Flying West to the East

Here begins my attempt to transcribe our adventures over the past couple of weeks.
We were too busy for me to write anything during our trip, so hopefully my memory will serve me well, and no important details will be left out. The members of our party this trip were Caleb M, Erica C, Rebecca W, and myself. (My brother Jacob, having gotten there early to do some work at the camp facility, more or less joined the crew once we arrived.)

--July 11/12th 2007: Arrival

The voyage to Taiwan was fairly enjoyable this time around, as fun as a day of flying and layovers can be, really. We arrived at the Huntsville airport at a ridiculously early hour, and quickly realized this was a very good thing when the line at the American Airlines counter was very long. This in and of itself would not have been a problem, except that the line wasn't moving. One man at the front of the line had some sort of problem that was apparently difficult to resolve, especially for the ladies working the counter that particular morning, to whom English was apparently a second language. (not merely being sarcastic, they spoke with what appeared to be a strong german accent) So, instead of taking him off to the side and dealing with whatever intractable problem that required 30min to find a solution, they tried to figure something out while the entire line of people backed up almost to the airport entrance. (I should note that the Huntsville airport is quite small, and that the AA counter is almost directly in front of the door. Still, we're talking about several dozen people at this point)
Finally, either they gave up or fixed the problem, and the man left.

Meanwhile, I had been filling in parents and friends on the flight numbers and times, after resolving a bit of confusion about the day of our return trip. (the international date line always throws me off for some reason) Once the girls were through the line and got their boarding passes, it was nearly time to get on the plane. At this point, goodbyes were said and we all prayed (quickly!) together, and set off through security. I am always interested in the differences between security checkpoints in different countries. Mexico has been the most laid back, so far, and America tends to be a little frustrating. Taiwan is somewhere in the middle, and handles the process very efficiently for the most part. They are more thorough in their checking of carry-on luggage, however, as we shall see later.

Rant- I still don't understand the logic behind the whole 'no liquids on planes' nonsense. Wow, it looks like every single terrorist has needed oxygen to blow up anything. We should ban that on planes too! Seriously, if I want to bring a transparent water bottle, with water that I would happily drink from to demonstrate that it is in fact not an explosive, I see absolutely no reason why I should not be allowed to do so. It's a fear-based, knee-jerk reaction of idiotic bureaucracy, and it irritates me every single time I go through a checkpoint. And I'm not even the one who got stopped for it, heh.

Anyway, sorry about that. If I keep carrying on like this, you the reader will think that our trip was annoying or difficult, and it honestly wasn't.

We arrived in Dallas without incident, and spirits were high. We had fun and took silly pictures on the airport shuttle there, and arrived at our terminal and boarded as planned.

Airports (at least on the way -to- somewhere) are always a little exciting for me. Sure, they are not normally very stimulating places to hang around, but in spite of the utilitarian architecture and repetitive loudspeaker announcements reminding us of pointless security measures, there's an unmistakable undercurrent of travel. Yeah, -this- place is pretty boring, but think of all the places you can go from here! I always get a feeling of venturing out, from what is familiar to what is not, that I am in a temporary holding station before rocketing at hundreds of miles per hour into the atmosphere to touch down in a place that is at least somewhat new and exciting.
I feel very sorry for those who must commute by air. Without the excitement of the destination, it must surely be an exercise in monotony.

Now comes the worst part of our departing trip. After we left Dallas for Los Angeles, we ran into turbulence when we had to fly through/past/over/around a massive storm front. That was the worst that I had ever experienced, and probably the first time I was ever really worried while flying. Turbulence doesn't really bother me normally, it's something I pretty much expect to encounter a bit of while flying, and it's always funny to hear all the kids on the plane scream in unison every time their stomachs have that dropping sensation. This time, however, the turbulence was long and severe, and we lost some serious altitude at one point.
It was made easier by the fact that I had a first hand view out my window of the storm front we were flying past, and seeing a massive cumulonimbus cloud that you are passing in and out of is an impressive experience.
This soon passed, and we could relax until we got to LAX.

LAX was interesting for me, and was the first time I had set foot in California. I could not have really counted it, except that we had to walk out of the terminal and to the international flight building, and so we really did go outside and walk down the street for a couple of minutes. The weather outside was more or less perfect, and I can see one of the reasons the California coastal cities have a homeless problem: when it feels like that outside, who wants to live in a house?
(of course I realize the weather isn't always that perfect, but it certainly was that day)

Upon arriving at the international flight building (or whatever it's called), we saw the China Airlines counter, and decided to check with them about our flight, just in case. This turned out to be a very good idea, since our original boarding passes were not valid on this flight, and we had to get new ones from China Airlines. Since we had some time, we went upstairs and looked at the little foodshops they had. There was a haagen dazs, staffed by people whose accent sounded like they spoke whatever language haagen dazs would mean something in if it were actually a real phrase (it's actually just made up, I read somewhere) and we all got some ice cream, which was very good. We then headed through security (Man, I would make a lousy citizen in a totalitarian regime. I don't like security checkpoints, and I hate people shouting at me to do things. I already took my shoes off, sheesh)

We could see the plane we would be leaving in while we sat in the boarding area. It was a humpback 747, a truly massive plane, beautifully painted with a plum blossom on the tail.
Once we got inside, we had a nice surprise: it was the most well-furnished plane I have ever travelled in. Every seat had its own personal touch-screen, with movies, music, TV shows, and games available. This was manipulated both by touch and by a controller mounted to the armrest, that you could unclip to use as a phone (though this feature was disabled), TV remote, menu selector and even game controller. To put the icing on the cake, when the meals came, we were given actual metal utensils.
For some reason, my ticket had me sitting away from the others, at the very front of the coach seating. This gave me more leg room, for which I was grateful, and told God so. Little things like that remind me of how much He loves me.
Shortly after take-off, a little Chinese boy came and sat on the front row with me. His name was Ivan, oddly enough, and his mother later told me that she hadn't realized the implications of that name when she had picked it to be his english name. (he can always change it later if he doesn't like it, but it's kind of cool, I think. I've never met a chinese person named Ivan, heh)
Perhaps somewhat appropriately, Ivan liked chess. For being so young (7 or 8, I think, though he was precocious and gave the impression of being older so I had originally though he was 11), he was a pretty good chess player. I happened to have a travel chess set with me, (yes, Tope, if you are reading this, it was the same one we used, haha) which is why I know this.
I also helped him solve multiple levels of a little puzzle game that the system for our touchscreens offered. I had a strong feeling that my ticket had been separate from the others for a reason, and that God had placed me on the same row as this little boy for a reason. I explained the purpose of our trip (his english was at least as good as any normal kid of his age in the US, at which point we talked a little bit about Christianity. It turned out that he and his mother were Christians, but his grandparents who he was going to Taiwan to visit were not. His mother came by and talked to me a little bit, she had formerly been a flight attendant on that airline, but had to quit when she got married and started having kids because it kept her away from them for too long. She was very kind, and thanked me repeatedly for keeping her son company. She gave me some contact information and said that if I was ever in L.A. (where they lived) I should get in touch with her and come eat with the family.

Between this and the in-flight movies (of which I had my pick of about 30. This airline seriously rocked), the trans-pacific flight passed much more quickly than it had in the past. We had a direct flight, so there was no stopover in Osaka, and soon we touched down in Taipei.
There, we stretched our stiff legs, found our luggage, and went through immigration quickly.
Upon exiting, we found my brother and two of the Heinsmans (an American family who live in Taichung, the father of which is Ron, who is in charge of the camp in Dajia) there to greet us.
It was then (and only then) that I learned that instead of spending a couple days in Taipei to acclimatize, see some sights, and get ready for camp, that we were heading for camp directly. And immediately. We exited the airport, and I was greeted by the hot, muggy, scent-laden air of Taiwan once again. We threw our luggage in the back of the Delica van they had driven up in, (being a smaller team this year, we all fit) and within minutes we were driving down the American-style highway system on our way to Dajia and the camp there...

Next time: Old friends and new friends

-Joseph