2012 -- a year in review

December, 2012

Greetings from Taipei!!  At the time of this writing, we have entered our tenth year of living in Taipei.  It has been another busy year at the FungYeh family.  Below are some highlights that we have selected to share with you:

10.  Matt flying solo:  Matthew’s Uncle Howard and Auntie Joyce invited him to go skiing with them during Spring Break at Whistler.  Matthew, who turned 15 in April, flew solo for the first time, and made it without a hitch.  While the flight was interesting, the skiing at Whistler was spectacular.  Matt and Uncle Howard were able to ski up to four times as much as they did in Tahoe!!

9.  Nick as a Senior:  Nick is now a senior at Taipei American School.  Busy as ever, Nick is not only taking six AP/IB classes, he is also running theater tech for TAS’s musical and dance project, an active MUN participant, Swimzone instructor, Photo-ops team member,…,etc.  Nick spends so much time “volunteering” that he was mistaken for TAS faculty/staff on several occasions!!  In his spare time, he is also the leader of the Taipei International Church’s Youth Group.  On top of all this, he is applying to get into a college in 2013!!

8.  Peter and Aleve:  No, Peter doesn’t have a girlfriend named Aleve.   Following last year’s tennis elbow, Peter strained his right knee this year, hiking with his brother-in-law, Howard.  Now, he is dependent on Aleve (pain relief medication) for his biking, tennis and golf games,... 

7.  Matt’s six instruments:  Following piano at the age of five, Matt has since picked up Clarinet, Saxophone, bassoon, drums and guitars.  He regularly plays guitar or drums during his church’s youth worship on Saturday evenings.  Now that he stopped taking piano lessons, he has been playing more piano than ever!!  He is teaching himself new songs and plays a few bars of music for us regularly.

6.  Playing golf with Matt:  Out of the blue, Matt decided to take up golf this summer.  After a few rough rounds, Matt has picked up his game quite admirably.  Now, he just needs to control his power and keep the balls on the course.  Fortunately, there are plenty of “lost” balls around our course in Moraga, so Matt has an unlimited supply of golf balls to use.

5.  Matt beating Peter in tennis:  this week, for the first time in his life, Matt was able to beat Peter in tennis.  As a second year TAS varsity tennis player, he has improved his power and consistency and was finally able to overcome his Dad’s trickery and psychological warfare.

4.  Fiddler on the Roof:  In TAS’s fall musical production, Matt starred as Yussel the Hat maker while Nick made cameo appearances as a Russian priest and a soldier.  Nick was also the master carpenter (he helped build the prop and set for the show) and the backstage manager. 

3.  Felicia’s dedication to Christianity:  Felicia’s growth as a Christian has grown exponentially this year.  She regularly attends at least two prayer meetings and two/three services each week.  She has also enrolled in an intensive theology studies each Sunday evenings to further her understanding in Christianity. 

2.  Nick going to The Hague:  Despite of a lack of support from TAS, Nick managed to put Taipei American School and Taiwan on the Online Model United Nation (OMUN) map.  For his effort, he was invited to the largest MUN program (over 4,000 delegates from around the World) to be held at The Hague in January 2013.  He will be the first ever representative from Taiwan attending the “ThiMUN”  and he will represent OPEC in the Special Political Committee. 

1.  Ka-ching!!   The boys have finally attained “cashflow positive” status, albeit for a brief moment, over the summer.  Nick and Matt worked as tennis instructors for the 9 and under for the Moraga Country Club Summer Tennis Camp.   Both worked hard in the hot California sun and made “four figures” for the summer!!  With their new found wealth, Nick bought a fancy camera and Matt bought an electric guitar and quickly went into deficit again!!

There seems to be a disproportional amount of news from Matt, mainly because he is around us more often.  Nick has been doing quite a bit on his own.  He went to Singapore this Spring to attend a Model United Nations conference, he traveled to California this summer on his own, in order to spend an early birthday with his friends in Taipei.  Given his busy schedule, we rarely see him other than in the early mornings and during dinner.  But such is the life of an upperly mobile young man and we will just have to live with it.