Babies are cute when....

they aren't mine and they aren't crying ;) Today I went with Laoshi, Kieko, Nico, and Hiyoshi to visit Keiko (don't be confused - there are two girls with almost the same name) and see her new (one-month old) baby. Keiko was our classmate until she had the baby, and we're hoping she'll be able to come back when the baby is a little older. He's a cute little bugger, but Keiko's cat doesn't seem too fond of the new arrival. He hid under the bed for most of our visit, but finally ventured out to sniff us all before retreating to a safer location. After Nico left, Keiko took a photo of all of us, with Hiyoshi holding the baby. We joked with him, said he could send the picture to his mother in Japan and tell her it was a pic of his four girlfriends and the new baby. Laoshi, Kieko, Hiyoshi and I grabbed some lunch afterwards, and I had one of those great egg-oyster-veggie omelets called "e ah jian" (that's Taiwanese, not Mandarin). Very good, with a reddish, rather sweet sauce on it.

Hiyoshi and I had wanted to go to Gu Gong Museum today, but there wasn't enough time after the visit to Keiko's, so we went in search of something icy to eat instead. We thought maybe we'd find tso bing (like a snowcone in a bowl with fruit) or xue hua bing (ice with milk added and then shaved thinly and piled ribbon-like into the bowl, covered with fruit), but it was too hot to walk around much looking, so we opted for our usual fare, iced coffee. We ended up at Ikari Coffee this time since Dante Coffee was packed full. We sat there until 6:30 p.m., having our usual strange chat, half in English, half in Chinese, with me correcting grammar and pronunciation as we go along. It's always a kick to try to figure out Hiyoshi's body language. When he can't think of the word in English, he uses his hands, but most of the time I have no clue what he's thinking! Talking with him is always loads of fun, with a lot of laughter. Today he told me the story of Doraemon, the Gadget Cat from the Future. It's a Japanese cartoon that's very popular here in Taiwan, as well as in Hong Kong.

Anyway, I got home late again tonight, and DZ was very happy to see me. I guess she gets pretty bored here alone all day. Now I'm going to go watch Treasure Hunters, a new (old) movie that I bought yesterday.