Wow! We experienced so much in the last 48 hours, including a tremendous Hakka lunch with over 15 dishes (in Nei-pu, a hill town 30 minutes east of Hsinchu), an elegant Japanese set menu with sashimi placed in a sculpted ice igloo, many interesting cultural observations, Noah's first day at school, Ben's fever, and my reunion with my dear friends from high school! Sorry we forgot our camera!! A few interesting snippets though:

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We benefitted from being kids of two ex-professors greatly! Besides being treated so well by members of the Nuclear Physics Department (many of its faculty were my dad's students and they also live on campus, right around the corner from us), we were taken care of by my Mom's old student, who treated us to an amazing Hakka meal and taught us all about its culture and cusine. Don't know if one day, any of our students would treat our kids so well. We doubt it!

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Some of the Hakka cusine we enjoyed included: braised free-range mountain chicken with qumquat sauce, braised pork with pickled bamboo shoots, slow-braised cabbage with soysauce, steamed taro with vegetables, pork broth with dried green beans, many different kinds of stir-fries, red-cooked tofu, intestines with young ginger and vinegar (liked the ginger slivers but intestines are acquired taste which we haven't acquired), this new vegetable called "water-lotus".

In general, we learned that Hakka culture is unique and distinct from Southern Min (the majority of Taiwanese population) in many ways. In terms of cusine, Min people enjoy more seafood while Hakka more pork and pickled vegetables (probably because they were traditionally poorer). The cultural stereotypes are also quite distinct, and should be the topic of another blog entry altogether.

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After noticing that Ben was feverish, Paul asked our dinner hostess whether the place were going to eat had A/C. Her response showed some clear clash of 'schema': she said, "yes so you should definitely bring a blanket for the kids!" Funny, huh?

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Noah went to school completely readily this morning. He said goodbye and joined the class eagerly. I was very impressed. When we picked him up, we heard that besides a little diaper/toilet episode which made him upset, his day was perfect. He had a huge appetite for their food and ate two bowls of lunch! I asked him about his day, and the most reportable thing was these crying kids (one was, according to him, "put in different corners for time-outs"--who knows what happened!) He said he wants to go back every day. So I think for the moment, he is set!

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More to follow..