A Pinch More of the New Year

Me and Dave on the rooftop.

Ah yes, Jeff and I had a haircut party. Both of us look pretty serious now.

I got the bad end of the deal with a suprize Taiwanese haircut. I told him to make me look like this kid in a magazine...hair-wise...a simple cut. Instead I came out looking a little like a Nazi youth.

My plan is to let it grow out along the walk...along with my beard.

Cheers!

Today's famous doctor: Doctor Robert- Revolver, Beatles

News Years Night!!!

New years day came and went like a fruitless crush. Its 2008 and of course I feel not too much different, but today we will begin our walk which will certainly be different from anything Jeff or I have ever done.

We packed and water-proofed our equipment today and then went to meet a mutual friend from middle, high school and college, Dave Schultz. After meeting wasted no time going to a party where the new years festivities began. Four "Taiwan Beer" brand beers later, we were on the roof of the apartment building counting down for fireworks to be shot from Taipei 101- The world's tallest building. It was very festive and after the spectacular short lived fireworks from Taipei 101, roof tops all over the city started lighting up with more individual, but very public fireworks shows. When we entered the house at 2:15, fireworks were still going off.

The night was a fantastic way to see Taipei's life capacity. Energy was everywhere just before the fireworks, on the streets, with quick walking and running everywhere, all directed at Taipei 101.

I described the scene as follows:

The waterfall of mopeds must be far outside Taipei. They buzz and buzz towards an education at Taipei 101.

Here are some pictures of the night.

Until the completion of our first day of our walk (or possibly second or third),

Stay Healthy Gang!

We've Arrived!!!

After a total of 20 hours on an efficient flying machine, we've arrived on the other side of the world! Pictured above is a view from said flying machine.

It's Sunday night and jet lag is telling me to go to sleep after I write this post, but Jeff and I may go out for a celebratory beer...
All is well except for my Mandarin, but I'll learn.
Tomorrow we prepare the equipment, buy any final important items, and then celebrate new years on a rooftop where we can watch fireworks being set off from Taipei 101, the world's tallest building.
Then its off to the races, our tentative goal to get to our end point by January 20th, my birthday.
More pictures of nonsense will come soon! In case there is no post tomorrow,
Happy New Year!!!

Home

Hello Everyone and Thank you for Looking at my Blog!
This Blog will be devoted to following my travels as I walk from the North of Taiwan to the South with my friend Jeff Chen.
Our journey will be 260 miles and I will be Blogging at any possible points along the way. We'll be sleeping in tents, temples and/or the houses of people willing to put us up for a night.

My goal: To interact and bridge cultural gaps with the people we meet and also, to gather information on the political beliefs of the Citizens.
Being a Government and politics major, I find this very interesting, as the political beliefs of the citizens are what will decide the type of president that is elected. So why should you care?

Because China is a rising Superpower and Taiwan seeks independence. China has said that it would not allow Taiwan to declare legal ndependence without major retaliation. The U.S. supports the Taiwanese government and if such independence and subsequent war were to occur, the U.S. would be involved...somehow. So essentially, this Blog will give you an idea of whether the majority of Taiwnese people support independence or not and will give individual accounts of Taiwanese citizens' beliefs about Taiwanese independence and U.S. intervention.

If that doesn't interest you, the various encounters we have should, as essentially we have no set plans and are just going to see what happens. I can assure you this Blog with maybe the excpetion of this post will be more interesting than:
*Clicking refresh on your email every 5 minutes
*Clicking refresh on your facebook profile every 2 minutes
*Searching youtube with no goal in mind
*Browsing for items on ebay
*Making poor cyber small-talk on AIM

So Please, Check back! Write a comment! Give me an Opinion! Insult me! This Blog is about being interesting, provocative and fun! Yes thats right...Fun!
I hope everyone has a terrific new year!
My next post will likely be from Taipei, Taiwan.
Stay Healthy.

P.S. The picture is from my room at my house in College Park, MD...My starting, starting point.