"Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus...."

I had no idea what God would have in store for me when I changed my major to International Business and Chinese at the spur of the moment during orientation! Little did I know that the very next summer I would be traveling to Taipei, Taiwan to study abroad for 6 weeks!

For those of you who do not know where Taiwan is located, I have a map for you right here. Taiwan is the island looking thing to the right of China. I have circled the capital of Taiwan, which is Taipei, where I will be staying for the majority of my stay.

There has been a long time of preparation; several things have had to be completed before being allowed to embark on this adventure such as filling out a lot of paperwork, being admitted to National Taipei University (the school we will be attending), applying and waiting for approval for a Taiwanese Visa, booking plane tickets for the TWENTY FOUR HOUR travel, and the list goes on! After all of that, I received my itinerary today, and I could not be more excited!!! My schedule includes taking Chinese language and culture classes, Business classes, and various classes that teach traditional pot making, and many others! I will also be able to visit with a Taiwanese family for an entire day to learn more about traditions in the home, and I will also be able to ask them questions about the culture. In addtion to classes, we were given the opportunity to have a 5 day trip around Taiwan as well as several days of free time to explore Taipei. What an amazing experience this will be!

My flight takes off on July 4th, and I will be flying all the way there with my friend Rob and will meet up with the 5 others coming from Mississippi State at the airport in Taiwan. I will be there from July 5th through August 15th. Until then, I will be babysitting, attempting to remember all the Chinese I have learned, and trying to figure out all this blog stuff. I will keep you all updated and hopefully I will be able to update this several times a week!

Please pray for my safety traveling and living in an unfamiliar country as well as the safety of my friends who are going with me. Also, please pray that God will give me the strength to try new and exciting things and to be a light to my future Taiwanese friends (hopefully I will make some!) while I am there.

Thank you!!

Steph