Day Zero Leg 2

Ok, now we're on the plane again, somewhere over China, about two hours left. Becky is playing her favorite word search game on her tablet. "Ricky and the Flash" is playing silently with Chinese subtitles on the little screen hanging down from the ceiling 3 rows up, it looks like Meryl Streep's character has just gotten to know her grown daughter, which she apparently abandonned and left with the father, but is hitting the road again. We lucked out on this flight, we have an entire row to ourselves, and the row in front of us, half the row in front of that, half a row behind us, you get the idea. It's leg room heaven! In a few hours we'll be talking to immigration officials, handing them the little yellow forms we just filled out on the plane. I'm wondering how it will go. I've had a few language-barrier frustrated conversations with immigration officials before about this box or that box on their forms... or at least that's what I thought the conversations were about. I saw something I've never seen before today. I saw a flight attendant attach an aluminum baby cot to the wall in front of the first row. The baby cot had straps and a little pillow and it was attached to the wall a little below eye level of the parents sitting in front of it. It's probably not a Chinese thing, or Tawainese, since this is an Airbus A321-200 and the wall has sockets for it built in, but I've never seen it before. There's not that much else that's interesting that I saw today. Although I was reminded of the Taiwanese custom of having women clean the men's bathrooms while the men are using it. It happened to me pretty often when I lived in Tawain in 2008. At first it was confusing, then akward, then kind of insulting for some reason, then I hardly noticed. And now, seven years later, it's just like old times. I wonder what new customs I will adapt to next. Well this blog entry is getting longish and I can't remember much else that I've noticed so far. I will say one thing, the Chinese food on EVA, a Taiwan based airline, is pretty good, whereas the American style food is about the same as it is on an American airline: not as good as the Chinese food on EVA. Also, note to future self: bring an extra shirt in the carry-on for your next long flight. My green extra largeXbox T-Shirt has EVA Chinese food stains and Taiwanese Niu rou mian (Beef noodle soup) stains all over it. Meryl Streep's character is singing with her band at her daughter's friend's wedding, and her daughter is laughing, it seems that her attempts to form a relationship with her daughter were a success. Oh now her daughter is singing with her. Now I can end this blog entry.