What's Happening in Taipei This Past Week

Now that I've finished posting about our vacation, it's time to tell you about what this week has been like.

First of all, on our journey back, we got stuck in Korea. I mentioned that... and that Kurtis is here and that with all of us helping out, we put things away in a very speedy manner.

But my living room is still a bit messy... since we have Kurtis' stuff spread out on the floor... plus, I have quite a bit of stuff that I brought back to sell at the Annual Flea Market on 8/31. I have also cleaned out my shoes and will do some more cleaning to see what else I can put on my two tables at the flea market. I have asked others to bring things that morning... and my goal is 7,000 to 12,000NT$! The money will be to support their child care and elderly care programs.

So, we've been back for a week now...

And it's been a great week... tiring, but great. Mom has enjoyed being at her elderly day care. I took her to the doctor today to get more of her 'mind pills'. We are upping the dose to 10mg.

I also took Kurtis to see the dermatologist as he has patchy skin. It turned out to be a fungus and the doctor gave him topical solution. The de-coloration will return in about 6-8 months,but the fungus should be gone in 3-4 weeks. Presently, Kurtis has two students and I hope to get him one or two more. Each student has 90 minutes session each week. I hope he can make about 15,000NT$ per month. That should be plenty of spending money! That is IF I can get him that many students on a regular basis.

As for myself, I started back at NSB and my first three hour class just flew by. I should be starting back with my tutoring next week and also my Bible study groups. I'm still trying to see if I can arrange for transportation for my mom, since I don't want Kurtis to walk in the heat, pushing my mom in the wheelchair from the elderly care center. My brother, James, is still here until August 26th. He goes back and forth... My kids are busy with their activities... but they also don't drive. God will work this out...

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Details of Our Vacation, Part V

After leaving Bar Harbor, we went to St. John's and Halifax!

Both of these ports were great fun... but the best was Halifax as our friends, Caleb and Miki, and their two kids drove all the way from Prince Edward's Island to take us around. It was so much fun to see them.

At both ports, we again shopped and ate...

We then had two days of cruising and were back to Baltimore. Alden and most of the gang went back to Los Angeles after a speedy driving tour of Washington DC.

Gina, Debbie, Mom Bea and the four of us stayed on.

Our first hosts were Brian and Agnes Welch. We met Agnes when she was in Taiwan. She was our roommate and ministered with us at Evergreen. We so enjoyed being with them. We got to do Virtual Reality computer games and go on their zip line! Agnes made dinner and breakfast and we just so enjoyed being with them.

Then Hugo and Liza Yon hosted us for the next four days. Again, they just lavished us with meals and great hospitality as we were camped out in their basement. They even had a special celebration on the day of Mom Bea's 90th birthday. Oh... on Monday, they also hosted a dinner party with friends from Taiwan.

We walked so much while in Washington DC. We even had hot dogs from the sidewalk carts and our car almost got towed. But God watched over us every step of the way. We went to the Library of Congress and got our library card. We went to the Pentagon and the FBI. We went to three Smithsonian's Museums. Mom and Abby went to the White House. We went to every memorial that was on the Mall... and some of the memorials we went to twice, just to see them at night!

We flew back to Los Angeles on July 24th and drove down to San Diego, arriving back in San Diego by 2am of the 25th.

Now... how about the walker?

Well, I've called and talked to so many people. They finally located the walker and told me that it was going to be in San Diego and they will deliver it to Mom Bea's place. On Sunday, I called to ask about the walker. Aunt Ethel told me it arrived but not exactly as I had expected. When I got back to San Diego, Aunt Ethel told me that it was delivered to the wrong house and the person at that house drove over with the walker on Sunday evening! With that last 'straw', I spent the afternoon of July 25th writing a long detailed complaint letter. We will see what American Airlines will do in response.

But overall, the vacation was fabulous... And we all want to go back to explore the East Coast some more or go on another cruise!

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Details of Our Vacation, Part IV

I forgot to mention that at every port, I'd check with the port authority to see if a walker showed up... and I received no text messages or any news and NO walker.

Our next two ports were Portland Maine and Bar Harbor Maine. Both of these places were so beautiful. At Portland Maine, McKenna had read about two places that we had to try -- one sold Whoopie Pies and the other place had Blueberry Donuts. I thought the Whoopie Pies were like Chocolate Twinkies... but the Holy Donuts sold an amazing assortment of donuts... and they were really good. The shops were all right by the port, so it was great walking around.

At Bar Harbor, we found a free bus that took you out to the famous National Park. While others explored the area, I ran the five miles back to the port so that I can go and get Mom Bea off the ship. Because you had to tender out, she didn't want to do it. We found the water to be very nice, so I went back to get her. She was a trooper... and had no problem with the tendering. I found a great restaurant that served Blueberry Pie... so she sat and had blueberry pie ala mode... Yummy! She also got to do a little shopping and bought t-shirts for herself and Aunt Ethel. Earlier in Boston, she found a beautiful set of jewelry and I had to convince her to buy something for herself...

Some of the other people had lobster since Bar Harbor was famous for that. But I didn't think I needed to pay for that as they served lobster tails for dinner one evening. And we each ordered TWO!

Bar Harbor was our last port in the USA as we were headed now to Canada!

More tomorrow about those two ports...

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Details about Our Vacation, Part III

Boston was our first port... After cruising for two days, we arrived in Boston.

So, first, what did we do during those two days of cruising?

We ate a lot... I went and did my run on a treadmill... the activities weren't that great... yet, the time went by so fast.

We were off the ship pretty quickly as we wanted to walk the "Freedom Trail". Unfortunately, Boston was experiencing a heat wave... so it was difficult for Mom Bea. Thus, several of them decided to take an Uber and go back on the ship early.

The rest of us walked all the way.

In the evening, Alan and I met with Tiara and her husband, John. We've been wanting to meet this young man for quite a while. Tiara was one of Alan's students and she also played basketball. While at Soochow, she wasn't a strong believer. But when she studied in Boston, God did a wonderful work in her heart. John is a committed believer and was her small group leader... the rest is history...

We had a wonderful evening... They wanted to take us out to dinner, but we've been eating so much on the ship, we asked them to find a place where we can just sit and talk. They dropped us back just before boarding time!

Tomorrow I will share about Portland, Maine and Bar Harbor.

Seek Him First!

Details about Our Vacation, Part II

Mom Bea was expecting the walker to be at the gate in Dulles, but that did not happen.  After much run around, we finally found out that the walker was sent to St. Louis. Then with more run around and waiting, we were finally given the "ok" to go buy another walker and we'd be reimbursed. We were also told that the missing walker 'should' arrive at one of the ports on our cruise. We were instructed to check at each port.

We had originally hoped to have time to drive around Washington DC but since the walker adventure took so long, we decided to drive straight to the port. We were able to board and already the feasting started!

We were sailing with Royal Caribbeans on one of their smaller vessels. Overall, we would not rate this cruise line very high. The cruise director was more distant. Their activities were very limited and their entertainment was 'ok'. Even their evening meals weren't exactly awesome...

But we love every port...
Boston
Portland, Maine
Bar Harbor, Maine
St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Tomorrow, I will highlight our first port!

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Details about Our Vacation, Part I

This is just the first installment to recap what happened this past month in the States...

We arrived in LA on July 8th... Annie was very wise and brought over a sleeping pill. This made the night a lot calmer as Mom really did sleep... I wanted to help her adjust and get over her jet lag. So, I spent the evening getting my mom settled back into her little condo...

We spent the next day repacking and getting ready to head out to our cruise. Annie had gathered lots of stuff for us to look at, so I went through the stuff that was in the garage. By the time I finished I had a box and a half of stuff!

Because we were going to fly with American Airlines, we only wanted to pay for one check-in, so we downsized our luggage and we each had a carry-on and only one check in.

Alden and the gang all headed up to LA on July 10th and after dinner, Annie and KR drove us to the airport as we had a total of 13 people!

We boarded our plane to Dulles... on a red-eye special!

And already the 'adventure' started...

Mom had her walker which we checked in at the gate, expecting it to be at the gate when we arrived in Dulles...

I will continue the story tomorrow...

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I'm Finally Back... To Taiwan... and To Blogging...

What a month-long vacation! I will take the time to blog about that in the next few days... but for now, I just wanted you to know that I'm back in Taipei...

The journey back took a lot longer than expected.

Just the day before departure, there was a 5.9 earthquake, with the epic center in Ilan, but it affected Taipei. In fact, when we returned home, all the pictures on the wall needed to be adjusted.

Then the night that we checked in for our flight, we were informed that a typhoon was blowing through northern Taiwan. We were only told that the flight might be cancelled due to weather conditions. Kurtis, my nephew, was also coming back to Taiwan, starting language school at SooChow University! He was on a direct flight on Eva Air. He was stuck at the airport for eight hours and finally took off at 9am. They handed out sandwiches and drinks and blankets.

When we arrived in Incheon, we were told our flight was cancelled! And the airline did nothing to help us! No lounge passes... no food... no blanket... NOTHING! Other airlines only delayed their flights... but Asiana cancelled all flights for the day. We were stuck!

I tried to book a flight on another airline, but could not find anything for under 300US$ and I needed four tickets!

We decided to take a free transit tour and 'surrendered' to the idea that we will have to take the flight the next day.

The free tour was fun... it would have been better without my mom...

We were back at the airport by 8pm and we showered and bunked down on a group of sofas. I was so exhausted. I gave Mom a sleeping pill, thinking she would stay asleep until the next morning. I then went to take a shower and went to bed by 11:30. At 2:30, I heard voice, only to wake up and see my mom out and about with two gentlemen helping her as she was talking very loudly that she was lost! I jumped up and ran over and thanked them for their help. Needless to say, I didn't sleep for the rest of the time and Mom's eyes were opened! So after my date with Jesus, I took her over to have a shower!

We finally boarded our flight at 9:30 and there were some very strong turbulence. Abby said it felt like a roller coaster! Mom was hyper, talking, talking, talking and hungry!

As soon as we landed, I called our van service and Alan had messaged us about the same thing. They sent over a van to pick us up and by 2pm, we were back at home... and Kurtis was here! James had helped to get him from the airport to our house and fed him dinner!

With everyone working at lightning speed, we were able to put a majority of things away. I gave my mom a shower and dinner and one more sleeping pill and sent her off to bed. I'm happy to say, she really did sleep for about 10 hours!

We all stayed up until 12:30 before we hit the sack... I was totally worn out...

That was early Sunday morning...

I'll blog more tomorrow...

Seek Him First!