Tasty and Cake

I'm in Taiwan from June 27 to September 2!

My parents celebrated my birthday yesterday. We ate at Tasty (西題牛排館). It was really good, and the service even better! The cake below was not a cake. It was made from a towel!

After, we bought a taro and pudding cake home and downed it...the next day because we were so full after the meal!

Happy Birthday Tesla!

My nephew, Tesla Chen, is one year old!
祝你生日快樂!!

Tesla with his Grandma.

March

...of the Penguins? No not really, though I think that film is pretty heart warming. I'm just catching up on stuff since February. Let's see...oh yea spring break was from March 18 to 28 and was probably the only thing worth mentioning out of that month.

At the end of December last year I finally told dad how to download some Taiwanese shows like 豬哥會社, 綜藝大哥大 and 綜藝大集合. That gave him something more to do to fill up his daily activities. And since the internet at home is no doubt provided by Turtle Inc., he had to wait several hours...hmm make that more than ten hours to download a two hour show. He used the computer my sister didn't want anymore and was that computer a raging firetruck! The cooling fans must be running on Red Bulls because it was just too loud!! He mitigated the annoying sound by putting up our Blu-ray player container next to the computer to block the sound when they sleep. That was hilarious! I brought the HP computer back home during spring break so they could use that to download instead.

Anyways it was very enjoyable watching those shows with them during the nights that week. Those shows really gave them something to look forward to after a long night of hard work at Lai Lai Restaurant, and they certainly end the day with fun and somewhat nostalgic note.

二姊 moved into their new house in San Jose area. I would have to say it is a really nice place: nice front/back yard, great view of the mountains, and convenient anywhere you go. They painted Tesla's bedroom baby blue, and Tera's pink. I would say Tesla's bedroom feels like going to Hawaii. It has that nice, relaxing, and refreshing feel whenever I walk into the room. Another thing is that 大姊 and Erika live 10 minutes away so they often have dinner together. And on Fridays mom would be like a caterer bringing everything over there for dinner. What a task!

Oh and I also get to go to Toys 'R Us and BestBuy. That Samsung 3D TV in BestBuy was gorgeous. Though you look weird having to put on the glasses every time you want to watch 3D. I think the TV comes with 2 glasses, so unless you want to pay more, only 2 will get to watch 3D...well, unless you switch around or something..."alright 5 minutes! my turn!!"...When will glassesless 3DTV come out??

Mom, dad, big sis, and Erika are in Taiwan right now (went back on March 31). They'll stay in Tainan for a month! I have my 200-minute prepaid calling card ready...wow I've already used 100 minutes of it O_O

虎

Winter Olympic XXI begins!
Watching the opening ceremony last night, I saw a lot of familiar sceneries especially when the camera showed the night view of downtown Vancouver. Felt like I was there...well I was, just two months earlier :) Anyways the shows was really beautiful, and showcased the diverse seasons of Canada effectively...

Last night's trip with sisters and brother-in-law to Okazuya Japanese Restaurant was pretty amazing...probably because their little ones are at home sleeping. 可以專心吃!

祝大家 新年恭喜! 虎年行大運!

老狗

My sister and brother-in-law bought a Shih-Tzu puppy eleven years ago. It is the cutest thing ever. "Blue" he is called. He has been through a lot of places: Millbrae, Daly City, Cupertino, Texas (Round Rock), and now he's back in Millbrae with us!





Dog: most loyal friend a human could have.

吃月餅喝杯茶

坐在陽台上賞月
好享受~
少了烤肉看煙火...
不過聽說台灣有颱風芭瑪來襲,
如果在那裡什麼也做不到, 真可惜

爸爸寄給我三顆月餅, 一下填進肚子裡.


中秋節快樂!

以下是去年中秋節的照片, 在美國的家過的.

舉頭望明月, 低頭吃月餅 哈哈!

Number 4

One more year of college to go! I went down to UCLA with my parents yesterday, and brought a whole bedframe down, but luckily we are going to throw that heavy bed frame away when I'm done next year.

Every year my dad drove from San Francisco to LA to move my living equipments into the dorm, and drove again to pick those stuff up back to SF. The plan is: we rent the minivan at 11pm the previous day, woke up at 3am for a 7 hour drive to LA, move my stuff in, leave at around 3pm, and arrive at 10pm in time to return the car within a day. This schedule happens at September (beginning of school) and June (end of school)

Mom usually makes some sort of snack so we could have something to eat during the drive. While dad is driving she kept on stuffing food into dad's mouth...it was hilarious. She made sushi rolls this time. Yummy~
Hopefully I gather the courage to drive next time...14 hour drive is really stressful.

感謝爸爸媽媽!!

玩伴

"Play with me! 舅舅 Let's play! Again! Again," my niece, Tera, yelled.

These phrases and more are the ones I hear this past week. My second sister, brother-in-law, and their children moved back from Texas to California during late August, so they're living at our house. When I came back to the states they were already living at our apartment. I haven't seen them in almost two years.

Tera is very demanding and hard to handle. At three years of age she already has a mind and opinion of her own. I need to follow what she said when I play with her. When she wants something, she wants it...to the point which would drive a person cuckoo!!

I am Peter Pan, Hook, kitty, princess, baby... I am a lot of characters. This is what I have to do when I play with her. Sure it was interesting...for the first day! But when she literally begs to play with me every day, it starts to get vapid and annoying. Sometimes I want to leave the house just to get away from her...breathe some fresh air~

It's a wonderful thing to be able to see my niece and nephew, each time seeing them a bit grown up. My first big sister's daughter, Erika, is now almost two years old. When I was babysitting Erika, everything seemed pleasant, but taking care of Tera is indeed a tough tough job @@...I can only imagine how difficult it is for my sister to teach or lecture her.

I think no one can fully appreciate the greatness of our mothers until one has her/his own children.

Cousins Gathering

<-At Ricky/Pauline's house, with their two children, my big sister, Gary, Grace, Richard, and Jerry...



Every once in a while the cousins from my mom's side of the family (most of them are in California) would get together and have some chat and fun, usually during holidays. Three days ago I went to Ricky's house in South San Francisco for the gathering. Not a lot of my cousins were there, but Jerry was there.

Jerry is the only cousin in the family who goes to military academy. He graduated from West Point last year. This October, he would be sent to Iraq for a year. He said he will be doing computer stuff in Iraq, but wants to go to the front line!

How brave...

He wants to be in the CIA or FBI eventually. I think he can do it.

I don't know what makes him so eager to be in the military and in combat...movies? toy guns? A while ago I was looking at photos of me when I visited him. I was about 6 years of age and he was 9, and we played various toy guns, running around his house using furnitures as obstacles. But I wanted the games to stay games or even simulated situations and not become real life.

However, I think every guy should go through some time in the military, 過著一個有規律的生活. 有些人認為是浪費時間, 可是台灣現在只當兵一年, 以後也變募兵了, 所以我覺得如果跟別人有關係的話當個兩三個月的兵也不錯, 而且不用真正上戰場, 實現一下小時候的夢想

Good luck, Jerry! We all appreciate your courage and your service and dedication to the United States.

Upgrade

People like luxury...well most people do. That's why every type of tranportation has its higher-class seatings for the people who have more $$$. I used to travel back and forth betwen Taiwan and United States at least once a year before graduating from elementary school. In fact I think I have traveled roundtrip for more than 30 times!

Sometimes my family got enough mileage for an upgrade to business class, and that means horray for all of us! Since this year is the 50 year anniversary of China Airlines (中華航空), the mileage required for an upgrade was lowered...so my parents said why not and we're in for Dynasty Class.

Our flight was at 11:30pm on September 2 from Taoyuan International Airport. Since we live in Tainan, we have to travel down to Kaohsiung first and then take an airplane up to Taoyuan. This means two waiting period...and also two chances for VIP lounge...and our dinner problem is solved!

高雄小港機場華航貴賓室: very nice environment, less people so less noise, a little bit short on the variety of food, but overall a very enjoyable place.

桃園機場華航貴賓室: big resting areas, great food including various noodle soups, but did I just entered a 夜市? So many people walking around, taking food, talking on phones....這根本把好氣氛都毀了~

I guess it's better to come here during the morning, when there is no one sitting next to you, sneezing and coughing while going on facebook...and it was an uncomfortable situation during flu season @@

The Dynasty Class seats on the plane was a bit different from what I remembered. I didn't remember I could extend my legs completely without touching the front row before, and I'm sure my legs didn't grow shorter. But it was a change for the better. And yes, I kept taking pictures like crazy. The movie selection menu for our individual TV was outdated because this airplane was an older model, but it didn't prevent my from watching a lot of movies...eh...actually I watched only one movie: Running the Sahara (決戰沙哈拉), which was about three runners (one of them, 林義傑, is from Taiwan) that ran across the Saharan desert from St. Louis, Senegal to Cairo, Egypt in about 100 days.

I sort of felt guilty while watching them struggling to achieve the impossible while I was lying on a comfortable chair drinking apple juice. Their courage and perseverance could be discerned in their actions and I think this shows their character more than anything else. Going back to California means the end of a wonderful summer in Taiwan; it means the start of the ongoing advancement in learning. We need to exert the perseverance like those runners. At the end of the run, they've reach the oceans of Egypt and their reward comes with the sense of achievement and the cold ocean water. Our sense of achievement may have yet to come, but we should work towards it. 任何事都是先苦後甘啦.

這次回到美國後發現以後回台灣遊玩的機會不多了. 以後回台灣可能是找工作的時候了, 不過我也很期待這時刻的來臨.