One Teammate Down, No Luggage, What's Next?

It has been a whirlwind of events. Thursday (Feb 28th) was crazy. I worked until noon, picked up my luggage and headed to the airport. Mike and I met up in the Fairbanks Airport and had a 4 hour layover in Anchorage. Luckily he has boardroom privileges so we got to sit in comfy chairs and have a snack. In Anchorage we me up with two more teammates, Seth and Kim, and headed to Seattle. We arrived in Seattle just after midnight (Feb 29th). It was a very short leap day for me. In Seattle we picked up the last team member, Becca. Our flight took off from Seattle around 1:30 am. It was a very long flight - 13+ hours. I got a few hours of sleep and hoped it would be enough to last me through the long day ahead. We arrived in Taiwan around 6 am (Mar 1).

Everything is going smoothly until I get through customs and turn around to see my teammate, Kim, having issues with the custom agent. She was being led away. Come to find out she had passport issues. More on this to come. Mike suggested that he would wait for Kim and the rest of us should go and find the luggage. We get there to find out that none of the bags from the Anchorage to Seattle flight made it on the EVA flight. So Becca is the only one who has luggage. After the ordeal of getting lost luggage documents filled out Mike made his way to the baggage claim without Kim. Come to find out that her passport expired on Feb. 18th. What???? I could not believe it. You would think that if you were going on a trip you would check. We have been told multiple times to check our passports and asked if they were valid. (When we turned in our passports, the interview weekend, at the December meeting and multiple times since.) So Mike has to deal with his lost baggage issues and send the three of us (Seth, Becca and I) out to meet the Rotarians meeting us. We were met by 3 rotarians, and an assistant to one of the rotarians. They had a banner and had us take piictures. It was weird and sad because Mike was not with us. A while later we had to go through all of the picture taking again with Mike. Then we headed to the EVA counter to find out what was going to happen to Kim - could she get a temporary Visa or would she be on the next flight back to the US? Well we spend another 45 minutes to hour waiting around for someone to tell us what was going to happen. Finally, we got on a bus, not knowing what the outcome would be for Kim.

We had a 2 hour bus ride to Taichung. We stopped about 1/2 way there for a rest stop. Man do they have nice ones - it has a food court and shopping area. I sure wish US rest stops would have some food. We are staying at a hotel for the first two nights. Our rooms are beautiful and so is the hotel. We had lunch and then went through our schedule. I learned that most of my host families are Lawyers so I will get to learn a little more about being a Lawyer and the Legal System hear. During all of this there are multiple phone calls between the Rotarians, their connections at the "US Embassy" (we don't have an official one) and their contacts in their government (they know some big wigs). Then we got the bad news - Kim was on the next flight to the US and it made all of us feel sort of weird. I knew right away earlier today that she was going to be on the next flight. How were they going to let someone in who did not have a VISA? I was surprise that she even got on the EVA flight. Her passport should have been checked in Anchorage when she checked her bags to Taiwan and it was checked in Seattle by EVA twice. (Once when we got our boarding passes and the second time when we boarded.)

After lunch they took us on a quick tour around the hotel and to get a few things to tide us over until we get our luggage. They showed us a department store across the street in case our luggage does not make it tomorrow since we have to give our first presentation tomorrow. I am really hoping that it comes on tomorrow morning's flight. The department store is really interesting. They had elevator girls who push the buttons and get out of the elevator at each stop and ask if anyone wants to go up/down. They have these cute little uniforms. Then purchasing something is another ordeal. It is not like the US where you go in and find everything you want to try on or buy in the whole store and take it to one register. You have to purchase it in each section (the sections not just mens, womens, etc. They are broken down by brand - so if you wanted to try on different brands of jeans you would have to go to different parts of the store and try them on separately.)

Stay tuned for more excitement. I am going to go to sleep and hopefully wake up to luggage.

FYI - Taiwan is 17 hours ahead of Alaska Time. So it is 11:52 pm Friday night in AK and 5:52 pm Saturday night in Taiwan.