36 Hour Travel

I have been planning to go on this study abroad trip since I began the nursing program in January of 2009. I can’t believe it has actually come around!  It always seemed so far away and now I am on the plane, on our way to Seoul, South Korea. We are 11.5 hours into our 13 hour flight, which is coming along pretty nice. I slept at least 8 hours within the first 10 hours of the trip. Unfortunately, it’s about 3am in Seoul so my clock with be very off. I was asleep before the plane even took off so I missed dinner all together but I ended up eating dinner at 8am this morning, then breakfast at 10am. J

We had to walk a bit to the International terminal once we got to LA.

When we went through security in the LA International Terminal, Jocelyn had to get an x-ray....hahashe tore her ACL a few days ago so she's wearing a knee brace and they had to scan it for her to get through. 

We got to the airport at 5:15pm yesterday to begin our 36 hour journey to Tainan, Taiwan. I cried all day about leaving my wonderful husband for a whole month. It will probably be the hardest month of my life to be away from him but hopefully we will learn a lot and get a lot out of this experience. 

Amber, Jocelyn, and I sat next to each other on the flight from LA to Seoul. We all slept on and off for the first 10 hours of the flight. 

Alyssa sat just behind us. We were finally wide awake at this point. I think we only had about an hour left. 

Everything on the plane is in English and Korean. Thank goodness!

We're almost to Seoul Incheon, South Korea. 

Just off the plane. 

First group shot....After the getting to Seoul. Needless to say, we were already getting gross after those first 20 hours. 

One of the big fat Korean Air planes. ours was a double-decker! And, there were 10 people in a row: 3-4-3

The toilets in Korea have these plastic covers on em and you wave your hand over the top have it thread over for a new one :) so funny

Security for the third time...

We have WiFi in Korea! Yay!

After a 6 hour layover in the Korea airport, we FINALLY got on our last flight to Taipei. Luckily, the flight was only about 2.5 hours. Our journey wasn't over yet though...

Alyssa and I on the last plane ride to Taipei. 

Everyone got used to me just yelling, "SMILE". Here is the result. 

We are FINALLY in Taiwan! We still have a ways to go though....

Next, we got on a bus...

Then, we stopped...

 at the train station...

 got tickets...

 went to the bathroom...(they have squatters...yes, you squat...)

 then we changed out clothes...

 we went to 7-eleven...

saw all the crazy food they sell there....

 then we got on a train...

 for an hour and a half...

we found out 4 of the 8 of us are reading the same book for our book reports :)

 North Taiwan is super muggy but SUPER green. There are jungles, trees, forests ALL OVER!

 They write chinese characters everywhere...including the roads :)

EVERYONE rides mo-peds in this country. There are designated parking lots just for mo-peds.

 Then we got on our last 45 minute bus ride.

 The cities are hilarious! There are signs everywhere. It kind of reminds me of New York except everything is in Chinese. And, car nearly hit mo-peds on every corner.

 Chi Mei Hospital is where we will be working for the next four weeks.

 We are all very excited to finally get to the hospital and have them take us to our apartments.

 Right in front of our apartment.

We walked across a bridge next to the streets to get to food and the hospital. We are about a 10 minute walk to the hospital each day.

We got some juice at the Taiwanese version of Jamba Juice. 

 Pineapple with milk, pineapple with milk, watermelon with milk, watermelon with milk, pineapple with milk, and just plain pineapple :)

There is food sold on the street EVERYWHERE! This woman made a flaky flatbread-like sandwich? It had an egg, some greens and i think some sprouts in it. Everyone really liked em. The bread is really good. 

After our trip down town, we came back to our room. We are all EXHAUSTED after the long travel from Salt Lake to Tainan. Its only about 8:45 and we will probably be going to bed soon. Clinicals at 9am tomorrow morning :)