As I was coming home on the bus last night, I ran into my friend, Christina. We met several months ago on the bus on our way home from work. We started hanging out together as language exchange partners and it has ended up blossoming into a beautiful friendship. We just had lunch together on Saturday, so I was pleasantly surprised when Christina asked if I had time to go to her house for a few minutes before going home.

Within minutes of arriving at our building, we were headed up to her family’s home. She graciously gave me the grand tour and introduced me to her younger sister, Kelly, who is every bit as nice and sweet as Christina. I’m dying to meet the rest of her family now! Her home is stunning and I’m glad John wasn’t with me. He’s on a renovation kick at the moment and he would have had all sorts of new ideas on how to spend more money if he’d been with us.

After a nice chat, Christina got around to her reason for asking me over. She had a bag of specially prepared dumplings that her family had ordered from Taichung for Chinese New Year. I had mentioned the other day at lunch that John eats an inordinate amount of dumplings each week. Christina remembered my passing comment and thought we would like to try them. I am incredibly touched at her thoughtfulness and kindness. She’s truly a special person and it makes me very happy to know that I have a friend like her in Taiwan. It’s friends like these who make living in Taiwan extra-special.