We're Here!

And we look half-way decent for traveling for a day and a half!

Oh my goodness - WHAT a day we've had.

I'll begin in Seattle...

We arrived in Seattle and headed immediately to baggage claim since we needed to get our luggage and recheck it with our new airline for Taiwan. As we were waiting, Andy made a joke, "I predict one of our bags doesn't come." And I'm thinking, ha. ha. ha. So we waited at our conveyor belt... one came out (our bag with books and shoes). And we wait. And we wait. And then, the conveyor belt stops. The terror set in. We were missing two bags.

Now I've never had any missing luggage before, so I freaked out because any time you lose luggage, it's inconvenient. But when you are moving overseas, it's a disaster. LONG story short, Alaska Airlines lost our bag (it ended up in Ontario). When we asked to file a claim with them, they refused, instead telling us we needed to file it with our next airline, EVA. When we got to EVA, they literally laughed in our faces and told us that Alaskan is full of nonsense and we have to file with them. SO, we spent 3 hours running back and forth, getting angry at agents, getting angry at one another, all the while, trying not to miss our 2 a.m. flight. Bottom line: we filed a claim with Alaskan and with EVA once in Taiwan... that and we apologized to each other.

Our flight to Taiwan was long - 11.5 hours. But we took sleeping pills and slept almost the whole way (which was best because we arrived in Taiwan @ 4:30 a.m. - there is a 13 hour difference between us and Chicago). However, now my ankles are swollen to the size of large grapefruits from sitting up all day and night. Uh. Don't worry Carol, I'm keeping them elevated. One interesting fact of the plane ride was breakfast. The flight attendant called it "rice soup." Really, it was an oatmeal-like dish, made of rice, mushrooms, and fish. Then you sprinkle a Ramen-like substance in for flavor. REALLY interesting and kinda tasty if you like fish, which I do.

Once in Taipei, Taiwan we found our bus:

And got excited once we were on our way...

And took in our first glimpses of Taiwan... (I'm not sure what the below advertisement is for, but it sure is fun... along with the lime green bus seats)

The bus was great---so easy and comfortable, and they even showed "Music and Lyrics" with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. The speakers, if we so desired, were actually located in the seat headrest. Interesting huh? Anyways, now we have "POP! Goes my heart" in our heads.

Ok... this is getting long so I'll wrap up. We met Jill, from the school, at the bus stop and proceeded to our HUGE apartment. It is 4 bedrooms, living room, laundry, kitchen - all for just us!! You could fit 3 of our old apartments in this thing. Once we got settled, Jill took us to the grocery store, where EVERYTHING is in Mandarin and odd shaped containers... so we took our best guess as to what we were buying for lunch and came home.

Well, I finally feel a bit calm now that we're here. We were able to shower and wash our clothes since we both only have the clothes on our backs from the next 3-5 days. Pray we get our bags! And we are trying to stay awake to avoid jet lag.

Next on the agenda is exploring a huge fruit market and another "afternoon market" which is supposed to have all sorts of treasures (i.e. lots of raw meats).

Don't worry, pictures are to come.