Our first event in Taipei was to visit a local elementary school. One of the DNC members on the trip requested that we visit a school while here, so it was set up for us. We were all so thankful that she made the request because the visit to the school was incredible. We all left the school feeling like we got an authentic taste of Taiwanese culture and we all left realizing how much better American schools could be operating. From the moment we arrived, a series of events had been choreographed to exhibit the qualities and performance of [View Full Entry]

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Our second event on our first day here was to meet and visit with the President of the Legislative Yuan (Branch) of Taiwan. He is the equivalent of Nancy Pelosi to the Taiwanese congress, but Taiwan’s legislative branch is unicameral. He spoke knowledgeably and with interest of the U.S. Presidential race and seemed genuinely interested in us and our thoughts. He spoke to us about the operation of the legislative branch, the role of the two major parties in the governance of Taiwan, and U.S. relations with Taiwan. Right now, the President of Taiwan and the legislative branch are [View Full Entry]

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I'm really, really sleepy. I've been up for about 20 hours in a row to try to catch up with the time change. So my description of TongHua Night Market will not be as vivid as it might have been if I had been more awake when we were there or am now. I didn't even take any pictures and I have been a picture-taking maniac so far on this trip. And there were so many things to take pictures of on that street. Several of the group were not awake enough to go tonight, so hopefully we'll return to it [View Full Entry]

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I really will have pictures soon. Technical difficulties. Frustrating. And thanks for the comments - if they don't appear for a while it is because there seems to be no way for them to bypass my approval of each comment. With the time difference that means I won't see some comments for a little while... Thank you all for reading... [View Full Entry]

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The trip is finally starting to feel real as I have learned more of the details of the agenda. I'll take off Saturday afternoon from Austin to San Francisco where all of the delegation will converge. We'll leave there early Sunday morning and arrive in Taiwan early Monday morning their time. The flight will be 13 hours. Most of the time we are there we will be in Taipei. The days will be mostly filled with meetings and tours, but there will also be some free time to explore on our own. One day we will fly from Taipei to Hualien [View Full Entry]

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A couple weeks before the end of session I got an email asking me if I would like to join a delegation of Democratic National Committee members to visit Taiwan to meet with governmental and political officials. They evidently do this every year with a group of DNC and a group of RNC members. Of course, I said yes. Only problem was that I didn't have a passport and I had less than a month to get one at a time when articles were appearing in the news about how extraordinarily long it has been taking to get passports. So I [View Full Entry]

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I love to travel. I have done it all throughout my life; starting with family vacations and summer camps and then for debate, politics, work and just for fun. While I have been all over the United States (see map below), the only times I have been out of the country have been just over the borders and on short cruises to the Bahamas. So, I am excited to be really leaving the U.S. at the end of this week to visit Taiwan. More on that and my preparation for the trip in my next entry... Visited US States Map [View Full Entry]

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