Last photos from Asia

Well I've been home now 3 days and while the trip was great, I'm quite happy to be home! Josie is quite happy as well, as he hasn't stopped following me since the moment I came in the door. If I go upstairs (without physically picking him up and bringing him along) I get a very loud (Josie Style) MEOW when I come back down the stairs! Just in case I was not aware of the way in which I had wronged him, he surely informs me.

After China I went onto Taichung Taiwan. I only learned a few years ago (after starting chinese) that the "zhong" (Chung in Taiwan) in "Taichung" is the same "zhong" as in "Zhongguo" for China. So in Chinese, Zhong is center & guo is country. Therefore, China is ZhongGuo which means "center country". In Taiwan, Taichung (same character as zhong, but Taiwanese slightly different) means "Tai" (as in Taiwan) "Chung" (as in center of Taiwan). So this was interesting because there is also Taipei (Taibei by the chinese pronunciation- or Tai-North), Tainan (Tai-South), and I think Sandy & Johnney told me on this trip that there is also a Taixi (Tai-west) and Taidong (Tai east). Taipei (north) is the northernmost city in Taiwan, Taichung (center) is about 2 hours south, Tainan (south) is about 2 hours further south from Taichung. Then if you go a little over an hour MORE south, you hit Kaoshiung- which is just about on the southernmost tip of Taiwan, but I don't know what the Characters are so I don't have any good story about that.

While I was in Taiwan this time, we had a big dinner with lots of the Vendors we work with, many I've worked with for many years. It was a fantastic evening & full of wonderful events:
It was Patrick's Birthday that day, and Nelson's birthday 2 days before, so we had 2 birthday cakes. Apparently it was also "cake in the face day" for the birthday boys- but being the avid cake lover that I am, how could I help but to take part in this potentially new tradition of cake sharing?

Patrick is on the left, and Nelson is on the right in this photo. In addition to 2 birthdays, it was an evening of wonderful announcements. Nelson found out that day he & his wife are having a baby GIRL (yay for baby girls!), Michael and his Girlfriend anounced they were in the final 1 month countdown to their wedding, and I told everyone I was adopting a baby! I also got to see my friend Rita and her husband Edward, who I have not seen in maybe 8+ years. She brought along her older daughter, who was 8, so I guess it's been just OVER 8 years! They took me to a traditional teahouse after dinner, and I was quite impressed that Edward seems to be the expert tea maker!

After Taiwan, I flew up to Korea to meet Christy. I arrived on Saturday night, so Sunday Vicky & Anna invited me to go Strawberry picking! It also happened to be Easter, so I couldn't think of a better Easter activity. Okay there was no 'bucket 'o chocolate' at the strawberry field, that would have been the idea Easter, but they did tell me that none of them had ever been strawberry picking before! I'll give Korea a few years to get the 'bucket 'o chocolate' in place at the strawberry fields. I'm certain it's only a matter of time. Perhaps it will even happen before International Cake Day (February 10) is officially recognized.

The strawberries were amazing! They were in a greenhouse, and so ripe! Actually the farmer lady was a little upset and told us we picked all the big ones. I think she wanted us to leave some big ones for other people. I'm certain I ate at least as many as I picked...maybe more...Who can resist? Even without the 'big bucket 'o chocolate' strawberries fresh from the plant are one of those little wonders of life that just make you smile!

We had a great group of strawberry pickers! From left to right it's Jennifer (from our office), Anna, then me, Vicky is in the blue sweater, then Jennifer's daughter is beneath Vicky, and Vicky's daughter is in the red vest. After strawberry picking we met up with Kelly Lee (who used to do textiles before Anna came a few years ago) and her husband and baby daughter who is 10 months old, and Brenda, with her 1 year old son ("Sam") and her husband. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant, and I think it was Anna who asked me when we arrived, do you like doc? "Dog?" DOC. "DOG???" Doc! "DOG?? as in, like the one with we wagging tale that we just saw at the strawberry fields?" (laughter...) no...doc...D-U-C-K. Ahhh! Duck! YES! I like Duck! My bad hearing...made for a great laugh though... I told everyone in Korea I ate 'DOC' and of course they all thought I meant dog..hee hee hee...

There was one other small translation story from China to share as well. the 2nd to last night in China, Christy & I went to get massages after dinner. The two guys who did our massages didn't speak any english but wanted to speak to me in chinese the whole time. So I practiced...at one point the guy massaging me was doing something weird like tweaking my ears. So I said to him, "wo de tudou, wo de tudou! zuo shenme?" (my ears, my ears, what are you doing?) and he looked at me so quizically! So I repeated it, and he's still looking at me rather confused, so as I started to repeat it a third time, I recognize this look and realize, "oh my god! Wrong word!" so I quickly say, in Chinese, sorry sorry sorry! ERduo! ERDUO! I had just realized I'd mixed up "ears" with "potatoes". So I was not saying "my ears, my ears, what are you doing?" But instead I was saying "my potatoes! My potatoes! What are you doing?" It was too funny...!