Hello Taiwan

Guess what it's doing in Taipei?

That's right it's raining.

Though even with the rain this place is great. I think we'll have no trouble coming back here and having a great time once Ehren is older. God willing everything goes so smoothly with AIT that we won't have time to even scratch the surface of Taipei which will leave us plenty to do on our next trip.

The only difficulty is that everything is in Chinese and almost nothing is in English. Thailand was a breeze because 80% of everything was translated. I can't imagine this being the first international city you ever visit. For us it just means a much greater sense of accomplishment when you figure something out. We were able to buy our train tickets to Taitung and make a payphone call to the person meeting us when we arrive... all without any English. You would have thought we had negotiated peace between two unstable governments. It makes travel feel new and exciting.

One other thing of note is everyone is in winter coats here. I don't exactly know the temperature but I'm in short sleeves and in a really crowded place I still sweat. I know it gets very hot here so this is their winter temperature but a fur lined jacket? Really? We only brought Ehren short sleeves so we may have to find him a jacket.

While we stopped for some ice cream there was a little girl sleeping on the bench next to us. She was probably a year old and Joshua and I just stared at her. Her mom was probably keeping an eye on us thinking we were going to try to grab her and run. Don't think the idea didn't cross our minds. I'm having trouble sleeping I just can't wait to get Ehren.

Tomorrow is the train ride and then Monday is the big day. I don't know exactly the time but if you think about it on Sunday night probably 8 or 9 send some prayers our way that everything goes smoothly for Ehren. This is going to be a pretty traumatic experience to be ripped from the only people he has known and given to these strangers who smell and sound funny. If all the adults in this metropolitan city stare at us, I can't imagine what a six month old will think.