Thursday, June 30, 2011

Eine kleine nachtmusik

Well, not quite. Frankie's grade held a concert this week, and here are some videos...





Frankie was nervous and paused a few times during the rendition.....



Her friend performing on a keyboard...



Nice flute....



This kid played the violin well.....


All in all, it was a nice afternoon. More than half of her class take music lessons. Typically, Chinese parents prefer their kids playing music than sports.

The original Eine kleine nachtmusik: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT7_Y1pIBb4


Friday, June 24, 2011

Two years in Taiwan!

Folks, its now almost two years since moving to Taiwan, and it still feels fresh and exciting.




We are still discovering new restaurants, and new places to visit. This pasta and pizza place is owned by an Aussie, and the food is very good, and very reasonable. It is packed wall to wall every time we go.




Frankie hitting balls at the driving range, across the road from our house.....




Frankie and her friends singing with a street musician on the weekends, a popular hangout for young people of Hualien.




Last weekend, there was a band and the singer was from Malaysia, speaks Cantonese. He asked me to jam with them, but I don't have my keyboard here in Taiwan.......




Our tennis team played in a tournament last week, and we won two matches and lost one, coming third place overall. We celebrated with dinner at an outdoor patio restaurant, with plenty of Heineken on draught......great evening with temperature around 30C.




Great news! Frankie finished her last exam yesterday, and guess what? She is #5 among her class of 43 students, top 5!!! This is beyond my expectation, and she did it all by herself. I'm a proud papa obviously, but what really matters, is the fact that she feels comfortable and has many friends now. She seldom mentions Canada anymore.....




We celebrated by taking her to an upscale steak house, and the food was fantastic. It costed us a fortune in Hualien standard: $50US, but it was worth every penny.