In transit.
I left my parents’ home at 5:00 this morning. My flight wasn’t scheduled to depart Toronto until 10:00, but they live two hours from Pearson airport. The threat of thick traffic or car malfunctions compels me to leave very early for international flights. In addition, one has to pre-clear U.S. customs and immigration in Toronto. The U.S. border guards sometimes frown on young males with a road-case full of juggling equipment, so I thought it best to budget for delays.
It is 12:42 Eastern time now. I am sitting in Chicago O’Hare waiting for my connection to Tokyo. I have a 3 hour layover here. Although seeing as CNN just informed me of a typhoon headed directly for Tokyo and scheduled to hit land this evening, I may end up with more waiting than I had anticipated. They are forecasting up to 14 inches of rain. While some of those inches may be Cable News Network fear-mongering, I’m sure even a few inches of rain combined with strong winds could be enough to delay my arrival.
My official itinerary puts me at Chiang Kai Shek airport at 21:00 local time Friday evening. I’ve reserved a room at some sort of transitional accommodation housing for cheap expats. I am to phone them upon arrival. They have promised to escort me to my room where I will hopefully be able to blissfully sleep away the worst of my jetlag.
I will live here for a few weeks while I find a more permanent residence. I am looking for a homestay with a Chinese family as it will help with my language learning. My goal is to eschew the expat community as much as possible. I realize that staying in expat accommodation upon arrival isn’t a good way to realize my goal, but as I said: it is “transitional.”
On Monday I head to NTNU to register for my classes, and pay my tuition. I’ll try to snap a few photos and get them up here.