address and that just put me from being extrememly tired to almost a nauseating feeling that I would never see my bag again. I still had the airport baggage claim # and Adam called and before they left he was able to correct the address and the bag was to be sent later in the day.

Jennifer and Adam took us to eat lunch around 2pm and I had not ate anything since 2am that morning from the plane ride. We went to a resturant around the corner called the Toffee Cafe where I ordered a deep fried pork chop with creamy noodle sauce. It was delicious and I can't wait to eat at all the other places around. After lunch they took us to a store on the side of the road that had a lil bit of everything like Wal-Mart. lol we were able to get our mattress pad which is really a thin piece of cloth with a little bit of coushin in it. It feels like I'm sleeping on a coffee table. I believe I will go buy another mattress pad for $650NT which is almost 20 US dollars or see if my mom can send out a lil twin size temperputic sleeping pad and vaccum seal it to make it smaller if thats at all possible. Anyways, we got the rest of our supplies such as, towels, pillow, TP, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and a blanket. We came back to the room and I let Jennifer and Adam look through the majority of my pictures I have on my cpu while Clark and I unpacked and set up our room.

Jennifer and Adam left and Clark and I just hung out messing with the internet and sending messages to all of our friends and family. We were extremely thirsty, so we walked across the street to the 7-11 and grabbed some drinks and some pringles along with an umbrella because a small rain storm came through. As we were walking back there was some lightning going on just as we looked over and saw a person swimming laps in the pool. I wanted to go yell at them to get out of the pool (just my lifeguard instincts) lol but I figured he would not have known what I was saying anyways to understand. We just spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the room listening to music and fell asleep by 9pm this time. It was a long, but adventurous first day and I look forward to keeping everyone updated. This will be the longest blog I'm sure, because it was the first day and I just couldn't stop typing.

Anyways, I love all of you and I'll be in touch.

Luv Always,

Logan Reittinger