On A Plane

By the time most of you get to work, grab your coffee, then sit down to read this.... I'll be on a plane from Taipei to San Francisco. I actually travel BACKWARDS IN TIME on this trip - I leave Taiwan at 11pm Thursday evening, arrive in San Francisco at 8:30pm Thursday evening. One would think there could be a way to win the lotto or gamble on some sporting event in order to take advantage of this opportunity. Also means that I will see two sunrises and two sunsets, all on "Thursday".

I will not blog next week while in the US. My hours will be messed up anyways, but I figure I should spend the time home with Sarah and not on my computer! Hope you all have a good weekend and a great 4th of July!!!

Coming Home Tomorrow

In my usual style (that drives Sarah crazy) - I have yet to pack a thing for my trip tomorrow:) The driver will pick me up in about 24 hours - I suppose I should figure out what all I'm bringing home. It actually isn't much since I have a lot of clothes sitting in Rochester. Any requests from Taiwan? It has to be something from 7-11 or on my walk to the subway:) haha!!

Typhoon didn't even come close to Taiwan - now I have a plethora of rice and Pepsi. I figured if I was trapped all day and the stores weren't open, I could survive for a day on rice and Pepsi. Didn't occur to me later that I wouldn't be able to steam the rice if the electricity went out. I probably flunked my practice run for my first Typhoon. I'll do better next time!! At least my cleaning lady was able to make it on schedule and catch me up on my ironing... I was worried I'd have to do some of my own ironing!!! Yet another thing that drives Sarah crazy!!

After having a very unique experience this past weekend, this upcoming weekend will only involve driving a U-Haul for a day, then a pool party, then driving to Iowa for the week of the 4th. Somewhere there's a 14 hour plane ride as well. I ended up finding a flight from here to San Francisco, then a red eye flight to Chicago Thursday night/Friday morning. I hate red eye flights!!! But good stuff will be waiting for me once I get to Chicago.

Hope everyone is having a good week. My pastor here in Taiwan emailed me today to see how I was and how my friends/family in the MidWest floods were doing. He said they prayed for everyone again at church this past Sunday even though I was not there! Thought that was pretty amazing.

I'm off to watch Wimbledon and then to bed - Not sure I'm a fan of Sharapova's tuxedo shirt for playing Tennis.... I think it'll be Nadal and Federer in the final again.

Journey To Middle Earth Day #2

Typhoon update... looks like it's headed west of here:



Which considering my desire to get home in a few days, that's fine by me. I'm sure we'll have other Typhoons to experience in the next 15 months. As for the common question "what do you do for a Typhoon in Taiwan" that I've heard a lot this week.... guess we'll have to wait a while.

So back to this past weekend..... Joys and his family picked me up from the "Honeymoon hotel room" that I had (Kingsized bed, blue mood lights, circle couch, hottub, shower with massager) and we headed into the mountains for the day. I only knew that we'd see mountains that day. They didn't tell me anything else.

On our path upwards, we stopped by Sun Moon Lake. This is famous all over Taiwan and honestly, as beautiful as an area as I've seen in a while. The reason for the name is that the lake used to have a shape that half of it looked like a sun, half of it looked like a moon. Then there was a big earthquake that messed it all up, but i guess you can still kind of see that thought process. But it was very peaceful up there. There are yearly opportunities to swim across it, or bike/run around it.... the hotels in that area are some of the most expensive ones on the island though ($300 US a night!).

Onward we went - as we climbed the mountain, we pulled into a parking lot. I looked up and saw a UFO ride and realized we had come to an amusement park in the middle of the mountains. It was very much unexpected, but a LOT of fun! There were water rides (no lines at all all day), rollercoasters, fair food, shops, shows with singing/dancing.... imagine Adventureland but in the mountains, and a lot more fun! haha - have to throw in the Adventureland references now and then.

The park was not overly busy (which is my usual complaint of six-flags, etc.) and the hot sun was offset by a nice breeze in the mountains. The view was magnificent, even as the water coaster rolled backwards with the only thing we could see was the mountains and trees below. The kids loved it of course, and I had a great time too. Enjoy the pictures!

So it's late and I was distracted with work for a while so I'm behind on my blog and late to get to bed. Follow along with the pictures, you'll figure it out!

I'm headed home in about 48 hours.... can you believe it?

A Weekend In Middle Earth....

A fun weekend in the middle of Taiwan! I decided to split the weekend into a couple of parts - first so I can get this thing posted with all the stories, etc... but also split the pictures up into groups otherwise you may be deterred from spending time viewing them all.

For today's blog, you will want to have the following image up for your reference:



My coworker Joys (yes, it's a guy's name) invited me to the middle of Taiwan to meet his family and see both the ocean and mountains that the area is known for. I left Saturday morning on a high speed train (top speed on this trip was 300 kph.... 186mph for those who were wondering) to get to Taichung. If you really want to learn something today - "Pei" means North (as in "Taipei") and "Chung" means Middle (as in "Taichung")... yes, there is a "Tainan" ("Nan" means south)... and yes, "Wang Chung" could be translated as "Everybody Middle Wang Tonight".

It really is the beginning of Summer! It was 31-33 all weekend (88-92 Fahrenheit) and I got some nice sun going. They made fun of my tan line from my hat though - they don't get tan lines like I do! After picking me up from the train station, Joys took me to his hometown of Yuanlin (built next to the mountainside... not the "yunlin" on the map above). I met his kids (you'll see Eva (age 11) and Leo (age 9) in the pictures.... they can spell words in English faster than I can... like "sausages") and wife - then we headed on to Changhua City (also on the map) where we saw the largest Buddha I've ever seen. This thing was 5-6 stories tall and we actually got to climb the stairs inside of Buddha and see scenes depicting the life stories of the Buddha. There of course was a shrine in the back and some statues on the grounds of the different faces of the Buddha. Was a pretty view of Changhua City though from up there. You can see the pictures - plus some of the dancing fountains that I always enjoy.

Time was a factor to get everything in... so we hurried to Lugang (to the west... close to the Taiwan Strait/China Sea) which is one of the 3 main places that the original descendants from China inhabited. Went through a temple as a start to our "town tour" that also had a visitor's center (with English map/guide book!). Then onto a street market for some unusual food. The Strawberry and Tomato skewer (you can see in the pictures) was dipped in some hard candy type thing. It was actually really good, but a big ol' drop fell on my white shirt (plus was soft candy due to the extreme heat there). Good thing i was going to throw that shirt out anyways due to it having a hole. Ran through another outdoor temple.... then we continued on!

Stopped by the History house that looked WAY more like a Haunted House from the movies. Inside was a lot of historical items and recreation of the original house that was used by the first governor of that province. It was interesting, but not air conditioned and by then it was over 92 degrees.... so you can imagine what my attention span was for history.

Another well known spot in town was a street called "Touch Breast Lane".... seriously! The designer of the walkway made it very narrow so the breeze off of the Taiwan Straight comes through and by building narrow doors into the buildings, it acts like an airconditioning in the hot summer heat. While the wind was minimal when we walked through it, the walls were scary in spots after years of leaning and looking like they could fall at any moment. The reason for the name is due to if one person is walking the 2 or so blocks and someone comes from the other end, you have to turn sideways and slither along... and a woman's breasts would most likely rub against you. Thus the name. Unfortunately it was only Joys and I walking down this path. We even came back to the car on the same path but we were still the only ones that day.

We stopped for lunch and being so close to the sea, it was safe to assume 100% of the menu was going to be seafood. It is a fishing village after all! So my distaste of seafood was taken to the limit with some fried oyster omelet, oyster and fish soup, and fried noodles with oysters. Luckily I had eaten some at the market earlier!!! I took some pictures to prove to Sarah that I ate some oysters. I did not touch the fish - I still stand by the rule of not eating anything that is served with eyeballs.

After lunch was when the excitement started. We joined a group that takes tours out to the sea. Remember, I had no idea what we were doing, only that we would "see the water in a bit".... per the words of my host. We loaded up in these strange motorcycle/truck combination type thing (that had a motor you can hear about 2 miles away), that maxed out at around 5mph. We went out onto the sand barge into the sea. The tide comes up high enough every night to bring along some food, then recedes enough to allow tours like ours to go out and actually dig for our own oysters. I really sucked at this in case you were wondering. You can't spear them, or catch them on a hook. You actually take a rake through the sand, if you feel some thing like a rock, it's a shell. I spent about 45 minutes walking around looking for easy finds, but in the last 15 minutes, I found probably 85% of my catch. The little kid who was our group leader for our car was a little help. He didn't realize that I didn't grow up in a fishing village where people know what they're doing. I consider myself more of a city boy when it comes to stuff like this. I did find a little crab though. He was too small to take home, but the girls in our truck enjoyed watching him move sideways as he walked off the back of our truck. We went to see an oyster farm where the pros do their catching. They setup lines that the oysters and other shells attach themselves to, but when the tide goes back out, they stay attached and the guys can go out daily and pull in tons and tons as they wish. You can see pictures of them cracking a few "fresh" ones open for people to try. Yeah, I figured "why not" and tried one... it was very VERY salty from being in the salt water. I'm not going to ever try that again. We did see a ray of some sorts, and a jelly fish.... the interesting wildlife that I haven't ever seen in the US.

At this point, the sun had gotten to us. We went back and had a few beers, then called it a day. Joys dropped me off at a hotel and told me to get some sleep since I would need my energy the following day in the Mountains. Again, this is all the information I was given. So you too will have to wait till tomorrow to get more information.....

Typhoon headed this way. Although it's looking to go west of Taiwan now, we still might get some heavy winds and rain the next few days. As long as I still can get home Thursday night;) I may not have to go to work on Wednesday depending on the path it takes....

So I've wasted enough of your Monday morning. For the record - Wimbledon is on live here!!! I just got done watching Federer win in about 75 minutes in Round 1.

Again, make sure you follow along with the pictures on the right!

10-32-6

With one week left till I come home, I decided it was time to pull out the

10 THINGS I MISS FROM THE US

1. Sarah.... if I don't say this one first, I might be walking home from O'Hare Airport next week
2. Sarah.... just for good measure.... or just say "family/friends"
   
3. Steak knives.... I can get along with the chopsticks, but some times I want to cut it first
4. Mt. Dew.... Working my way down to one per month wasn't good enough
5. Webpages showing up in English by default. The "smart" guys who program everything in http land think that since my IP address is in Taiwan, that I am fluent in Chinese
6. TV channels in English and NO SUBTITLES
7. Sun not coming up till after 6am
8. Smell of fresh cut grass in the spring/summer..... not much grass here
9. Target.... one stop shopping, and cheap prices
10. Being able to speak English at normal speed without thinking "slow down" all the time
    

10 THINGS I DO NOT MISS FROM THE US

1. Political advertisements... have fun with that one for the next 5 months
   
2. Driving a car knowing it's costing me some 30 cents per mile and is only going to piss me off to fill up the tank
   
3. Ignorant people who think if you can't speak English, you have "no right to be in the US". I can't speak Chinese and nobody thinks I should be deported
4. Flat roads with nothing really special to look at out the window
5. Being "average":) I kind of stand out over here and I enjoy it
6. Cleaning my apartment.... having a cleaning lady (who irons too) is WAY COOL!
7. Expensive utility bills that are 50% "service charge" (read your RPU bill and break it down).... plus it's still cool paying bills at the 7-11
   
8. Spam mail and bogus phone calls/messages on my answering machine
9. Smell of cows and pigs... no, it's not the "smell of money"
10. Non-aggressive driving... the cab riding experience here is actually quite the adventure

And with that, I bid you adieu....

0-5-15

Boston is again party town with the NBA championship last night. Considering the Red Sox won the World Series, the Patriots are a fluke play away from a championship (Eli should have been tackled), and now the Celtics are champs.... fun town to be in right now.

But we celebrate in Taipei for other reasons. The Olympics are coming - unfortunately due to political reasons, "Taiwan" will not be able to represent themselves under that name. The athletes that do go to Bejing will be announced as "Chinese Taipei". They do get their own flag specially designed for the Olympics, but it's kind of cheezy and not really close to their "official flag". They will be represented in a number of sports (qualifying still going on for some events... plus I can't find the information on google yet:) ) - including Men's Baseball (usually very competitive and past champions), Men's volleyball, Karate....

I also found a reference showing the current world's tallest buildings. I have to hurry and get Sarah up to the top of Taipei 101 while they still hold the record!!! I've already asked around when they will start building Taipei 102.... or is it Taipei 101.1??? 101 beta?

For the late evenings when the movies are dumb, I can usually find 9-ball pool tournaments on TV. One of the top player in the world of Men's pool is from "Chinese Taipei" (per the TV announcers) named Chang Jung Lin. The match (some Guinness tournament) I saw this past week had him win 9-0 (in the semi-finals) and then won again in the finals pretty easily. Think about it - sure, being a professional golfer would be pretty cool. But there's a lot of walking and noisy fans yelling "GET IN THE HOLE" on your tee shots on a 700 yard par 5 (never understood that). But a professional pool player? The tournaments would be a decent payout to live off of. But think of all the HUSTLING you could do when you're out with your buddies at a bar!!! That's where the real money comes rollin' in (tax free of course)!!!

For the record, I don't recognize where "Chinese Taipei" is located. I make the local Taiwanese very proud when I say that:) The whole situation is actually very silly but when you are directly affected like the people here, they take pride in their heritage. It has nothing to do with hating the Chinese, just that they want to have more pride in their country. It's kind of like us in the midwest that don't really acknowledge the existence of North Dakota. For most of the US, it's "Minnesota Wannabes". Don't get me started about South Dakota.....

Found some pretty good hot wings tonight. The hot spicy Buffalo wing sauce type that you can usually find pretty easily in the US. A little more difficult here but I am now content.

Couple more days of "Spring" left - hope you're all enjoying them. It feels like summer here already.

Monday - with more rain

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. The peak shopping time for ties, power tools, anything from Sears or Home Depot. Father's Day in Taiwan is actually in August - so I was unable to find any Father's Day cards to send out. Probably find a bunch in another month though.

The big experience of this past weekend (other than the standard daily rain.... storming right now) was finding a new church here in Taipei. Check out: http://www.slpcenglish.org/ for details but it was a very comfortable Presbyterian Church that was in all English. It was probably 50% Taiwanese, 50% Western (I have stopped assuming that white people are American and I call them "Western" for simplicity and preventing me from being wrong). During the message, I realized that I have the advantage of growing up in a Christian Family - and we can probably trace our Christianity in our family as far back as we have records. Some of the people I was celebrating with are 1st Generation Christians - growing up in Buddhist homes/families. I found that kind of fascinating. They have a handbell choir every week, and sing English hyms and prayers. Very friendly group that was excited to meet me. Only bad part is that the English service is Sunday afternoons. They have 5 different language services, with Mandarin being the largest - so can't expect any special favors just for me! There were probably 40-50 people in the congregation.

But the most important thing I did this past weekend.... FOUND MEXICAN FOOD!!!! By US standards, I have VERY poor Spanish speaking abilities. But in Taiwan when I can order "cerveza" and say "gracias" or "de nada" when my burrito/beans/rice is delivered to the table, everyone here thinks I am quite fluent in Spanish. Let me tell you - the Taiwanese have difficulty rolling their "r" and getting the accent just right;) There could be a career here for someone willing to teach them Spanish. Not a lot of Spanish immigrants in Taiwan though, not sure there's really the need outside of being able to order Mexican food.

I caught up on some Wii playing. I found an Indiana Jones Mii character for my nephew (already sent to you Jeremy) that was kind of close. I did find the Mii Characters.com page that is worth looking around for a while. Make sure you look at the Miis from The Office.... the Dwight one is HILLARIOUS!!! I really enjoy how many people take the time to show that the minimal controls are actually ok in creating some very close resemblances of famous people. I like it because it gives you step by step instructions on how to create these characters yourself!!!

At the end of next week, it will be the beginning of"Return to the US" week! I have written the US Federal Government and they agreed to give everyone a day off from work while I'm home - plus most towns will be required to shoot fireworks off in my honor. Some even have parades! So while you're enjoying the "BigShow Returns to the US" festivities, drink a nice cold beer for me. The 4th day of the 7th month is what they gave me as my best option so I took it. ENJOY!!

Flooding

It's hard to see..... such a familiar town and it's all under water. Mom and dad are fine, CR is not so fine at the moment.....

http://www.gazetteonline.com/

Prayers and best wishes for my hometown - hopefully the sun today will help relieve it.

Another Birthday......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!

My pops celebrates his big day today. Since I'm 31 years old now, I'll just say that my Dad is older than 31 years old today! And since he's usually one of the first readers of my blog in the morning, I want to make sure he sees today's birthday wish! I have to do the math quick....... carry the one...... ok, got it. Still very young! In Taiwan, you still wouldn't be eligible to sit in the "reserved for elderly and handicapped" seats on the train. That should make you feel good dad!

And since I know my card won't make it there in time (finally found some greeting cards in Taipei.... there's no Hallmark over priced cards on every corner like in the US - but it would take a miracle if it arrives in Iowa today.... should have sent by BOAT I hear), I decided to put some birthday videos for all to enjoy in honor of my dad. I was going to mail you a PFD (personal flotation device.... it's not a "life jacket" since it won't save your life in a car wreck.... that was the first thing we learned in my Canoeing Merit Badge in scouts), but it was kind of expensive to mail. Hopefully it won't be needed much longer!



And I thought this one was just funny... Enjoy:



Happy Birthday Dad! See you soon!

Greatest Albums (2008 Edition)

So nothing new to report on the Taiwan stuff..... But since I spend 30 minutes one way on train/bus/walking to get to work and then back home everyday, I've had a lot of opportunity to get full utilization out of my iPod. I've been "rediscovering my music" as Steve Jobs puts it. So today, I'd like to share with you my discoveries over the past 2 months.

The Greatest Albums I Own

So first, "album" refers to mp3 rip of a CD that I have back in Rochester.... but the main point is that I made the selection based off the entire album. Some songs are great songs, but they alone are not enough to carry one team. Kind of like Michael Jordan of the early 90s vs MJ of the late 90s. He was still the greatest ever through the entire period, but the team around him was so much better later on and that's why they are considered some of the greatest teams ever.

Second, this pertains to stuff only on my iPod. There are probably arguments for other stuff out there, I just don't have it on my iPod. For reference, I have 955 albums on my computer, 55 GB of mp3s (including all my classical, jazz, etc) which is about 38.2 days worth of music to play. I state that to point out that I do have a lot of music to use as a reference for today's post.

U2, Achtung Baby - this should be on everyone's list. I actually have the original cover too where it is a try fold cardboard case, not the standard plastic clear case. I got that lucky while at Disc-Go-Round on Collins Plaza Road in Cedar Rapids (319, represent). It's one of the greatest evolution CDs from the sound that was defined in the 80s to the 90s rock. They continue to develop the U2 legacy by combining musical skill with technology to give us an album full of hits, but also a complete mixture when heard start to finish.

REM, Monster - There are no clear hits from this disc that will be played 20 years from now when someone requests REM at the Oldies Hour at the club. But the collection of REM's rock abilities remains a favorite of mine.

Beastie Boys, Hello Nasty - Again, more hits off of Licensed to Ill but Hello Nasty is complete start to finish. It has Intergalactic at the #7 spot (rather than the usual #3 spot for the first released song off of an album) but that song doesn't belong anywhere but #7. From start to finish (with even the weird calls, dialogged moments in the middle), it's one of the better produced CDs I have.

Dave Matthew's Band, Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95. The best live CD I have. And it's 13 years old! Was their peak moment, but they show why so many people can hear them over and over again live and never get sick of them. Each concert is unique.

Wynton Marsalis and Ellis Marsalis, Joe Cool Blues. While Wynton's other works Blood on the Fields and In This House, On This Morning are award worthy (which they did) and well written.... this one that follows the entire Peanuts Gang is easily my favorite. Songs for Snoopy, Woodstock,

Elvis Presley, Ultimate Gospel - While I was tempted to put his 30 #1 Hits album, the Gospel CD makes you feel closer to Heaven. Good to keep you awake in the car ride in the middle of the night as well since you'll be singing and dancing along!

Soundtrack to Romeo and Juliet - Varius artists, but Garbage, Cardigans, Butthole Surfers, Des'ree, Everclear, Radiohead.... nobody huge, but collectively it makes a fantastic album and a wonderful addition to the modern interpretation of Shakespeare (I do like the movie as well)

DC Talk, Supernatural - They were full into their rock years.... then they disbanded. Kind of crappy actually as this was easily their best album among some great works.

Garbage, Bleed Like Me - One of the loudest albums I own. That's probably part of the attraction. Still my vote for "most underrated band of the past 2 decades". Hopefully a new album in 2008????

Jamie Cullum, Twentysomething - A mix of pop and jazz by a 22 year old with an amazing talent at jazz piano.

Stone Temple Pilots, No. 4 - Yeah, I pick the weird albums that are non-typical for a list like this. But seriously - collectively, this was their best work. I even prefer this over their Greatest Hits album (Thank You)

Eminem, The Eminem Show - I like it because it's loud, and some good songs on there! He really is talented in my small perspective on rap music. I like it, and it's my blog.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium - First album that convinced me that this group has talent. I was "ok" with their earlier stuff, but this 2 CD album was great stuff!!!

Nine Inch Nails, Downward Spiral - Yes, I love this album! Way ahead of its time and still quite "modern" to listen to for the world of Electric Music. Easily their best work although they seem to think they're not quite finished.

Metallica, S&M - This was the concert they did with the San Francisco Symphony.... pretty cool mix and innovative! Plus it sounds really good on my stereo back in the US!

Greatest Hits Honor Roll (since it kind of is cheating, but there are still some to note):

• Guns N Roses (mainly because it includes the good stuff, but no "Mr. Brownstone" which is a crappy song.
  
• INXS (although most are from Kick.
  
• Michael Jackson's Number Ones.
  
• Neil Diamond (duh).
  
• Queen (take your pick as there are like 20 of their greatest hit collections).
  
• Prince (again, a few to choose from but just make sure it has "Kiss", "Gett Off", "7", and "Raspberry Beret" then you've got the right one.
  
• Soundgarden A-Sides

Not to forget some Classical CDs:

• Edgar Meyer on String Bass performing Bach's Cello Suites... simply amazing and the greatest expression of extremely rare talent that I've ever heard. Proof that God does exist and helped Bach create (and Edgar perform) something so perfect.
• Mahler 2 conducted by Metha and the Israeli Philharmonic... best recording I've heard of this fantastic piece.
• Itzhak Perlman recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices

Note the lack of Type O Negative on this list. Just throwing it out there.

Dragon Boat Results

I'm behind again - Happy Birthday Jen, Happy Anniversary Rachael and Jeremy!

Feet are doing better - it's officially "tennis shoe" week for me though since they are more comfortable. I'm optimistic to be "normal" by this weekend!

The Dragon Boat Festival was a great time! New pictures to the right - or click HERE!!! It wasn't as crowded as I anticipated, the threat (and eventual realization) of rain may have had something to do with that. But there were a lot of people, including the largest gathering of Westerners I've seen in Taipei. While it's still celebrated in the Mandarin speaking areas of this part of the world, I'm sure it's like a lot of yearly celebrations in the US, it's not as much fun if you go every year - where the visitors (like me) in Taipei make sure they go to something like this!!!

We decided we're having Team IBM next year and will race in a boat. The boats are "loaned" to the team so we don't have to worry about building or buying one. I figure we can make some fun shirts and represent our company as well as we can. I know there's no way we can win, after seeing the Firefighting team dominate everyone (as they do every year I'm told). But honestly, do you really want to be the group of Nerds that beats the Firefighters?

After the racing finals (they do a couple of days before for the preliminaries), they have a special designed theme contest. There are some pictures of the Recycle team, the Monk/WhiteSnake team (not the band), and the Pirates of the Caribbean team. There was a lot of food (as is typical with any festival around the world it seems) and some stage activities or stuff for kids in case watching the racing wasn't their desire. And the big hit in the crowd was the guy walking around with a huge python! Yes, I took photos (snake haters, you've been warned). I got in close (thanks to my $210 worth of hypnotherapy many years ago) but still wasn't ready to wrap him around my neck for a photo.... maybe next time!

One thing some of you will find as funny as I do.... I've seriously heard the NUMA NUMA song about 5 different times at the most random places. Once was on the radio during my massage in China last week. One was on someone's cell phone here at work. Another was being played at a bar as I walked by a couple of weeks ago. Didn't realize the song was so popular. But for your enjoyment - here's the real group performing to help get the song stuck in your head (the actual video had embedding disabled which sucks).



And a comment about the French Open Men's Final.... Nadal wins AGAIN on clay to stay unbeaten in 4 years at the French Open. That alone is amazing. The fact that he beat Federer yet again on clay is amazing. The fact that he beat one of the greatest competitors of this decade as bad as he did (6-1 6-3 6-0 - didn't drop a set the entire tournament).... What the heck???? That's incredible. Look for Federer to get back on track at Wimbledon like usual.

We tried a new restaurant last night on their opening night. It was advertising that they make their own beer and had a German name. I went expecting to order some German food, but it was very much like a Rock Bottom Brewery or something. It was ok food, beer was... brewery kind:) But no German food - just a standard TGIFridays type menu. No Liederhosen even:(

Dragon Boat Festival

Yes, there is a lot to learn for the Dragon Boat Festival

The legend is that in ancient China, there was a poet by the name of Qu Yuan (340 BC - 278 BC). He was a rebel and eventually banned by the king. It was during this bannishment that he wrote most of his poetry and became a legend at that time, and still to this day. When the government he was banished by came closer to home, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the 5th day of the 5th month (Chinese calendar, not May 5th... that's Cinco de Mayo!!!)

The local people wanted to protect Qu Yuan's body, so they threw food into the river to feed the fish (instead of them eating the dead person), and they used dragon boats to paddle out to retrieve his body.

So the big festival involves eating zongzi (basically rice inside of a bamboo leaf) and watching people race dragon boats. Providing the weather holds up, should be a fun excuse to go drink and basically tailgate up by the river!!!

The dragon boat has a person beating a drum to keep them unified in the strokes, plus a person in the front who reaches out for the flag at the finish line and tosses it up in the air.

I know, sounds like fun! I'll take lots of pictures!!!

Minor Surgery Required

So since I missed a few days this past week - I figured I could make up for it with some WEEKEND EDITION of my blog!

I was able to return safely to Taipei. There was massive flooding in Hong Kong that was starting while we were trying to get out. It was pouring heavily, delaying us on the runway for an hour before taking off. No weather problems in Taiwan! But the delay caused me to arrive right in the middle of rush hour. So the normal 60 minute car ride from the airport turned into over 90 minutes.

Friday night I went to the doctor. Not to get too graphic, but I've been fighting some warts on my feet the past 6 months, they've progressively gotten out of hand. Went to a doctor 4 weeks ago, was trying some stuff - wasn't working. So the doctor this past Friday night decided they were deep enough to cut the things out with a hot iron. Looks like a soldering iron! The painful part was getting the local in the three different spots - I almost fainted! But once my foot was numb, I was able to walk out of the hospital with very little pain. Total cost for the entire procedure (including bandages, pain pills, and "goop" to take home) = $65 US. Still cheaper than the parking prices at Mayo Clinic!!!

I was able to walk better this weekend with my pain pills in hand and once the swelling goes down, I should be back to normal! I haven't been able to fully enjoy myself the past month just because of not being comfortable walking around town. Should be fully healed with a little TLC by next weekend.

Anyway - just a random update - and probably TMI but you should know me by now!

Have a good weekend!!

Last Day in China

Today was spicy food day here in China. After some good Indian/Thai/Taiwanese food for lunch (a formal meal, not a buffet like you're thinking), we had some Hunan food tonight that was simply superb! I can now speak two words in Hunan dialect (you and me.... they both sound like "mmmmmmmmm" in a grunt like tone) but more than anything I have learned to enjoy the peppers they use there. My sinuses are very clear tonight!

Red Wings take the Cup in 6 games. A spectacular finish to a great season of Hockey! And I was here in Taiwan (and China) unable to watch any of it:( I did get the official word that they won earlier today from Sarah in an instant message who used her advanced expertise of hockey to tell me "The Red team just won". That was more than enough to let me know the good news.

Couple of China stories:
The traffic here is absolutely crazy (and very dangerous). Our van driver (hired by IBM and drives the IBM team from home/hotel to office daily) is actually a pretty smart driver but is very aggressive. There was a bicyclist in the middle of the right lane that we were trying to use to exit the 4 lane busy street (not quite a highway). Well since he wouldn't let us around him, we were stuck (honking all the while) waiting... then he cuts us off.... on a bike!!! As he's cutting us off, we brake, and he turns to look at us - not realizing the cars in the left hand lane have stopped quickly due to a car trying to do a U-turn in the middle of traffic. So of course the bicyclist runs SMACK INTO the back of the car in the left lane. We're talking face smacking against the back window and bike falling out from under him! He got right back up while we were seeing if he was still alive. Started peddling again and resumed cutting cars off. Hate to use the "he deserved it" comment here but it may be appropriate.

We also went for drinks the other night at an all you can eat/drink place for ~$20 US. Dinner was "ma ma hoo hoo" (which means "soso" in Chinese... or literally "horse horse tiger tiger".... I'm 100% serious because it's my favorite phrase so far). Well the drinks were flowing for a couple of hours to make sure we got our money's worth. My peer manager from Raleigh who is on assignment in China decided to order another round of beers for the FOUR of us drinking beer (two were drinking a shit ton of sake). At this point in the story I need to understand the very very slight difference between the words "four" and "ten" in Mandarine. George ordered them despite me thinking he said the word poorly. 3 minutes later she returns with 10 BEERS! Good thing they were free.... they did not go to waste at all. In fact we had another couple of rounds after that!

Some China pictures have been uploaded (it's been a while, I know).

I go back home tomorrow morning. Dragon Boat Festival this weekend. I'll explain all about it soon!

I Have 10 Minutes To Blog

I forgot how polluted Shenzhen area in China is. Very different than what I've grown used to in Taiwan. Hard to imagine that when I "miss home" like I do right now, I mean that I miss Taipei:) Although the hotel is very nice (built last year) and you can sort of see the China Sea through the smog from my hotel window.... Plus the traffic is horrible here (even worse than I remember). Too many cars, nobody follows the traditional rules of driving (stay between the dashed lines for lanes, don't cross the yellow lines for direction), and you honk the horn the second you disagree with what's going on. Because honking as the 15th car at a stop light is the best way to get people moving.

I also learned from my Taiwan colleague who is here for the week with me - how to ride in a taxi. You do NOT look out the front window at the things you could hit, or that could hit you (like the informal game of Chicken that was played this morning). You look out the side windows, but make sure you look in the distance. Look at the mountains, the birds, or anything besides the traffic coming at you or scraping up to the side of your cab. Please keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. Makes the driving rules in Taipei much more rational.

It's now June.... means I'm less than a month from returning home and seeing Sarah again. Also means it's going to be hot and humid here for the next couple of months. Still raining in Taipei - smoggy and warm (85% humidity) here in China. Also means I missed the 3 weeks of Spring in Rochester:) Congrats to all the educators back in the US who are enjoying the end of another school year. The problem children in the classroom are now somebody else's problem. Wish we had that in the corporate world sometimes!

Red Wings couldn't pull off the 3OT win last night so they will play again on Wednesday night to try to finish this on the road. I would rather not play a game 7 (even if it's at home), just want it over with!

This week for our discussions, we have folks from Taiwan (speaking Taiwanese-Mandarin), China (speaking China-Mandarin), and one guy from Singapore (official language is English but also Mandarin speaking). It's funny how the dialects are slightly different. They can understand each other, but the Singapore and Chinese discussions require a lot of explanations:) So when they say that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, you need to understand that even in China - the difference between Western China and SouthEast China where I'm at is very different. We also try not to speak politics (similar to business lunches in the US) since that is a topic of NO agreement:)

They have Mountain Dew in Singapore though!!!!!

Enjoy your "Final Primary Day" on Tuesday - let's hope the first round of this crap is over on Wednesday but we all know it will get worse as we get closer to November. Yet another thing I don't miss while I'm here in Taiwan.

A Sunday Quickie (GO WINGS!!!)

I'm in Hong Kong - waiting for my SLOW BOAT TO CHINA!!! Actually, it's a pretty fast boat to China.

Sarah told me she wants to come home in later part of October in order to go to the following.... let me know who's all going so I can send her with you!!!



Here's the link with details for those that are actually interested. We will be flying home for other real reasons... not for that!! Wonder if there will be a Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer tour reunion???? Or is he just "Hammer" now? Vanilla Hammered tour? Iced and Hammered Tour????