WE MADE IT.

The flight was SO LONG but at the same time enjoyable because Ms. Huang (my chinese teacher of 10th grade) and talked with each other and spent the 12 hours of the first flight discussing the many issues of interacting with the opposite sex, playing a version of American Airlines tetris (we had small personal movie and game screens on the back of the chairs in front of us) or watching sappy new releases such as "Leap Year" (which if I might add was absolutely terrible).

I had a huge toothache 3 hours before flying which was quite inconvenient given that elevation aggravates toothaches but all was fine. To compensate, however, I had to direct every slightly cold or sugary substance to the right side of my mouth.

We landed in Tokyo around 3:00 pm. After 16 hours of flying my teacher and I met up with her father and I was rushed, half asleep, to a dental clinic. You won't believe how wonderful the health care system is here. It seems to be for the convenience of the people and I found it wonderfully efficient. Much better then in America. I did not wait. I was immediately given an x-ray and within 5 minutes a quarter to 9:00 pm, I found myself in the middle of a small white office holding the hand of my chinese teacher and watching her father look on worriedly in the corner of the room.

Although it was merely a cavity, it certainly made for an interesting beginning.

We then traveled into the mountains. Ms. Huang's parents decided to settle outside of Taipei city and instead in the beautiful countryside which was utterly understandable given that it was well... BEAUTIFUL. There were small communities of farmers and various forms of wildlife foreign to me such as large beetles and deep red butterflies. The air was also refreshingly clean, different from the New York City air I've grown so used to.

After a very warm sleep and a stomach full of my teacher's mother's splendid scallion pancakes, the family and I ventured into the city of Taipei. They helped me relocate myself into the apartment Xena and I are currently renting. Xena hadn't arrived yet so I was on my own, which was so peculiar. It wasn't for long but being in another country, not entirely understanding the language, and being completely in control of your life is an interesting feeling.

The metro here is almost completely clean. I couldn't believe that it was possible but it does exist. In fact, you cannot eat or drink anything (even water) once you have made your way past the turn styles. The consequence is a perfectly grand fine. Naturally, after being explained the laws of Taiwanese transit, I absentmindedly removed my bottled water from my overly stuffed bag to steal a drink. Already within the train station and almost past the turn styles I received a stern but understanding look from the tall young man working behind the information booth.

Our apartment here is comfortable, roomy yet large enough to adequately accommodate two messy young women (well truthfully I can only speak for myself). So far everything is quite clean and in its designated place. The apartment is a studio yet also a penthouse. We have a beautiful balcony designed by the owner herself (technically our host though we are renting the apartment from her). She is a wonderful interior designer and her talent is clear by how beautiful our apartment's interior design has shown itself to be.

The neighborhood is wonderful! There are so great ways of obtaining good food! There are stands with the beloved scallion pancakes to stands with strange scary looking foods such as the necks and heads of a various animals. I should make a list of strange elements of this foreign cuisine that I have dared myself to try. So far the only particularly note worthy foods I have tried have been-

Stinky Tofu: Smells so terrible you don't want to bring your mouth close enough to try it. When you do however, and have captured the smell within your mouth, it tastes like any other piece of tofu consumed n the states.

Pig intestines: Now this I am a little ashamed of, but it was in front of me and I couldn't pass up the offer. Very squishy, however if you don't think about it I imagine it tastes very much like a chewier version of pig muscle.

The city smells like egypt- musty and full of motorcycle fuel but it's completely different at the same time

The architecture here is a combination of old and shabby with modern and grand, I like it.

First night in the apartment was an adventure. Even the few hours I spent alone were strange. I'm going to have to get used to it though since my partner in this adventure, Xena, will be leaving three weeks before I I do. I'm happy that she's here and we are getting alone really well but I must learn how to depend entirely on myself if I intend to continue my work here after the departure of my friend and roomy.

The second night also proved itself to be an adventure. After Xena arrived, Christina Huang (the host of our stay and the owner of the penthouse apartment that we are renting) came upstairs from her own apartment and showed us the high tech security system that she set up here. When she left I showed Xena a few things about the apartment and we decided to go downstairs for dinner. We got ourselves dressed and left to try the outermost door of our apartment (there is a door to the apartment but the door into the main part of the building is the one of our balcony) to find it locked.

Apparently Christina Huang had accidentally locked us inside from a little push-in lock on the outside. We spent the next hour working to pick the lock because there was no phone in the apartment and our cell phones refused to cooperate with our new sim cards. Both Xena and I couldn't unlock our phones so that they could be used with the foreign sim cards.

I ended up having to pay the 5 dollars to call my father in the U.S in order to ask him to inform Christina of our predicament. While the process of unlocking ourselves from our new and now too inviting apartment, In Xena decided to take a shower. A second after she ventured into the bathroom I heard a little screech. Low and behold there was a GIANT brown water bug on the floor. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to catch this very agile cockroach which was about the size of my thumb. Once I finally got my hands on the creature another one came up from behind me, and made a straight run through my legs and out of the bathroom door into the apartment.

For the evening, Xena and I were locked into our magnificent apartment without food and with some very friendly, large and crawling tenants. However I must say, I have had a quite amazing past two days.