More on that later.
Our flight didn't leave until around 1pm, so we lazily got ready that morning and then got a cab out to the airport. Since you have to be there so early for international flights we had plenty of time to kill. And since I knew we'd spend the net 24 hours sitting down, we walked around for a bit.
We skipped all the duty free alcohol, tobacco, and fragrances. Instead, I bought a magnet that looks like a hot pot because it looked like most of the food we had eaten on our trip. (I know. Weird. But I love that magnet.)
Then we of course had to stop by the Sanrio store and pick something up for Tess. They had all sorts of Hello Kitty stuff at that store - from candy to computer cases!
Tess got some hair bows.
There was even a Hello Kitty playground right next door...
... and a Hello Kitty waiting area next to that! (Aren't those chairs cute?)
The Taipei airport is interesting because they have all sorts of waiting areas, each with a different theme. Some were kinda museum-ish, others cultural, one was all about the aboriginal people of Taiwan. The waiting area for our gate had famous puppets - it was a little creepy. (In case you're wondering, you'd find your gate at a certain waiting area, and then go downstairs to the main waiting area to board the plane.)
There was this one area that had displays about different marriage customs in Taiwan. I thought this part was funny - I like the idea of a chicken predicting the gender of your baby.
The wedding chickens were pretty cute, too!
We stopped at an overpriced airport restaurant (I know - redundant), and ordered some more delicious papaya milk. (Seriously, so good.)
And some dumplings. Lance got pork (on the left) and I got shrimp.
Mine came with this dipping sauce with shredded ginger. It was all sooooo good! I'm seriously considering getting a bamboo steamer just for dumplings, I love them so much.
After we ate I volunteered to take all of our money to the exchange place. Little did I know that Randy hadn't bothered using all of his change during the week. He handed be two huge handfuls of change that clanked in my backpack all the way down the terminal. I felt super cool. (No I didn't.) I had a little surprise at the exchange - apparently someone had been given 10 Yen coin while in Taipei, so I got to keep that. (Not worth enough to exchange.) It kinda reminded me of those dang Canadian pennies that get into our circulation.
So we finally boarded and were off to Tokyo once again. This time we had to race through Japan's customs and security checks and such to get to our flight in time. It was a little stressful, but we made it and were fine.
Sadly, we weren't in the front row of this flight, so no extra legroom. We were in the second row, which somehow made it worse! (So close...) It was... a LONG flight. I don't know how else to describe it. I watched a movie or two but mostly read and dozed. And ate. Because they kept feeding us.
Finally - 13+ hours later - we landed in Chicago! Hooray! Back in the states!
But lovely, lovely American airlines was running late. And we only had an hour layover to begin with. So we basically had something crazy like 30 minutes to get through US Immigration and security and go to the other end of the airport to get to our next flight.
We raced off the plane and were happy to see that we had "Express" passes to get through customs. (I think they do this for all late passengers.) We raced to the horrendous immigration line and were shuffled out of the line and into an area full of immigration kiosks. It was actually kinda cool - it scanned your passport and took a picture of you and everything. I would have been more impressed at the time had I not been so dang tired and yet also so dang wired, trying to not miss our flight home!
Then we had to get into ANOTHER line to have some security guy look at our passports for like 5 seconds and then wave us through. He told us just to take our big luggage to the gate since we were running so late. We found our way to the train only to discover that a billion other people were waiting for it as well. The train finally came and I was able to squeeze on, but Lance and Randy weren't. I yelled to the train "Hey! Our last flight was late and our other flight is boarding NOW. Is anyone willing to let my husband and friend on with me so we don't miss our flight?!"
But I had forgotten something. I was no long in happy, polite, civilized Taiwan. I was back in "the go @#$(@$%!!! yourself United States of America". Not a single person moved. Someone coughed. It was strait out of a movie. The doors started to close and I told Lance I would hold the plane for them!
As we rode along in the train some guy in the back said to me "I would have let them on, but I couldn't get up there in time." To which I replied "Thanks. We're just trying to get home to our FOUR kids; we've been gone for a WEEK." At least some of the passengers looked a little ashamed, but most just ignored me.
Once we got to my terminal I shoved my way off of the train - I literally had to, because the jerks in front of me wouldn't move when I called out that I had to get off. Then I RAN with my huge suitcase in tow to the gate that the monitor - not five minutes earlier - had told me to get to.
Only there was no plane there. And no information on the sign. I wildly looked around for a gate agent, figuring we had missed the plane by mere minutes. But then, in tiny little writing at the bottom of a screen I read that our gate had been changed. To something further away, of course. So I raced to the next gate as I called Lance at the same time to let him know. (I could use my phone as a phone again! The novelty!)
Nothing again.
I am not a swearing kind of gal, but I sure felt like it just then.
Again, no gate agents. Nothing was announced on the speakers. (I had been listening.) No little writing on the gate screen. No, this time I learned of the gate change from some passing ladies who I happened to overhear. I stopped and talked to them, and they confirmed the change; they had just found out from someone else - NOT an American Airlines employee, of course.
It was like this airline did NOT WANT anyone to make it to this flight!
This gate was only a few away from the one I was at - I had actually passed it in my rush. So I rushed down to the new gate, calling Lance again.
Success! The flight number was up! The flight was late! Yay?
Lance and Randy met up with me just a minute or so after I got there myself. I was hot and sweaty from running all over O'Hare on a wild goose chase. And I was MAD.
Fortunately, there was a very loud, friendly, and very slightly tipsy New Yorker in the crowd who befriended and entertained us while we waited for a gate agent to appear. He simply could not believe that we had gone to Taiwan and back all in a week. It was fun to talk to him about the trip and about how much we all hated American Airlines and O'Hare airport.
The gate agent did not seem happy at all when we presented her with our huge bags. I told her that security had told us to just come through and check them at the gate, which she did, all the while acting as if it were some huge inconvenience.
Hey lady, you know what's a huge inconvenience? Running through a frickin' huge airport with a giant bag only to find out that my flight gate has been changed - TWICE - and not having the frickin' airline tell me about it.
Sorry. Can you tell I was pretty ticked about the whole thing? I was. And am. (This is not the first time American has screwed me over. Remind me later and I'll tell you about how they stranded me in Tel Aviv while the whole Middle East was trying to blow each other up. Again.)
Finally - FINALLY! - we were on the plane and in the air for all of 29 minutes. And just like that, we were back in Indiana.
We got our bags and got outta Dodge. We were all pretty sick and tired of airports and all things associated with them. Lance and I picked up some Jimmy Johns on the way and happily drove home. We relieved the Silvers of their duty (well done, Silvers!), showered, and collapsed into bed. (Well, I did. Lance stayed up because he missed his computer. Also, jet lag.)
The kids were so stinkin' cute about us being home the next day. Hugs and kisses all around! Well, not from Spencer. He's 10 going on 15. But he did acknowledge our presence, so I'll give him that. We passed out presents (more on that later), talked about the week, and then got to work. It was a little surreal mowing the lawn that morning, but it sure felt good to be home!
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