Departs: 2:45 PM Omaha (OMA)
Arrives: 3:26 PM Phoenix (PHX)
US Airways Flight 186 2 Hr 41 Min
Departs: 5:00 PM Phoenix (PHX)
Arrives: 6:24 PM Los Angeles (LAX)
US Airways Flight 1511 1 Hr 24 Min
Departs: Sun, 12 Jul, 01:40 AM Los Angeles (LAX)
Arrives: Mon, 13 Jul, 06:25 AM Taipei (TPE)
Malaysia Airlines Flight: MH95 Loooooong Flight
Posted by
Alice_What
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Posted by
Alice_What
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Iowa City to Omaha, Omaha to Phoenix, Phoenix to L.A, and L.A. to Taipei; nearly 24 hours later I arrived for my second first day in Taipei. I'm jet-lagged and mourning the loss of a day (my Sunday was swallowed, down into the gaping mouth of a time warp). As a resut, I departed at noon on Saturday July 11th and arrived in Taipei at 6:05 a.m. on Monday July 13th. My first-first day was like a dream and my second-first day has been deja vu. Everything is the same: Chinese signs everywhere, adults sporting brightly colored rain coats with matching cartoon-adorned helmets while they weave with dangerous speed through the tight mesh of Taipei traffic. But it is also different. It is a lot like how you have dreams about familiar places like your school building or work. In your dream, you just know it is your school even though the layout might be nothing like your real school, but the feeling is familiar. I feel like I know where I am, but I also feel disoriented, but pleasantly disoriented. Its like a puzzle that was in place at one time, but some of the pieces got jumbled around. I'm sure it will fade in about a week or so.
It also felt like the longest day ever. I didn't want to go to sleep even though I was really tired. I want to adjust to the time difference as soon as I possible and I knew that napping wouldn't help. So, I went around with the fog of sleep clouding my brain. I am pretty sure that I conned the convience store attendant into giving me $500 NT (about 15 US) as a result. I walked into FamilyMart to buy some water and two other small items. I expected the total to come to a little over 200 NT. I handed the attendant what I thought was a 1,000 dollar bill and he only gave me 275NT in change. I stood there staring at the receipt and then said, "Excuse me, I gave you 1,00o NT and I got 275NT back." He said "You gave me 1000, not 500?" I said very confidently, "Yes, 1000 NT." He apologized and gave me the rest of the money. The reaosn I was so sure I gave him 1,000 is because when I exchanged my money they only had 1,000 dollar bills on hand. Later I recalled that Drew had given me 500 to pay for his half of the taxi from the airport. I looked in my bag for the 500 bill and it was gone. So I think I did pay with it after all. oops! Of course, by the time I realized this I was far removed in time and space from that Familymart and couldn't correct my mistake.
When I finally did get to sleep, I was rudely awoken by an earthquake at two something in the morning. After that slept only fitfully, and woke up really early. Today I have to run some errands and hang out with Vicki and Drew. We are going to go to Ximending.
That is all for now.