Dad's Observations

Dad's Observations about Zack:

• Right now he wants to do nothing but go for walks in the carrier or be held.
• Right now we want to do nothing but hold him.
• He is already a completely different little boy than the one we picked up. He is opening up faster than I thought he would.
• Zack is a thinker just like his big brother.
• He is also just about as heavy as his big brother! He is a wide and stalky little guy.
• He is very ticklish and has a very funny little laugh.
• He was very loved by the people at St Lucy's. They are amazing and have done so much for him/us.
• Zack looks just like his birth mother.
• He 'high fives' with the best of them. He will fit right in ;)
• At St Lucy's the caretakers are a little more physical than we are in the US. Tickling is more of a jabbing motion, but he likes it!
• Zack seems to be afraid of floors.
• He goes to sleep with very little trouble so far and sleeps through the night!!!

Dad's Observations about Taiwan:

• You know it is humid when your camcorder refuses to turn on because "condensation is detected"
• Extreme sports have nothing on scooter riders here. You couldn't pay me enough to drive a car or ride a scooter in Taiwan.
• St Lucy's is in a much busier part of town than I imagined. I imagined some rural paradise in the middle of nowhere (I don't know why) but it is on one of the busier little streets we have seen!
• The people here are really nice.
• Paying a little more for the 'Evergreen Deluxe' airline tickets and a two room suite are the best money you could ever spend.
• We are definitely minorities here but I don't feel like an outcast because of race, more because of the unfamiliar surroundings.
• Seeing $100 happy meals at McDonalds and paying $105 for a 5 minute taxi ride is hard to get used to. ($100 is roughly $3 US)
• Taxis are definitely the way to go.
• Soda doesn't taste very different like I thought. I guess they use cane sugar instead of corn syrup.
• There are just as many annoying boy/girl bands here, but they are less annoying when you can't understand them.
• Although Taiwan is small it is bigger than I imagined. On our 30 minute flight to Tainan, we didn't pass over much land that wasn't developed/populated
• The buildings here are very architecturally interesting but nothing seems to be maintained as well as I would think. Nothing unsafe, mostly side effects of the humidity and smog I guess.
• The Mythbusters, Sports Center, and baseball are on TV here!
• Everything in popular culture has to do with cartoon cats, robots, or cartoon robot cats. Hello Kitty is on busses, airport booklets, everywhere.

PS: Italy rules the world cup! We couldn't sleep so we watched the last period of the finals game. The Driver and Jessica (the international adoption coordinator) at St. Lucy's said I looked like one of the Italian Soccer players....They got the italian part right!