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!
Sunglasses courtesy of "Hummer", a Rotarian who owns shoe and clothing boutiques in Asia. He has all the latest in trendy shoes (ask Jill to show you her nifty red rope shoes!) and clothing. A true entrepreneur, Hummer branched out from shoes and clothes to introduce his own line of sunglasses, too.
Angel, the President of her all-female club in Hsinchu, gave each member of the team valuable jade cow figurines - to celebrate and bring us luck in the "Year of the Cow."
Standing in front of the huge clock donated to the city by Rotary. The clock can be seen for miles and is in front of the city's Glass Museum.
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