And Here We Are!!

                                   Our hotel -- Hotel Fullon Sanyin

                 The entrance to Taipei University --- I'm sure this is just one campus, not the main one.

   The boulevard a few blocks from our hotel where Paul and Alana's school and apartment are.

   Tim in the distance down the boulevard, with the wide sidewalks and many sculptures.

                             Tim with sculptures

    The benches all along the boulevard are inlaid with pretty mosaics

         another view down the boulevard sidewalks, with the benches.

                                Uncle Sam American School!!!

                     Front entrance of the school - gate and sidewalk to front doors.

          the park right next to the school

              Street scene with scooters ---- by the way, Paul bought a scooter on Friday!!!

                    Alana taking us to lunch and trying to find a bank to change travelers' checques.

             The "Times Square" of Taipei ----Xinden -

                                      Xinden night life

                     Heading to dinner in Xinden

   Tim and Paul in the subway (MRT) with a cool sign in the background - the dots move across.

                    The front of our hotel at night.


Yes indeed, here we are in Taiwan!!  We are in the business center at our hotel, and have finally figured out how to get online to add a post.  We'll probably have to wait until we can get on Paul and Alana's computer sometime to add photo and video posts, but for now at least we can add some comments.  It is really strange having everything on a computer screen in Chinese, so nothing looks the same, even our own blog!!  But now we are in English, so we're good to go!! 

A quick recap......

• We had a great 4th of July barbeque at the Lindens with many of Lute's friends and families, and the Hope Crew came too.  A lively whiffle ball game and back-yard fireworks kept us entertained. 
• Tim and I may or may not have been up a little late Monday night packing!!  (O.K. yes.)
• Tuesday morning, we bid adieu to the Hope gang and Lute, and were picked up by our chauffeurs, Grammy and Papa for the trip to the Des Moines International Airport at 10:00.
• Our flights went smoothly all the way, and we were fed much more than we'd anticipated!  The free baggage for international flights was nice!!  We got to Minneapolis in an hour, had lunch, refilled our water bottles, and it was only about an hour and a half layover.  The flight to Tokyo was LONG (14 hours), but no problem.  We slept early in the flight as much as possible, so we could be awake the last 12 hours (daytime on Taiwan time!!), theoretically to be ready to sleep well on arrival and get adjusted to the time change.  We also kept the window shade open the whole way, which kept us in sunshine the whole time, so it helped us feel like we should be awake.  We read books, did Sudokus, caught up on the Des MOines Register from the weekend, chatted, and enjoyed all the meals.  We saw Lake Winnepeg --- Paul/Beth/Lute, do you remember our fun vacation there??  We did have a beautiful view of the Alaskan Rockies -- far above the sights that Deb and Grandma enjoyed earlier this month on their cruise!!  Otherwise it was ocean, ocean, ocean after that.  We only had a short time in Tokyo, enough to freshen up a little, walk around a bit, and go to our next flight to Taipei.  Seeing all the signs in multiple Asian characters made us realize, "We're not in Kansas any more, Toto!!"  It was more difficult for me to stay awake on that last leg of the journey (3 hours) because it was dark out, so Tim helped me out by playing cribbage and Battleship.  (Remember those paper templates I made for kids on car trips years ago??  I found them cleaning out the hall closet, so I brought them!)  
• Then when we arrived in Taipei, customs and baggage claim went very smoothly, we changed some money, and then we saw Paul's smiling face in the crowd beyond the barriers!!!   That was the highlight of our travels seeing him wave excitedly at us!!  Soon we found our driver from the hotel and enjoyed our cold water bottles from Paul on our drive into Sanxia (basically a suburb of Taipei).   Paul helped us get checked in and went up to our room with us - it's all great - he and Alana found a nice spot for us!!  We even have Alana's phone so we can keep in touch with them while we're here. 
• Let's just say it didn't take long for us to fall asleep after being up for an extra 13 hours in this LONG travel day!!  We slept well and feel energized this morning.  Our complimentary breakfast was an enormous buffet with scrambled eggs and other typical American items, and MANY very unusual other food choices.  My goal is to try one new unknown food each morning, but I wasn't extremely adventurous today.  :-)   Now we'll get organized for the day.  Paul and Alana will meet us for lunch (they have 12-2 for lunch today, so they'll meet us here and show us how to use the transportation passes they got for us. 

Tim wants me to mention an item he saw in the DM Register .......  Lady Gaga is joining us in Taiwan for 5 days.  Also, the Gideons are alive and well here..... there is a Bible in our room which we are using for devos.  :-)   According to someone we met in line on the way to Taipei, there is a typhoon coming here on Friday too.  Which will have the bigger impact --- Lady Gaga or the typhoon????  :-)  

That's enough for one blog.  Hopefully pics and videos will be possible soon. 
Love,
Michelle and Tim

P.S. - we delivered many hugs from you all when we saw Paul!!  Will do likewise when we see Alana soon!!     :-)