Taiwan!! Hot and Beautiful!! 台灣！！又热又美！！

I'm finally here!!! God has opened the door for me to be in Taiwan for the summer. What an incredible experience! And it's only just beginning .. I can't express my excitement and happiness. I was going to blog Hong Kong International Airport but chatting with too many people at once letting them know I was alive lol, my computer was loosing battery and I needed to find something to eat ... so I had to defer my rapture until now .. my second day in this new country. :) So, I shall start by relaying some of my travel experiences so far ... After church Sunday night, my parents and I headed for the airport and stopped by Denny's to say a final goodbye to my brother and sisters. (hence the photograph with the Denny's sign) The drive to the airport was good ... pretty much no traffic at 10:00pm. Checking my luggage was a breeze and I am sooo thankful that I wasn't charged for heavy bags! I knew my smaller suitcase was under weight, but I was pretty sure that the larger case was going to cost me ... it felt like a ton of bricks! ... but it didn't cost! Praise God! :)

My parents were able to walk through with me until the security check point, at which we had a teary goodbye and took some pictures. The whole process was still surreal to me. I still could not fathom what I was about to do ... even as I write this, the reality of the summer has not hit me.

Dad and Mom waited behind the line as I went through the process of taking off your shoes and putting all my "junk" in those plastic bins. I was so thankful to successfully get through the line!! The first time I went on a plane was to Boston with my family several years back .. I was the only one of our family who was asked to get out of line so I could be searched ... and it was all because I was wearing bobby pins ... go figure ... I look like a terrorist, right? lol Then last year, on my way home from Philly, I was pulled out of line and myself and my baggage searched because of an issue with my form of identification ... needless to say, I was sooo happy to get through without any hassle.

Once through security and having shoved my laptop back into my backpack, I waved to my parents for the last time, who could just barely see me. We exchanged several "blown kisses," ASL "I love you's" and waves bye-bye. In the words of Shakespeare, "parting is such sweet sorrow." (I love you, Mom and Dad!)

I found my gate and a seat near the back as the flight was quite full and most people were already there and waiting an hour early because it was an international flight. During the waiting time, I texted most of the time with my family and my very fast texting buddy, Nathaniel. :D My flight was scheduled to leave SF at 1:20 and we were supposed to board at 12:40 .. however, there were delays due to refueling and such, partially due to our re-routing due to erupting volcanoes in Japan. So... we didn't start boarding until almost the time we were supposed to take off ... While we were sitting in the airplane, they kept announcing delays and I stared getting worried because my cell phone was almost dead and it wouldn't work once I landed over-seas anyhow. I needed to give my mom updates so she wouldn't worry and so that she could let the Brackens know about this delay. The Lord kept my cell going until I could text Mom and let her know that we were facing delays and to please contact Bro. and Sis. Bracken.

I was a little nervous because I didn't want to miss my connecting flight from HK to Taiwan. But, since I was supposed to have an almost three hour layover in HK, I figured that I would still make it ... however, instead of flying straight to HK, we had to stop first in Taipei to refuel in the morning. It was kind of cool for me because I can say that the first country I have been in outside of the US in Taiwan. :) From Taipei, we flew to HK and I got off the plane at just the time that my connecting flight was supposed to be taking off .. I thought that maybe, just maybe, that flight would have been delayed and I would make it ... but nope ... So, I was able to make it to the transfer counter where they arranged another flight for me. My new flight was scheduled to leave HK at 12:40, which put me in Taiwan around 2pm.

It was only 9:00 when I arrived in HK so I had some wait time. Once I got to my new gate of departure, I pulled up my computer and contacted my mom. :) I was so worried about getting in touch with the Brackens and wanted to see if Mom had gotten in touch with them. I didn't want to trouble them or worry them by coming in on a later flight. It turns out that my mom had found out before me what flight I would be redirected to and had already made the necessary contact in Taiwan. :) I was relieved to hear that! Thank you, Mom! :)

By this time, I had been traveling for almost 18 hours and I was pretty wiped out .. I had slept some on the plane, but I was still feeling exhausted. I was on IM with about six different people at the same time and I could tell they had all had sleep recently .. they were making jokes and full of energy. I, on the other hand, being tired, was feeling more grumpy than energetic and was not fully appreciating their sense of humor. lol My apologies my dear ones ... :)

I needed some food and something to drink so I started walking a short ways down from my gate. Praise God there was a Starbucks!!! And the workers spoke English!! :) I bought a chicken cesar salad, fruit bowl and bottle of water. I could pay there with American money, but they gave me HK change, in return.

After eating, I felt much better. I returned to my gate and took out my new book from Bethany. I was able to pour through a few chapters before boarding my final plane for this travel set. (By this time, I had been traveling for almost 23 hours) The plane loaded fast and I was blessed with another isle seat! Thank you, Jesus!! (Rabbit trail: on the flight from SF to HK, I was supposed to have a middle seat. However, the two other people sitting in that section were a mother and daughter so I asked if they would like to sit together. They did and the lady gave me her isle seat.) After being seated and buckled, I took out my book again while preparations were made for take off. Shortly thereafter, a young man working on the plane came and handed me an immigration slip that I would have to fill out and give to the people at the airport, once we had reached Taiwan. It just required my flight dates, home addy, passport number etc.

We were served lunch, which I was ready for since I had eaten the salad and fruit about two hours earlier. They served rice, sweet and sour pork, orange juice and some sort of little cakey biscuit bites. This was my third airplane meal during my travels. The first was dinner around 3 am our time (rice and sweet and sour pork, cheesecake and I think one other thing) and the second was breakfast right before we landed in Taipei (breakfast sandwich, fruit, yogurt and I had orange juice and apple juice).

I was so excited .. I was so close to my final destination! I prayed and asked God to please let everything with my luggage go well. It was supposed to be transferred from my SF-HK flight onto my connecting flight from HK to Taiwan. However, because of the delays, I was worried that there might be some mix-up. Praise be to God that it got put on the right flight!! I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them come off the luggage carousel.

Before you get to the baggage area, you first must go through the immigration counter where they checked my visa and took that form that I had filled out earlier in the plane. With my paper work done correctly, I moved without any problems through to wait by faith for my luggage (not knowing yet if it would come through.)

Once I was at the correct carousel, I was just standing and waiting for the luggage to be off-loaded. I was so focused on watching for it to start coming out that I didn't notice that a security man and his dog were making rounds ... next thing I knew, there was a beagle sniffing my bags ... followed by his owner asking me what I was carrying inside ... followed by me having to open my bag and prove that I wasn't carrying anything harmful ... However, it was not that simple. My small carry on had mostly shoes in it but I had locked it since it would not be on my body constantly, like my backpack ... so I had to look for keys ... and I couldn't remember where I had put them in my backpack .. here I was, I tall, white chick searching frantically for keys in all the wrong places of my backpack ... and people around were watching ... which made me even more nervous. Finally, I found them and successfully open my bag to prove that everything was good to go. The man was appeased and I started cramming my stuff back into my backpack in a rush, as the luggage had just begun to come around. It was all smooth sailing from then on. :)

Having located my luggage, I was now off to find my ride. I saw Alisha first. She poked her head through the doors of the airport just as I was heading out. I was so happy to finally meet her in person! We have been able to connect through facebook but meeting face-to-face for the first time was a real treat. She is such a sweet young lady! Alisha has been very, very helpful to me!
We loaded my stuff into the van and Alisha, Sis. Bracken and I were headed to my first real Taiwanese experience ... Cosco! :)

Everything inside looks basically like an American Cosco, except for two main things ... the signs have Chinese on them and the store is multi-level. In order for customers to be able to maneuver the carts around through these levels, they have escalators, that do not have stairs but rather are smooth, that people use to get around the store. This is not just a Cosco thing, but is common in other stores, as well. One other thing that did catch my attention was the sample booths ... they seemed to have basically the same types of products that we would serve here ...
but what seemed strange to me was that people were frequenting the table that had samples of Swiss Miss HOT COCOA! Now, don't you think in a land where it is about 98 degrees outside AND very humid that people would stay away from drinks that were also hot and steamy?? ...

We came home, had a snack and I got to meet some of the Brackens neighbors, who had stopped by to pick something up. There are some darling kids that live in their development!

Wait, I need to back up ... I just realized that I didn't talk about the humidity ... walking off the plane, I could feel a little bit of moisture and thought to myself, "Wow, now this isn't bad at all." From there, I walked into the air conditioned airport and thought nothing more of it, since my attention was diverted. And I kept forgetting that there was supposed to be humidity ... until I took my first, real steps in Taiwan, right outside of the airport doors. Wow! The instant I stepped out the door, I was warmly greeted by my new friend named Taiwan Weather. :) Steamy like a bathroom right after a hot shower ... or like a hot, moist towel .. however you want to draw your word picture ... any way you put it, it's HOT!

(Now back to where I was .... before this little diversion)

After snacking and resting a bit, we went out around 7:30 to get some dinner. We went to a restaurant close to their home but I can't remember the name. It's name is Westernized even and I still can't remember it ... anyways, the Brackens refer to it as the Bamboo Restaurant because of the decor. I had some sweet and sour fish, rice, salad, a neat cranberry fizzy fruit soda and a little pudding. It was so delicious!! We came home around 8:30 and I was getting pretty tired at this point. I took a quick shower and got into bed. Before 9:30 I was sound asleep and I stayed that way until 6:30 the next morning Taiwan time. God is so good!

Bro. and Sis. Bracken have done so much to make me feel loved and welcome in this new place. I greatly appreciate their hospitality, kindness and thoughtfulness.

Talk to you soon - Kate

P.S. Sorry the pics aren't up yet ... I hope to have them up shortly. Thanks for your patience. :)