Long Over Due

It has been a very long time since out last post. With blogs, facebook, and youtube being blocked in China in kind of separates us a bit. But I'm in my hotel in Japan right now so I can log on! I'll try to briefly recap that past month. We had Chinese New Year, welcome the Year of the Tiger! Supposed to be a great year. We had constant fireworks for two weeks. Will was a real trooper. We put a noise maker in his room so he could sleep through them since they would go off at all hours of the night. One night these huge fireworks were exploding about 10 feet from our window and the sparks would shoot at the window and the window would shake during the explosion. He didn't sleep through those ones though, but we had an amazing view. We live on the 22nd floor and these were only 10 feet from us! I also watched a group of people light off a few hundred thousand firecrackers at once! It was the loudest thing that I have ever heard in my life. So crazy!

In the middle of Chinese New Year I had to start traveling for work. My first stop was India, always an adventure. My trip there this time had two purposes: 1. have a meeting with my customer 2. attend the wedding reception of my customer's brother, who I also work with. The wedding reception was unlike any I've ever attended. I was the only non-Indian and non-Hindu at the 500+ person gathering so there were more than a few who wondered how I ended up there. The stares increased when they dressed me in a traditional Indian wedding outfit for the brothers of the groom. I was also included in most of the family pictures. Quite the experience. 10,000 pictures and greetings later we had the wedding feast of 100 different kinds of vegetarian curry and nan bread. All, of course, to be eaten with your bare right hand. I like curry, but not for 3 meals a day!

From India I went to Thailand which was nice because the food is always good. My customer there is a Taiwanese guy so communication and culture is much smoother than in India, even though India is all in English. In Thailand I had an experience that made me chuckle. There were four of us having dinner. Me, the American living in China, my customer who is Taiwanese and splits his time between Taipei and Bangkok, his assistant who was born in China but is a citizen of Burma and Thailand, another guy who is a Argentine born Chinese guy. The for of us were having dinner in Bangkok and everyone spoke fluent Chinese. This world is an amazing place where you can have a random dinner with a group like that. Every now and then I have situations like this that just make me realize what a neat place this world can be.

After Thailand I had two special days back with Jen and Jr. It was so much fun to be with them. Will is growing and changing everyday. We got to go to the park and run and play then we went for some tasty American hamburgers and shakes followed by Krispy Kreme doughnuts :) yummy. Our fun was short lived because I had to take off to Nagoya, Japan which is where I am right now. Things have gone very well here. Yesterday I went up to Tokyo and had lunch with Elder Gary Stevenson from the Seventy. He is serving as the Asia-North Area president right now. He is one of the founders of the company I work for. It was a lot of fun to spend the day with him. We went to his office and to the Tokyo temple. He was so nice and accommodating and willing to spend his day with us. It was great to see him again.

I go back home to SH tomorrow morning. So excited to play with Jr and see Jen. It's hard to be away but I'm glad we have skype so I can see them on the webcam everyday so he doesn't forget me!

I do have skills, like numchuck skills, but I don't' have blogger skills so below is a random mix of pictures from the past month. I don't know how to get them interwoven with my text in my post.




We mounted a TV on the wall in the workout room in front of the treadmill so we could be entertained to run longer.

The Tokyo temple. Couldn't really get a great picture of if because it is nearly on the road! Space is tight in Tokyo.

Contrary to what it may look like, this is the food BEFORE I ate it. Vegetarian curry at the wedding.

Jen and Jr having reading time.

Me and Jr hanging out

Jen taking him out for a walk. He loves going for walks in the stroller.

This is the "Bubble" we put around him. He keeps off the wind and the rain and most importantly all of the locals hands! They all think that we like strangers to come up and touch our babies face! are you kidding me??

Jen and Will working out on the treadmill. He likes the sound of the treadmill and will sit and watch us run for a long time.

Will laughing at Jen's jokes in the car.

This is a bus stop in India. Full of garbage and cows.

Bride and groom. They met last month. Like most Indian marriages it was arranged.

This is one of 10,000 photos taken on this stage.

Cows in India are holy so they have free reign of anywhere they want to go. This is my customer petting the cow in the middle of the city.

The "brothers" of the groom. There are three other brothers, just not in this picture.

Jen and Jr. during one of our walks.

Jr. bundled up in his sleeping bag outfit. Keeps him nice and warm!

Will looking studly.

Several hundred thousand firecrackers going off at once. This was insane.

Before they lit the firecrackers they made them into the shape of the Chinese character "Cai" which means money - of course!