Vietnamese spring roll

Yuuuuum

Michael, Daniel and I used to have Vietnamese pho at least once a week when we were little, and it was always a first stop after flying into San Francisco, even before going home. I used to love the broth, vermicelli and tons of bean sprouts topped off with basil and fresh lemon juice, but after college, I stopped enjoying the taste and smell of beef (and some other meats). This time when we had dinner at the pho place, first, I was really excited, then after the beefy smell came to me, I just wasn't very hungry anymore. Unfortunately, they didn't have any pho not made of beef, so I had two spring rolls instead. Delicious all the same, and healthy too. I hear Quyen makes a killer Vietnamese spring roll. :P

Stanford Neiman Marcus Cafe

Lunch with Mom, Quyen, Auntie Sandra, Jerry, Jenny and Anna


Tasty grilled vegetable sandwich

Home in San Francisco

Beautiful California sunshine from Stanford University's Palm Drive.

I'm home!

Yilan train wreck

What seems like only days ago is already a month ago.












Gala TV's Karen



TVBS's Erica



Erica and I, soaked through and through

Daniel and Quyen cooking with fire

Just graduated,




and soon to be married.

No one to drink with

So I drank a bottle of tree sap from Hokkaido. Don't laugh. It's supposed to have many vitamins and minerals. Thanks, Mom!

Presenting with Guiya

This was last Saturday. Guiya's a native Taiwanese speaker, but also a new reporter/anchor like me. We've anchored a couple of times together now, and it may be this way for a while. It's still very nerve wracking to present in Taiwanese because I can't really speak it, but I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable these days, thanks to continuous help from coworkers, especially Lanchi, Tianen and Guiya.



Preparing like crazy






A wider view of Studio 1












I keep forgetting not to frown






With Kunguan the PD, who took these pictures for us

Dinner with new world friends

Dinner at Aoba with Terry, Hsingya and Stephen last Tuesday.

Wines are categorized sometimes as "new world" and "old world." My friends can also be categorized as such, too. "Old world" friends are those that I met before going to graduate school. And "new world" friends are those that I met in Japan and those I that I met after working in Taipei.

Hsingya, I met through Takeki, who is Amy's friend. She insists I met her through my omiai (matchmaking) match, who would be Takeki. As far as I know, there was no omiai, unless they've evolved so much to be so discreet that people being matchmade don't even know it.

Stephen is Terry's childhood friend.

Terry, I met while looking for a job in the financial industry. I was about to graduate from Waseda at that time. He was a recruiter for a staffing firm, and thank goodness he did a lousy job and didn't find me a job, because otherwise I wouldn't be having the adventure I'm having now in media and in Taipei. Thanks, Terry!

It was very interesting meeting Terry again. When we were in Tokyo, although we are both Taiwanese by culture, we spoke English, for I grew up in the US and he grew up in Australia. But this time in Taiwan, we spoke in Mandarin and Taiwanese, and it felt really funny. I couldn't speak either of these fluently two years ago. Amazing how one learns so quickly when put in the right environment.

He's a charming boy, but not for me.

Binfu has disappeared off the face of the earth. What a gentleman. When is he going to put an end to this?

Dinner with Moms

Brilliantly prepared clams in white wine sauce at Nonzero.



I had a wonderful dinner with Mom, Wise and Auntie Christina Saturday after work. It was so good to see Wise. We had lots of fun making acquaintance with the two ladies sitting around the corner of our table. The really nice thing about that restaurant is how you can so easily make friends there. Like Chu Ping, one of the owner says, "it's a place for like-minded people to share a kind of camaraderie, and of course, healthy, tasty food." I absolutely agree.

Mom and Auntie Christina came a little bit later, and throughout dinner, they were talking on their phones and poking away at their PDAs. So typical of Moms these days.

No complaints, yahooooooo!

I received no viewer complaints for anchoring, Taiwanese or Mandarin, this week for the very first time. None from the Internet, none from emails, none from phone calls. Hooray! Hip hip hooray!

There are two nights a week when I'm certain to lose sleep - Friday night because I have to anchor in Taiwanese Saturday morning, and Sunday night because the weekly audience call-in report comes out. This Monday, my name did not appear on it.

Who wants to celebrate?

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Rewind rewind

With Dad, Michael and Daniel on my third or fourth birthday.