Dragon Boat Festival (端午節)

Today is a big holiday celebrated here in Taiwan. This means we have 4 days holiday. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and together with Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival forms one of the three major Chinese holidays.

Dragon Boat Festival is highlighted by the dragon boat races, in which competing teams drive their boats forward rowing to the rhythm of pounding drums. This lively and colorful tradition has continued unbroken for centuries to the present day.

Specially this day, we ate a typical food called Gun-zi (粽子) it is a sticky rice with meat and other things inside wraped with a big brown leaf.

A lot of people today will bring their families and friend to see the dragon race. The most exciting part, at noon, children can make the egg standing up.

一個人生活&兩個人生活‏

非常好的一篇文章，短短的但卻包含許多心境與問題，很值得已婚的男女看看，未婚戀愛中男女不妨也讀讀，當作一種預習也不錯喔！

　　兩個自由的人因愛結合而產生的所謂"摩擦"，在婚姻中是一種必然的，那麼探討、了解與學習相互間的應對，就該是已婚的男女必須去學習的，婚姻既是兩人的生活又得給對方留上一些空間，但永遠會是兩人共同生活的成分佔大，該如何拿捏呢？給您一個方向，心是融化一切的力量，文裡雖無長篇大論，但只要您細心品味，相信您可以發現在日常中，其實您只要稍加改變也會有另一
番收穫的。

星期日，一覺睡到下午2點還不願起床，我在旁邊叫喚他。 「起床了好不好？我們出去走走，去吃東西。」N遍之後，他仍在睡。 我下樓去，走到公園時，打了他手機，我想這下，他不得不起床了吧？響了好 幾聲他終於接了電話，只是他告訴我的是：「妳讓我過我自己想過的生活好不好？」 突然間，我不知該如何回應，倖倖然掛上電話後，一個人坐在公園裡，有點茫然有點不知所措，那麼我自己的生活又是什麼呢？一個人的時候過自己生活，兩個人的時候也各自過生活？

　　肚子餓了是唯一明確的方向，我漫步到肯德雞，點了餐，端了餐盤往樓上走，三三兩兩的人群，小孩的吵鬧聲在我耳邊沸騰著，我沒有感覺到煩燥，反而覺得，這種人氣很好，我安靜的吃我的炸雞看我的報紙，四週喧嚷的小孩聲壓過了。

　　我心裡悲傷的低鳴聲，近日來，就情緒上來說，我並不太快樂，我需要注入一些快樂的聲音在我的心房。一個小時後，我離開肯德基並外帶了一份餐，在往回家路上走著時，我重新思考著過自己生活的事情，我可以當作我是一個人生活，一個吃飽一個人散步一個人回家去嗎？我不會，也不行，我可以一個人吃飯、一個人散步，可是我不會忘了要買一份食物給在家裡的家人，一個人 的生活裡其實包含了兩個人。

　　婚姻裡，有一個很難的部份就是，你不明白什麼時候該一個人，什麼時候又該兩個人？而女人有一種歸屬感，妳會自然而然的照料跟妳一起生活的人，也許妳照顧不了他的心情，可是妳會顧及他的溫飽。想著想著，就走到了家門口，我站在門口，有鑰匙卻沒有開門，我按了門鈴，他開了門.... 「先生，請問你有沒有叫肯德基外帶全家餐？」

　　我站在門口對他說，他對我笑而不答。「沒有嗎？我送錯了啊？」我笑。 他把東西接過手，牽著我的手進了家門。晚上，他居然帶我去逛了夜市耶，這是一件非常難得的事，因為他超討厭逛夜市，而且，他很有耐心陪我一條一條的逛著，臉上沒有一絲不耐煩。我想，他明白這是我一個人生活時愛做的事，二個人生活時也希望可以做的事。

看完之後 是不是有一種想體驗2個人生活的衝動?其實一個人久了真的有些許的小寂寞。
如果相遇，你會感到相知，那麼，有一種習慣─叫做陪伴。 如果陪伴，你會感到珍惜，那麼，有一種甜蜜─叫做存在。 如果存在，你會感到壓力，那麼，有一種善良─叫做離開。 如果離開，你會感到輕鬆，那麼，有一種勇敢─叫做放棄。

Big Vegetable

Look at this huge vegetable, it is from Alan's teacher. Alan's art teacher's husband is a ritired man who do work in their garden. He has all kinds of vegetables and sometimes he will give it to us.

I have never seen vegetable like this in my life.

Aunt From Texas

My aunt form Texas came back to Taiwan, I really do not know what to buy for her. I bought what is the most special thing in my city, Tainan.

This is candies. It is made from peanut and almond. The candy itself is very soft and not so sweet. Also, I bought key chain for my cousins. My youngest aunt has three children and each of them have their presents.

It is so hard to buy presents for people. I really do not know what do not like and if I spent too much money, what if they do no like it.

Grandmom's House

This is my grandma, she is 85 years old now, the lady behind her is my grandma's sister. She usually come and see my grandma and stay with her for a few days.

Every year, during Tomb Sweeping day, all Taiwanese people will prepare spring rolls. This spring rolls has everything inside, vegetables, meat, noodles and more. Since my aunt came back from America, Texas, she cannot even wait for Tomb Sweeping day to be able to eat Spring Rolls. Grandma made a special dish for her. My grandma always prepare a lot of dishes in a big table.

Soup is essential for her at the table. Every meal should have a soup.

This is the skin for the spring rolls. It is very thin and very delicious. Chinese restaurants in USA usually they fried them. So it will have fried spring rolls. The fried spring rolls cannot never seen in Taiwan.

The cabbage is very important here in this meal.
Also tofu is essential also.

Bamboo is another important dish in this complicated meal. To have a little bit of color, we usually have carrots. This is stew pork. It is very tender and delicious. This is noodles. In case of people want to eat noodles instead of rice. I like this kind of noodles. It is very delicious. Alan likes this kind of noodles, too.

It will take forever to be able to cook all the meals like this. I am very happy to be able to enjoy the meal with my aunt who came back from Texas.

Furniture

On Sunday, after we dropped Anita to the high speed train, we went to see the furniture for the new house. As before, we wanted to buy a BBQ machine for my back yard, so we could do BBQ at the new house.
As we entered to the Scanteak furniture store, David loved the designs. The materials of it are so great. Some of the furniture made with the real tree and some of them it just the appearance of it.

The sales woman told us that if you buy three pieces of furniture today we will give one piece of furniture for free. David heard it and he really wanted to buy it.

The first piece that we need for our new house is bookshelves. This book shelf is made from the real tree, it is 100 % wood.

The second piece we bought was this study table for Alan. Alan has a table already and he is growing, so he need a good table for study.
I love this cabinet with a lot of drawers. I can put my make up and all my pads in it.

We bought king size bed with mattress.
Also we bought this 5 dresser for Alan or for us, we will see in which room it will fit.
Besides our bed, we also need small tables to put our lamps or alarm clock.
Also, I bought this piece of furniture for living room.This one, I really like, I want to buy this for my kitchen, but we never did. It is so expensive.

Total we spent $150,600 NT Dollars in this store. They gave us a lot of presents, none of them are very good quality but something is something.

Anyways, we had everything for our bedroom, now we have to buy it for living room and dining room. David's cousin is giving us a dinning table, we just need to buy chairs. This helps us to save a lot of money.

A Little Walk

After lunch, we went to the beach closer to the restaurant. I do not know the name of this beach, but this beach is very special one.

Alan, me and Anita taking pictures on the beach.Family picture. This is the second time that we have taken pictures with whole family. This is me with the crab made from little stones. This in kind of kite. This helps us to made energy and save energy.
Finally, Anita and her boyfriend. They seems they like each other.

Anita's Visit

Anita came with her boyfriend to visit me in Tainan by train. The first day when they arrived, we went to have dinner at 格林童話 restaurant.

At the next day, we went to kao-Shion county to have lunch over there. David brought us to Cijin (旗津) at the very famous place called Million Two restaurant (萬二小吃部). This restaurant is very famous. It has everything you can eat. Each plate will cost only $100 NT Dollars. It has all kinds of seafood, soup, drinks, vegetables, ice cream and rice you can eat everything for free. Also, drinks is free, too.

We have all kinds of food on our table. Anita cannot eat seafood because of her allergies. We all share the food on the table.

A lot of people were there on the weekends. I cannot believe how many people are there.

Here are the people who cooks and put there, if you like the plate, you can take it and give them $100 NT dollars.

Here is the vegetables and meat section.

You can have all kinds of meat and vegetables here.

Here you can have all kinds of seafood such as fish, shrimps, calamari, octopus and more.

In the entrance, people have to buy tickets, because the employees cannot get cash from the costumers. Only the boss can get the cash. So that's why you need to buy tickets in the counter and pick up the dish and pay with the tickets.

Address: 高雄縣 高雄市旗津區 中洲二路179之11號 　
Telephone: 07-5714191 , 07-5718833 　

Open: AM11:00~PM9:00
Parking: $50 NT

來一盤炸雞，這是真人真事..請大家惜福‏

請大家惜福

短片有六分鐘，是2006年柏林影展短片第一名。這是真人真事，請跟你的孩子一同觀看。珍惜上蒼所賜的日用飲食。

Dear Parents,You may want to watch this video clip with your children. I found it's very inspiring to me to be grateful and to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to us to care for those in need.

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte/TVE9PStP