From Christopher - May 1

我們在台灣 (We are in Taiwan)! After a long but enjoyable flight we've completed our first day in Taiwan. This will without a doubt be a trip to remember. the entire flight (including layovers) took about 24.5 hours. The travel segment of our trip went pretty smoothly. I hadn't flown since the 90's, so the increased security checkpoints were quite a shocker to me. I always assumed people were joking when they said that the TSA makes you remove your shoes to go through security. Nope, it's true! JAN to LAX we flew on a smaller jet and a 757 (with a short lay over at IAH). The most interesting leg of the trip was the 14 hour non-stop flight from LAX to Taipei. China Airlines was my first native experience with Chinese culture and it was certainly a positive experience. I'd never been on board a 747 before. They're huge, and so smooth flying. China Airlines took great care of us. The food was great, and they managed to reduce a good bit of jet lag by timing the "day" and "night" inside the cabin well. We landed in Taipei at approximately 7:45pm (Taiwan Time) and after passing a 30 second customs checkpoint (Wow, that was easy!) we met up with John, a graduate student at Fu Jen University, and our primary contact during our stay. I feel I should take a moment to comment on how great his english is. His presence has made entering a foreign country very painless. After exchanging currencies (33TWD to 1USD), we traveled back to our hotel for our first night in Taiwan.