Transit

I'm in Tainan, Taiwan!

After 28 hours of travel we arrived at my uncle's house in the wee hours of the morning. Surprisingly, I still fell asleep and slept until 2pm today. I started coughing today so I'm desperately hoping that I haven't come down with what my parents had since it knocked them both out of commission for a week! I am now fed and showered and happy to be using the Internet. Oh, and my mother brought the wrong power cord so we have no laptop at our disposal. My Internet usage may be significantly less than anticipated until my father arrives in February.

This post is dedicated to Daddy, who--during my phone call made immediately upon our arrival to let him know that we got here safely--asked, "Why haven't you updated your blog yet?" Well, I'll tell you why:

28 hours of straight travel. Legit. Our initial flight out of Minnesota was delayed for about an hour because it was "too cold" ... around 10 below without windchill. So all the poor workers outside were freezing. But, I mean, realistically if they were cold they should have just moved faster, you know? (JK JK!) When we arrived in Detroit we made our way directly to our connecting flight and as we were approaching the gate they were making the final boarding call and calling our names. My name has never been called in final boarding call before, so that was kind of cool! We ran onto the plane, they closed the boarding door, and I didn't get to make any phone calls like I thought I would. Then we sat on the plane while they de-iced. Whatever.

The flight to Osaka was fairly uneventful. I slept much more than anticipated--always exciting--and finished Book 2 of His Dark Materials. Most noteworthy to document about this flight was a little lesson I learned about myself. I was sleeping soundly with my eye mask on (potentially drooling, but I doubt it) when it was breakfast time. I had no idea that breakfast was going on and in my peaceful, angelic state my mom likely didn't want to wake me. However, when the flight attendant arrived at our row and asked "Eggs or Rice?" I shot awake and answered "Eggs!" before I had any idea what was going on. In conclusion, I like food.

The layover in Osaka was STUPID. I was hoping to get online at that airport, but no go. We got off the plane, went through security, and got directly back onto the same plane parked at the same gate. STUPID.

Upon my arrival in Taipei, a flight attendant saw my Brown hoodie and asked "Do you live in Providence?" Apparently he's moving there. I fly halfway around the world to get my hoodie noticed. Someone say hi to him for me, yeah? Anyway, two of our suitcases didn't make it--they wanted to see the world a bit more--and one of them is full of stuff to bring to China so we're hoping they'll get here tomorrow. After waiting for ages to talk to someone about our luggage we made our way through customs (no problems/not a drug mule) and into a car that got us to Tainan in about 3 hours. And here I am.

The shower was fun. Instead of a shower or a tub they have a drain in the bathroom floor and you just ... shower. I'd forgotten that people don't really shower here daily (for Soph: that's so dirty) and as a result go get their hair washed at the salon. It's fairly cheap, but American habits die hard so I cleaned myself today. I think our plan is to go out for a bit and perhaps get a phone card (!) but time seems to have gotten away from me and it's almost dinner time already. I haven't started missing TV yet (amazing) but I do miss you all. Especially Lucy ... can't wait until she moves in!

Much love to all!
(No sign of Typhoid yet!)