first day

good morning everyone! i made it but not without battle scars.

long story short, my first flight out of houston was delayed by 2 hours leaving me with about an hour and a half to make my connection in lax. my flight arrived at terminal 6 where i had to claim my checked luggage and bring it down half a mile to the international terminal to check in again. trying to run while dragging around half my weight in luggage seems to have strained a muscle in my rib. it has become painful enough that it hurts to take deep breaths and cough.

fearing i had a fractured rib, i went to the emergency room last night where the doctor took his finger and pushed it into different places on my chest, apparently to see if he could exercise my tear ducts. he couldn't, but it hurt like hell. x-rays revealed that my ribs are not fractured, so i'm taking muscle relaxers to help with the stiffness.

so enough drama. i landed on time in taipei. although we flew through the night, sunrise caught up with us as we were descending into taipei. it was a beautiful sight seeing the mountains shrouded in clouds, brilliantly lit from behind us.

i changed some money, got onto the shuttle bus that would take me to my hostel, and an hour later, i got off in downtown taipei. my hostel is on the 8th floor of a building just off songjiang rd. (i think). i came in and met diana, the hostel manager. apparently the single room i reserved was given away to female travelers who were coming from the affected areas of the recent typhoon. instead, i'm staying in a dorm room with two other neighbors: nevada and tony. nevada is from arizona. tony is from hong kong.

i woke up this morning freezing. i think i'm fighting a chest cold from last weekend, so i'm a little miserable from coughing and then doubling over because of the pain in my ribs. laughing hurts a lot too, hahaha, owowow. still, i'm here.

i got an id from the national immigration agency. then i opened a bank account. i had lunch in the basement of sogo fuxing. then i met i-shuan for dinner, but only after missing our original meeting due to my impatience and my lack of a working phone. well, at least my phone works now. i would have thought my ordeal in arriving here would teach me some patience, but i think there are plenty more masters here to teach me.

today is an open day. time to take a whole bunch of pictures and be touristy.