Whew Chile, let me tell you. It was a long day+. (I put the plus because technically it was more than 24 hours of travel, but it all felt grouped together, so we are going to say one day.) So, the supposed itinerary was supposed to be this:

Saturday 2/16/2019 ||| New York EST

• 5 am- Leave for the Airport
• 6 am- Arrive at the Airport, Check Bags, Say Goodbye
• 8:15 am- Board Flight for San Francisco
• 8:40 am- Depart for San Francisco
• 3 pm- Arrive in San Francisco
• 4:30 pm- Board Flight for Taiwan
• 5 pm- Depart for Taiwan

Sunday 2/17/2019 ||| New York EST

• 7 am- Arrive in Taiwan
• 7:30 am -Depart from Airport
• 7:45 am -Arrive at Hostel

Total Travel Time: 26 hrs 45 mins. Now this is what was SUPPOSED to happen. However, this is me that we are talking about so this is what actually happened:

Saturday 2/16/2019 ||| Eastern Standard Time & Pacific Standard Time

• 5:30 am (EST)- Supposedly leave for the Airport
• 5:35 am- Stop at CVS
• 6:05 am- Actually leave for the airport
• 7 am- Arrive at the Airport, Check Bags, Say Goodbye
• 8:15 am- Board Flight for San Francisco
• 8:40 am (EST)- Depart for San Francisco
• 12 pm (PST)- Arrive in San Francisco
• 3 pm- Board Flight for Taiwan
• 3:30 pm (PST)- Depart for Taiwan

Sunday 2/17/2019 ||| Taiwan Time

• 9 pm- Arrive in Taiwan
• 10 pm -Depart from Airport
• 10:30 pm -Arrive at Hostel

So, let me tell y’all what happened. My day never really began or ended. I’d left my home at like 1 am on Friday (the day before I left) to engage in my last day tomfoolery. I went to sleep and the next morning I got to see my Zeus one last time and hang out with some friends that I had not seen in a while before I left. I then went to a friends’ house to get my hair done. I wanted to get it braided before I left and 1. it took me forever to find someone who would do it for cheap 2. I want it to be as fresh as possible so it would last longer. My hair took ALL NIGHT. We didn’t finish until I want to say 1 am on Saturday. I then had to drive from there (Silver spring) to DC to grab some things. I drove back to my mother’s house where all of my luggage was. (at this point I am tired because I haven’t slept in 24+ hours but I thought that it would be good to not sleep before the plane so I could sleep a great deal when I was on the plane.)

I finished packing and cleaning my room around 5:15 and we were out the door by 5:30. Since I’d been busy on Friday, I didn’t have time to pick up a prescription that I needed while I was abroad, so we stopped at our CVS across the street to pick it up. There was only one pharmacist there and homegirl had an attitude that I really didn’t appreciate. I stood there arguing with her and calling my insurance for a half hour because they messed up the pricing even though I’d called them 2 days prior about it and they said it’s be fine. We couldn’t even talk to a representative at the insurance company because it was 5 am, they were updating the system and didn’t have access to any of the records. Just my like, huh? Anyways, we paid the ridiculous amount of money for my medicine because there really was no other choice and went on our way. At this point I was stressed out because I was tired, hungry, mad that CVS is full of bozos, and the fact that my mother insists that I will miss my flight if I do not arrive at the airport 3 hours before departure.

We finally left for the airport and said goodbye. Everything was smooth sailing at IAD, and I waited to board for about an hour. During this time, I checked my ridiculously heavy carry-on at the gate FOR FREE. (y’all know I love me some free anything) You can usually do this with any airline, just make sure that everything in this bag can pass through TSA. Even though you’re checking it, you’ve got to make it through security, to the gate first. When I sat down, I was talking to this lady sitting next to me who was complaining about how long the flight was, and I told her I had a 14 hr flight right after this one and she said, “Oh goodness, then I guess I better shut up.” We chuckled and made the occasional small talk until we boarded. It turns out she was sitting in my row, but she was in the aisle seat and I was in the window seat. I slept almost the entire flight, which was nice because I forgot to nab some om my mom’s melatonin pills.

When I arrived in San Francisco, I was on a QUEST. I was hungry as all get out and I wanted a burger. Not breakfast food, not a panini or assorted fruit. A good ole American burger and some fries. I’m usually not a burger person but I have acknowledged that it would not be likely that I’d have access to one in Taiwan so I that it what I was craving. Before I set out on my quest, I wanted to find my gate for the next flight and set my bag down. The international terminal was a way away so I’m glad I did that first. Once I found a spot where I didn’t think my bag was going to get stolen or picked up by Airport security on account of it being suspicious, I started looking. I literally explored the entire international terminal and went back to the domestic terminal where I got off of my first stop looking for a burger. I was in the airport so of course everything was expensive, but again, I am me, so I was going to get the cheapest on. I went to a restaurant and got in line for takeout even though my plane was definitely going to start boarding in like 20 minutes. They host that was there then told everyone in line that if they didn’t have at least 40 minutes to wait, they should probably go somewhere else. So that is what I did. By that time my plane was going to start boarding in 10 minutes, so I no longer had time for the oh so precious burger that I had desired. I gave up on that and just went to one of the faster places that just warmed up pre-heated food, and I was going to get mac n’ cheese. It looked pretty fancy. That is when I got a glorious text. My plane had been delayed by 30 mins. Apparently, they couldn’t find a gate for it? Idk but I wasn’t mad. So then, I decided I had the time, a smooth 30 minutes before boarding began, and since I had a seat assignment already and overhead carry-on I could actually just show up at the end of boarding and be fine. So, I went to Gordon Biersch, which was less busy and similarly priced to buy my $18 burger.

When I bought the burger I also bought and orange as well as a Mighty Mango NAKED smoothie for the plane ride. I sat down at the bar to wait and this strange man comes to sit next to me. I forget his name so we’re going to call him Gary because he looks like he could be a Gary. Gary has on what looks to be very similar to a surgical cap, but I have watched enough Grey’s anatomy to know the difference. He orders some sort of alcoholic beverage and kind of just looks around for a while. Eventually the bartender asks him what he wants, and he says he doesn’t know- mind you they gave him the menu 5 mins ago and he hadn’t bothered to look at it. Exactly 15 secs later he stops he and says he does know. He wants mac n’ cheese. The bartender says it’s a kids’ size, is that ok? He proceeds to say that he wants 2 of them since they are small. I chuckle. This full-grown man in regular clothes wearing a phony surgical cap orders 2 mac n’ cheeses for like $8 each which are probably going to be fake cheese (since it’s for kids) 15 seconds after he told the bartender he didn’t know what he wanted. He then acknowledges my chuckle and we get to talking. Rather, he gets to talking. While still waiting for my burger, he tells me that he’s wearing the cap because he’s just had surgery. Apparently, he had started balding in his early 20’s (he was like 28-32 or something like that) and he’d always been self-conscious about it. He now had a stable job, so he flew to Florida to get hair surgery and was on his way back home. He asked me if I wanted to see his head, and I said “No, it’s all right” but he showed me anyway. He also told me how he was lowkey heartbroken because he was going through a “mild breakup.” This girl that he had only been on 2 dates with had apparently been stringing him along, but just told him that their “relations” (this is a PG blog so I’m paraphrasing his words) weren’t good so she thinks they should just be friends. He was upset because there was potential, but when they tried to have “relations” he had too much to drink which resulted in a lack of “relations.” After all of this and of course some other unsolicited information about his life my burger came out. I wished him good luck and hit the mom walk to get to my gate. Yes. Yes, he was.

As I was entering the international terminal, I looked at the schedule board to find out that my plane had been delayed another half hour for a total for one hour. So, I finished my walk to the gate with a leisurely pace and find a good place to plop down until it was time to board. Right as everyone was lining up, the flight got delayed another half hour. The people line up were pretty upset but I was glad to have time to eat my burger without being cramped or rushed, walk around before this long flight, and be able to call my loved ones to update them on my status. I finished my burger and finally boarded my flight after 1.5 hours in delays.

I had another window seat, and there was a Taiwanese girl next to me and somewhat of a redneck but very friendly man in our aisle seat. I was excited for this flight because I remembered from my flight to/from China that long flights such as this one that I was on have AMAZING movies and TV shows. It’s all the new stuff, which is exciting because I have not ventured outside of Netflix in a long time. However, as soon as I sat down, I realized that I did not have a single pair of headphones that was compatible with the TV. I brought 3 pairs, but 2 of them were Bluetooth and my only pair with wires was for my newer iPhone and I didn’t have the adapter. So, I had to use United’s crappy earphones and could barely even hear what was being said in the movie. I watched Crazy Rich Asians. Thank goodness for subtitles and I can’t wait to visit Singapore. This flight was 14 hrs long so I slept a lot, I worked on some blog posts, I watched that movie, and I was also working on a research proposal for a grant that I applied for. They gave us some weird crackers for snacks and drinks like any other flight. We were also given meals, I had chicken with veggies. It didn’t taste awful, but my stomach was definitely in pain when I got off the flight.

When I did get off the flight, I had to go through customs, which took a while. They didn’t rescreen my bag which was nice but just waiting in line to get my fingerprints scanned and my passport stamped felt like a lifetime. When I got through customs, I had to exchange money. That line wasn’t too long. I was please to find out the 30-1 exchange rate. When I finished exchanging, I headed to the baggage claims and all three of my bags were already on the belt. I grabbed them and headed toward the exit. I first went to the information help desk to find out the best way to get to my hostel my bus. (Again, I am cheap.) The lady and I were talking for like 10 mins. After she told me everything I needed to do, I realized that I had way too much stuff to get on the bus, so I just decided to take the L and grab a taxi. I went to my hostel confirmation email where I then saw that apparently the latest time for me to check in was 8 pm. (it was 10) After that my reservation would be cancelled and I wouldn’t get a refund. Before I started to freak out, I just decided to call hoping to goodness that someone would answer. Someone did answer! Instead he offered to pick me up for a similar price to the taxi, so I agreed and waited about 10 mins for him to get to the airport.

His name was Rex. I don’t know if he owned or just managed the hostel, but he was super friendly and cracked so many jokes. He brought me to a convenience store and helped me to pick some snacks before we made our way to the hostel. He told me they usually wouldn’t have answered the phone, but since my program coordinator, April, had called to notify them of the car that was picking me up in the morning, they knew that I was probably still coming. Wow, thank goodness for April! Anyways I arrived at the hostel, ate my Taiwanese version of Ramen/ talked with the Korean boys that were in the common area, took a shower, and headed to bed. I didn’t actually sleep that much, because, ya know, jet lag but I did some more work and called my favorite people around 7 am because it’d be 6 pm at home and everyone would at home would still be awake without it being an outrageous time for a phone call here in Taiwan. At 10 am, the car April had sent arrived, and I had a terrible stomach ache still (I was also getting over being sick) so I was a little car sick, but I got to NCCU, and my first day started, but that’s a whole other story.

Sorry this took so long to get up, but thanks for tuning in folks. My next post: My first day will be coming soon!