We Made It

What a day! We did some traveling through time and space, to be sure. Time zones, the speed of air travel, and the International Date Line all played a part of making things a little confusing. We left Salem for the airport at about 3:30 p.m. on 09-04-07. We arrived in Manila at about 10:30 a.m. on 09-06-07. Somewhere in the middle was 09-05-07.

One of our teammates, Emerald, celebrated her September 5 birthday in the San Francisco airport. We sang Happy Birthday to her at midnight. But due to our travel, 09-05-07 lasted only about 9 hours and all of it was in the dark. On 09-04-07 the sun set about 9 p.m., Salem time. The sun didn’t rise until around 2:30 p.m. on 09-06-07 when we were making our connection in Taipei. Of course, local time was 5:30 a.m. I suppose it may all be a little confusing, but I found it a pretty interesting little tangent. That’s what you get when you don’t sleep enough.

The girls did a great job during our travels. Alayna and Annalise had never flown before but are now experienced travelers after just one trip. The 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Taipei was a bit exhausting, but they did well. The 2 hour flight into Manila was a piece of cake.

We got settled into the Shalom Center in Manila and showed ourselves to be the classical Americans; we walked past the street vendors to get to the mall. Well, it was what the group seemed to want to do. On the good side, my family did avoid the Wendy’s and McDonald’s in lieu of some Filippino cuisine. (Don’t worry Mom, we did take a minute for a photo with Ronald.) I look forward to everyone being more alert and being able to spend some time exploring the area. As much as I dislike cities, I am interested in seeing more of the town for some reason. I suppose it just seems so different from any city experience I have ever had before.

I had some fun with the kids in the Taipei airport. I made animal balloons and the kids from the team gave them out to other kids waiting for the plane.

I hope this all makes sense. I am tired and probably not thinking straight, but I didn’t want to call it a day too early. Local time is 6:15 p.m. as I type this. I suppose once Kevin and I take care of the blogs at the internet café down the road, I will collapse until morning. Every one else in my family is asleep already. Annalise was so tired that after dinner, I had to carry her back from the mall.

WE ARE HERE!!!!!

Tom

Walking through San Francisco airport

Waiting in Taipei airport

Being ridiculous Americans abroad
No, we did not eat there!