This was probably the most uncomfortable flight I've ever had. First, I had to stay in a hostel close to the bus station and couldn't sleep well.
The Taipei international airport isn't really in Taipei, it is outside the capital and it takes about 40 minutes by bus to get there. I had to leave the city at 5am but since I live to the south in Xindian and don't have any transportation I couldn't get there because the subways don't begin until 6am. I got a late start from home, mostly because I was encoding videos to watch on my mp4 player on the trip, and I didn't get to the hostel until about 9:30. I went to have dinner and got in bed around 12 midnight. I couldn't sleep, either because of the unfamiliar bed or from nervousness that I wouldn't get up. I am always nervous when I travel from the moment I leave home until I arrive I only got about 3 hours of sleep that night. Then I had a very long flight, about 24 hours in the air, plus I had to wait for 7 hours in New York. I could hardly sleep on the plane either. On the long flight from Hong Kong to New York I was in the middle seat, even though I had asked for an isle seat, so I could neither lean on the wall nor get up and down when I wanted. Now I'm falling asleep all the time, and I can't always get to sleep at night.
The past three days I've just about recovered and have slept fairly normal hours, though yesterday I fell asleep talking to mom. Other than that the trip is going well and I've been eating good American food again, the weather is nice here, but I'm unused to air-conditioning and get really cold staying in people's houses. I don't really look forward to the long flight back, followed by 3 weeks of job hunting. Wish me luck.
