Hello all...

Hello all. It has been a long time since I took the time to write but I fear you will lose interest (if you have not already) if I do not feed you some information. As I have said before we live in a perpetual state of over stimulation and sensory overload.

I turned 60 the other day. And as I think about that I have to give thanks first of all for Carol. I do not think a public space is appropriate for what I would like to say but those of you who know us know how multi-faceted and full of life she is. When she walks out of the apartment with a 4 ft. sword strapped to her back ready to learn how to eviscerate a foe or disable his kneecap, it makes me wonder what real retirement would have been like…..very very very dull!

Several of our friends and colleagues took me to a restaurant for the birthday celebration. The restaurant was appropriately named “Jurassic” and had dinosaur skeletons crawling up the building and all throughout the halls. Dino heads held the phones. Dinos also held the many small plates that are the starters for a traditional Chinese meal. There was the typical Taiwanese cross cultural confusion as north American Indians were riding images of the dinos for what reason I do not know. It made for great table conversation. And the bathrooms were statues from Pacific NW . One peed into part of the mouth of the beast…WEIRD! And we were seated in the belly of a large dino skeleton.

The meal was pretty traditional but definitely funky…crocodile, ostrich, DUCK TONGUES complete with attaching tendons, fried pork intestine, etc. and the hit of the evening…deep fried grasshoppers with a French fried potato stuck up its butt served with fried basil, shrimp crisp and salt and pepper dip. A plate cost around $11 USD so of course I had to eat them. They are really not bad at all and although I would probably not order them I would not turn them down if offered. I really liked the orchid garnish. And the beer for 16 was served in a wooden keg that was very old fashioned but functional. NO I did not over indulge but a friend did “ fake “ the picture of me catching the last drop out of the barrel.

One of the most touching moments was when Carol light 6 candles and said, in decade # 1 I discover music and food, decade #2 I discovered her, in #3 it was grad school, decade #4 was teaching, decade #5 was diving, and decade #6 was about heaven. This could not be more true. Life is very good here with variety, excitement, great quality of life, new friends and opportunity for growth in every aspect of our life.

As part of the birthday celebration, I was honored with a personal (?) letter from “W”. I am not sure I am ready to take his advice given his record but I was……well I was something to hear from the little guy.

I mentioned opportunity. Well…our new superintendent decided that TAS faculty was underpaid in terms of our regional international schools and that the only way to “recruit and retain” was to increase the pay package by 11.2%. Never in my professional life have I had an increase of this magnitude so it took very little thought for me to sign a contract for another year as a happy member of the TAS community.