So the trip started off a little rocky when my first of 3 flights was delayed and the man at the ticket counter ‘lost’ my reservation for about 20 minutes, and told me there was no way I was going to Alaska for my flight…but my last stateside oatmeal raison cookie and a last hug from the family calmed me down and saw me down to my gate (where I found out my flight was further delayed for who knows how long).  But luckily I finally made it to Newark airport (which is ridiculously huge, btw) where I had to go out of security, check back in at the Taiwan ticket counter, go back through security and sit in a large room where I definitely felt like the minority.  I met up with a few of the people from the Fulbright groups, a few of whom are in the rural group and a few that are going to the same city I’m going to be in.  We basically found each other by looking for other white kids in the room, which sounds bad, but was rather efficient.  The first leg of the odyssey (to Alaska) was rather uneventful and exactly what was to be expected: long and uncomfortable.  For future notice, the Alaskan airport is not very exciting aside from the half a stuffed mountain goat in a glass enclosure.  No penguins, polar bears or Eskimos to report.  The next flight to Taipei also produced little excitement, other than the fact that my personal tv stopped working so I was forced to entertain myself  (aka. Sleep).