One month to go and lots of things to figure out!

So! Here's the update on this whole Taiwan thing.

I have booked my plane ticket from LA to Taipei ($314 one way! Awesome!), and I have yet to book my ticket from Boston to LA, mostly because I haven't quite figured out if I want to fly out of Boston or Manchester, and I need to figure out how much time to allot between flights. But, if anyone has any good pointers on cheap flights from here to there, let me know! I appreciate tips.

I have my passport and visa ready to go, and I have a job waiting for me. The people from the school I'll be teaching at provide a ride from the airport to a hotel where I can stay for three nights. After that, I have to have found an apartment.

So, I've begun my apartment search. For those of you who know Taipei, the school is located on the blue line at Zhongxiao Dunhua, pretty sweet location downtown. I'll be teaching at HeadStart, basically, 3-6 year old Taiwanese kids. I'll be their first exposure to English. Fun! I'm going to see if I can't find an apartment close to the school, but chances are I'll end up just outside of the city there for cheapness sake.

At this point, I'm also trying to find someone that would sublet my room for the month of August (anyone? anyone?), as well as figure out where to store my stuff while I'm gone. I will be taking all my stuff out of my parents' house as well, they need the space.

Yesterday, I bought a nice rolling carry-on bag off of Craigslist in Somerville (talked the guy down to $25, it's a nice bag). I'm thinking about getting new suitcases too, but I don't know if I should spend the money. Meh, I'll figure that out later I guess. I'll keep looking on Craigslist. I also should probably make a list of things I'll need to get before I leave. Including stuff to entertain me on that 14 hour flight from Los Angeles to Taiwan, let alone the travel to LA and whatever layover I'll have there. Anyone have any good books they want to lend me (for a year)? Heh.

I'm really excited about all this, it's giving me something to look forward to and a reason to get my things together. I haven't been on a trip in a couple of years I'm definitely overdue.

I'll be posting on this blog to keep ya'll informed about the goings-on of my planning and then once I'm over there, because I know there are a lot of you who are wondering what goes into planning an adventure like this (I'm wondering this myself, but I'm learning fast!).

So, I'll be posting. Thanks for being interested in my life. :oP