Settling into Taiwan
Despite my protestations and Apple bandwagon foot-dragging, Christine got an iPhone 4S for me. My ancient 3G has slowed to a crawl from IOS updates, and now has been commissioned as an iTouch for Arden. Oddly, I have found the iPhone eco-system comforting as it unifies life experiences no matter where in the world you are. We have been taking some quick photos with the phone camera, and it seems to be much improved experience overall; however, it is still many leagues away from the performance of a standard compact camera. I am still quite awkward holding the phone and taking pictures with it, causing many of the pictures to be slightly blurry. Christine has much more stable hands and is able to capture much sharper images. I am definitely looking...
Anders’ Block and Lego Creations
Anders has watched a handful of Bob the Builder episodes, and yet whenever he launches into a building session, I can hear him singing, “Bob the builder… can we build it? … Yes we can!” Here are some of his little creations from the last year that I don’t want to get lost in the jungle of pictures and memories.
Grandma Hung Comes to Visit
Grandma Hung was able to visit for an extended period this time. The stars aligned, she just wrapped up a Fang family Mexico cruise with her mother, and the daily 100 degree weather in Texas helped persuade her to come to California. Unfortunately, the visit was last-minute, so I wasn’t able to get her affordable lodging for our Tahoe trip, and much of the rest of the time, she wasn’t feeling well and we had to cancel trips to more interesting places. So I apologize that the photos are not very lively, but we were able to capture a few moments as she tagged along with the kids in our daily lives and as Anders hit his 4th...
Spring Happenings – Pancakes, Julian’s Birthday, and Blocks
Anders enjoys cooking, and that fits great with Christine’s hobby of trying new recipes. This month’s creations was Ebleskiver (Danish pancakes) filled with jam, honey, or nutella. Paired with a cup of coffee, this was heaven. Anders also helped out in making some traditional Chinese scallion pancakes the following week. I didn’t expect him to be able to flatten the dough into nice circles all by himself. This month also involved lots of home improvement chores for me. The DSL went out and had to be rerouted. Our redwood tree roots pushed down a portion of our retaining wall on the front lawn. The garage door sensors needed some new components. Anders did some home improvement of his own with his wooden block set. He created...
Easter Egg Hunting
I’ve always had difficulty bridging the relationship between the eggs and the significance of the Christian Easter story, but watching the kids chase after these little neon-colored ovals with glee helps assuage these discontinuities. The kids had a great time in both the pre-school event as well as our friend Maria’s Easter Hunt. Christine found some felt buckets for Anders and Arden. Last year, Anders had a harder time getting into the spirit of the egg hunt. This year he quickly found his groove and Arden followed after. Later that week, Anders and I found neon-plastic chips littering all the parks in the area. Easter also brings its own unique form of waste; hopefully, one day these plastic eggs will be made to...
Cousin Ian Visits – Berkeley, Bubbles, and Seals
Christine’s cousin Ian is attending high school in a Utah boarding school. Knowing how much of a downgrade American school food is to a Taiwanese student, we invited him over for spring break to catch up on pearl milk tea, ramen, bibimbap, pho, sushi, and other ethnic foods in the Bay Area. I hope he had a good time hanging out with us and the kids as we go about our daily routines to making our annual trip out to see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo.