I got up at 6:50 a.m. to do tomorrow's Email Bulletin for ORIENTED. It didn't dawn on me until the last minute that there would be no other time to work on it, so as painful as it was, I set my alarm clock and did my thing. I barely had time to finish and to make a quick phone call (to whom I wonder... hmmmm...) before the "family van" came to pick me up at 8 o'clock sharp. The appointment with the portrait studio was at 9 a.m., we could not be late.

Taking pictures with so many family members was nothing but FUN FUN FUN. I'll leave it at that for now until we get the pictures back. Some were downright hysterical. As for myself, I slept whenever and wherever possible. In the car, at the house, and even at the portrait studio while waiting for others to arrive. I got so little sleep this entire weekend... but it was worth it.

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The photo shoot ended right on time and we soon found ourselves piling back into the cars for the Sunrise Golf and Country Club where the luncheon was held for my grandmother. I think we had as many as five by the time we left. Crazy. Needless to say, the premises were beautiful. Breathtaking is a better word for it.

Family tradition dictates that we must perform for the guests, so the cousins were asked to do a little something, as were the "adults". Sigh... we barely had the time to come up with a skit much less practice, but by the time we showed up for the luncheon, we pretty much knew what we were going to do. Sing "Happy Birthday" in all three languages with a little twist at the end.

The Mandarin version was not a problem, nor was the English, but the Dutch version had us spittin' into our food and at each other. We finally had no choice but to spell it out phonetically on little strips of paper for everyone to read during the performance. Here's mine (Dutch on the second line):

Though rather FUNNY, it was an endearing moment. Ten years ago when we
got together, the kids in Taiwan couldn't speak English. Two of the "Chinese Americans" couldn't speak Mandarin and the ones in Holland couldn't speak either. So naturally, we did what kids who can't communicate with each other normally do -- we fought. Parents jumped in as well.

Ten years later, we find ourselves totally relating to each other, and speaking each other's languages, albeit in varying degrees. Maybe that is why it was so endearing. We could finally talk to each other, and, we liked to be together. Go figure. It was too much fun hanging out with them. They're ALL GOOFY!

Anyway, after all three versions were sung, Dennis lead the group and said the words to "Happy Birthday" in Shangdongnese, and then altogether we concluded our little skit by shouting out my grandmother's favorite phrase of all times:

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I don't remember how we got from the Sunrise Resort to our next destination as I was drifting in and out of consciousness (did I mention how exhausted I was this weekend?) but after getting lost at least once (or so I was told), we finally made it to the Fu-Hsing Youth Activity Center up in the mountains. Our getaway for the next 24 hours, and how very nice it was.

The kids got stuck in one big tatami room. How very... FUNNY. Within minutes, blankets were spread out, pillows were everywhere, our bags spotted the floor, Iwen got his guitar back out, and everyone else went NUTS. LOL!

Dinner was had at the cafeteria, and for whatever reason there was no one there but our family. Afterwards, the "adults" headed over to the coffee shop and the kids went back up to the room. I hung around downstairs and pretended to be mature for a couple of hours and then joined the cousins soon after. We laughed, played, joked, watched Rambo and Deep Blue Sea during the commercials and stayed up until I have no idea when. All I do remember was how much fun it was.


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