Long time no blog...

First, my apologies for our loooong delay in posting. I had no idea so many people were following the blog and have been really surprised by the number of people clamoring for updates.

Of course the trip was grueling - 24 hours give or take. Again EVA air was great - although we couldn't all sit together because of the plane's layout. The bulkhead had a bassinet & she slept for about 6 of the 11 hours from Taipei to San Francisco - we were high-fiving on our way to customs... unfortunately we high-fived waaaay too soon. Tessa got fussy the minute we got off the plane. I was sure it was her soaked diaper bothering her (would've changed her on the plane but the seatbelt light was on for the last hour of the flight) so I parked the stroller behind a massive column about 50 feet away from the "line" to customs to change her. Mid butt-wipe this rent-a-cop (aka TSA dude) tells me that they "have places for that kind of thing - you need to do that somewhere else." Lucky I'm not in Guantanamo Bay because I looked Opie straight in the eye and said "We just got off an eleven hour flight, we still have to go through customs, immigration, and walk all the way to Terminal C. We have 16 bags, a wet baby and an exhausted nine year old. Where am I supposed to do "this kind of thing?" Being the expert butt-wiper that I am, I had her changed before he could answer and went on my way. A few minutes later Opie found me again and apologized but saying again there are "places for that kind of thing" but I wouldn't even look at him... grrrrrrrr.

The next 12 or so hours were pure torture - mentally and physically. Tessa was gassy after the international flight and there was NO consoling her. She screamed and squirmed with all her might (our sincere apologies to those on rows 20 and 22 on the 1:00 a.m. flight from San Francisco to Dallas.) I'm pretty sure it was her version of boot camp for her new mommy - strengthen all of mommy's arm muscles and deafen her ears a little... perfect!
Finally made it to Austin where Nana and Papa (thanks Ken & Connie for letting them borrow the Suburban!) would drive us home.

That's pretty much the last clear memory we would have for roughly 10 days. Jet lag kicked all of our butts. Emma went to school two days in a row with no sleep (and slept-walked Halloween). Several times we all woke up and looked around to realize we'd fallen asleep mid-conversation and it was now three hours later... FREAKY!!!

We're back on Texas time now and Tessa is still working hard to train us. Once she got over her jet lag, it seems she realized that this was real - new people, new bed, new place, new bottle... new everything and she was NOT totally thrilled with the idea. Several days of fussiness and LOTS of holding and coddling seems to have won her over. The Tessa we know today is so much different than the one that got off of that plane. She belly laughs, smiles often, snuggles even when she's not sleepy, tolerates a little alone (not being held) time, is more easily soothed and genuinely seems to truly trust us (something I didn't believe would be an issue - it was really frustrating sensing that she wasn't 100% comfortable with us).

Anyhoo, the hermit-like life we've lead for the past few weeks somehow seems to be what the doctor ordered for her and us. Now we just need to work on establishing a schedule.

Check out her skillz!!! In her effort to crawl, she always ends up in the splits - I soooo want to Photoshop her on a balance beam!!!

The holy grail... she's always certain there's something to eat or drink in this cup.

Itty Bitty Kitty loves Tessa Jane - grabbing the new kid's toys when she isn't looking isn't a game, it's a way of life.

Maestro!!!! Tessa LOVES this little keyboard.

Tessa doesn't mind scales and eyes on her fish... yum!

Here are a few photos from our last day in Taiwan. We went to the East coast and then to an old gold mining town. We never saw any evidence of any previous or current gold mining... well there is a HUGE market that runs through the middle of the town that caters to tourists looking for souvenirs.


Everywhere we went young ladies would circle around Tessa pointing and taking pictures. Emma's convinced they thought we were celebrities adopting... maybe the kid's just cute?

Here's lunch. We called it Chinese Matzo (sp?) Ball soup. Lots of different dumplings in a broth... not bad.

Really????? Condom WORLD????? A whole world in that little cubicle of a store??? Who else is thinking a man owns this joint???

Mr. Yeh holds Tessa saying "mei mei, mei mei" - which means little sister, little sister.

Emma proves she is a great jie jie (big sister)

The rocky Eastern coast

Temple at the waters edge

Sleep

Hi I'm Emma.I can't go to sleep!!!!!!!!!

San Fran!

Hi Emma again! Were leaving for Dallas in ... well, its an hour or less! Tessa's asleep and everyone in the airport is so tired they're quiet :) Its just a matter of time in'till she sees her real home ( at least for now.) talk to you again when were not in an airport!

Farewell Taiwan!

We've had the time of our lives but it is time for us to head home & get settled into our new life.

Today was another fun day of sightseeing (shopping) complete with exotic foods and funny stories. Don't have time to post today's pics and I'm sure we'll be totally zonked for a few days after we get back so be patient... more stuff coming.

Mr. Yeh arrives in an hour and a half to take us to the airport for our looooong flight(s). Cross your fingers that we survive traveling for 21 hours with an infant... !!!!!!!

Mom & Dad, it won't be long now!

Last night in Taiwan

We've been busy packing tonight but wanted to leave our faithful readers with a few pics from today's journey.



We started out the day by driving to Keeling on the Northern coast. First we went to some temple/giant buddha/kiddie amusement park thingie. Upon entering there is a giant buddha that is flanked by kiddie rides/games and (don't ask me why) Christmas (!) carols are playing!! Round the corner and you see the giant bell... the kind that has a giant log on a rope that takes your entire body weight to strike the bell. Everyone got a turn (at roughly 25 cents a pop). After all that sanctity and such you walk into the kiddie area with motorized cars and carnival games. When you run out of spare change, turn left to find the temple. I only have one other thing left to say about this place... watch your step. There are lots of steep inclines and a lot of wads of gum on the ground :P

We decided to lighten things (hah) up with a trip to Yeliou Beach. At Yeliou you will find miles of interesting rock formations formed by the rough tide that hits the Northern coast of Keeling. Among the formations are hundreds of little wells that form tidal pools when the surf is up. We didn't have enough time to explore the sealife that washed into them... we'll leave that for the next visit.

In order to exit the beach area you have to go through the local market (go figure.) Unlike the other markets we've been to, this one was 100% fish. Ladies with baskets of dried squid and eels greet you so you can get a sample (Christmas in July!). Mid-way through the market Mr. Yeh met us and recommended we have lunch at one of the stalls. Here were our choices: Prawns (eyes, heads, tails, legs, whisker thingies), noodles with unidentifiable meat, battered and fried kelp, mussels and clams in a brown sauce and seaweed stir fried with enoki mushrooms and ginger. We decided to have a bit of everything!!! Believe it or not, it was all yummy!! The battered and fried kelp is seriously something the U.S. needs to copy. Next best was the seaweed. The first bite was a bit scary but once you got over the texture, it was delicious!



Next we went to a Sea World-like place called Ocean World. Living only an hour and a half from one of the best aquariums/amusement parks in the world makes it tough for someone like Emma to appreciate their version. HOWEVER, once again the Taiwanese are sneaky and have something different to offer. How about divers diving from a hundred foot ladder and a crack team of synchronized swimmers? Suffice it to say Emma was impressed... even if the guy that finally dove from the top rung sort of belly flopped (we were seriously worried.)



From there we took a loooooong drive to Fisherman's Wharf. This area is really trendy. Lots of teens and twenty-somethings on dates or going out with friends. There is a great footbridge you walk across to get to the wharf. Of all the places we've been with Tessa, we got the most stares here. There was even a group of teen girls who followed us and took pictures... ????



Tomorrow we hit the former gold rush town of Juifen before making our flight at 11:30 p.m. Likely this is our last post from Taiwan :( We've had an amazing trip but are ready to sleep in our own beds (at odd hours for a while) and introduce Tessa to family, friends and pets (gasp).



Here are a few pics from today... see you soon!

Wu Lai Falls, Freaky Food and the Other Woman

Matt hasn't shown up near enough on the blog. Here's a great capture!

Yesterday we spent the day at Wu Lai falls. It is billed as a quaint aboriginal village at the base of the giant waterfall.

The whole crew at the base of the falls.

The falls from the gorge.



The "other woman"

We arrived and were greeted by 7 or 8 Chinese women in the gift shop oohing and aahing over the babies. We had some tea while we waited for the "show."

We had been under the impression that the "show" was an authentic Atayal tribe dance. Well, I guess it was if you throw in a state of the art theatre, dolby surround sound and pyrotechnics! The show depicts the origins of the Atayal tribe and concludes with.... a wedding. The "wedding" number requires most of the audience to get on stage (I got to sit it out since Tessa was asleep on my shoulder). Everyone is clad with tribal wear and sings the Wu Lai song. After that, a "groom" and a "bride" are picked from the crowd.

You've probably guessed... Matt was picked for the groom and Tami was picked for the bride!!! In a shocking turn of events, they did NOT marry each other. Matt married some 20 year old gal and Tami married a guy who looked to still be in his teens :) It was a beautiful ceremony... ending with a chair strapped to Matt's back on which he carried his new "bride."

Of course, no photography was allowed but the actors snapped shots that were later put on a PLASTIC plate that you could buy for $15.

After the show we were escorted to the resort's fancy restaurant. We gorged on barbecued whole fish (here's looking at you), fried crawfish (heads, tails and all), something wrapped in a banana leaf that was pretty good, some sort of vegetable and "tadpole soup" for dessert (actually some sort of seed in a sweet sauce.) We saw lots of other tables that had yummy looking spring rolls and noodles and such. We figure Mr. Yeh had recognized that we were adventurous eaters and treated us to a "tradtional" meal :)

Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads (and some kind of crawfish you eat head, tail and all).

"Tadpole" soup.

Tessa gets fussy when anyone's eating and she's not :) Mr. Yeh sings her a Chinese baby song and claps his hands.

Next it was time to go up the mountain. Gondolas take you to the top of the mountain. Once you reach the gondola station, there are about 250 stairs to climb to get to the top!! The scenery is breathtaking... which is kind of annoying when you're already out of breath!

Hmmm.

This is about 10 feet from the "Don't Stay Here" sign :)

Bridge at the top of the falls.

Best beer in the world. The lady behind the counter was VERY confused as to why we were taking pictures of the sign. She clearly has NO idea what it says :)

This straw dispenser sits on the counter top. Wish we'd seen it before shelling out $4 for the world's best beer :)


Next Mr. Yeh took us to the local market. Once again, we LOVED the market. Emma always gets some sort of sausage with pineapple on a stick and the rest of us have a ball figuring out what things are and tasting those that don't look too scary.

Market outside of Wu Lai.

Pick your squid.

Cooked to order.

BUNS!!!!!! These things are so awesome they make the blog twice!

Grilled rice cake with chocolate and sprinkles... YUM!!

Gotta run!!! Today we head for Keeling along the Northern Coast. Will post again soon!!

Two Days with Tessa Jane

First, a few pics of Tessa Jane. We're slowly but surely getting her to show us her real personality (which can be stubborn!) and genuinely warm up to us. She's completely off of her schedule (which we really don't know what it was supposed to be), so napping and eating and planning around napping and eating has been a bit challenging. Nonetheless, we've continued touring Taiwan and seeing the sights.

We started off yesterday with our appointment at the AIT (embassy). We waited a while and then had to fill out a couple of VERY confusing forms. We were helped by two very nice gentlemen: one a Chinese man in his fifties, the other a middle-aged six foot tall American black man - who spoke fluent Chinese. After we paid the cashier the $385 in crisp American bills (which she checked to make sure weren't counterfeit and got our phone number at the hotel in case they were), we were told everything looked good and to come back the next day for Tessa's passport and visa.

After that we headed to Taipei 101 - currently the tallest building in the world. We ate lunch in the HUGE mall at the base of the tower and then took the world's fastest elevator to the top. 89 stories in 41 seconds... our ears popped 2 or 3 times on the way (the actual building has 101 stories but the observation deck is lower.) Too bad it was a really cloudy day :(


View of the city (or part of it) from the observation deck.

Tessa actually flinched when we got too close to the glass!

The famous damper... this is the gyro-like device that stabilizes the building - even during earthquakes.

Flat Stanley makes another blog appearance.

Next we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial. The memorial was built to honor a really mean, bad dude so the government tried (in vain) to rename it the National Memorial. Unfortunately the entire complex is being renovated so photo ops were limited.

There are some really beautiful gardens surrounding the memorial.

Check out the bruise on her forehead. She thrashes around in her sleep and the crib the hotel provided is teeny weeny. She's now sleeping with us :P

Today we started our day with a visit to AIT to pick up Tessa's passport and visa. After about 30 minutes of waiting, the nice Chinese gentleman who helped us yesterday called us up. We received a boatload of paperwork... the most important being her passport and visa!

Next we went to a quaint little place called the Ping Lin Tea Museum. It is in the outskirts of town up in the mountains. The city was quite overcast but when we got to the mountain area, it was drizzly and rainy. The museum itself is kind of old and musty but the scenery was beautiful.

The koi fish are HUGE!!

Teapots sit atop the barricades on the road to the museum.

We've seen several variations on this scene throughout Taiwan. Each one is slightly different. The first one we saw had a crown-like thing and a long beard. We joked that it was Burger King's grandfather. So now they're all related to Burger King somehow... jet lag :P

Mr. Yeh stopped at this street market so we could get something to eat. He went to a street vendor and ordered what we could TELL was tofu. We were all saying "NO stinky tofu!" He kept gesturing that it was good... OK... no problem. Tami and I agreed to take bites simultaneously. It WASN'T stinky tofu!!! It was some kind of Teriyaki tofu with pickled cabbage on top! It was pretty good!! We walked through the market and sampled lots of other exotic foods. Most of them sweets and pastries - because if we've learned one thing, these are what the Taiwanese do best. Roadside vendors here make better stuff than most of the crazy expensive stuff I've tasted back home.

Tessa is just waking up from her evening nap and we are off to the night market with Ralph and Tami. Hope to pick up some souvenirs!

Tomorrow we head for WuLai Falls. I can't wait! This place is a no-miss... mountains, waterfalls, quaint little aboriginal village and a GONDOLA!!! It's supposed to be overcast again tomorrow so we're hoping we get lucky and get a few sprinkles of sunlight and no rain!

Gotta run! We're having a great time but we're starting to miss some of our creature comforts. I'm pretty sure we'll watch TV for about 10 hours straight when we get home... all we get here is CNN world (did you know South Africa won the world rugby championship?) and the Discovery Channel - which has been running a special on meercats every other hour for the past several days... it was even on in the lobby of the AIT building. Ugh.

We'll post again soon!!