One Birthday, Two Cakes

Steven’s birthday was just a few days after we arrived in Taiwan. He was seven! I do not remember why, but we celebrated on two occasions, and therefore we had two cakes. We had a regular cake with candles first, and it was really good. You can easily see his excitement. I have some very good pictures to prove this fact!

Then, on another day, we celebrated again with Steven’s favorite: an ice-cream cake! Both celebrations were at my parents’ home. Su-su was the only outside guest. He was there  both times. You can see the special kind of cakes used for these celebrations.

Visiting Taiwan

In early June, 1978, we flew to Taiwan for our third entire-summer visit to my parents. Over the years, we made this kind of trip many times. The 1978 trip we remember and regard as the best overall. Perhaps it was because the children were at the right ages. Margaret was nine and Steven was seven. They were familiar with our parents, and they were used to the food, and they certainly knew all the relatives and friends. We did change some routines as we did not stay at our parents’ home, but accepted an invitation to use one of the National Taiwan University’s visiting scholar hostel homes. We just used the bedrooms there but ate most of our meals with my parents. The place was in a separate compound. We had a few neighbors, but we did not have to much interaction with them. We usually walked to my parents’ home, or took a taxi once in a while. It was quite convenient! The kids took some pictures in front of the house in the yard.

San Francisco, here we come

This was the first time that our whole family would visit San Francisco. We were quite excited to see everything that could be packed into our short stay. We went to Chinatown, Lombard Street (the famous street which winds down the hill), and we rode the street car, up or down, once - I do not remember which.We went to the city park and certainly the Golden Gate Bridge. We took quite a number of pictures there. It was a cloudy day so the whole bridge was only partially visible. Our enthusiasm was not diminished as we walked everywhere. The days were full of fun!

Bernie and Marion Meyerson

The Meyersons were living in Fresno, CA, in 1978. It was our first time to visit the town and we remember that it was very hot! It was after we had visited many hot places in Arizona and California, so we enjoyed the cool swimming pool very much! They had a backyard pool which was just the right place for our kids. We took quite a number of pictures there. Bernie and Marion were our friends at the University of Illinois, as they were members of the Illini Folk Dance Society, to which we belonged to as well. And Bernie was also the director of Foreign Student Services, which was, at that time, an important office for foreign students on campus. The University of Illinois had many foreign students already at that time. In California, Marion was studying for an advanced degree – her turn to become the primary bread-winner. We always admired their family plan to share responsibilities. The Meyersons had two daughters, older than our children, whom we had known in Illinois. We remember that their parents, when invited to a foreign student’s home for dinner, had urged their girls to find something they liked and to compliment the host on it. They reported that there were a lot of “this rice is really good” and “I really like this coke” responses! 

Driving West

At the end of the spring semester in 1978, when our school responsibilities were finished, we started our drive to the west. Over the years, we made this driving trip many times via different Interstate highways.  Because of these kinds of trips, our kids were able to visit many states at a very young age. The reason we drove to the west was to get to the west coast so that we could fly to Taiwan from there. It was our decision to have our children spend the summer with their grandparents there every three years. We had made the trip in 1975 and this was the second time.  On this trip, we visited the Petrified Wood National Park in Arizona. And we passed through Death Valley in CA. We stopped at many very interesting rest areas too. You can see some of the pictures taken on the way!