Author: Doris

Jeremy came home early to pack for tomorrow. I’m very moody these, I think going home is causing some reverse culture shock. I am excited. We moved Luther the fish downstairs to the realtor’s office for the next two weeks. Spent the afternoon watching Legally Blonde. I’m starting to like the DVD issues of movies. I like listening to the director’s comments and the extra scenes and stuff like that. It’s really just my addiction to celebrity gossip. Jeremy still has a bit of his stomach bug and Vince has had a bloodshot eye for the past few days that I’m hoping will clear up soon. If not, we’ll see a doc in the US.

Today is my mother’s birthday! Happy birthday Mom 🙂 I’m glad I will be seeing you soon! I found someone else in Taiwan who has breastfed their babies. Woo hoo! This woman in my yoga class has breastfed her children both for 1 year each. The class is still facinated by my breastfeeding. Everyone here gets the shot to stop their milk production right away after giving birth. They are afraid of their breasts shrinking and sagging. I figure if ever I get tired of the way my boobs are, I’ll pay a plastic surgeon to lift them for me. Today I met a man from Kashmir in yoga class who said that all Americans were snotty, unpleasant and arrogant. He’s been in Taiwan selling all these beautiful scarves, I saw one that the yoga teacher bought which was one of the less expensive ones. But some he was selling for $6000 NT ($180 US) were absolutely beautiful, hand stiched and knotted.

Eating leftovers to try and leave the fridge empty for our 2 week vacation. I rented Harry Potter and I’m listening to it in Chinese with English subtitles. I’m hoping to pick up some key words this way… I tried to listen to it in just Chinese with Chinese subtitles, but it was too hard.

Well, it looks like we might sell the house. Got a resonable offer today so hopefully it will stick. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m not really holding my breath because so many things might happen between now and closing. What am I talking about? We haven’t even entered the option phase. Whatever. I got all nostalgic about our time in Austin, very homesick today.

I made coq au vin with the 2/3 bottle of red wine left over from yesterday’s dinner. First time for me, eating purple chicken. Ha ha. The wind really picked up today, actually kind of chilly. The yoga teacher today told me that I shouldn’t run anymore or drink cold sodas. Sigh.

We had a lasagne dinner tonight and we played to a full house! Leah, Ms. Liu, Mr. Lin, Helen, her nephew, Droopy and Man-Fai all came over and we had a great time. Dinner was over quickly, but it was really nice to have everyone over. We had salad, bread, butter, cheese, wine. We had a Dunkin Hines cake with frosting out of a can which actually was pretty terrible, so sweet. We made it because we were feeling sentimental, but really we should have made a cake from scratch. We are really limited by our oven space. Our ovens are getting crumbier and crummier.

Everybody felt better today. We thought we were going to take it easy today and rest, but it turns out we were on the go all day. In the morning, we went to the doctor to have a follow up check up on Vince. We got three more days of medication and assurances that the croup would pass quickly. Then I had breakfast at a little stand about 3 doors down from the doctor. I had the sweet hot soy milk and three pot stickers that were so hot they burned my tongue. We had lunch at a tea house where I ordered my first slushy (coffee flavored). We saw Ms. Liu who said that Leah had gone to the new Warner Village that opened in town to see Harry Potter. I mentioned that I was surprised because Harry Potter opened in the US this weekend also. But she said that they were showing an one hour edited version of the movie so they can have more showings and make more money (the ticket prices aren’t edited). The regular version comes out later. We went to the Orange Mart to buy cake mix and wine. Spent the evening watching Phantom Menace and baking a cake for the dinner party tomorrow.

So today Vincie is sick. We went to the doctor and he’s received a diagnosis of croup. A bit of a dry cough, low fever, sneezing, and general grumpyness. We got some medication that they mix together into a powder concoction. When we are ready to give it to him, we mix the powder with a yellow liquid and give it to him. He seems cheerful for a sick baby. Mr. Hung helped me hold Vince down while I gave him the dropperful of medicine. We had salmon and mashed potatoes for dinner which were especially yummy. Salmon I finally got from the RT Mart and potatoes we got from Costco in Taipei.