Our Adventure Begins!

你好大家!

D: You know that feeling you get when you haven't slept in days, eaten anything healthy, or seen daylight for long stretches of time? That is pretty much how we felt when we landed in Taiwan Wednesday. haha. We got here May 2 at 9:00 pm, which is 6:00 am for the western United States. 

S:  It's a good thing Dan keeps track of numbers because this whole week has been as confusing as ever to me. All I can remember is that we left Tuesday morning with only an hour of sleep and after what seemed like ions of time on three planes we were all of the sudden in this place called Taiwan and it was Thursday before I was conscious of what was going on!


D:  The last plane ride Suz was pretty out of it, but she woke up pretty quickly when someone announced over the intercom, "Tsis is your fright attendant speaking! We ahr now appwoachin 台湾 (Taiwan)!" 


S:  Yeah and if that wasn't a big enough "fright," I opened the window to see where we were and a bolt of lightning strike right at that moment near our plane. That woke me up for sure!  It was actually quite beautiful flying in with the storm because it lit up the night sky and the glittering island beneath us. 

What you don't see around the corner to the right is a Taiwanese taxi driver holding a sign saying, "Scow" 

D: We were nervous to take Michelle on three plane rides totaling 15 1/2 hours of flying over a 24 hour period. When I ride on an airplane, the last place I want to sit is next to a baby so I could understand how other people would feel. Therefore, we decided to turn on the charm and Michelle played the part perfectly, armed in this:

P.S. We love the Hello Kitty backpack, perfect for Asia.

S: Poor girl had to be woken up at 4am to get on the plane ride so she's still kind of out of it in this picture.  (My poor parents too!  They were so sweet to drive us to the airport)  My Mom took this picture right before we left.

Snoozin' in the airport

D: Fortunately, just last week we taught Michelle how to wave and blow kisses. Let's just say that everyone who looked even remotely stiff couldn't help but smile as this little rabbit baby waved goodbye to departing passengers.  She was the cutest little flight attendant you've ever seen! I haven't seen so many smiles from travelers getting off a plane before :)


S: I have to admit, we are kind of proud parents. 


D: The night life in Taiwan is fantastic! We love staying up late in our hotel room, trying to keep Michelle quiet so as not to disturb our neighbors in the Dandy Hotel with paper thin walls. But, to her credit, she did amazingly well on the plane rides with only a few outbursts that only lasted a few minutes at most. At night, she is up for about her normal 2-3 hours before going back down to sleep, so she is adjusting well and each night gets better.

The Dandy Daan Hotel--Our home until we find an apartment*

S: This room was just plain cool! Everything was controlled with one remote control including the A/C, TV, lights and even ceiling speakers to play the radio. Things are really efficient here. There is even a remote on the toilet that is plugged into the wall.  There are a bunch of buttons that don't mean much to me yet, but I have a good guess what this one means ...

D: Well, we are happy here so far and we are excited for our adventures here over the next two months!

*In case you are wondering, we have found an apartment by now and we really love it! More on that later :)