Finally saw Austin Powers Goldmember last night. Woo hoo! Today we spent the morning driving around the center of Dutchess County looking for a house. A bit discouraging. We aren't sure what we are looking for exactly. Then we stopped off a Gymboree for a preview class, which Vince liked OK. Then in the afternoon I saw a doctor for my ears. Said there was no ear wax in the ears, but my infection hasn't cleared up yet, so I got another course of antibiotics, this time for 10 days.

Kind of a grumpy day today. We got up on the wrong side of the bed... Anyways, we are looking for a house to buy, so we spent some time in a realtor's office sifting through listings. Turns out a lot of our coworkers have bought houses already. Sigh. We spent two hours in Bob's office with Vince and had a great time.

Today we went into Poughkeepsie and found a little neighborhood that we might like to live in. Also met Mia Farrow today. She was waiting for Seamus at the house. She held Vincie for a while. Then we took a walk on campus.

Tokyo for 2 days. Mainly saw Yuki and my mother's graduate school friend Hajimi. We saw the river on a cruise, gardens, Ginza shopping, the imperial palace gardens. Flew fome, Vince was pretty good... Today we did a quick driving tour and Jeremy looked at cars. We are all a bit tired and sick.

So on Wed, we went to breakfast with big brother at a big dim sum place and then we forged out on our own into town. We were meeting up with Jeremy's pal, Matt at the Central Station of the MTR. The subway is so elegantly arranged and clearly labled we had no trouble navagating the city. We took the tram up to the peak and saw the whole city below bathed in fog. Then we took a short walk around the peak and had lunch at a little cafe. Then we went to the Star Ferry and took it across to Kawloon and saw the bird and flower market. Then we ate a snack and off to find big brother's office. We made it there at 5 pm and saw his office full of toys and samples. Then we headed to a restaurant at 6 pm and waiting until loads and loads of people spilled in for dinner. Dinner started at half past eight. It was an extremely elegant dinner. That night we all fell asleep soundly. The next day, we went out with big brother's eldest son and he was a lot of fun. We saw the tallest building in Hong Kong and then to the IM Pei building, the Bank of China. Saw the convention center. Then saw the Hong Kong park and aviary. High end shopping center where Vince fell blissfully asleep during lunch. Then up the escalators that wound through town. Then back to the marina for a nap and back to a seafood restaurant for dinner. Got up really early to make it to the Hong Kong airport, actually ran to catch our plane. Vince fell asleep for most of the flight. Thank goodness! Now we are in Tokyo! Had dinner with friends of Bob and Katherine's at the best tempura place in Tokyo.

So last night as I was falling asleep, I was getting a sharp pain in my ear, so Linda, the housekeeper at the AMBASSADOR took me to the doctor at 10:30 at night, we eventually ended up at the hospital where I got a prescription of antibiotics. Turns out I have an ear infection. I'll have to get my ears cleaned out when I get back home. Today we flew to Hong Kong where we are staying with "Big Brother". We are staying at a marina of some sort. We have spent the afternoon sleeping recovering from the exhaustion of packing and saying goodbye to everyone.

Packed today and said farewell to the realtors, Helen, Debbie, Mr. Hong and Linda. Hmmmm... I will miss everybody. At the end of dinner, Helen reached out to touch Jeremy's beard, she was so curious to find out if it was smooth or rough, it was a funny way to end the evening.

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.

Helen and Ms. Liu cook on grills at ankle height. I think BBQ was inspired by the American habit; they all kept saying how American this was. But it was modified for Taiwan. Squatting at the grill, sweet BBQ sauce was used for the marinade.

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 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.

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 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.

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 :)

We are still a bit sick today. I went to yoga today and immediately felt better after I spoke to my Japanese friends. A bit of cold spaghetti for lunch and Jeremy came home today at 3. We are working out details of our move and trying to figure out who to see before we leave. We got some great pictures of us taken at the studio and I'm trying to post those up...

Sick, sick, sick all weekend. Vince is well though. Jeremy made an amazing steamed chicken soup.

IBM and AMD are in cahoots! There, I said it. It is in all the papers today. Jeremy has pretty much stopped going to work. I think he'll go in on Monday, but then after that, people are leaving! I told the nanny, I never knew much she needs the gig, but she seemed to take it in stride. I also to Kiko at the gym and we also told the bun making people. Vince is starting to be tough to take care of at home. He always wants to be outside playing with kids. We spent the evening in the ball room, we did cartwheels and flipping and rolling. Just great!

So today I told the realtors that we are moving from Taiwan. Ms. Liu was also very frazzled today as she was dealing with lots and lots of phone calls.

Today, I spent an hour downstairs in the lobby and I brought over Vincie's walker from the realtor's. He had a ball. We talked with Olivia's mom, with Susan and Zephen and whoever just stopped by :). We are also planning our trip to Tokyo and Hong Kong.

So we got the big announcement today about our future AMD plans. As it is all top secret, I will not reveal it here until it is "official". Today, Jeremy came home early because he's ill again. There is a wave of colds going around Hsinchu. We went to the Hsinchu Hospital to get Vince's green thumb looked at by a dermatologist. She took one swipe of it with a blade and all this green goop came out and gave us a prescription for antibiotics and some topical cream. She also gave us some ointment for Vince's drool rash around his mouth.

Today we came back to Hsin-Chu, officially ending our long vacation. I (Jeremy) have been at work only 2 out of the last 6 weeks, so it has been a long break. My Father and Brother are headed back to the states, my Mother left for Ghana to build a middle school a few days ago. The day was not too eventful. We took Vince to see the doctor because he has a wierd green thing in his thumb. It looks like a cross between a splinter and a wart, but it is bright green. Anyway, the Doctor told us to see a dematologist at the Hosital and gave us a referal. But the most exciting part of the day was parking our car near the Doctors office. We saw evidence that the enforcement of illegal parking has picked up (chalk licence plate numbers and phone numbers left when cars are towed) and so drove around the neighboorhood looking for legal parking. We found this huge tall narrow building with six large mechanical doors on the front and signage indicatimg you could park there. We figured out it was an automated mechanical parking garage, and after talking with a nearby attendant, we drove up, the door opened, we droved the car into two little slots, and following the directions of a chinese computer voice, we got out of the car and walked out of the building. The door closed behind us, and once we had entered the licence plate in the computer, the car was turned sideways, and lifted high into the air, and put on a shelf with a bunch of other cars. It seems that they can stack the cars 20 high on either side of the narrow building. With 6 doors in a row, this amounts to 120 cars parked in the space it would normally take to park 18 cars. It only cost us 20NT (60 cents) for having the car there about 40 minutes, making it the most economical amusement we have had in some time. I want one for our house, but I guess since we don't have 180 cars it would be a waste.

On Friday, we arranged for snacks on the bus that was going to head from Hsinchu to Taipei for Bob's concert. The bus we rented was a new 2003 bus, run by Mr. Ding on the 9th floor of our apartment building. It had airplane-style seats, karaoke and was a double decker. We got to the Taipei University for the Arts and milled around for a while. When it was clear that Vince was going to be fussy, they led us to the control room on top of the auditorium. Vince was even too noisy there, so we left to find another room. The weather was so cold and the lobby of the auditorium was outside, but we did manage to find a VIP room with heat. There, Jeremy and I alternated taking care of Vince and there were lots of people around to help with him. We stayed until quite late and I went back to the apt with Ben and Bob and Jeremy went back to Hsinchu with the busload of people. The next day, Jeremy drove up and we went to Ding Tai Fung, then to the silk market, then a nap and then the Shilin night market. The next day, Sunday, Bob and Ben went to the National Palace museum and we had a quiet day at home. Vince is eating a lot and sleeping a lot. We noticed that he has quite a large splinter in his thumb, it's a little weird looking with a green sort of discoloration. So we went to a Taipei doctor. It was pretty impressive how mobbed the place was. But we had an appt and made it in and out of there in less than 30 minutes. Had dinner with Lan-gou, a friend of Bob's and had the most wonderful ramen-type noodles. So chewy. Then we went to Bob a loos again for ice cream. During the weekend we also saw My Fair Lady and Roman Holiday!

Thursday, January 2, 2003

On Tuesday, we drove to Taipei with the cello and Ben, Katherine and Bob took the train in and saw the sights. We walked around with Vincie and had a dinner of noodles in a buffet place and had ice cream at Bob-a-loo's. I went to bed early. Ben partied with a New Zealand ex-pat lady. The next day, New Year's Day, we went to see the furniture place and bought two stools, Jeremy's parents bought a dining room table, then we had a delicious seafood lunch. Then we went to see and old-style mansion that they had moved from the middle of Taipei. It was really quite beautiful, large with lots of courtyards. Then we went to have Yunan food with Charlotte's friend Angela. Today we dropped Katherine off at the airport so she's on her way to Ghana and then drove back to Hsinchu.