Tuesday, January 14th, 2003
We started out
from Phoenix destined for Taipei by way of Los Angeles sometime in the morning.
We arrived the obligatory 3 hours before flight time, loaded down for bear. I
expected much more difficulty getting our luggage through security. Only the
bags containing diapers and formula needed to be checked. I honestly cannot
imagine why, since the other bags contained a portable crib and loads of
electronic gear. I'd have thought those would be more problematic, but
apparently not.
I must admit that I had grave concerns about Michelle's
behavior on a plane flight. Normally, she's the most pleasant
and even-tempered of babies, but a long plane flight seemed
likely to test even her good nature. Our hopes for a pleasant flight picked
up when Michelle promptly fell asleep on the flight to LA and stayed quiet
even when she woke up. She experienced no apparent discomfort during take-off
and landing either - a further glimmer of hope that she
might do well on the flight.
About 2 hours into the international flight, just after they'd served dinner, they turned off the lights to let the passengers sleep... and the screaming began. Not just her usual 3 minutes of screaming and then quiet, but 3 full hours of continuous, top-of-the-lungs, high-pitched, nothing-is-going-to-stop me screaming.
Eventually, Chu-Wan had to take Michelle to the kitchen where
the stewardesses took turns trying to quiet her down. Each one, in turn, could
quiet her for a few minutes, but when the novelty wore off, she began screaming
again. It was so stressful that Chu-Wan was brought to tears,
too.
Eventually, Michelle could scream no more, and as long as Chu-Wan (and no one else) held her in her lap, she slept. For the next 8 hours Chu-Wan was stuck to her chair with the baby in arm. Needless to say, Chu-Wan got next to no sleep.
We arrived at Chu-Wan's parents' house at about midnight Taipei time (9:00AM Phoenix time, about Michelle's normal waking time.) Michelle was happy and friendly meeting her grandmother and seeing her grandfather again, and we managed to leave Michelle with them long enough for us to go around the corner to the 7-11.
7-11 has greatly expanded its food selection, and serves a series of boxed meals. I had a black pepper beef over noodles dish which was very good. Like 7-11's back home, the meals come with a number printed on the box indicating which preset on the microwave to use to heat the product. In this case, the microwave is behind the counter and the clerk prepared the meal for me - opening the container and the inner pouches. At 1 in the morning, it didn't cause any problem, but I can only imagine how much of a delay that would be during a busy time at the store.
When we returned
and it came time to try to put Michelle to sleep, she launched
into an all-night scream. Again, Chu-Wan
had to hold her and stand up for the night.
Having me hold her, or having Chu-Wan hold
her and sit down just wouldn't work.
With no sleep at all for Chu-Wan and very little for me, we were
"ready" to begin our visit.
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