We went to an orchard and pick many, many buckets of oranges. My fingers were so sticky with the juice. The orchard owner told us the many different varieties he was growing and we all crowded around the trees for some good farming time! On the right hand side of the picture is Ms. Liu and Polo. They sure do know how to ham it up for the camera.
Month: January 2003
We had a great day today! We went to the house of a classmate’s of Mr. Lin in the countryside. There was a nice guy from Toronto named Terrance who we met. He just moved into an apartment of Ms. Liu’s. We left at nine and drove about 15 minutes. We went and picked oranges and then BBQed in the beautiful, beautiful sunlight. Jeremy and Vince went for a bike ride, Jeremy was the only one who got sunburned. There was also this big pile for sweet potato roasting. It really was a lovely way to spend our last weekend in Hsinchu. We will really miss this place. Tonight we are packing as the movers are coming tomorrow! Wish us luck!
Big shopping day for us on the internet! Bought all our new winter clothes and computer equipment and had it shipped to New York. Went shopping this afternoon and bought a great outfit for me from SOGO and some glasses for Jeremy. Then tonight we went to dinner with Erdam, Eloina, Scott, Christine and Victoria to TGIFridays and the Ambassador hotel for dessert and coffee.
These are my friends from Japan. Their husbands all work for the high-tech industries in Hsinchu. Most of them have small children or are trying to have small children. We usually go to yoga in the mornings together.
Vince’s nanny is the sister-in-law of our friend Linda at the Ambassador Hotel. I left Vince with his nanny every morning for 3 hours. Vince is a tricky boy, he would drink out of a bottle when he was with her. He would always refuse a bottle from me or Jeremy. Vince’s nanny lived in an apartment about 10 minutes from our place in Holland Village.
These are all our realtor friends from Taiwan sitting in our apartment eating this wonderful dinner. Helen cooked the dinner, she shopped and chopped and took command of the kitchen. Such wonderful food and wonderful company.
Another busy day… Beautiful week here in Hsinchu. High of 72 degrees. Ha ha, in Fishkill, today’s low was 1 F! We dropped Vince off today at the nanny’s and spent the morning walking around and waiting for our apartment to be cleaned one last time. We then picked Vince up at 11 and said our goodbyes to the nanny, gave her a picture of Vince and a red envelope. Then we went to lunch with my Japanese yoga friends and stayed there for almost 3 hours. It was a lot of fun. Then we went home for a quick nap and then went to the realtors and ran into Droopy’s family who gave us a mug with Droopy’s picture on it…. So cute! Then we came home. Vince learned how to flush the toilet today and also he is starting to free stand for a few seconds now.
Happy Birthday Ruby! Today was a busy, busy day. We got up, sent Vince to the nanny’s and then I went to my very last Chinese lesson downstairs. Jeremy was upstairs making phone calls and arrangements. Then we went to UMC to drop off Jim’s wedding photos and to thank them for their gifts. We ended up going to Jeremy’s favorite dumpling place in the science park. I was so impressed. Something has happened during the past 3 days, but Jeremy’s Chinese has made a quantum leap. His Chinese conversation is going so well and so fluid, he doesn’t need a lot of prompting or reminding of words. It is amazing something really is clicking for him. Then Vince and I napped, Jeremy went to the science park and did errands. Then we went downstairs and played with Mr. Hong. Then Helen came over and cooked up a storm. It was such a wonderful dinner with lots of talking and laughing and cooking. They are all so sweet, they bought Vince horse necklaces, one gold on jade. And we talked and gossiped about kids misbehaving and fish that die.
Today felt like a busy day. We took Vince to the babysitter. Doris went to yoga class while I made arrangements for our upcoming trip to Japan and Hong Kong. Then we had Tepanyaki for lunch with our friend Helen at the Carleton spa. After lunch I made a quick trip the office while Vincent napped. When I came hme we visited with Hong Shen Sen, Liuo Shao Jie and company, and spent some time in the ball room playing. In the ball room, a very nice 5 year old girl invited us up to her apartment to play. Apparently she has more toys there. But Vince was gettng tired to we came home instead. We cooked some beef and onions, and shao bai tsai for dinner, and Man Fai joined us. Now we are going to watch Amile and go to bed. Oops, I hope it has English subtitles and not just Chinese…
Did so much today! Got the furniture from the rosewood maker in Taipei, it is beautiful. We went to the bank and closed our accounts and wired money back to our US accounts. I was very impressed with myself! I can do bank business in Chinese. Then we went to lunch at a Hakka place in Chubei with the metals and dielectrics group. Then I came home and did the regular routine and Jeremy went to work. Then we went out to dinner with the CMP group. Vince had a great time, and no naps! So many nice people 🙂