MIAOLI, Taiwan :)

We arrived in Hong Kong sleep-deprived and Phoebe had a cold. But both of us suddenly got excited when we realized that the long trip from Botswana had led us both to East Asia for the first time. We immediately met up with fellow SayTaiwan participants at the airport and sat down together for drinks. Phoebe observed that the waiters were putting in our orders through iPads which we thought was very exciting, tech-forward.

The flight to Taiwan was smooth and seeing a huge sign of SayTaiwan at the airport welcoming all participants was exciting and soon we were huddled up doing group photo-shoots in front of the sign. The airport staff were extremely efficient, friendly and helpful and before we knew it our visas were processed and we were collecting our luggage.

Meeting Alice was fun after having virtually talked to her so much over the last few months. We were given cellphones, welcome packets and I met my host brother, K, who took me to meet his father. On the way I was tremendously tired and kept dosing off but at the same time epically excited! We had dinner at a nice restaurant and I was happy to be using chopsticks and not making a mess at all. We got home and I slept like a log, after warning my host family that I might not be up before 9. I had arrived in Miaoli.