Our Arrival -Jack

Sean, Viet, and myself left SFO for TPE on June 1, 2009. Our China Airline flight was scheduled to take off at 1:35am, but due to an unexpected electrical problem we were delayed not one, not two, but three hours! We knew it was going to be a long delay when we heard that they were asking First Class passengers to head to their lounge. However, to be fair, snacks and drinks were provided to us during the delay. Despite all this, we were not bored. Sean's boy-band dancing on the travellator and in the empty terminal was a script right out of Backstreet Boys.

The flight to TPE was relatively smooth, but we were dissapointed by the movies that were shown on the ancient RBG projectors. Nevertheless, food was pretty good. Chicken for dinner, and scrambled eggs in the morning prior to our arrival.

Upon arrival passport control and customs was a breeze. We then exchanged some money prior to my parents picking us up from the airport and taking us to the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou. Lea and Henry a recently graduated medical student who were kind enough to be our concierge and tour guide in one. Lea was super helpful in handling our paperwork, and getting our dorms organized. Henry went above and beyond with not only showing us the hospital but places to eat and visit. During all this, our group grew as Paul, and Bill joined us, as well as a very excited Dr. Lin. Lunch was on my mom and dad. We ate at the hospital's food court that had so many delicious varieties of food.

We unpacked our things, and made several small trips around the neighborhood stores for toiletries, cleaning supplies, and some unique and not so unique fruits found in Taiwan. As well as purhasing sim cards for some of our phones from Seven-Eleven. It was piece of cake when we purchased it from the store at the hospital, but extremely complicated from the off site store, or so the employee made it.

Tammy and Jonathan arrived intact at the hospital around 10pm as they had followed my "Mission Impossible" directions flawlessly. Paul, Sean, and I were there to bring them in for "briefing" and showing them their individual rooms.