AIT - November 19

Our AIT appointment was at 9am. Our driver was going to pick us up at 8:30 to get us there early. Our hotel is very close to AIT. But she was operating on Taiwan time and showed up at 8:50. We barely made it. Our coordinator and driver came with us.

I was expecting a more American place. Something like my dermatologist's waiting room, what we got instead was Middle America DMV, circa 1965. White linoleum floor, 8 teller windows behind glass, complete with shades. Rows of uncomfortable plastic chairs. Oh yeah, and a water cooler with paper cups, not paper cups but paper that you have to unfold and blow into to form cups. It did take a while, we got called up twice, then we signed some papers, paid our bill and we were outta there. And they asked us when we wanted the VISA. We said today please and they said come back at 3. No problem.

We were thrilled, because now we could change tickets and get home. At this point I was getting sicker, we went to some local hole in the wall noodle place for lunch, I couldn't eat a thing. And these little local places don't sell drinks. Tom had to go around the corner to find me a coke. (I needed the sugar).

After lunch we headed to the zoo. We had 2 hours to kill until the Visa was ready. Meghan wanted to fall asleep but no way were we going to let that happen again. So she just got little cat naps. It started raining on us so we headed back to AIT. Tom ran in and in a few minutes he was back with the VISA.

After a brief break at the hotel for few phone calls to the travel agent we headed out to the Shi Lan Night market. Tom got crazy with the food. Me, not so much. Tomorrow we would be heading home.