New Bicycles for the Kids, Travel Plans, and Other Things. . .

Hello from Mark:

We bought a couple of bikes for the kids to ride around on up and down the alleyway. In keeping with their personalities, Lily loves to tear around on hers, while Hudson tentatively pedals around and gets frustrated if he: a) goes too fast; b) feels slightly off balance; c) finds Lily even close to his line of motion; d) etc. (In fact, as I write this I can hear him swearing off riding his bicycle forever--this only one hour after getting it home. What can you do?) I've attached a few photos of the kids biking, and of the orchid that hangs from the tree in our courtyard.

One big piece of news is that it looks likely that we'll be going to Taiwan in May. I've been invited to give a keynote address at a Taiwanese American Studies conference, and to visit a couple of colleges. The timing looks like it'll have us there for Lily's birthday, which ought to be a hoot! We may also be going up to Da Nang in March for a similar conference, and Anne just reserved a cottage for us on the island of Phu Quoc for a couple of weeks from now. So it looks like the travel is lining up.

The nanny thing is still rough for us here, and we've begun investigating hiring somebody new. It seems like new problems keep cropping up with the current nanny--nothing really major, but enough to keep us feeling ill at ease. Today we're going to lunch to meet a German expat who manages the luxury hotel, and who may be able to help us find someone more suitable.

Today is actually a breezy, cool day. So refreshing! We hope all is well with each of you!