"Winner Winner Chicken Dinner"

Consider the equation:

Warm chicken + dirty chopping wood block + right outside the front door on an old cardboard mat (perhaps a little dirty?) = a very good chicken dinner.

Oh Christmas Tree...

My Christmas Tree. Slightly crooked, very wiry and thin-not conducive to holding ornaments-extremely bare.

*I've posted this picture for the sole purpose of those who read Hilary's blog, and my comment.

I should note that my talent doesn't lie in decorating a home, or decorating for any holiday, and I'm afraid this tree will sit, exactly as you see it, unadorned, until January. I shall also note that TP really likes this tree.

Parks

And you thought parks with colorful play equipment were for kids...Not so on the other side of the world, where everything is upside down! Did I mention the college track meet TP and I went to: many of those watching the meet were smoking, and a couple of the athletes, upon completion of their race, lit up a smoke as well!

Many games of mah-jong occur in parks. Little stone tables are set up throughout for the purpose of playing this game. Walking through here I didn't know if the air quality was horrendously smoky because of the pollution, or because of the cigarette smoke I just couldn't seem to evade. The man above had just finished swinging on the bars.

Yes, these colorful pieces of equipment are similar to those one would see in a gym in the U.S. Don't they remind you of a Health Rider?

"Forward, back, forward, back; up, down, up, down, work those legs, till they burn."

I can't help but think what was going through their minds as I was taking these photos.



During the day around our neighborhood, intense games of mah-jong are played-all hours of the day, and into the late night.

The Thrilla in Manila

Our version of the Thrilla in Manila didn't exactly include Ali and Frazier going toe to toe to find out who is the best heavyweight champion in the world, but we did go to an ultimate fighting match in Manila. I know this doesn't sound like an activity that Jen and I would usually attend but we had free tickets from my customer who sponsored the event. There were 10 fights total during the night. The quickest lasted 15 seconds while others lasted 15 minutes or so. The last four fights were the big fights that everyone came to see. The final fight of the night was a different story though. It was the premier event and lived up to the hype. The match was between the Philipino champion, Kevin Belingon, and the Guam USA champion, Justin "the shocker" Cruz.

Little did I know that this fight would bring out a whole other side of Jen that I didn't know existed. I thought I was dreaming when all of a sudden I start hearing things like, "C'mon, hit him harder! kick him! get him!" I couldn't believe my ears when I kept hearing my sweet little Jen yell out to hit someone harder... The whole crowd was cheering for the Philipino champion but that didn't stop Jen from cheering loudly for "the shocker". The match lasted the full two rounds and the Philipino won by two points in a judges decision. Jen is still convinced that her man, Justin Cruz, won the fight.

She quickly became an ultimate fighting groupy as she waited for 20 minutes after the fight to try to meet Cruz and get his autograph or a picture with him. She was able to get a poster but didn't get the autograph. Her fighter is the one on the right. I'm not sure if it was all the tattoos or the bad boy attitude but Jen thought Cruz was the greatest thing ever (besides me of course!)

I never expected to see this side of her, but if anyone is looking for a friend to go to ultimate fighting with, Jen would go in a heartbeat. I would still prefer a track meet.

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Seoul, Korea

The Burtons have always been friends with the Price family. They shared the same neighborhood at one point. Now him and his wife are serving as Mission President in Seoul. They were kind enough to have us over for a Thanksgiving feast with all the other missionaries in the zone. She is quite amazing to put on two very large Thanksgiving feasts: one for the old missionaries who left the previous night, and one for the new ones coming in. The food was awesome!


The weather in Seoul was quite chilly. We were amazed at the traffic: rush hour every day, every hour, but the difference between Shanghai was the noise. In Seoul traffic, there was no honking, cutting inbetween, or impoliteness. And it seemed as though everyone was in business suits, women included. Pictures below are taken next to the National Palace Museum of Korea.

To the left is where the President of Korea resides. If I understood correctly, below is where the Korean princess tried to hold her ground and defend the city against the incoming fighting Japanese soldiers, but it was all in vain, she was martyred and is now remembered for her valiant courage. I couldn't tell you when this happened though...

Late one night on the streets of Seoul we witnessed a fight. Four grown men, all in business suits, one with his shirt ripped off, hanging around his waist, and others throwing mindless punches and choke holds. Hmmm, not quite as interesting as ultimate fighting in Manila, but close. At one point, the man with the missing shirt fell off the curb and those holding on to him all fell on top of him: 3 grown men, all in business suits, lying face down in the road, mad as fire! The cars creeping by, even at this late hour, all witnessed this as well. Everyone just watched. We did too.

Manila, Philippines

In a Mexican restaurant these two great singers and guitarists played us renditions from Elton John, the Eagles, and Simon and Garfunkel. My mom would have loved to hear 'Sound of Silence', a song my dad would always sing to her when she was learning English.

At this restaurant we also had an order of chinchinillo, or a half a pig...literally... the platter came out with the top half of a cooked baby pig...head, eyes, hoofs and all...and after the presentation the waiter took a small plate held sideways and chopped that head and all four appendages right off! No Mercy!

What would a trip to the Philippines be without stopping by the beach? Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long, but the weather and the water were absolutely wonderful.

Yay! The Phillipines has Cinnabun!!! As you can tell, this is T.P.'s favorite treat! Taylor's customer was able to get me into this race in Manila. There is a new found running boom here, and races are held weekly through different sponsors. My second place finish earned me a voucher for 5000 pesos ($100) to any Nike store in Manila, which was enough for lots of fun gear for T.P. and me. It was kinda fun because we HAD TO spend the entire amount or lose it, and to be honest with you, that wasn't a problem at all.

Watches, bags, shopping...

Pictures will come in 5 days.

On some streets, while walking, people will approach with a pamphlet or advertisement of some sort, and say these words..."Watches, handbags, shopping?" with the intent that if you do want to purchase items such as these, you will follow them and they'll lead you to none but watches, bags, and shopping.
Other people will approach and try to start conversations with these questions, "Where you from?" "How long you been in Shanghai?" and way to often, everytime in fact, it's very annoying. T.P. (his new nickname) and I have come up with various ways to evade these bothersome buddies by putting headphones in our ears and pretending we can't hear them, ignoring them completely, telling them we're from China to see their reactions, and our latest, speaking Spanish to them. So the other night T.P. was approached and he tried his hand at this tactic using his entire vocabulary of Spanish all in one conversation, "Yo hablo espanol. Yo quiero tacos, burritos, y carne asada." and the best of it all, "Te amo" which I thought was pretty funny, all said in his gringo accent. They responded with, "Oh, you from France?" To which he replied, "Espana!"

The other day while walking through a knockoff market with friends, a shop owner approaches and shows us a watch and as we're looking he says, "These are fine watches all smuggled from Sweden.
Hee hee...
...smuggled from Sweden.

Imagine that!

It seems the Chinese like to get into each other's business. While driving in a taxi the other day, we noticed that up ahead on the road a commotion was taking place: it appeared that one taxi had slightly rear ended another taxi, and both drivers were out of their car yelling at each other. Our driver pulls up, and for some reason, becomes involved in the situation and starts yelling as well, and soon there are three involved. Another car pulled up on the other side and soon the 3 became 5. You get the drift. What was funny to me is that all the others who became involved were not there initially to see what really happened yet they all had something to contribute.

And imagine if you saw this in the U.S.: We were driving on the freeway when traffic slowed down considerably. Nothing new here at all considering every hour is rush hour. But then we slowly came upon 2 very angry people, out of their cars and yelling at each other about someone rear ending another, I'm sure, all this taking place in the middle of the freeway. Granted their freeways are only two or three lanes (who planned that??) but none-the-less, the middle of the freeway. Finally, as we approached, the commotion subsided, they got in their cars and drove away, and traffic was able to pick up at a normal pace and continue on. The funny thing here is that it seemed normal to me, until Taylor pointed it out. Imagine if you saw that in the U.S. ...

P.S. I promise pictures will come soon...