Commitment

Well, it is almost official now. I just booked passage on China Airlines from LAX to CKS in Taipei, bringing me one step closer to justifying this blog. It was a bit more hair-raising an experience than I would have liked. Things started out innocuously enough on china-airlines.com, but then events unfolded which led to me calling New York, a sure sign that Hell's bindings were hanging a bit loose. Thankfully, everything is mostly ok, except that Taiwan's best Corporately Governed company may charge me an extra hundred bucks later on down the road. Not that big of a deal, really.

Of course, arranging my transport wasn't the first bit of work I've had to do to plan this expedition -- I like the sound of that! -- it was just the first that carried any significant financial commitment. I've already done a great deal of research and completed the Twelve Labors of National Chengchi University, hopefully verifying to their satisfaction that I am not infected with a hideous virus or pernicious bacteria, am not financially destitute, can write lucidly in English concerning my reasons for desiring to study there, etc.

With the Labors complete and a date of departure established, I can begin to concentrate on the good stuff, like deciding which subset of all the crap that I have stored here in America I should bring with me across the Pacific. Now that is an interesting problem, and one I will discuss in greater depth in later posts.