I am leaving on August 16 for Seattle and leaving for Taipei (via Seoul, South Korea) on August 18 for about the next 11 months. I will be staying in up to 5 host houses (they haven't told me yet) and will be going to Dong Fang Engineering & Business Vocational High School [No.8, Lane 186, Sec. 4, Sinyi Rd., Da-an District, Taipei City 106, Taiwan (R.O.C.)] (most likely) taking classes like Bartending, Chinese Cooking, Automechanics, and Computer Science (nifty eh?). My school website (in english) is http://www.tfvs.tp.edu.tw/en/.

My new house is at Zhong Shan North Road, Section 7, Taipei, Taiwan. My host family consists of the mom (Linda), the dad (Kunio) and two sons, only one of which will be at home when I am there, having just come back from Canada through Rotary. The other son is going to be in Austin, Texas also through Rotary for a year. The son leaving is 16 while the one who just came back is 18.

A little bit about what I know of Taiwan...
Main religion is Buddhism (plus Taoism and some Christianity, though not much)
Main language is Mandarin Chinese
There are many small earthquakes
There are crazy cool night markets selling all kinds of stuff and lots of seafood in the mornings.
It is a VERY polluted place, and people have to wear masks when riding motor cycles (lots of those).
There are these nuts called Betel nuts that people chew that contain as much caffeine as six cups of coffee.
er...more interesting facts later...

Well, still working hard to get everything ready. Must get a lot of thank you notes done from the college visits and Eagle Project. Still gotta type up the college application essays...heh. I know where I am going and finally have contact with my host parents in Taipei.

Hopefully I'll get packed soon and everything will go smoothly. Still studying Mandarin, hopefully I can keep it up so I can speak a little when I get there.