A new blog

As Micha's and Kamil's Taiwan Adventure is - at least for the moment - over, we start a new blog, which is intended to keep our family and friends updated on our new life in Potsdam, Germany:

Family U's little stories

We hope you will enjoy reading this new blog!

Get Well Soon, Mong-Han!!!

Leaving Taiwan

The time has come - we have to say goodbye to Taiwan...

The year flew by with such incredible speed that it is hard to believe that we are leaving already. It was a great year (14 months to be exact) for us, we met so many nice people, found new friends, got to know a completely foreign culture, learned a new language (well, a few words at least), learned a lot about the fascinating geology of this island, had a very fruitful year in scientific aspects and above all were blessed with a wonderful daughter!

Before leaving, we had several farewell dinners to enjoy the delicious Chinese food and to spend some last evenings with our friends.


Mong-Han gave us a book about Confucius and - which touched us deeply - a hand-painted calligraphy of our Chinese names:




Here is En-Chao with his sweet little daughter, who at the beginning was a bit shy with all these 外國人 (wai-guo ren = foreigners), but finally gave us a wonderful smile.


A relocation company was picking up our boxes to send them to Germany:


And after the last farewell from all our friends, we mounted our airplane from Taipei to Hongkong. There we had enough time for Kamil to enjoy a beer, before continuing our journey to Zürich and from there to Berlin.


Anna was an angel during this long journey! Except for the first flight from Taipei to Hongkong, when she cried sometimes (might she have felt the parting from her birth place?), she slept a lot and was completely happy. A true globetrotter she is!?

Blooming NTU

Our departure from Taiwan approaches very fast. In less than a week we will depart already to Potsdam/Germany! Thus, we have started to pack our stuff in boxes. And as out apartment gets more and more bare, the campus seems to bloom more and more. On my (Micha's) daily walks over the campus grounds with Anna tightly wrapped in her baby-sling, I discover every time new plants, which start to flower. And as moving to Northern Germany will bring not only a drop in temperature of over 30 degrees, but also a harsh change in the state of flora, I decided to dedicate this blog entry to the flowers on the NTU campus!

With great care, the gardeners of the campus attach orchids on the trees along the main roads:


Many of the smaller side paths are lined by busily flowering scrubs:


The Japanese cherry trees show their delicate flowers even before any green leave finds its way through the dark bark:


Another large bush full of flowers (I think it is some kind of plum or pear tree):


And the rhododendrons compete with each other for the most flowers and the brightest colors:

... I will miss all these beautiful plants of Taiwan!

Happy Birthday!

When Kamil awoke yesterday morning, his birthday present was sleeping right next to him!
Once again, Happy Birthday, my dear husband!!!

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As temperatures are forecast to reach 28-29 degrees Celsius today, Anna enjoys wearing just a loose body! What a difference to the weather we had at the very same time last year (see our blog entry on February 13th 2008: Living through the winter monsoon)!!!

Grandpa's romper suit and the blue yeti feet

For her birth, Anna has got a perky dark-blue romper suit from her grandpa. Now that she has grown almost 10 cm, the suit finally fits her. Look, how happy she is in her new clothes:


After changing her diapers, we discovered that the brand new fluffy romper suit has one minor disadvantage: it gave Anna blue furry yeti feet! (Click on the image to see enlarged photo!)

But aren't they cute, these little furry feet?!

After the bath

Happy after her bath!

Trip to Tainan 台南

Mong-Han invited us, Maryline and Kristen to his home town Tainan 台南 for the first weekend in the new year of the ox 牛. We took the high speed train ("gao1 tie3", 高鐵) at 08:06 in the morning and arrived in Tainan after a journey of less than 2 hours, where we were picked up by Mong-Han. Our first destination of our itinerary was an old fort from the times of the Qing Dynasty at An Ping.




We then went to a temple in An Ping devoted to worshipping Mazu 媽祖, the goddess of the Sea, who protects fishermen and sailors.


Traditional oblation to the gods during the Chinese New Year are duck, pork and chicken meat (on the picture in the middle of the table) besides fruits and sweets.


These ladies in red were conducting a procession carrying a statue in front followed by musicians with drums and large cymbals and others pushing various carriages.


An Ping is one of the few places in Taiwan we've seen so far that has a protected old district, with narrow alleys and old, low brick houses.


We found old trees honoured by the local people...


... a funny relief on a house wall...


...and beautiful details like these special flower pots in the narrow lanes of An Ping:


Our last stop led us to the seaside at Huang3 Jin1 Hei3 An4 (黃金海岸 Golden Seaside).


Many kite surfers were cruising the waves.


叔叔 ("shu1 shu1" uncle) Mong-Han with Anna:


Anna got in touch with seawater the first time in her life. See how she liked it ...


Two mermaids watching kite surfers, Poseidon emerging from the Sea, and then posing with the mermaids ...


Fooling around and watching the sunset (看夕陽 , kan4 xi1 yang2) over the Taiwan Strait.


We really enjoyed this trip and especially getting out of Taipei! The sun, the fresh air and our funny friends made this a wonderful day!!!

Sweet Sleep

Anna's sleep is well guarded...

Proud Daddy

Around the Northcoast

As the last days of the stay of Micha's mother and brother Christoph approached, we undertook a journey around the northern tip of Taiwan to show our guests the scenic coast. We drove from Dam Shui to Keelung and finished our trip in Jioufen. Unfortunately, the weather was not too nice, but we were lucky as it did not rain whenever we left the car for our stops.
The first stop was at the Bei Sha Wan Beach (White-Sand-Bay), where we did some photo shooting.

Anna with her godfather Christoph and Micha:

The next stop was at Jeliou, where we ate delicious and really fresh seafood...

(Matthias, don't worry, we did not eat this one!!!)

...and visited the geopark. Here is the family in front of the candle rocks:


We finished our journey in the marvellous tea house in Jioufen drinking Oriental Beauty tea and nibbling tea-flavoured melon seeds:


Anna was very brave and well-behaved during the whole journey, and - exhaused by the fresh sea breeze - she slept more or less all the way through our journey... Lucky parents!!!

Full Moon Party

When a child is born in Taiwan, the tradition demands a Full Moon Celebration (滿月 - mǎn yuè) when the child is one month old. On this occasion, the child is presented to friends and family of the parents and receives his/her Chinese name. The name is chosen in a complicated way by investigating the star constellations, the number of strokes of the characters...
As we think this to be a nice tradition, we also held a Full Month Celebration for our Anna on the 9th of January. We invited our friends and colleagues and served cakes (provided by a local French patissier Mr Bruno) and tea according to the tradition (- for a boy's Full Moon party, sticky rice with chicken legs are served). The mother of one of our friends, Yu-Shiu, even prepared a traditional sesame oil chicken soup with lots of ginger for us!

Anna was cordially received by our friends and was passed from one arm to another, which she obviously enjoyed. (Luckily she is not shy with strangers yet!)

And Anna also got a Chinese name! 安娜 (An Na)

Anna received many gifts. We loved especially the traditional gift of gold jewellery, which was given to us by our Taiwanese friends!


And Anna, all being a girl, soon discovered her precious pieces of jewellery and had to try them on...