Wow, it is hard to believe it's been nearly a week since we arrived in Taipei. We hit the ground on Sunday night and spent night 1 in a hotel. We were lucky in that we were able to secure two adjoining rooms, complete with the door connecting them. While common in the US, these are not so common in the Intel hotels in which I have stayed in Asia.
This lead to our first 'we're in Asia'/'language barrier' moment. Both rooms had two single beds, which was great. We just needed to either fashion together a bed for Amelia (the 4 year old baby gets the short stick) or perhaps a roll away bed. So we call the service center and ask for a roll away bed or baby cot for our youngest daughter. They send someone to our room who asks what we want (didn't we just tell the lady on the phone what we wanted... why yes, we did). So I explain to her what we want. I even pull out a little Chinese. I point at the bed that one of the older kids is on and say 'xiao de', which if I remember correctly translates to 'small one'. So, off the lady goes, in search of a small bed. A few minutes later she returns... and in her hands is... yes, I gave it away in the title of the post... a pillow that might be right sized for an American Girl doll.
At this point, and remember we haven't slept in about 26 hours, I am trying to explain that we don't want a small pillow, we want a small bed. Of course at this point Mimi is yelling 'I want the pillow, I love the pillow'. So I hand her the pillow, my eyes telling her she's not helping.
What happens next is what always happens next when there's a language issue in Asia. It's like when you call into get IT support and the first tech can't solve your problem. They then find someone that's a little more knowledgeable until you get to someone that can fix your problem. They found someone with a little better English to help us out, and a few minutes later, we had a roll away bed set up for Mimi, and in she was tucked with her American Doll pillow.
At about 5a I heard a ruckus in the girls room. Upon investigation I found Mimi standing on her bed looking like she was about to launch the American Doll pillow across the room at Gigi, who was sitting up in her bed wide awake. This was all playing out over Olivia's bed - in which she was dead asleep. A stern message delivered to the youngest two children resulted in their going back to sleep and needing to be woken up at 8:00a in time to get breakfast.
Uneventful flights to Taipei, and easy commute and check into the hotel and a good night's sleep. I good start I would say!
This lead to our first 'we're in Asia'/'language barrier' moment. Both rooms had two single beds, which was great. We just needed to either fashion together a bed for Amelia (the 4 year old baby gets the short stick) or perhaps a roll away bed. So we call the service center and ask for a roll away bed or baby cot for our youngest daughter. They send someone to our room who asks what we want (didn't we just tell the lady on the phone what we wanted... why yes, we did). So I explain to her what we want. I even pull out a little Chinese. I point at the bed that one of the older kids is on and say 'xiao de', which if I remember correctly translates to 'small one'. So, off the lady goes, in search of a small bed. A few minutes later she returns... and in her hands is... yes, I gave it away in the title of the post... a pillow that might be right sized for an American Girl doll.
At this point, and remember we haven't slept in about 26 hours, I am trying to explain that we don't want a small pillow, we want a small bed. Of course at this point Mimi is yelling 'I want the pillow, I love the pillow'. So I hand her the pillow, my eyes telling her she's not helping.
What happens next is what always happens next when there's a language issue in Asia. It's like when you call into get IT support and the first tech can't solve your problem. They then find someone that's a little more knowledgeable until you get to someone that can fix your problem. They found someone with a little better English to help us out, and a few minutes later, we had a roll away bed set up for Mimi, and in she was tucked with her American Doll pillow.
At about 5a I heard a ruckus in the girls room. Upon investigation I found Mimi standing on her bed looking like she was about to launch the American Doll pillow across the room at Gigi, who was sitting up in her bed wide awake. This was all playing out over Olivia's bed - in which she was dead asleep. A stern message delivered to the youngest two children resulted in their going back to sleep and needing to be woken up at 8:00a in time to get breakfast.
Uneventful flights to Taipei, and easy commute and check into the hotel and a good night's sleep. I good start I would say!
Great story, Joe. Sound very much like my first day in Germany as a young engineer in 1963.
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