On Tuesday night, we finished packing up our bags and our friend Seth drove us to the Seattle airport. I was rather proud of my packing attempt, as this is our first international trip and we were packing for three people.
Seth dropped us off at the terminal at 9:30 and our flight didn’t board until 1:30AM. The ticket agent was really nice and we had no problems getting our boarding passes printed and our bags checked. I was a bit worried our big suitcase was too heavy but it came in under the weight limit. Whew!
We sat around for a few hours, mainly just people watching. We were at the airport so late that we couldn’t order anything to eat or drink and finally had to get water out of a vending machine. What a ripoff! $1.50 for a little bottle of water. But we were thirsty and didn’t really have a choice.
Boarding went smoothly and we were thrilled to discover that the flight was not completely full. We had no seat mate so had three seats between the two of us. The seats were comfy and we each had our own little display.
The goal was to stay awake through the first meal and then try to sleep as much as possible. Our adoption coordinator suggested that we sleep on the flight and then stay awake all day long to try to shift our bodies to Taiwan’s timezone. It was hard staying awake until the first meal but we were hungry!
Dinner was fantastic! It was an interesting mix of American and Chinese food and all of it (except dessert) was delicious. I have no idea what the dessert was but my husband joked that it tasted like hardened jello flavored with cornstarch. Poor dessert!
I had fun watching the flight progress on my video screen. Surprisingly, I didn’t watch any movies. Toward the end of the flight, Jeff and I watched a half hour episode on great Taipei eats. That made us hungry again. Haha.
It was fun seeing that we flew over Japan. When I looked out the window, I saw a couple of lights below and waved to the tiny town we were flying over. Someday we’ll actually visit!
Breakfast was congee, a Chinese savory rice dish. I’ve never had congee, but if this was authentic, I want to learn how to make it. It was fantastic!!
We landed in Taipei to a beautiful sunrise. I was so excited to finally be in the same country as my daughter.
Immigration went pretty well, though I did not realize there was a form I was supposed to fill out before talking to the immigration officer. He kicked me out of line and told me to come back with the completed form. He was nice enough about it but I was a bit embarrassed. Five minutes later, we ended up with a different immigration officer who asked how long I was staying and another question I’ve already forgotten. Thankfully I was able to answer satisfactorily and she waved me through! While talking with the officer, she took our photo and scanned our fingerprints. I had a bit of trouble with the fingerprinting machine but the third time’s the charm.
Baggage claim was easy and we found our hotel driver quickly. 40 minutes later and we were at our hotel! We are staying at the Howard Hotel and I would completely recommend it to other adoptive families. The front desk staff are extremely kind and the concierge has been invaluable. The room is pretty nice, though we’ve yet to sleep on the bed. It’s not as soft as our bed at home but the pillows are fluffy.
I am in love with the bath tub in our room! And I have to include a picture of the toilet, simply because it’s a novelty to us as westerners. I have yet to figure out any of the advanced functions but the heated seat would be wonderful in the middle of Seattle’s winter!
We are on the seventh floor and the view from our hotel is marvelous!
This post is really long so I’m going to end here and write another about our day. I am so excited to finally be in Taiwan!
