Monday, May 18th

I woke up today still feeling a little sick but wanted to participate. We had a class for orientation to the Tokyo subway system and then tried our hand at it by traveling to the Meiju Shrine which was beautiful. After killing some time in that area we headed over to the Gekushuin Womens' College. We had curry for lunch...again. But, other than the curry we got to hang out with one of the students named Chiemi. She was super sweet and taught us a lot about the Japanese culture. After observing a few of the classes we returned to the hotel to go to dinner with a different group of Japanese students. We wound up having a lot in common with all of them and making great friends. We went to the Hub English Pub bar after a huge meal and hung out with Sachiko, Cosse, and Yutaka all night. We took the subway home by ourselves...sucessfully.

Sunday, May 17th

Today we traveled. We got an early start to the airport for the three hour flight to Tokyo. I slept almost the entire flight. When we arrived at the Narita airport outside of Tokyo, we took the 1 and 1/2 train ride into the city and then transferred to a ground train that led us to our stop (Sangubashi) in Yoyogi. After we were settled in the Olympic Center rooms we explored Yoyogi and had supper at Himalaya Curry which would also turn out to be one of our favorite places to eat in Tokyo. All of us were tired from traveling so we turned in early for a busy day on Monday.

Saturday, May 16th

Today is our last day in Taiwan. I woke up sick from dehydration all morning which really ruined some plans for a free morning. Finally, once I was feeling better Jenna and I walked around the area of Hotel Flowers shopping for a suitcase to pack all of our souvenirs. Afterward, we caught a cab across town for our two hour Thai massage which was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Although painful at times, I was much more relaxed after it was over. Then we went to our farewell party at an all you can eat buffet that was huge. The food was amazing. We also visited the night market again at Shilin which was a terrible idea on a Saturday night at 9 o'clock. There were more people there than I think I have ever seen. We returned late to pack for an early start to the airport for Tokyo in the morning.

Friday, May 15th

Today would turn out to be one of my favorite days of the trip. We visited AGV Beverage Co. a place that makes all of the green teas and barley drinks. Afterward, we visited Chung Cheng University where I finally met my pen pals, Julie and Melody who turned out to be so much fun. We did some arts and crafts for a festival that was coming up and had some great food. Later, we toured the university and got to see what their campus was like. After a long three hour bus ride home the group went out to Barcode and Bar Bados.

Thursday, May 14th

Today we visited Joy Enterprise which is a company spread around Taiwan and China that teaches English to school kids. It was an incredible experience to learn everything that was involved with running their organization. We even found out about some opportunities for returning to Taiwan to be a native English speaking teacher. After leaving Joy, we headed to the National Taiwan University where we teamed up with Trey to discuss the business case with other Taiwanese students. They also held a calligraphy class for us where we got to try and draw our own Chinese characters with brush and ink. That night we went over to Taipei 101 and finally went to the top which was incredible.

Wednesday, May 13th

Today we visited the Presidential office in Taiwan. The tour seemed quite long but I learned a lot. Afterward, the group met to discuss the OLPC case analysis in order to be prepared for the next day. Then we went to Party World and got a karaoke room which wound up being a lot more fun than anyone thought it would be. Later, we explored around that area of Taipei and found another night market which was much smaller than the one at the Shilin stop on the MRT. After exploring we were all very tired so we came home to rest and ordered Pizza Hut.

Tuesday, May 12th

Today we loaded the bus at 9 to travel south to Giant Bicycles Co. We had McDonald's for breakfast while traveling since we left early. After about a two hour drive we arrived to take our factory tour. It was amazing to see how efficiently the assembly lines were run to produce a mass amount of bicycles per day. It was also really cool to see how the engineers had made so many different bicycles customized for all demographics. There are bicycles made for women, for mountain biking, for street cycling, and for the elderly which includes a little motor. After we finished the tour of Giant we went to a very nice but also interesting lunch where five courses were served on a lazy susan in the middle of a big round table for us. The food was quite different but I tried as much of it as I could. Next, we visited a Saxophone which was run by the family of the man who made the first saxophone in Taiwan. We also got to hear one of the girls play which was unbelievable. Then, we went to a local winery where we took a tour and also had got to taste all the different wines made there. After the winery and visiting a beautiful orchid greenhouse, it was off to the "love motel." Our suite consisted of a huge bed, an indoor pool, a massage table with massaging showerheads above it, a jacuzzi tub, little fish ponds, a massaging recliner, and several couch beds. There was a 45 minute bus ride back to the hotel following our three hour party but afterwards we all planned on going to the bars around the Taipei 101 area. We took the MRT to the bars and not realizing that almost everywhere had a certain dresscode restricting sandals and shorts, we were turned away by two bars and finally wound up at Bar Bados.