Skip to main content

Taiwan 365

Well, here we go, checking in at the Austin airport, departing for our one year stay in Taiwan. We left Friday the 13th at about 7:30 pm on American Airlines to LA. We could each check two bags weighing no more than 61 pounds each and could bring one carry-on weighing 15 pounds or less. We flew on EVA Air from Los Angeles and flew in the middle of the night, from 1:30 am Saturday morning, arriving 12 hours later, which turned out to be arriving in Taipei on Sunday morning at 5:30 am. There was a driver waiting for us with a sign that had the company name on it with Kelly's name. I waved to him then he greeted us and escorted us to the curb while he picked up the black Mercedes minivan, which we filled to the max with all of our luggage and ourselves. He drove us to our hotel in Hsinchu, where we will be living.
This is the street where our hotel is, on Guang-Fu Lu (Lu means road).
The first thing that the staff suggested the morning that we arrived is that we help ourselves to the breakfast buffet.
There's always fresh tropical fruit each day. Lindsey loves the dark purple fruit that tastes a lot like kiwi. It's called fire dragon fruit and is really good. It also comes in a white variety which she isn't as fond of. The pineapple in the forefront is not as yellow as the Hawaiian pineapple that we're used to, but tastes almost identical, and is possibly slightly sweeter. The starfruit tastes a bit like grapes.
It's definitely not anything like a breakfast buffet in the United States.
I'm not positive, but this stuff could be Japanese.
The hot items seems like lunch or dinner fare.
I've eaten fried rice every day since I got here as my main course.
There's been bacon a couple of times, which seems more familiar to me.
I've enjoyed the steamed cabbage with spicy peppers.
They make these fried eggs and serve them at room temperature, but a couple of times, I have caught them when they're hot.
The Taiwanese aren't much into desserts, probably because they don't have ovens, but this is the tray that Christopher always hits each morning, nabbing one of each of these. I haven't tasted them, but he likes them very well apparently.
Here's our table that we sit at every morning for breakfast, which is served between 7 am and 10 am. It's our biggest meal of the day.
We're staying at the Kingdom Hotel, or as the sign on the front of the building says, King Dom. There is a lot of inconsistency in how words are spelled, which makes the GPS directions hard to find.
This is the first place we ate, which is about a ten minute walk from our hotel. There are a ton of little restaurants and most have pictures on them to attract customers. We looked at the pictures and thought the noodle bowls looked decent. Lindsey loves this place, the Fish Noodle restaurant, and has gone back another time for lunch. (Note: I added all these pictures after my original post, which starts after this photo.)
Today was our first day of living in Taiwan, 364 to go. My body clock is all messed up and I should be sleeping now. My first impressions are pretty good, although I'm having a hard time wondering how I'm going to survive (and thrive) one year of this completely foreign environment. Tomorrow we will go apartment hunting and look at three different schools for Christopher. I only ate one meal today, which was a soupy lamb with broth and noodles. It was pretty good, but I'm not a huge fan of noodles. It was served in a large bowl with chopsticks and a big spoon and I tried to not look hideous splashing my food as I was trying to eat the way those around me were. We all had a similar noodle bowl. Kelly ordered beef and the kids got a curry chicken noodle concoction. It's Sunday, and since we had just arrived and haven't acclimated, we didn't try to find a place to go to church. It'll be a busy day tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers that we can feel good about the decisions we make regarding where to live and where to send Christopher to school.

Comments

Julie V. said…
Glad you made it safe. Have a great week and good luck finding a good school for Christopher.
Texas Dimons said…
What a great experience! Glad you made it safe.
Texas Dimons said…
What a great experience! Glad you made it safe.
Cassie said…
What a fun adventure for you guys! Sad we weren't able to connect here in Austin.
Bobbi said…
Wait--the last post was stuffed peppers and now you are already in Taiwan?! What about Lindsay, and how did the packing go and...good luck!!! I can't wait to hear details.
Jennifer said…
Wow...this all happened so fast, Kelly! I can't believe you guys are already over there. How exciting! Can't wait to hear about all your adventures this week. :-)
Jess said…
Hope you are doing well!!! :)
Unknown said…
The other Kelly told me about this blog :-). I enjoyed reading all of them and all the pictures posted. My best wishes for a wonderful stay there! And I am sure I will be back to see all the fun things you guys did.

Popular posts from this blog

Book of Mormon Stories Pool Party!

Hopefully this title, Book of Mormon Stories Pool Party , does not sound irreverent, because as an Activity Days leader, I felt compelled to come up with a fun end-of-the-summer event that is also uplifting, and after all, who doesn't love a splash in the pool on a hot day in August?  My current church calling, or official role that I volunteer for, allows me to plan two activities each month for girls ages 8 to 11, that will encourage them to learn and live the gospel, serve others, and use the talents Heavenly Father has given them, to learn to do many good things.  This year's seminary course of study for high school students is The Book of Mormon, and since I am a huge fan of this inspired book of scripture, I came up with this idea to have each girl show up to my house with a written summary of one of her favorite stories from within its many pages, and share it with the rest of the girls, while outside in our swimsuits near our backyard swimming pool!  As each girl shares

Our new daughter!

This picture was taken at church a few days ago while Kelly was on his way to the US for work this week. We have some wonderful news to share.  We are adopting 7-year-old Yeh Min Yu, who has been in our home off and on the last couple of months.  There's a lot that goes into making this official, dealing with US Homeland Security to arrange for her immigration visa, Taiwan courts and Chinese documents, getting a home study done by a licensed, qualified person, applying for a passport.  You have no idea.  I'll be glad when it's all done, but I couldn't wait to share this bit of joy with everyone.  We will name her Hannah to go on her new US birth certificate.  She's excited and nervous to go to America with us.  She can say more than 100 words in English so far.  Some of her favorite things to say are "small dog, butterfly, apple, pig."  She says it more like pig-uh.  We love her and feel this is one of the reasons we came to Taiwan.  Who would have thoug

Elder Larson to return from Thailand soon

Soon is relative, I suppose. Our son has been away from home more than a year and a half as he has been volunteering as a full-time missionary in the Thailand Bangkok Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since September 14, 2016. He will be home in four months and is working so hard, knowing his time there is winding down. He has been assigned to train Elder Ben Meyer, from Sydney, Australia, as they serve in Ubon, Thailand. Christopher has been there since November. We are very proud of his dedication and hard work. This week in Thailand, the new prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, with his wife, Wendy Nelson, along with one of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and his wife, Patricia Holland, will be on their world ministering tour and be where our son is. The Church members and missionaries in Thailand are very excited and happy for this special visit! I can't wait to hear how it goes, and I look forward to pictures and stories to come.