The best airport welcoming committee!

WOW! What a welcoming committee! We were met by a very exuberant crowd of Rotarians holding a sign for us at the airport yelling, "Nebraska!" "Rotary!" "Nebraska!" It was an awesome way to be greeted - I recommend it to everyone. The level of hospitality in Taiwan is overwhelming - they are just so happy to have us here.

We are spending the next two weeks in Tsinchu visiting companies and Rotary clubs in the world-famous industrial parks. I think tomorrow we have a vocational visit at a semiconductor plant. .

Of the people hosting us for the next week, there is the Assistant District Governor, a retired chemical engineer who used to run a 2,000 people polyester-manufacturing plant ("Tim"), the Rotary Coordinator for our Group Study Exchange ("Language"), an environmental engineer who got his advanced degree from Oklahoma ("EP"), a man who owns a jewelry/high quality clothing shop ("Diamond"), an engineer ("Tungsten"), an architectural engineer who builds factories in the technology park ("Jaiky") and a businessman in the cargo industry ("Cargo"). They are all presidents of their Rotary clubs in this county. Here is a photo of the group with their cute handmade sign that says: "Ak-sar-ben" with the letters filled in with the word "Nebraska."

This first night the Rotarians paid for us to stay in a very nice boutique hotel since we arrived so late (arrived at the airport at 10:30 p.m. + 40 minute drive to the city in Hsinchu). Once here the team went to 7-11 to get food (I had awesome sushi & Japanese cookies) and then we went wandering around the block of our hotel. (We are all still on Nebraska time, so it felt like 1:00 in the afternoon to us.) We ended up going to this little karaoke pub that was a riot. Again, the Taiwanese were very attentive - the level of customer service here is outstanding! - bringing us a plate of fruit, cherry tomatoes and a bowl of toasted peanuts. For those of you that know us, you will be very proud to learn that we actually sang a song! Yes, of all the songs in the book, there were about 10 English ones and our group chose a rousing rendition of...."Jingle Bells!" It was hilarious. I think the Taiwanese overlooked our sub-standard singing ability (except for Jill, the rest of us can't sing very well) and showed their appreciation with lots of applause.

We in turn applaud Taiwan for a wonderful first day here!