A New Month Begins

OK, so being in Taiwan with Amy & Nathan is great - we're eating amazing dishes, visiting with our extended family in Taiwan, & otherwise doing well. However, since we arrived here on the evening of January 20, it has been overcast & either drizzling or pouring rain. Enough already! The latest forecast predicts that the rain will end on the day before Chinese New Year's Eve, which happens to be 2/5, aka, Nathan's 1st birthday!

It's turning out that, given his birth date, Nathan is something like a Christmas baby in Taiwan, as festivities honoring his birthday are being glommed-on to Chinese New Year family celebrations. Even so, a handful of Amy's ex-classmates (tong[2] xue[2]) from her old high school in Taiwan are coming to visit us at Joyce's condo on 2/5 to meet Nathan & celebrate his special day. Good stuff.

This week has been much more domestic that our first one in Taiwan - our relatives are going through their usual work-a-day routine while we establish a new one of our own. I'm taking on more & more responsibility for Nathan's care while Amy runs errands, including resolving some final issues with our immigration process - we all need an Alien Registration Card, given the circumstances of our stay - & Amy has been securing an office at Academia Sinica, where she will be doing archival research while we are in Taiwan.

As always, please enjoy photos from our trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.parker