La Ilha Formosa: from the Portuguese for "the beautiful island."
Sanguine: (adj) marked by sturdiness, high color and cheerfulness; cheerful, optimistic.

A blog of our life in Taiwan.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Trip to a Temple on a Hill (I forget where?)

At the bottom of the temple hill are a number of massive statues including this one. Confucius, perhaps? Who knows? I didn't ask or they didn't know. I can't remember now. He must've been wise though; he has a beard and a cane, after all. 
 
 The Chinese fascination with the dragon motif is well-known. Considered the luckiest astrological sign to be born under, dragon babies are thought to be fierce, self-confident, flamboyant and charismatic. Which is not too say the dragon doesn't have its negative qualities. Violent, egotistical, strange and stubborn may also be used to describe the astrological conception of the dragon persona. 


Ah, a lovely pastoral scene carved into relief on the side of the temple walls. Scroll down for a different perspective.



Whoa! I think somethings wrong with Bambi! Momma Deer isn't looking so well either.


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

These are fields of flowers very close to where we live. When in season people come from all around to take pictures, pick the flowers and hang out at the Flower Center and mini-zoo near our house. 

Shiao-hay ("Blacky") on my Scooter

This is Shiao-hay (literally "little black"). She loves to go for rides on my scooter so whenever I'm hanging around outside our front door, she jumps on my scooter in hopes that I'll take her for a ride. She is very possessive with her humans. When our neighbor's dog, May-may, approaches us, Shiao-hay growls and barks. I'll try to get a picture of her doing just that.

Preggers

Yi-chieh will probably kill me for posting this picture, so if you don't see subsequent posts for a while you can start to worry. This picture was taken a few weeks ago so her belly is actually bigger now. She reports that the boy is usually pretty active and she can feel him pushing and kicking and stretching. He seems especially active at night which seems to indicate that he takes or will take after his father. We'll see how long that lasts.

Initialization

 
This is my wife, Yi-chieh, and me. I'm starting this blog so our family and friends can see what life in Taiwan is like and keep track of what we're up to. Since we're expecting as well it will be a way for us to celebrate and show off our soon-to-be-born baby boy! For those who are wondering, the due date is June 3rd, 2010. This is my first blog, so I'm still experimenting. I'll be adding more content soon. I have a lot of pictures I can share already. Feel free to comment and post and make suggestions! Enjoy!