Hello Taipei

We've arrived.

Neither Anna or I got a minute of sleep on the first (long) flight. Anna was asleep before we left the gate on the 2nd flight. By then she had been awake for 24 hours.

As I've said before, no sleep + no caffeine + very little food = massive headache for me. I took Advil PM the second we arrived at the hotel room. Despite that, woke a couple hours later with a still splitting headache so took Excedrin migraine. That kicked it. Excedrin migraine is my friend.

Re-awakened at 5:00 a.m. By runny nose. Too soon to tell, but looks like I may have caught a cold. The joys of international travel!

The hotel's shuttle bus couldn't fit all of our luggage so we had to take 2 cabs from the airport. I think the hotel picked up the tab.

I watched "Dear John" on the plane. I hadn't purchased it for my iPad due to really crummy reviews, so when the plane had it I decided to watch it risk free. I loved it! I never agree with the critics - NEVER! I was leery of a Nicholas Sparks movie - love his books, but had seen "Nights in Rodanthe" with Richard Gere whom I love. It was horrible. Dear John may have been better because I haven't read the book.

Ethan is currently sniffling like mad in bed. Maybe he and I caught the same thing.

I have to wait 5 hours for our ride to our new house. I want to go NOW! Thought surely after long flights with no sleep I would sleep late and avoid this anticipation. Darn it!

I had forgotten about the kids "celebrity" amongst the Taiwanese. In the Seoul airport yesterday a group of school kids congregated around and began practicing their English. One of the girls looked exactly like a girl I had photographed in Yingge, so I pulled Up the photo on my iPad and approached the girl. It was like some movie with aliens where they gather around some earthlings and go "oooooo". Young and old gathered around and said "ooooo". I pointed to the photo and to the real live girl. She shook her head no, but the resemblance was so striking that everyone was looking back and forth between the two and, though I don't speak a word of Chinese, I think they too were wondering if it was the same girl.

While on the first plane, in Virginia, still at the gate, eric's phone rang. It was his Mom calling to tell him his Uncle had died that morning. We knew it was coming; he had Pulmonary Fibrosis. Expectation does not negate sadness. Eric lived with this Uncle and his family while he (Eric) was in high school. Nice, nice man.

This whole post sounds depressing. I didn't mean for it to. We are not depressed. We are very much looking forward to all that the next 2 years holds for us. I will post pictures as soon as I am able.