Well I am typing my first blog ever here in the hotel in Taiwan. I can not promise it will be as funny or as eloquent as Ronny's but it is me. Our plane ride was long and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to lay flat again. The first plane ride the kids rode behind us and I think Reagan and opened and shut her lap desk about thousand times. Gavin asked what time it was where we were and where we were going about every five minutes. They were so excited. When we got to Los Angeles we had a small snack and I tried to shop one last time to spend my birthday money in the airport shops. No luck though. Our flight to San Fransisco was a quick one. As we had to walk from place to place in the airports I cursed myself for over filling my carry on. By the way I never once got anything out of it on any part of our journey. The international check in weighed it because they had a weight limit on carry ons and it weighed 25 pounds. Ten pounds over the limit so I removed a few items to get it to pass and then put them back in after we walked away. During our flight to Taiwan they announced that someone was in need of a doctor and all I could think was please to make us stop somewhere and delay our trip any longer I want to shower and sleep. Once we had landed for a brief moment I thought "Do we really need to go home for Christmas? That would mean I have to make this trip three other times before we were done." My first impressions of Taiwan are that the scenery reminds me a little of Hawaii and the humidity reminds me of Houston. The kids were shocked that there were no seat belts in the back of the van. Once we got to the Hotel all I could think about was a shower and a nap. The rooms are large and very nice. The kids have 2 king size beds in their room and Keely has convinced her siblings that she needs her own bed. Oh well let her live for a couple of days. She will be sharing a double with her sister at the apartment. When we ventured out yesterday the city was busy. And let me just say full of mopeds. I have never seen so many mopeds especially parked on the sidewalk. We did lots of walking and enjoyed seeing the city on our walk to the movies. The kids definitely gave us a scare last night as we tried to wake them and could not. The hotel staff was very helpful and patient but I am sure they had a good laugh about those crazy Americans. I can't wait to see what the day will bring today. Everything is so new and different right now and I am enjoying every minute of it. As I eat each meal yesterday and today I think to myself what are we going to do when we get to our apartment what am I going to make for meals? We shall see. I guess I will figure out something. Bye for now.
After a tiring, but almost uneventful flight (I say almost uneventful because about halfway during the flight, somewhere over the pacific, a flight attendant actually got on the p.a. and asked "Is there a doctor in the house?" Turns out, it was something minor, but makes you think about those long trans-oceanic flights with nowhere to land, eh?), we got to our hotel (Sunworld Dynasty Hotel) around 5:45 AM.
Another pleasant surprise was how easy it was to get through immigration (5 passports, 5 visas, 5 people), retrieve our 13 pieces of luggage, go through customs, get the luggage and tired kids on the van and get to the hotel. We were literally at the hotel in a little over an hour from the time we left the plane.
We got to the hotel and immediately enjoyed the breakfast buffet before we even went to our rooms. The breakfast buffet at the Sunworld Dynasty is legendary (at least to me) for two reasons: the wide array of both Western and Eastern choices and the price (included with your stay). From fresh fruits, cheeses, and even vegetables, to a ham carving station, congee (rice porridge), and even fried rice, this is a breakfast buffet to experience.
Before we could even get into our rooms, the bellhops were there with our luggage. We got the kids settled into their room and then we settled into ours. After a quick but much-needed shower, we took a quick 3 hour power nap.
For lunch we ventured out of the hotel to a large shopping center next door called Asiaworld. We found the food court and decided to foregoMcDonalds and Subway (much to the kids' chagrin) and try the local ShabuShabu (aka Hot Pot) establishment. The fresh meats and vegetables in the hot broth were exactly what we all needed after a long day.
The Hot Pot experience is very much like Western fondue, you know, like The Melting Pot. There is a boiling pot of broth in the middle of the table and you order the types of ingredients you want to cook in the broth. The meat comes out sliced very thin and you can order all types of seafood, beef, chicken, pork, and lamb. I ordered the spicy broth and much to my surpise there was some blood pudding in the bottom. I've had this before and I believe it is made of either duck's blood or pig's blood and is mixed with a flour-like substance. It has a pudding-like consistency and doesn't really have a taste. I suppose this is one more way to use every part of the animal. This is Amy's experience - I have to hand it to her - she actually tried it, which is a long way from the girl I married 15 years ago:
This is the plate with all the fresh, uncooked vegetables to go into the broth. There is cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms, tomato, and even a slice of some kind of squash (our personal veggie favorite):
Here is the broth in action. The milder broth is on the left, sepearated from the spicy broth, on the right. The broth was delicious and you could spoon it out and eat it like a soup:
If you think Gavin is thin now, wait until the next time you see him. Here he is pretending to enjoy the Hot Pot, while every once in a while stealing a look over to the McDonald's:
Keely was most at home with this odd concoction and Reagan found ways to really enjoy it. The wispy apparition is the steam emanating from the boiling broth:
All in all, our lunch was very delicious. For desert, the kids went across the way to a bakery and our hostess at the ShabuShabu restaurant was really pushing the "ice cream". Amy eventually relented and when the ice cream came out it was a purplish-color:
Turns out it was sesame ice cream and it was delicious! So I had one too:
After lunch we were tired and jet-lagged so instead of walking around in the heat, I thought we would find a movie theater and go see a movie. With the help of the hotel concierge, we found one that was about a mile or so away and we headed off in that direction. Little did we know what an adventure it would be.
We found the shopping center (The Breeze Center) and we saw the signs advertising the different movies that were either playing or coming soon. What was missing? The actual theater and the place to buy tickets. After wandering around we finally found the place to buy tickets, but there wasn't an obvious door to go through to get to the movie theater. So we entered the shopping center and looked around. Unsuccessful, we went back outside and wandered around again, thinking the whole time, how hard can it be to find a modern multiplex?
Well it turns out it can be pretty hard if the theaters are on the top floors of the shopping center. We finally discovered that we needed to take the elevator to the top two floors. OK, no problem. We get in the elevator and we discover that it doesn't GO to the top two floors. So there we are in this crowded elevator and finally a younger local girl takes pity on us and explains how to get there - go to the sixth floor and then take the escalators up to the top.
We saw The Dark Knight. Like most movies, it was in English with Chinese subtitles. (For the record, I thought Heath Ledger was brilliant and the movie was okay. The story was too complicated for a comic book movie and it moved too quickly to wrap things up nicely. Don't confuse an outstanding performance with a decent movie.)
After the movie we walked back to the hotel. It was about 5:00 PM when we got back and none of us were hungry but we were all exhausted so we decided to take a quick nap before dinner. We set the alarm for 8:00 PM and were just going to go in the hotel somewhere for a quick dinner and then retire once more.
At 8:00 PM we grudgingly arose and subsequently called the kids next door to make sure they were awake. No answer. I called again. No answer. I called again and let it ring this time - and after a solid minute or so, no answer. Amy went next door and tried the key - didn't work. You could hear the phone ringing in the room. She knocked and rang the doorbell for several minutes.
No answer.
Amy went downstairs to get a new key. It didn't work either. She went back down and brought somebody up with her because by now it had been a solid 20 minutes since we started this ordeal. The hotel person had a master key and unlocked the door, but the door was chained (just like we told them to do). The hotel guy looked at me with a bewildered look. I stuck my face in the crack between the door and the door jamb and started calling out their names. After a few minutes of this (phone still ringing by the way) I hear this weak and stifled "eeerrrrruuugggh" from the room.
Reagan finally came to the door and let us in. I profusely thanked the hotel employee, thoroughly embarrassed and proceeded to chew some butt. All three kids looked like they were just awoken from a winter-long hibernation.
So much for our quick dinner. By the time we got them awake, I was FULLY awake and mad, my heart racing like I just ran a marathon through the city. We went ahead and ate at the hotel and that was our first mistake of the day. The buffet was not as plentiful as breakfast. There was no cornucopia of western and eastern foods spilling out for all to behold. Instead it was all very blech and it cost me a whopping $150. Tired and disappointed, we retired for a full night's sleep.
This morning we awoke at about 4:00 AM. Not great, but not too bad either. At about 4:30 AM, there was a loud BOOM (OK it sounded like an explosion) and the hotel shook. At about 4:30 and 5 seconds, the phone rang with the kids asking what it was. We didn't know. There were never any sirens, so who knows what it was... Maybe it was the sound the Taiwanese GNP makes when Apple sends a money transfer (iPhones and various Apple trinkets are manufactured here).
By5:00 AM, the sun was rising in the sky and we could see the city from our balcony. Not too far away, The Taipei Arena was already lit up like a Christmas Tree, advertising movies, upcoming events, and even TV's (pictured). Off in the distance, Taipei 101 was rising from the early morning haze, ready to face another day as one of the tallest buildings in the world:
Not sure what today will bring - I'm hoping we'll venture out via the MRT (train). Tomorrow morning is when we move into our apartment - even after only 1 day in the hotel I'm dying for that to happen quickly. So until next time...
(You can see all the pictures from this post here.)
The plane ride from San Francisco to Taipei was uneventful for the most part. 12 hours or so. Not something you want to do every day. Luckily I got about 6 hours of sleep, which is a record for me. Even so I am still looking forward to a nap in a real bed later today.
Well we made it to SFO. We are all tired and cranky and tired of listening to Keely cough. I am sure others are too. Of course, the 14 hour flight is next so that will be the test. They may ask to jettison her cough along with her and if they catch us at the right time we might just say...
All in all a good trip so far. We are beyond tired and hoping to sleep on the next leg of the trip. We leave at 1:40 AM PST and arrive in Taipei at 5:20 AM their time.
After a short, almost 3 hour flight we are in Los Angeles preparing for a quick trip to San Franciso. So far the trip has been event-less save for the incessant questions about time and what not from the peanut gallery (Reagan and Gavin). They got cookies on this flight so they were generally happy. Next stop: San Fran.
Now if only you could check kids. :) 350 bucks lighter, our luggage is now checked. Thats a relief. Only 2 bags were over weight which makes me think we could have gotten a few more things in our luggage. Next stop is Los Angeles.
Well it turns out that it is a good thing we're arriving on Wednesday morning because it looks like Taiwan is shut down today because of Typhoon Fung-Wong (Chinese for Phoenix). 28 inches of rain and hurricane force winds? Sheesh. The forecast says it will be in China by Wednesday so hopefully this won't interupt our plans too much.
We are now about 8 hours from our first of 3 flights in the next day or so. We fly from Austin to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Taipei. We are still not sure if all of our stiuff is going to fit on the plane or how much the new baggage fees will cost us. It will definitely be an adventure in more ways than one. By this time tomorrow we will onlybe about 1/3rd through our flight to Taipei. I will keep you updated on our progress throughout the next few days.
After our last Mexican Food lunch for a while (with the neighbors) we are making a quick trip to Brenham to have dinner with mom and dad and James and Kristi.
Today we started the almost 2 day process of saying our last goodbyes and stretching the limits of both our baggage and the airline's baggage policy. I have often seen people in airports struggling with obscene amounts of luggage and cursed them under my breath for clogging up a system that is generally already over-clogged. Tomorrow I become that person.
The realtor took these pictures for me so that I could show them to Amy. Evidently women stick together, even when they are complete strangers from other sides of the planet. The apartment that we'll be living in has four bedrooms and a central "great" room that consists of kitchen/dining/living areas. There are two bathrooms.
The lady who owns the apartment is moving to mainland China to be closer to her family. She had recently bought new appliances for the apartment, but can't take them to China because of the differences in power supplies. So she graciously offered to leave them for us. She is very nice and I think we're lucky to have a great landlord like her for a year in Taipei.
Earlier this year we made the decision to move from Pflugerville to Granbury. We bought land right down the street from Grandmommy and Granddaddy. We put together a set of plans for our "dream house". We even worked with a local bank in Granbury to get a construction loan started and the papers are sitting in my office at home right now, burning a hole in my credit report, unsigned.
And then came all the work on the Pflugerville house to get it on the market. It has now been on the market for about 2 months and a grand total of 3 potential buyers have walked through it. Then just last week I read a report that stated the market in Texas is starting to go soft, even in the hotter markets in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. Sure, there are some hot spots, but ours isn't one of them.
So we've been stressing over the decision to start building in Granbury. Do we? Don't we? After looking at all the data and the direction of the market I think we've decided to take the conservative (read: smart) route and not start the construction in Granbury until we've sold the house in Pflugerville.
So things were up in the air. Amy has quit her teaching job in Pflugerville and still hasn't heard from GranburyISD. At some point we have to make the decision to move the family to Granbury and get the kids in school in the hopes that the house sells. If we stay in Pflugerville then what happens when the house sells?
Quite a conundrum.
In the meantime, my company has been asking me for a few months to move to Taipei for a while to get more intimate with that side of the business and the culture. I've been saying no, mainly because of our plans to move to Granbury. I was sure our house was going to sell and we'd be living in Granbury before the Summer was up.
So about 4 weeks ago, we decided to take them up on the offer and move to Taipei for a year starting on August 1st. Since then it has been a whirlwind of planning and paperwork. I happened to be in Taipei the first week of June so I went ahead and found a four bedroom apartment that is only about a 5 minute walk to the school. I also checked out the school and I was very impressed.
The name of the school is the Taipei American School and it will be a great experience for the kids. It's a private school that mainly exists for American expatriates in Taiwan. It was originally founded by the U.S. State Department but has since gone private. It serves Pre-K through 12th Grade and has over a thousand students.
So the amended plan for the Great Move of 2008 is as follows:
Move to Taipei
Sell the house while in Taipei
Start building in Granbury next Spring
Move into the Granbury house when we return from Taipei next Summer.
It looks like we're taking the long way to get from Pflugerville to Granbury, but it will be worth it. I'll be posting more updates here in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
