All is well if I have chicken snacks

It's hard to be upset when you have chicken snacks. And a bit o' telly. And a nice warm bed to get crumbs in.

But, let's back up a bit. When I arrived in Vancouver and checked in at the China Airlines gate, the two representatives looked at my luggage tags and exchanged concerned looks, as well as some hushed words in Mandarin. It turns out that Air Canada, in all of their helpfulness, had checked my bags through to some fictional airline, not China Airlines. The gate representatives did their best to rally the luggage handlers to find my bags before the flight, but no luck. The plane pushed off with just me and my laptop bag onboard.

The China Airlines lost luggage desk at Taoyuan International Airport happened to be right next to the luggage conveyor where people from my flight were collecting their bags. I looked over and noticed this helpful sign circling around and around. I thought "how very civilized!" Usually airlines just leave you standing there like an idiot until the conveyor stops moving.

I was informed that my bags would not arrive until late the following day. Great. So, when I got to my hotel I asked if they had a room available that I could check into immediately. (The usual check-in time is 3pm.) They did, and I happily coughed up the extra cash so I could get out of my clothes and air them out. And shower off all of those hours of airplane sweat, as well.

I snoozed until the jackhammers started ripping up the street outside the hotel. That was my cue to get up and do a bit of recon around the Da'an neighbourhood. I scored an MRT easy pass and rode the "rails" for a bit. I had to be at the World Scholar House hostel to pay my month's rent by 3pm so I caught a cab to the hostel. I waited for a while but the manager didn't show up to check me in. Thankfully one of the long termers was there and noticed me lurking about. He told me that the manager would be out most of the day. (Gee, thanks for the heads' up, manager.) So, I grabbed the keys to my hostel room and went back to the hotel.

They had moved me to another room, which I discovered had gigantic penguins on the wall.

They kind of have disapproving looks in their eyes. The "Environmental Protection" title in the top left also shoved the shiv of guilt between my ribs.

I wonder how this imagery is going to incorporate itself into my dreams tonight?

So, aside from lost luggage, missing managers, and giant penguins, all is well. Looking forward to more adventures tomorrow. And possibly Swedish meatballs. More on that later.