Out with a whimper

 

Who loves ya, baby?

What started out with a bang is reaching its end seemingly with a whimper. I'm referring, of course, to the summer of 2023. As you may or may not recall, my daughter and I spent a total of 27 days traveling through Japan's main island of Honshū 本州, following that up with another six days in Taiwan. It was probably the greatest travel experience of my life so far, in large part because of the opportunity to spend time with Amber in between her junior and senior years of high school. 

Making zongzi 粽子 in advance of the Dragon Boat Festival 端午節, which this year fell on June 22 

I parted from my wife and daughter in Taiwan, and returned alone to Beijing 北京 towards the end of July, where I started my new position at the embassy. Since then I've done...well, pretty much nothing at all. During the 26-day period when I was by myself while the girls remained in Taiwan, most of my days were occupied with learning the ins and outs of an unfamiliar line of work. But even on the weekends, I remained at home, a voluntary shut-in bonding with Timi, our Siamese. The only times I ventured outside (other than the pedestrian work commute) were to buy necessities from a grocery store or supermarket. Even my meals were all taken indoors, mostly by way of food deliveries, with a few attempts at cooking. Too many burgers, pizzas and milk teas have done their part in packing on the kilograms.

For Amber and Shu-E, however, life was much more interesting, at least judging from the nightly calls, and the photos sent over WeChat. They certainly weren't spending all their time either at home or in an office. So what follows in this post are various pictures I received from the girls, documenting some of their activities while in the homeland.

Like the time the two of them visited Bali 八里 (the one near Taipei 台北, not the Indonesian resort island):

Or when Shu-E taught Amber how to ride a scooter:

My daughter fought the summer heat with some shaved ice 剉冰 in Fengyuan 豐原:

Making mantou 饅頭, also in Fengyuan:

Rice and Shine!:

At the end of July/beginning of August the girls traveled by train to the Taipei region to visit a family we had known from our time in Shanghai 上海. Among the things they did while there was to spend time with the Houtong Cat Village 猴硐貓村. Amber, naturally, took a lot of photos of the local felines:

They also visited Jiufen 九份:

Of course they also spent time in Xiluo 西螺, my wife's hometown. Shu-E took Amber to see her old middle school. Judging by these photos, her alma mater was much better landscaped than the suburban junior high I attended in Orange County, California:

One evening while in Xiluo the girls attended a free performance given by the Cloud Gate Dance Theater 雲門舞集, Taiwan's famous dance troupe. The show was held on a stage set up by the town's iconic Xiluo Bridge 西螺大橋. My wife doesn't care much for modern art, so she didn't send any photos or videos of the dancing. An opportunity squandered:

They also made a trip to Tainan 台南 to visit one of Shu-E's friends. While there they checked out the Anping Tree House 安平樹屋:

Back in Taichung 台中, they saw an air show at the Republic of China Air Force Ching Chuan Kang Air Base 清泉崗空軍基地:

The one activity I was really envious of was when they went to the waterpark at LIHPAO Discovery Land 麗寶樂園, along with one of Hsinyi, one of Shu-E's nieces:

Eventually, though, my family had to come back to China:

Even though they've been back in Beijing for two weeks now, as a family we haven't done much yet in our free time. Though on Chinese Valentines Day 七夕 the three of us did take a stroll along the Liangma River 亮马河, checking out the pleasure boats specially decked out for the occasion: 

For my wife's birthday last weekend we out for lunch at a yakiniku 焼肉 restaurant in the SOLANA shopping mall. No vegan dishes for my carnivorous concubine:

Now that life has returned to something resembling "normalcy" after a busy summer (at least at first) of traveling around, and with the heat seeming to be abating, it's hoped (at least by me) that we'll step foot more often into the real world, and thus provide material worthier of blogging. With a three-day "holiday" coming up (the American Labor Day, which I have off but my international school-attending daughter doesn't), and no plans as of yet to go anywhere, however, initial reports do not appear to be very promising.

Stay tuned, kids...