Going and Coming

I'm home, finally! This may have been my most exciting travel experience to date. Going and coming back from Taiwan were both definitely adventures! I had such a wonderful time with Danielle! She is the best and we had so much fun together!!! I will tell you more about my trip in another blog- this post is dedicated strictly to my traveling stories. My, oh my!

Going

I attempted to leave for Taiwan on Thursday, March 3 at 10 a.m. When I arrived at the airport, I found out that because my passport was expiring in less than 6 months (June 25 to be exact) Taiwan wasn't going to let me in their country. So, I ended up having to go and get a new passport that day. It was crazy! But God took care of everything and I had a new passport and flight and was on my way about 8 hours later than anticipated. There were lots of crazy things that day - a parking bus that broke down, immediately followed by a broken escalator and elevator, my new flight to San Francisco was delayed ... it was a lot to take in, but thankfully I was not stressed or worried - I knew that I'd get to Taiwan eventually. My biggest concern was making sure that Danielle knew I wouldn't be coming in at 10 p.m. on Friday, but rather at 6 a.m. on Saturday. She did get the message, which was so good and we talked in the airport in San Francisco before I left for Taipei. I finally arrived at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning and continued a VERY long day until about 9 that night when I crashed.

Coming

As I'm sure all of you are aware, there was an earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, March 11. Well, I was still in Taiwan at that time. We were under a tsunami warning, but praise the Lord, we were not hit at all. I was concerned because I was supposed to be flying back to America via Tokyo on Sunday and so I called to check on my flights and they told me everything would probably be fine. Tokyo wasn't hit that badly and so I was trusting everything would work out. When I got to the airport on Sunday at 8 a.m., I found out that my flight had been delayed until 1 p.m. - I'm assuming because of the earthquake, but no real reason was given. Danielle's friends who brought me to the airport had to get back for church, so I said bye to them and entertained myself in the airport for a long time. I ended up getting sick around 9 a.m., but I think it was just because I hadn't had a lot of sleep. Great way to start the trip, though! haha. I boarded my plane for Tokyo at around 1 and as we were traveling down the runway, I found out that our plane had air conditioner problems and we'd have to get it worked on for a while. We sat on the runway for over an hour and finally left about 3 p.m. When we got to Tokyo, I knew I'd already missed my connecting flight for Dallas and that I'd have to be at the mercy of Japan Airlines to hopefully get back home sometime soon. They rescheduled me on a flight to LA that was leaving within 30 minutes so I rushed to that gate. One good thing was I was bumped up to Premium seating - which was really nice for my long flight! I had a nice cushy chair with a pop-up foot rest, lots of little amenities and I was able to sleep most of the time! I arrived in LA at 1 p.m. their time and was so thankful to be back on American soil! I had a four hour lay-over in LA, so I bonded with some of my fellow travel buddies who I'd been with since Taipei. There were some really sweet people and we all laughed and bonded over our exhaustion. Our flight ended up being delayed (surprise, surprise) and so I think we finally left LA around 6:30. We landed in Dallas at 11 p.m. - still Sunday to me (maybe the longest Sunday of my life) and when I called my parents they told me they were booking me a hotel for the night. I know they were really worried about me and all my travels - especially since I was by myself. I really just wanted to be home at that point, but since Brownwood is a good 3 hours from DFW airport, it would've been around 3 a.m. by the time I got home. So I took them up on their offer and stayed at the Sheraton that night. It was so nice to be in a bed! I woke up yesterday morning at 7 a.m. and drove back to Brownwood. Whew! I have no idea how many hours of traveling that was- but it was exhausting for sure! I felt like I got hit by a bus. Thankfully I was able to rest yesterday and now, I'm ready for the week!

As you can tell, I had quite a trip! I can't wait to share more about the fun things that I did in Taiwan! It is such a beautiful country, full of wonderful people, including my best friend! I had a blast! But I am glad to be home ... finally!