So the whole point of the barbeque was to make this huge mound of earth with a little cave in the middle and start a fire in it with sweet potatoes also in the center. Then the structure was suppose to collapse and the potatoes were to roast. It kind of worked and kind of didn’t really work.
Author: Doris
Jeremy found this old bicycle leaning against a house and it had a baby seat in the front. Vince loved it and Helen tagged along for a ride. I freaked out and thought they were going to crash.
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.
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.