One of our first guests that came to visit us here in China, was my friend Emily. She loved it so much she came three times so far, always enjoying herself here in the middle kingdom. Her first visit, we took her to the usual places including the Xiamen university where I was studying Chinese. Emily had the opportunity to sit with me in some classes and I think that may have put her on the journey she is about to embark.
Emily wanted to get her MBA and originally planned on doing this in her home town of Chicago, over the next couple of years, when she realized that she wanted something unique and different from her life, so she applied to a couple of universities in Taiwan.
Well, all the long and hard work of researching where she wanted to get her degree paid off. Miss Emily will be leaving her job, friends, family to begin what will be the adventure of her lifetime so far, we're expecting there will be more. Friday she leaves the U.S to begin her journey in Taiwan,learning mandarin, and then buckling down to her degree.
It takes a lot of courage to quit your job, (and one you truly enjoy) and to leave your family/friends behind to move across the world in a country where English isn't the first language. Emily will see how strong she really is navigating her way over the next few years, the sense of accomplishment she will have when she can speak Chinese, the adventures of exploring her island that will become her home over the next three years, new friends to share a beer or two with, share their stories about their homeland, helping her with her studies, and be there when she has that moment of loneliness. These friends, will more than likely be with her throughout her life.
Sometimes it's tough leaving the world as you know it, but this will be a time in Emily's life that she will always cherish.
We wish you the best of luck in Taiwan my friend.
一路顺风
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Goodbye Chicago, Hello Taiwan
Monday, June 8, 2009
Elaine & Emily - Guest Blog #7 - Seoul
June 3rd
Up at 8:30am. Elaine and I took our sweet time figuring we could grab a cup of coffee and discuss our plans over breakfast with our Korean goodwill tour guide. SungChoon, our guide, arrived promptly at 9:30am and there was no time to spare. We made a mad dash to catch the bus.
Elaine and I had read about Sido, Sindo and Modo in the Lonely Planet guidebook, three small islands off of the west coast of Seoul. The book described the islands as beautiful seaside farming villages, a non-tourist oasis that modern Koreans are eager to avoid and forget. Our guide had never been to the islands. The book did not indicate the islands were two and a half hours from the center of Seoul. We wound up taking a bus, the subway, transferring to a high speed train, another bus, a ferry ride, and one more bus. No wonder the guide had us running around with no breakfast.
The islands felt like Maine, wafting of warm pine needle and sea scents, and were surrounded by wide mudflats. We arrived at noon and took a short taxi ride to the nearest restaurant. We learned from the driver that the islands had 900 residents, most farmers with vineyards, rice fields or sweet potato crops. Lunch was delicious and consisted of seafood noodles, beef and rice soup and various kinds of kimchi (cucumber was our favorite).
After lunch, we biked the islands. We found some interesting things: Korean soap operas and the Korean version of Full House are filmed on Sido. On Modo, there’s a sculpture park with over 100 works by Lee Il-Ho. Most of his sculptures were figures in various graphic/erotic poses. Overall, the islands were beautiful and we were glad we made the long journey.
The best part of the day was dinner with Chuck and Tak at their favorite stand in one of the markets. We received VIP treatment from the chef since Chuck and Tak are weekly regulars. We had a blast drinking rice wine and trying their favorite Korean dishes: fried chive leaves, tofu, mini fish omelets, scallion cakes, garlic cloves soaked in soy sauce, squid, and best of all, grilled fish. Tina and Mark would’ve loved it; we made sure to drink extra rice wine in honor of the Wichmanns. One interesting custom in Korea is you never pour your own drink -- others must pour it for you and you accept the drink by cradling it with both hands.
It was a wonderful trip. People asked if I sensed any tension relating to the former president’s recent suicide or the escalating conflict with North Korea; I sensed nothing and life on the ground appeared completely normal. Elaine is staying on in Seoul, meeting up with her sister Lucinda, and will be visiting the DMZ (the demilitarized zone that separates North from South Korea). I suspect Elaine and her sister will get a better sense for how the South Koreans are feeling about these issues.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Elaine & Emily - Guest Blog #6 - Seoul
Alright - Emily has just sent us their Blog update from South Korea - enjoy:
June 2nd
We arrived Seoul around 6pm. Chuck, one of Elaine’s friends who works as an English professor in the city, met us at the airport. He had thoughtfully put together information for us with Seoul maps, subway cards, a cell phone, some money, bus tickets… wonderful to be in a new country under the guidance of Chuck and have all those things out of the gate.
The bus from the airport to Anguk in northern section of Seoul took about an hour and a half. We got to see some of the city along the way and knew for certain we were no longer in China: 6-lane city streets, organized traffic, SUVs, US restaurant chains, people dressed to the nines… very urban chic. We also noticed we were no longer the towering, big-footed laowais we had been in China. Height-wise we were average or short and blended in quite nicely. Some Koreans are definitely suffering the same obesity problems that Americans are, perhaps because of the American restaurant chains, sodas and snack foods available everywhere in Seoul.
We checked into the Seoul Guest House, a 126 year-old hanok or traditional Korean style compound, and then Chuck took us to meet his friend Tak for our first Korean dinner. The food was delicious…
After dinner we walked around Insadong, an area with lots of shops, restaurants and street side vendors. After exploring for an hour or so, Chuck walked us back to our little guesthouse; we were exhausted. 
We've got one more post from our blog hijackers and then we'll talk all about our weekend in Nanjing.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Elaine & Emily - Guest Blogging Post #5
May 31 – Up at
So we leave the cold damp mountains to head back down to the Hong He (Red River) and drive through the valley towards Jianshiu and finally back to
Along the way back we stopped for lunch at truck stop – Mark and Elaine were only ones eating, but it was very good with corn cakes, a local item, which were very tasty, then continuing on to Kunming airport for our flight back to Xiamen……..
We arrived back in
June 1st - Again everyone is up first thing with a tight agenda; Tina’s great at packing it all in. We took a 90 cent taxi ride over to 
Quickly followed with a quick tour of 
Then began the whirlwind of shopping and getting last minute gifts; we went Zhongshan Lu to kick-off the shopping extravaganza. We had lunch in the expat area as a little western food was needed to calm our stomach which has been a little iffy after
We ended the day by hitting Pearl World once more, then tea tasting – one of the highlights.
Then an hour back massage with cupping; Amazingly, Elaine came through and now has 10 spots.
Mark was the most toxic.
Then shrimping which was fun; we caught 15 jumbo shrimp and began eating at 
Then back to the Wichmanns for packing, wine and bed at
We had a fabulous time. Tina and Mark run a 5 star B&B! On to
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Yunnan Province - Elaine & Emily Guest Blog #4
Elaine and Emily left this morning for a few days in Seoul, South Korea before heading back to their normal world in Chicago, but as we mentioned, they did leave us with a daily journal that we can use to update our blog. The following is more of what they left with us from our trip to the Yunnan Province:
May 30 – We awoke to fog but forged ahead with seeing the terraced rice fields. Our driver did a good job at getting us to clear areas where we could see the rice fields and take photos before the fog rolled in; it was amazing to watch as the fog spread over the fields.
We were able to see some of the Duoyi Terrace and then drove on to a Yi minority village market. We walked around and observed all the activity; selling all varieties of fresh vegetables and meats, local people selling and buying raw tobacco and bartering for fresh poultry (one sold and alive in the bag was quite entertaining). We bought some baozi to eat as we walked the village streets.
We had lunch and returned to our hotel to rest and wait for the fog to clear. In the late afternoon, we continued the tour of rice fields and visited a Hani minority village. We had to park at the top of a hill and walked about a mile downhill into the village. These people live in “mushroom” houses and you’ll be able to see why from the photos. This was another very authentic experience…
Monday, June 1, 2009
Yunnan Province - Elaine & Emily Guest Blog #3
Wow… Sorry, we are not dead, just did not have internet access for the last three days since arriving in the Yunnan Province. It’s been amazing so far; this post will have lots of pictures so you can see where we’ve been.
On Wednesday, while still in Xiamen, we pampered ourselves again. The day started out with a Chinese hair wash, had a fabulous Chinese spicy lunch at The Two Sisters, then went for yet another “deluxe” foot massage at the Millennium. After our foot massages, we wound our way through the Bashi market alleys on our way back to Mark and Tina’s.
At around 7pm we caught a flight to Kunming, met up with our tour guide (named Wine), and drove an hour and a half to our hotel in the Stone Forrest. We collapsed upon arrival at the hotel since it around 12 midnight.
On Thursday we were up at 6am, had a traditional Chinese breakfast of rice noodles, spicy pork with green onions with sweet creamy coffee. The food was delicious, the coffee, not so much…
The best part of the morning was touring the stone forest. Wine told us that the entire park had been under water 40 million years ago. We had a bet going about how many laowais (westerners) we would see; Elaine was winning since she bet zero, and then we all lost horribly when we saw a busload of western students.
We hit the road around 1pm driving through farm country. We stopped in a little town for lunch. We sat outside with the women making pork dumplings and pumpkin biscuits. The food was phenomenal; we were the first laowais they had ever served so we felt pretty special and that we were getting an authentic experience.
Then it was back on the road for another four hours. We made it to Jian Shui by late afternoon and toured the second largest Confucius temple in China, over 800 years old and 75,000 square meters – “a little bigger than our apartment,” according to Mark. We checked into our hotel, an ancient family compound with several outdoor courtyards. We got a sense for old China and enjoyed sipping wine in the courtyard after dinner.
In the morning, had a quick breakfast (coffee was much better), and hit the road. We went to Double Dragon Bridge, a stone bridge built in 1860. Emily almost walked off a ledge while taking pictures and backing up to get the best shot. What was most appealing was the farm country surrounding the bridge, with farmers working the rice, lotus flower and corn fields; and trucks loaded with stones driving through the river, which they said was also road.
We then headed to a 600 year old village built by the Zhang Chun Family. The family got wealthy off of Tin mining and built a compound for themselves and the whole village. Their wealth had clearly declined judging by the condition of the buildings. There were still people living there, seventy percent which belong to the Zhang Chun family. What was interesting about the village was that it was not “tourist clean” so we were able to get a real sense for how the people there live.
We then drove on toward Xin Jie Lao-Cheng. Our favorite part of the drive was toward the end when we started to see the rice fields with men and water buffalo and women planting rice in their traditional dress. We stopped at Laohuzui Terrace (the tiger) rice fields along the way. The scenery was worth the long drive.
We drove uphill for what seemed like hours to our hotel in the clouds, Yun Ti Hotel. We went to dinner and then walked around the town square getting lots of “laowais” cries from the locals. The population here is mostly considered Chinese minority, we believe the “Yi” minority… Petite, dark with beautiful faces and smiles. The traditional wear is evident in the photos.
