Travel
So to sum this up.. flying to Asia sucks.
I spent a total of 23 hours up in the sky to get from Philly to Kaoshiung. The flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong was 15 hours, and it was without a doubt the worst 15 hours I've endured. First off, I flew by myself without any teammates, which is something I'm definitely not used to doing as we usually travel as a team. Second, I had the middle seat between two people who were together, yet neither of them offered to switch seats with me. Third, there were no TV screens on the seats, and only a small tv that was about 7 rows ahead of me that I could barely even see. Fourth, the wifi was broken before we even took off. Not the best flight, but I made it.
Jet Lag
The time difference from the east coast to Taiwan is a wonderful 13 hours. No matter what you do before you leave, there's no way to adjust to this right away. I slept from 3:30am-6am the first night, 11pm-4:30am the second night, and since then I have woken up in the middle of the night every day for at least 2 hours. Hopefully it gets better over the next two days going into racing.
Food
The local food here isn't terrible, but being American, we have found every American food option in town. So far I've had Starbucks, McDonald's, Subway, Coldstone, Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, and even went to a few 7-11s. It's nice to have those options when you aren't sure what the options on the street are going to be, though I found an awesome place at the mall with some wonton soup and dumplings. We also went to an awesome buffet last night set up by our buddy Itay from Isreal, which was a much needed meal.
Training
Team USA is looking good. Everyone came prepared to go fast with great mindsets to get after those medals. The track is amazing, as is the road course, and I can't wait for the racing to get started.
I will be racing the 300m time trial on Sunday, along with the 100m drag race next Friday, with other races tbd.
Kaohsiung
It's hot, humid, and the air quality is terrible, but it's a pretty cool place. We haven't done too much exploring, but what we've seen around town is awesome. We found a place called the "Dream Mall" which is 11 stories, including an amusement park on the roof. Not too bad, Taiwan.
Being at worlds is one of my favorite experiences, and this year is definitely going to be another great one. Nothing beats awesome racing, seeing friends from around the world, and making some new ones too.
Thanks for the update McKenzie it's always rough flying to another part of the world with a time change and to get use to it and the culture experience is always fun LOL!. The focus on the racing and that thought process of giving everything you have for the win and back here at home we are all waiting for the racing to begin got the times set up when the racing starts so we call all watch on the internet site. So Good Luck and tell the whole team we are all cheering for you all and show them it is Team USA year bring home some hardware. GET-R-DONE!!! PS! Tell Tony still want to see him eat the fish heads LOL!
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