Opening Comments from the land.....forget it, it's way too hot to be profound

Well, here we are in the tropics. The culture shock has really hit us, but mostly in a good way. It's so hot and humid here, if there was a market for sweat, I'd be rich. My biggest goal, upon landing in Taiwan was to make a first impression on the principal, Gabe Choi, before the sweat soaked through my shirt..... unfortunately that didn't happen. The flight wasn't too terribly long and the flight from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung had great views of the islands around Hong Kong, lots of cargo ships and beautiful ocean. It was kind of weird to say, as we landed, welcome home!

I had a rather odd thought on the flight over (the long one). There were lots of movie choices but none that really grabbed me so I was wishing I had put some other stuff on my Ipod. I was making plans for what I should make sure I put on for the return trip and I realized....there is no return trip booked. That's a long way off. Kinda weird.

The arrival was so great. We were treated so well by the people here. Gabe (principal) and his family took us out for dinner on our first night and toured us around. Both kids could barely keep their eyes open but it's really amazing here at night. We drove into the nearest village, called Dashe, had dinner and as we walked around felt remarkably safe. It's so different, the way people live, handing out in front of their little stores drinking tea or shelling Dragon Fruit, not running home to their "caves." And the scooter culture here....that's a post all to itself.

We worked pretty hard the first few days trying to get things organized. There was less furniture than we thought there would be so we need to make plans to supplement our household, but God is already taking care of that for us. A trip to Costco filled up the fridge and cupboards (although quite a few of the essential starter items were already bought for us by the school. Our furniture was already in place for us and unfortunately, the bed Isaac and I were fighting over in the pictures was put into Isaac's room so Janice and I are sleeping on a smaller bed than our son, which is a bit odd I think. That we'll sort out later. I have included a few pictures and will continue to talk about our amazing experience later.