return to taiwan

After much ado of packing and squirreling away the last of my stuff, including Sami, I finally boarded the plane to Taiwan on the eve. of Aug 21 from SLC. My last comp from the mission, Erin Ryser, took me up on the invite to come to Taiwan. We met in the SLC airport and spent the next 24 hrs in airports and planes catching up.

We arrived at 5am in Taipei after a long 12 hr flight (7 hrs of which I slept thanks to my sleeping kit: ear plugs, eye covers, Tylenol PM - all highly recommended). 2 friends from our mission graciously picked us up at the airport, Lu Yanmei and Sister Zhong (Clock) and they wisked us into the city to our hostel. My mouth started getting tired this morning from speaking so much Chinese and it's gladly resting now after a whole day of making these crazy sounds all day.

Our 'private' room for 2 with a bathroom is smaller than my bedroom in High School. But it has an A/C and it's cheap. After showering and napping for an hour we made our way to the neighborhood breakfast shop and savored every bite of dou jiang, shaobing and danbing. YUM!! I have literally dreamed of eating this food for years, and when I wake up it's a cruel joke. Not today!

We then took the MRT (subway) to our old stomping grounds on JinHua Street where the temple and mission office are to meet up with our Chinese mission sisters. I couldn't have had more fun than being with these fine women all day. We laughed and talked and caught up - I'm so grateful I get to see them before heading to China. Refer to photos for the happenings of the day - this jet lag is finally taking over and I think it best to not operate heavy machinery, including a laptop, for now.