Taipei

Most of Our Team at Sea-Tac

Los Hermanos after first landing in Taiwan

The Always Lovely Airline Food

Taipei 101

Ride to Our Hotel

So first off, this is a blog of our Ai-Hsin Trip in Taipei, Taiwan. Hopefully, I can update everyday, but we'll see if time permits. The majority of our team left Seattle at 2:00 am Saturday landed in Taipei on July 15th, 2012 at 5:00 am local time. (Johnathan, Rachel, and the Laws flew earlier.) The flight went well and everyone survived the 11-12 hour flight. I personally enjoy flying and actually got a few hours of sleep. This is in contrast to my wing-man (aka, Allen), who are on his 5th movie by the time we touched down. What hit me first about Taiwan was how green it was. My image of China has always been ?? (Mainland China), which usually lacks anything that is naturally green. I also noted the blue sky, which is a always a rarity in China. (Side-note: the Men's bathrooms were pretty high-tech; the urinals had monitors on them; now I can watch TV while taking my pit stops too :p) We were already bracing ourselves before we took our first steps outside, but the temperature was actually pretty manageable. The adults however, quickly pointed out that 81°F at 5:00 in the morning meant that the infamous heat would be coming. After an hour long bus ride, we reached our hotel/apartments and then set out for breakfast. On the topic of breakfast, the whole team feels like we've being eating all day. With jet lag, the day always feels like its a few hours earlier than it actually is. Example: "Yo, Emily, what time is it? Like 12?" "Actually, its 8:30". Ugh. Either way, breakfast was enjoyable and cheap (of course). Since we did not actually go to the orphanage today, we set out to see a bit of Taipei and get used to used the to using the Taipei MRT (the subways). Since it was the early morning, the streets were not very populated, and we actually got our own private space on the subway (a farcry from the mutated game of Twister that is played on the packed Beijing subways.) We primarily hung  out at Taipei 101, which was formerly the tallest building in the world a few years back. It is also at the heart of Taipei's commercial center, is home to a Nike Store, multiple McDonald's and Cold Stones, as well as American Banking Giant JP Morgan Chase. I didn't know before today, but the a lot of Taipei 101 is a some short of super mall that only has stores with European names. If you enjoy mall therapy and have couple thousand dollars to spend (neither which apply to me), then Taipei 101 could be a field day for you. However, Taipei 101 also has a nice book store (called Page One) and a food court. Page One not only had everything you could find at a Barnes and Nobles, it also had another whole section of Chinese Written books as well as English Books translated into Chinese. Books aside, its always nice to find a public place where there isn't constant noise. The Food Court was pretty awesome in my opinion because of its wide variety of selection. My brother and I opted for a bowl of noodle soup, while some of the ladies chose Japanese Cuisine. Oh, and there was Dylan and Elkan (whom, by the way, we call the "Power Rangers") spent considerable time carefully picking out their lunch today. In the end, the Power Rangers shared a six-piece KFC Fried Chicken. (I know right?) For desert, a lot of us went for some frozen yogurt, which has been all the rage in our Youth Group lately (Don't ask me why; froyo, or any sweets for that matter, aren't really my thing). The was a place called Hielo, which, for the record, Emily claims blows Yougurtland away. "I'll never go back to Yougurtland". Like I said, I don't really know why people care all that much about yogurt. Regardless, the team got back to the hotel after weaving through the  humidity, numerous shopping malls, and the MRT station. By the way, fashion is another difference between Taiwan and Mainland. I have never seen any men wearing the V-neck and patent leather dress shoes combo in Mainland. I figured that I just have to expect to see some more, uh, advanced fashion; especially I saw a guy wearing sandals that Julius Caesar probably wore. At our hotel, we met up with the final member of the team, Rachel. It was a fun day, but the real work begins tomorrow as we will be meeting the orphans for the first time. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Proverbs 31:8-9, "8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Speak up and judge fairly;defend the rights of the poor and needy." Hugs and Kisses Back Home and God Bless.