By the time most of you get to work, grab your coffee, then sit down to read this.... I'll be on a plane from Taipei to San Francisco. I actually travel BACKWARDS IN TIME on this trip - I leave Taiwan at 11pm Thursday evening, arrive in San Francisco at 8:30pm Thursday evening. One would think there could be a way to win the lotto or gamble on some sporting event in order to take advantage of this opportunity. Also means that I will see two sunrises and two sunsets, all on "Thursday".
I will not blog next week while in the US. My hours will be messed up anyways, but I figure I should spend the time home with Sarah and not on my computer! Hope you all have a good weekend and a great 4th of July!!!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Coming Home Tomorrow
In my usual style (that drives Sarah crazy) - I have yet to pack a thing for my trip tomorrow:) The driver will pick me up in about 24 hours - I suppose I should figure out what all I'm bringing home. It actually isn't much since I have a lot of clothes sitting in Rochester. Any requests from Taiwan? It has to be something from 7-11 or on my walk to the subway:) haha!!
Typhoon didn't even come close to Taiwan - now I have a plethora of rice and Pepsi. I figured if I was trapped all day and the stores weren't open, I could survive for a day on rice and Pepsi. Didn't occur to me later that I wouldn't be able to steam the rice if the electricity went out. I probably flunked my practice run for my first Typhoon. I'll do better next time!! At least my cleaning lady was able to make it on schedule and catch me up on my ironing... I was worried I'd have to do some of my own ironing!!! Yet another thing that drives Sarah crazy!!
After having a very unique experience this past weekend, this upcoming weekend will only involve driving a U-Haul for a day, then a pool party, then driving to Iowa for the week of the 4th. Somewhere there's a 14 hour plane ride as well. I ended up finding a flight from here to San Francisco, then a red eye flight to Chicago Thursday night/Friday morning. I hate red eye flights!!! But good stuff will be waiting for me once I get to Chicago.
Hope everyone is having a good week. My pastor here in Taiwan emailed me today to see how I was and how my friends/family in the MidWest floods were doing. He said they prayed for everyone again at church this past Sunday even though I was not there! Thought that was pretty amazing.
I'm off to watch Wimbledon and then to bed - Not sure I'm a fan of Sharapova's tuxedo shirt for playing Tennis.... I think it'll be Nadal and Federer in the final again.
Typhoon didn't even come close to Taiwan - now I have a plethora of rice and Pepsi. I figured if I was trapped all day and the stores weren't open, I could survive for a day on rice and Pepsi. Didn't occur to me later that I wouldn't be able to steam the rice if the electricity went out. I probably flunked my practice run for my first Typhoon. I'll do better next time!! At least my cleaning lady was able to make it on schedule and catch me up on my ironing... I was worried I'd have to do some of my own ironing!!! Yet another thing that drives Sarah crazy!!
After having a very unique experience this past weekend, this upcoming weekend will only involve driving a U-Haul for a day, then a pool party, then driving to Iowa for the week of the 4th. Somewhere there's a 14 hour plane ride as well. I ended up finding a flight from here to San Francisco, then a red eye flight to Chicago Thursday night/Friday morning. I hate red eye flights!!! But good stuff will be waiting for me once I get to Chicago.
Hope everyone is having a good week. My pastor here in Taiwan emailed me today to see how I was and how my friends/family in the MidWest floods were doing. He said they prayed for everyone again at church this past Sunday even though I was not there! Thought that was pretty amazing.
I'm off to watch Wimbledon and then to bed - Not sure I'm a fan of Sharapova's tuxedo shirt for playing Tennis.... I think it'll be Nadal and Federer in the final again.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Journey To Middle Earth Day #2
Typhoon update... looks like it's headed west of here:
Which considering my desire to get home in a few days, that's fine by me. I'm sure we'll have other Typhoons to experience in the next 15 months. As for the common question "what do you do for a Typhoon in Taiwan" that I've heard a lot this week.... guess we'll have to wait a while.
So back to this past weekend..... Joys and his family picked me up from the "Honeymoon hotel room" that I had (Kingsized bed, blue mood lights, circle couch, hottub, shower with massager) and we headed into the mountains for the day. I only knew that we'd see mountains that day. They didn't tell me anything else.
On our path upwards, we stopped by Sun Moon Lake. This is famous all over Taiwan and honestly, as beautiful as an area as I've seen in a while. The reason for the name is that the lake used to have a shape that half of it looked like a sun, half of it looked like a moon. Then there was a big earthquake that messed it all up, but i guess you can still kind of see that thought process. But it was very peaceful up there. There are yearly opportunities to swim across it, or bike/run around it.... the hotels in that area are some of the most expensive ones on the island though ($300 US a night!).
Onward we went - as we climbed the mountain, we pulled into a parking lot. I looked up and saw a UFO ride and realized we had come to an amusement park in the middle of the mountains. It was very much unexpected, but a LOT of fun! There were water rides (no lines at all all day), rollercoasters, fair food, shops, shows with singing/dancing.... imagine Adventureland but in the mountains, and a lot more fun! haha - have to throw in the Adventureland references now and then.
The park was not overly busy (which is my usual complaint of six-flags, etc.) and the hot sun was offset by a nice breeze in the mountains. The view was magnificent, even as the water coaster rolled backwards with the only thing we could see was the mountains and trees below. The kids loved it of course, and I had a great time too. Enjoy the pictures!
So it's late and I was distracted with work for a while so I'm behind on my blog and late to get to bed. Follow along with the pictures, you'll figure it out!
I'm headed home in about 48 hours.... can you believe it?
Which considering my desire to get home in a few days, that's fine by me. I'm sure we'll have other Typhoons to experience in the next 15 months. As for the common question "what do you do for a Typhoon in Taiwan" that I've heard a lot this week.... guess we'll have to wait a while.
So back to this past weekend..... Joys and his family picked me up from the "Honeymoon hotel room" that I had (Kingsized bed, blue mood lights, circle couch, hottub, shower with massager) and we headed into the mountains for the day. I only knew that we'd see mountains that day. They didn't tell me anything else.
On our path upwards, we stopped by Sun Moon Lake. This is famous all over Taiwan and honestly, as beautiful as an area as I've seen in a while. The reason for the name is that the lake used to have a shape that half of it looked like a sun, half of it looked like a moon. Then there was a big earthquake that messed it all up, but i guess you can still kind of see that thought process. But it was very peaceful up there. There are yearly opportunities to swim across it, or bike/run around it.... the hotels in that area are some of the most expensive ones on the island though ($300 US a night!).
Onward we went - as we climbed the mountain, we pulled into a parking lot. I looked up and saw a UFO ride and realized we had come to an amusement park in the middle of the mountains. It was very much unexpected, but a LOT of fun! There were water rides (no lines at all all day), rollercoasters, fair food, shops, shows with singing/dancing.... imagine Adventureland but in the mountains, and a lot more fun! haha - have to throw in the Adventureland references now and then.
The park was not overly busy (which is my usual complaint of six-flags, etc.) and the hot sun was offset by a nice breeze in the mountains. The view was magnificent, even as the water coaster rolled backwards with the only thing we could see was the mountains and trees below. The kids loved it of course, and I had a great time too. Enjoy the pictures!
So it's late and I was distracted with work for a while so I'm behind on my blog and late to get to bed. Follow along with the pictures, you'll figure it out!
I'm headed home in about 48 hours.... can you believe it?
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