Greetings from Taiwan

Hello Elders!

I hope you are both doing well. Blake, it was good to talk to you yesterday. I hope you can start getting some consistently good sleep. I wish there was something I could do for you! Ty, I look forward to talking to you soon. It sounds like you have a fun p-day planned? Going to a national park if I remember correctly?

Dad and Michael and I are having a grand adventure in Taiwan! 

The younger boys started school Monday morning and I worked at Davis High taking yearbook photos Monday and Tuesday. 

Tate has Natalie Hewitt as his first grade teacher. Everyone told Tate that Mrs. Hewitt was the worst. I told him that Mrs Hewitt was awesome, but he was bound and determined that this was not going to be a good year. But he came home from school the first day and said it was better than he thought it would be! Jett is in Mr Bullard’s class, and he said it was worse than he expected. Lol. Can’t please everyone! But Jett has a ton of friends in his class, so I think that will be really fun for him. Ethan started at the high school and I think his class load is going to be tough. He’s been taking the bus, and he said it’s “actually chill” because he has a bunch of other friends on the bus with him. 

Wednesday we got all packed up and Grandma took us to the airport. We took an 8:00 flight from SLC to Seattle —Dad and I watched Mission Impossible (4?)—and tried our darnwdest to stay awake. Then we had a 3-hour layover before boarding our 1:30 AM flight to Taiwan. We flew STARLUX Airlines and it was De-lux! They served hot meals, gave us blankets and pillows and slippers. The flight attendants were all in dresses with the same French twist hairdo. It felt like flying in another era. I took a sleeping pill, put on my eye mask and did my best to sleep the entire time with not much success. We arrived at 4:30 AM with the plan to stay up all day, so that’s when I started in on the caffeine! Honestly I’m
Not sure how I would have survived the day without my Crystal Light!

A super friendly airport employee helped us exchange money and buy a train ticket and we headed out to meet Michael.  At 6 am it was full daylight and the train was hopping! I wasn’t expecting it to be so light so early. Outside the train windows was lush and green in every direction. Michael met us at the train station and then we boarded another one down to Hualien. Lots and lots and lots of travel!

We have spent a few days exploring the island. We’ve seen beautiful beaches and lush countrysides, and rice fields right in the middle of the city. We went to a night market and tried different foods. We have seen some really cool Buddhist temples. We saw sea caves and a bridge shaped like a dragon. We saw monkeys and bulls and one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen. And bats! And dogs. Holy cow. There are dogs everywhere.  And cicadas. I haven’t seen a cicada, but you can hear them everywhere you go. We were stopped in traffic and I watched a guy on a moped dancing on the side of the road to the beat of the cicadas. So cool!

We are having a food adventure. We tried papaya milk, mango shaved ice (bing), custard apples, taro balls. We’ve had delicious broth with noodles, amazing onion pancake/egg sandwiches. Passion fruit boba drink with coconut jelly. Duck, assorted fried fish, wontons and potstickers. Carmel pudding from the 7-11. I’ve decided I like to try new things, but I’m not adventurous when it comes to meat and fish!

This place is so cool. Just driving around looking out the window is so entertaining. There are temples and sculptures and cemeteries all over the place. Cool artwork everywhere. People and pets on mopeds weaving in and out of traffic. Tiny little cars. People selling food on the side of the streets. Brightly colored buildings. We found a church shaped like a giant boat! We even saw trash getting collected. This huge truck rolled down the street playing music like an ice cream truck and people just came out of the woodwork with their bags of garbage. Wild. 

And it is hotter than Hades here. It’s heat like I’ve never experienced. The minute I step outside I’m dripping in sweat. Like literally my face is melting off and my hair is soaked with sweat. The UV index is at a 10, and I got sunburned the first day. Any kind of exertion outdoors completely saps my energy. Also, we have climbed approximately 1 million stairs since we’ve been here. 

We have spent two nights at different “Bed and Breakfast” places. One place gave us breakfast, and one did not. Luckily both places had beds! Last night we stayed at a place that was all decorated with teddy bears and I can’t even tell you how delighted I was to discover we were staying in such a cute house. I was really hoping for the bedroom with pink bedspreads, but we had the green room instead. Honestly what a highlight!

As Michael would say, we would be absolutely “cooked” without him on this trip. He has been amazing to travel with. He can communicate well with everyone and understands how to order food and pay our parking fees. This trip would not be possible without a Chinese speaker! I’m currently conspiring to come back to both Singapore and Cambodia with you two! 

Today we went to church at a building where Dad served as a missionary. It had been renovated and expanded a bit, but I think was mostly as he remembered it. There were several missionaries there and I hope it brought back fond memories for dad. 

We are currently trying to find our next “hotel,” and get our car rental returned on time while navigating unfamiliar streets and trying to not hit anyone on a moped. Fingers crossed!

Love you boys!

Xoxo, Mom