Let's get drunk...Annual Dinner

   If the Chinese needed an excuse to drink...this was definitely it. The Shanghai office that I work in threw their Annual Dinner last night. It's a party to celebrate the previous years successes and to wish the best for the future. "Ganbei", meaning "bottoms-up", was being thrown around like wild-fire. I was totally impressed with the drinking skills of my co-worker, all of which wieght less then 140lbs (some about 90lbs).

   Since everyone wanted to "Ganbei" with the director of the office he inevitibaly had to get drunk. He's not a big guy to start with, then had to give lots of speeches so he didn't have time to eat much...how he kept coherently cheers-ing with everyone was amazing. I saw at least 12 full glasses of Chinese beer go down and I know there were more that I didn't see...by the end of the night Mark was still holding it together really well. He must have been practicing for that night...I would. There's just no way he could stop celebrating with everyone (it's a cultural thing).

Left, Cliff. Right, Mark is in the white shirt (LO director) congratulating everyone on a great year!

Clockwise from bottom left, some celery dish, jellied pork knuckles (?), Scallops with crazy
mushroom, sweet Chestnuts, fruit salad, grilled shrimp, Shanghai sticky rice (mixed with
red beans), some root vegetable in a sweet berry sauce and of course some more pork.

Left, Yummy whole fish. Right, Shanghai sticky rice.

Left, duck broth. Right, whole shrimp. 

See the trophy...the Shanghai LO won for the best On Time Performance
(OTP) for production deliveries. Then all the managers had to drink
from the trophy in celebration.

   The big deal of the night was the Lottery. This is one of the main reasons ppl love the Annual Party. The first prize was 6000rmb in travel vouchers (about $950USD), then 2 ipads and 2 super fancy phones that were given away. There is a giant box that has paper slips where names get pulled out of. All the guests got to do the drawing of winners (there was a PDX legal guys there, a IT manager from the HK office and myself). I got to pick the name for one of ipads and managed to pick my bosses name. I think she was thrilled. After all the prizes were given out then found a Louis Vuitton scarf to give away and i got to draw for that one also. Seems that I would good at picking on the paper with my teammates names on it, Iris (my exchange partner) totally won the scarf.

Here's the lottery in action. Right, half way through giving away prizes they

started requiring people to "bottoms-up" in order to claim their prize!

Iris, this is your prize! You only get to see the box and
have to wait to come back to Shanghai before seeing the scarf

Cheers to Cliff, Tony and Oliver!

More and More drinking!

    I was lucky to be a women and to have the excuse that I am allergic to beer (which is a true possibility, sad as it is). B/c of these 2 things there wasn't preassure for me to drink. So besides having to down a glass of red wine (which I hope to never have to do again) I stuck to drinking banana milk and watermelon juice all night. My friends, Trisha and Shawn, from Portland were flying in that night so I was more excited to see them then wanting to drink a lot.

Left, Cliff is really about to fall asleep on Diana's shoulder. 

Right, the three sober girls.

These were the big drinkers of the night!

The aftermath at my table (all the empty beer and wine bottles were set under the table)!

   During the dinner I got word that Trisha and Shawn had made it safely to my apartment. I was excited to go see them but had to wait for the director to leave before I could leave (another cultural things....not strictly held to but polite).

Another new food - Haw

   My coworker,Tina, shared another new fruit with me today. It's sugar coated, tart inside and has about 5 seeds to avoid while chewing...meet the hawthorn bush fruit called Haw.

These haws are about the size of a golf ball.

Here's what it looks like inside.

   The texture is like a mealy apple but much more tart so the sugar coating helps to balance the flavor of the fruit.

Here's what the fresh fruit looks like. It's
actually related to the rose.

 

  

  Right, the most typical way you find Haw served is dipped in hot sugar water which creates a candy shell. Left, it is very easy to find these vendors anywhere in the city.

Christmas and whatnot

    I finally got to meet up with Donald on Christmas Eve. We both flew into San Francisco at about 9am. I arrived first and waited for Donald in the greeting hall. I thought that I could hold it together but it turned out that I couldn't. I was teary eyed for awhile then couldn't stop staring at him with googly-eyes ( a look that he is very familiar with anyways). We dropped our bags off at the hotel then went into the city to hangout and meet up with some friends. 

   We started out with getting some good food to fill our belly's (something that's not hard in SF, there is good food around every corner) then we met up with our friends Mike G and Kara (engaged and getting married this year!). Kara's parents were in town so the 6 of us hung out for a couple of hours just wondering around and enjoying a cocktail or two. Once we parted ways Donald took me to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to hit up my favorite jewelry store of all times, Braindrops (if i recall correctly, this is also where Chrissie got a tattoo...right?!). I ordered a pair of my dream earrings...the only place that has so much good jewelry that I have the hardest time deciding every time I go. After finishing up here we didn't have anything else on our agenda except meeting up with another friend of ours, Belle. She had to work so we killed a bit of time at a bar at the top of one of the hotels at Union Square. Once Belle made it into the city from Oakland we grabbed a long relaxing dinner at a quality no-name Diner. We didn't stay out late due to my jet-lag and us needing to catch an early x-mas morning flight to Philadelphia then to San Juan, Puerto Rico....

Donald and I at Union Square in San Fransisco!

On our way to PR! and it looks like Donald is in travel-mode...where's the smile? :)

We finally made it! Hello Puerto Rico!

We got to our hotel just in time to have 30 mins of Christmas left so
we went for a walk along the main street in the Condado part of town
and got margarita's to celebrate.

Somehow Donald found time to work, even at 2am.

Not our typical Christmas but one that I will never forget.

Walking to Katata - Japan Trip

   Yes, it's been over a week now since I got back from Japan but between getting ready for the big Puerto Rico trip and not feeling well this is the first time that I am getting a chance to share the last of my pictures.

Friday night!

This is a close up of the Dango we purchased earlier in the day.
Miki has figured out that it's best to eat with a spoon so you can
enjoy the sauce a bit more. 

  We had decided to take it easy on Saturday and just walk to the next town over called Katata. We took our time again in the morning and didn't take off until after 11am. Why hurry!?

The view of Ono. You can see the rice fields, train and mountains.
The weather while I was there was all this beautiful, mixed with
only a few snow flakes.

Daikon anyone? It must have been the days harvest.

   We found all sorts of things along the way.

Some Japanese homes along our walk.

   One of the biggest landmarks that we could see the entire time we were out walking was an unused Ferris wheel from an old amusement park that Miki used to go to as a child. There were so many colors on this ferris wheel which made a beautiful contrast to the blue sky. David and I took a ton of pictures of this thing.

Homes mixed with family owned and maintained rice fields.

   The sign in this picture is a "for sale" sign but the plot of land was SO tiny. On a good day it was about 25ft x 20ft. There was a phone number to call for price and I really wanted to find out how much this tiny plot would sell for but none of us ended up calling.

In the water you can see a lot of wood posts popping out...this is all part of a pearl farm.

The streets that we were walking along were very narrow.

   As we were walking through Katata there was a man driving through the streets with a loud speaker. Apparently this is a normal way to get news out to ppl but the funny thing is it sounded like someone announcing an invasion and telling people to stay calm in their homes. On the contrast, the man was actually just announcing "if you purchased a lotto ticket and you have the winning ticket you must claim your price at the community center before 5pm today". This was announced over and over...

We came across the neighborhood sweet shop

The neighborhood sweet shop. It was only big enough for 1 family to enter at a time.

Got to love that vending machines are everywhere. David
is taking advantage of some hot canned coffee.

The family photos!

Tree crutches are popular in Asia.

Ukimido (floating Zen Temple- Kaimonzan Mangetsuji Temple).

   This temple was our destination along the walk. We hung out here for awhile enjoying the view and snapping some photos.

Not sure if you can tell by the 2 photos (if only i had a panoramic setting on my camera) but that is one

branch that leads left from the tree trunk all the way along the tea house. I'm guessing it is about 40ft long!

The Temple Gate leading to the Zen Temple.

It was getting cold out and needed something to warm me up. Check out

this video. Corn soup in a can from a vending machine anyone?

After a long, cold walk home, stopping for dinner beer and sake along the way, we were

treated to Sukiyaki from scratch. The Taniguchi's made this for Donald and I the last

time we visited so I knew that I was about to have a feast.

Cheers! Beer and Sake!

Sukiyaki is traditionally served with a fresh raw egg to dip in. See upper right
 hand corner of pic. I'm hoping to recreate this back home for Donald. YUM!

All the treats that I got to take home with me. I will not go hungry in Shanghai.

   David had to take off early on my last day in town. He had made plans previously with a friend and it was the only time they could get together while he was in Japan. So the morning was quiet with only the 4 of us at home. Above is the breakfast that I enjoyed (rice, fish, daikon and greens), a traditional breakfast for Mr. Taniguchi. He showed me how to get the meat off of the fish and with little success I did my best. I wish I had taken a pic of the fish when I was done with it compared to Mr. T's fish b/c mine was a complete mess with meat still on the bones that I couldn't get off but his was a small clean pile of bones. He rated me a 70% on my fish eating skills...Miki got a 90%. It seems that only Mr. Taniguchi gets the 100%; he's skilled with chopsticks!

My gracious hosts! (plus Miki and Dave)

   The Taniguchi's walked me to the train station to see me off. Since there was still some time to kill before I had to catch  my train to Osaka and the airport Miki and I went into Kyoto to do some more shopping. I had seen an item that I thought would be handy for me to use in Shanghai so we were on a hunt for it. It is a clothing item that Miki grew up wearing in the winter...it's basically a close fitting torso sweater that fits under shirts but keeps your core warm (from under the bust to your hips). We ended up finding one at Uniqlo for pretty sheap. I've worn it and it's amazingly warm. Otherwise, our shopping was more talking ghen anything else but we did manage to walk through some stores. Then Miki helped my buy my train ticket and set me on my way. I couldn't have asked for a better last day during my visit and a well needed break from Shanghai.

   Once back in Shanghai I decided it was time for me to learn how to ride the Maglev Train. This is the Magnetic Levitation train that reaches speeds of 300km/hr in less then 2 mins. The train doesn't take you all the way into Shanghai but does cut about 20mins or more off your subway time. I like it so much that I have now taken it 2 more times and will continue to use it every time I need to go to Pudong Airport.

Check out the speed!? 301km/hr!

Back to Shanghai with only a week until I got to see Donald :)

San Juan and the British Virgin Islands

   Just got back to Shanghai from an amazing trip to see Matt and Lily get married in San Juan, Puerto Rico then a week long chartered boat ride through the British Virgin Islands. What an amazing trip! And I am SO happy I got to spend it with Donald.

Congratulations Matt and Lily!

Here's a teaser until I can get more pictures ready to share:

This is the crew that I traveled with in the BVI. From bottom left; Kat (Lily's step mom), Caitlin (Lily's BF), Jessica (Luc's GF), Scot (Matt's BF), Luc (5th adopted son in the McLellan family), Donald, Lily, Me, Matt and Michael (Lily's dad).

More to come tomorrow. :)