Return from Taiwan, Part 1

Since I created a blog post about leaving for Taiwan, 2 years ago, it was fitting that I should follow-up with a return from Taiwan post, from one year ago.

These are signs that my niece Jessica had posted around her house in the month before I got home. Seriously, how can you not feel the love after looking at these pictures????


The memories of seeing so many of family at the Salt Lake airport are ones that still make me smile big when I think about them. However, a little background about the flight first....

• All went smoothly for my friend and I, from the 2 1/2 hr bus ride to the airport, etc. until we faced..... the escalator! For whatever reason, we could only find one luggage cart, so it was perhaps heavier than some. Easy enough to push around on a flat floor, but not made for an escalator. On the way up, a kind gentleman used his leg to brace the luggage cart so it didn't run into anyone. And when we got to the top... I didn't have enough strength to actually push the luggage cart OFF the escalator. And so people started running into me (seriously) my shoe fell off, but finally the same kind man gave a good push and we got the cart OFF the escalator.
  
• Since my luggage I took to Taiwan was too big and resulted in a fine (see previous post) I had to find another way to get my luggage and other stuff home. We traveled with boxes many times while living in the Philippines, so I decided to give it a try for myself! The last time we were on a branch trip to Costco one of my roommates brought back a large box she found in the parking lot. But then she decided not to use it. I had also seen my dad and others tie knots around the box to keep it closed and create a handle, so after massive amounts of tape, I decided to try my hand at box knot tying. So I went and bought lots of cord and started tying!
  
• One problem though, which I realized when my box came off the luggage carousel in LA, with nearly all the cord fallen off the box- the cord was too stretchy! And... the tape had started to come off the bottom of the box, though amazingly, nothing had fallen out to that point. The lady gave me a roll of tape to retape my box, but one problem, nothing to cut the tape with! After 5 minutes of poor attempts at cutting a nice length of tape, she took pity on me and came back to help me, and quickly cut several lengths of tape with the tip of a ballpoint pen. Talk about professional!
• And... for a myriad of reasons, my friend Jen and I missed our flight to LA to SLC. Thankfully, my mom had restored my cell phone service by then so I was able to call and tell the fam that I would be late, and Jen could call her family as well.

So... escalator avalanche, stretchy cord, power of a ball point pen and gratitude for cell phones! That about sums it up!