From the Pine Tree state to New Bamboo

 We have waited patiently for a chance to return to our beloved community in Taiwan.  Zhubei, Hsinchu to be precise.  Our friends and colleagues have kept us connected and eager to return and now we are making our way back!  

Our extended summer at Grandma Jane's home in Sweden, Maine has included many of our beloved New England activities.  During the warmest days we swam and kayaked in Keyes Pond at the end of the path through Cathedral Pines planted by Grandpa Ray Gibbons and family back in the 1930s when they arrived here.  Some of those pines were cut last winter to cover costs of updates to the farmhouse that we've been making over the past year or two - solar panels, a heat exchange unit, the new front walk and this fall an emergency generator.  So our summer has also included chainsaw work on the slash left by the loggers.  We've put away quite a lot of fireplace wood for Grandma's winter stay in Maine.

Soleil went to camp with Concordia Language Villages again this year, but it wasn't in Minnesota.  She spent 6-8 hours a day upstairs at the farmhouse online with friends and counselors learning a lot of Mandarin Chinese to get ready for grade 9 in Taiwan.  She also refined her cooking skills with several favorite Asian recipes - scallion pancakes, tomato eggs, and the beloved bubble tea (milk tea with tapioca balls).  Following camp she went on to bake raspberry and apple pies and apple crumble in partnership with Jenny.  Mmmmm.  We are lucky that she likes the kitchen!

Jenny was the only one to spend the summer working as she completed her job at the Fryeburg Library at the end of August and her work on an online Reading Music course for Mountain Top Music Center in early September.  On our shared "off days" we got in several regional hikes that included Grandma at 84 and Kathryn Krupa, a second cousin enjoying her retirement from teaching art in Michigan. Kathryn was also a willing participant in our family games which happened whenever nothing else was planned.

Greg spent much of his time at the Fryeburg Academy gardens, in online meetings or binge watching our family Netflix subscription.  He also took an online American History course with FA colleagues that kept his mind off the wait.  There were also many things to do to prepare for a year abroad and thanks to friends at home and in Taiwan it got done.

We don't have to tell you that 2020 has been an unpredictable, dizzying and anxiety filled year.  We don't expect history to pause while we are away, but we hope a more distant view of the turmoil in our country will help us rest for the future while doing what we can with friends and colleagues in New Bamboo to build a better world for us all.

Thank you Grandma Jane.  Thank you cousin Kathryn.  Thank you Fryeburg friends.  Thank you neighbors, new and old, around the world.  We are on our way.