Xmas Parties

Dutiful parents, we attended two Christmas parties at our kids schools this weekend.

Ben's was better organized and the attendees were much better dressed. You could tell that Ben's school is more expensive than Noah's. We're not sure whether the families are richer (Ben's is attended mostly by kids of Science Park parents while Noah's is within the Industrial Technology Research Institute next to Tsinghua), or just that they are freer with money. The party at Noah's kindergarten was crowded, and the foot kind of hard to get to. They had little games or crafts in all of the classrooms, which was fun in principle, but most were too difficult for the threes and unders. Ben's party was well organized, and though it was called a potluck, most parents took advantage of the opportunity to order their "potluck" food through the school. We did cook and bring a pasta dish, though, and I'm sure our kitchen is the worst of all the school's families! Then there were performances by all of the older classes; we stayed for a few, then headed home to get ready for our trip to Ali Shan tomorrow.

You also see a picture of the vegetarian Hakka restaurant in Jhudong (near Hsinchu) where we ate lunch today. It was excellent and quite atmospheric. Noah was being quite a goof while I was taking pictures, unfortunately.