December, 2011
At the time of this writing, we have entered our ninth year in Taipei. Instead of our usual letter, we decided that we should do a FungYeh “top-ten” list of 2011. Here they are:
10. Matthew starring as Friar Tuck in the Middle Schools’ production of Romeo and Harriett. Matt auditioned and was cast as Friar Tuck in the School’s “tragical-comedy” play during the last semester of his 8th Grade year. He was terrific in the role and performed his entire performance with a “British” accent.
9. Matthew making the TAS Varsity Tennis Team: to everyone’s surprise, Matt made it to the Taipei American School Varsity Tennis Team this fall as a freshman. While Matthew didn’t play very much tennis this fall as he started Upper School, he was fortunate enough to be
selected. He will now try to work extra hard over the next two months in order to make it to the top-eight and play for the team in Malaysia against five other international schools in the region.
8. Nick picked as Chair in Model United Nation events: Nick has been attending Model United Nation conferences since he was a 7th grader. This spring, apart from representing TAS in the Tai-MUN event in Taichung, he was selected to Chair the Middle School MUN event in TAS as well as a MUN event in Singapore. He will also be this year’s Middle School MUN’s Deputy Secretary General.
7. I-fly in Union City, CA; Have you tried indoor parachuting? It’s a lot harder than it looks. The boys tried it with their friends this summer. In a sealed room with a huge fan below, flyers are “blown” into the air and fly!!
6. Eating/College tour in East Coast: On the guise of giving Nick an early preview of US colleges, we did a mini college tour on the East Coast to start our summer. We started in Boston and ate our way down to Orlando, Florida (see above). The obvious highlights were the Dolphin (Boston)’s Clam Bake and the Lobster buckets at Joe’s Crabhouse in Orlando. Oh, the colleges were interesting too. Nick certainly has a better idea of what kinds of colleges he like and
dislike.
5. NYC day tour by train, subway, buses and by foot: While in the East Coast, we did NYC in
fourteen hours. We started the day on the NJ Transit from Princeton. A quick change in Penn Station and we headed to Harlem on the subway. After a brief tour of Columbia, we took a bus down to Time Square, followed by a walk up Avenues of the Americas and lunch on
the sidewalk (street vendor). We than took a stroll to Rockefeller Center before heading up to Central Park. A short walk across town to Second Avenue and hopped on a bus downtown with a stopover on 42nd Street where Nick and Peter hopped off and walked over to see the UN Building. We continued on bus to Wall Street and took a quick stroll around Ground Zero. A
subway ride took us back up to Midtown where we had Korean BBQ followed by the train back to Princeton. We slept very well that night…
4. Disney/Universal Studio: Six days, six parks!! Thanks to Peter’s brother-in-law, Howard, and Nicholas’s meticulous planning and strategizing, the Theme park team which consisted Howard, Nick, Matt, Kimberly (Peter’s niece), Victoria (Peter’s niece) and Jacob (Peter’s nephew) went to four Disney and two Universal parks in six days. Felicia was brave enough and participated three of those six parks and was awarded honorary membership to the Theme park team. Each day started with a 7:30am morning breakfast meeting, followed by duty assignment (getting Fastpasses) in the minivan. Their plans worked so well that they were able to finish most of the major rides with minimal waiting time by noon time each day. Afternoons were spent watching parades and doing the less popular rides. Everyone was exhausted but all agreed that they had a wonderful time.
3. Capsizing in whitewater rafting trip in Tahoe: Howard kindly arranged a white-water rafting
trip near Sacramento during the summer for us. In this fateful Saturday morning, we got up early and drove up with Kimberly, Nick, Matt, Felicia and Peter. Peter was initially reluctant to go as he had never really enjoyed the adrenalin rush of white-water rafting (because he’s a chicken). However, in the last minute change of heart, he decided to join his family for this trip down the American River. Unlike our last white-water rafting trip, this one was less well organized from the start. While the rapids were only rated 3 and 3+ like our last trip, and there was one rafter falling out of “Double Trouble” the day before our trip, we had no idea what was going to happen to us later that day. The first few rapids where hard, but we managed to get through them without too much trouble. Our guide pointed out the “mistakes” made by the previous day which caused one rafter to fall out while going through “Double Trouble.” Apparently, we made the same mistake also. Felicia fell out of the raft, shortly after we entered “Double Trouble.” For some reason, she went in front of our raft as we headed into a large rapid.
Nick, sitting in the front left, decided to stop peddling and tried to save his Mom just as we ran into a large rock on the left, lifting and flipping the raft over the top of us. We briefly stayed under the raft before all popping back up. As we were all wearing safety flotation devices, there were no real danger involved and we were all picked up within the next 5 minutes. The water was
FREEZING COLD, and it would definitely be a memory of a life time for all of us.
2. Nick’s independence: Nick turned sixteen this summer and he has been pushing for independence for several years already. He’s traveled to Cambodia twice with the church as well as several weeklong camps away from home. This summer, he wanted to return to Taipei from California a day ahead of our scheduled return. Our treat for him, after having him suffer through six weeks of SAT cram course was 24 hours of independence. He left one day before we did. Checked himself in at the SFO airport, before boarding the flight to return to Taipei. He spent his day of independence going to the beach with friends.
1. Four more years!! This is not a political message for Obama. In two years, Nick will be in college and in four; Felicia and Peter will be on their own – just Four More Years!! It is truly amazing how time has really flown by. We moved to Taipei in 2003 when Matt was in First Grade and in another blink of an eye, he will be off to college!
As we were writing this list, there turned out to be a lot more “highlights” this year than we had anticipated. “Honorable mentions” were that Matthew is no longer the shortest person and Peter is no longer the “heaviest” person in the FungYeh Klan; Felicia, Nick and Matt has made great strides in their spiritual growth in this past year with Nick taking a leadership role in the church’s
youth group; Peter celebrating a combined 200 years old birthday with his three buddies, Hong, Kenny and Geoff in Vancouver; Thank you for reading through this LONG list of the 2011
FungYeh “highlights.” We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012!!
Love,
Felicia, Peter, Nick and Matt
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Passing 50
The big five-O, a half century, five decades,...etc. Whatever you call it, I have passed my fiftieth birthday recently.
Turning 50 has not really hit me in any specific way. It's really no different from turning 40 ten years ago. Ten years ago, we lived in Singapore and we spent Xmas in Puhket with everyone including Bob, my brother, and his family. Apart from the changes in venue (living in Taipei and spending Xmas in Moraga), and different participants (minus Bob and my mother-in-law but including Howard's parents), physically I don't feel too different then when I was 40. I still play tennis and golf, not too much better or worse than I did ten year ago. I do workout regularly but have probably gained about ten pounds since 2000. But I feel good generally and look forward to continuing my active lifestyle.
Ten years ago I was with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers working in Singapore but planning our move to Tokyo in a few months (February of 2001). The work was relatively easy and the pay was good. Work wise, Tokyo was more challenging and I was quite relieved to have been offered an early retirement option in Fall of 2002. I was spending too much time on non-investment related activities and I was enjoying work less and less by the day. I was happy and ready to retire when I finally stopped going to the office in February 2003. I am very thankful to have Felicia's support for me to stop and allowing myself time with the boys. While we have always spent all of our non-working hours with the boys, being at home 24/7 was still a real treat. I get to walk Nick to the bus-stop each morning, then Matthew to the NK. Pick-up Matt in the afternoon and play with him before picking up Nick at the bus-stop later in the afternoon. I started biking a lot more, riding to the City and to Choufu (ASIJ).
We are now in Taipei, going into our eighth year. I am still retired. In fact, Felicia also left her job as head of equity at Merrill Lynch in the summer of 2006, joining me in retirement. We both volunteer a lot of our time at our children's school, the Taipei American School, she as a Board of Director and I as a worker in the PTA Bookstore. I still bike, around Taipei and along the bicycle paths near our home. Our freedom has enable us to take better care of our family. I was able to spend some quality time with Bob, who fell to pancreatic cancer in 2005 while Felicia has been able to take care of her Mom who had suffered from a stroke in 2000, a fall in our home in Moraga in 2006 and leukemia in 2007-2010.
My parents have remained in good health with Dad turning 90 in November and Mom turned 84 in August. They do both move slower than they were ten-years ago, but we are thankful that they are still relatively healthy and especially enjoy the canasta games we play when we get together. My freedom from the corporate world has allow me to spend a lot of my time with them and this makes me very happy.
Changes in our children over the past ten years, however, have been dramatic. Nick is now fifteen and a half while Matthew is thirteen and a half. Nick is now bigger than me physically while Matthew has still retained some of his boyish charm. We often have arguments, but generally still enjoy each other companies (though at the age of fifteen, we are seeing less and less of Nick). Both enjoy their experiences at TAS so much that we may be forced to stay in Taipei until they both graduate.
Looking back in my life, I can't help myself to be thankful. I have lived a charmed life. While my parents are not the riches in the world, they have always made me feel good. It was tough moving to Canada at the age of 13 and saying goodbye to Dad. But, it made me stronger, more resourceful and more independent. I have been blessed with the wisdom to have made many of the right choices throughout my life, going to the Graduate School of Business in Chicago, marrying Felicia, moving to Hong Kong, staying with Mercury Asset Management when offered a better job in LA,..etc. My decision to retire in 2003 also felt and continue to feel right to me. Not to say if the right opportunity knocks on my door.....I will know.
Turning 50 has not really hit me in any specific way. It's really no different from turning 40 ten years ago. Ten years ago, we lived in Singapore and we spent Xmas in Puhket with everyone including Bob, my brother, and his family. Apart from the changes in venue (living in Taipei and spending Xmas in Moraga), and different participants (minus Bob and my mother-in-law but including Howard's parents), physically I don't feel too different then when I was 40. I still play tennis and golf, not too much better or worse than I did ten year ago. I do workout regularly but have probably gained about ten pounds since 2000. But I feel good generally and look forward to continuing my active lifestyle.
Ten years ago I was with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers working in Singapore but planning our move to Tokyo in a few months (February of 2001). The work was relatively easy and the pay was good. Work wise, Tokyo was more challenging and I was quite relieved to have been offered an early retirement option in Fall of 2002. I was spending too much time on non-investment related activities and I was enjoying work less and less by the day. I was happy and ready to retire when I finally stopped going to the office in February 2003. I am very thankful to have Felicia's support for me to stop and allowing myself time with the boys. While we have always spent all of our non-working hours with the boys, being at home 24/7 was still a real treat. I get to walk Nick to the bus-stop each morning, then Matthew to the NK. Pick-up Matt in the afternoon and play with him before picking up Nick at the bus-stop later in the afternoon. I started biking a lot more, riding to the City and to Choufu (ASIJ).
We are now in Taipei, going into our eighth year. I am still retired. In fact, Felicia also left her job as head of equity at Merrill Lynch in the summer of 2006, joining me in retirement. We both volunteer a lot of our time at our children's school, the Taipei American School, she as a Board of Director and I as a worker in the PTA Bookstore. I still bike, around Taipei and along the bicycle paths near our home. Our freedom has enable us to take better care of our family. I was able to spend some quality time with Bob, who fell to pancreatic cancer in 2005 while Felicia has been able to take care of her Mom who had suffered from a stroke in 2000, a fall in our home in Moraga in 2006 and leukemia in 2007-2010.
My parents have remained in good health with Dad turning 90 in November and Mom turned 84 in August. They do both move slower than they were ten-years ago, but we are thankful that they are still relatively healthy and especially enjoy the canasta games we play when we get together. My freedom from the corporate world has allow me to spend a lot of my time with them and this makes me very happy.
Changes in our children over the past ten years, however, have been dramatic. Nick is now fifteen and a half while Matthew is thirteen and a half. Nick is now bigger than me physically while Matthew has still retained some of his boyish charm. We often have arguments, but generally still enjoy each other companies (though at the age of fifteen, we are seeing less and less of Nick). Both enjoy their experiences at TAS so much that we may be forced to stay in Taipei until they both graduate.
Looking back in my life, I can't help myself to be thankful. I have lived a charmed life. While my parents are not the riches in the world, they have always made me feel good. It was tough moving to Canada at the age of 13 and saying goodbye to Dad. But, it made me stronger, more resourceful and more independent. I have been blessed with the wisdom to have made many of the right choices throughout my life, going to the Graduate School of Business in Chicago, marrying Felicia, moving to Hong Kong, staying with Mercury Asset Management when offered a better job in LA,..etc. My decision to retire in 2003 also felt and continue to feel right to me. Not to say if the right opportunity knocks on my door.....I will know.
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