My family teases me because I try to be a prepared traveler. But try as I might, I can never prepare just the right combination of things to carry to be a prepared traveler. Sometimes, I carry too much, but leave the crucial item behind. Sometimes I bring everything I need and half a pharmacy besides. Sometimes I just don't have any idea about what to bring along. But in Asia there are certain supplies that one should have available just in case.

1. Mosquito repellent - Generally this is the one item I forget since American mosquitoes don't usually bother me. Well folks, this is Asia and they like fat American blood.

2. Tissues - in a clean plastic wrapper. These come in handy for their intended purpose and never seem to be available, in any form, in public restrooms especially. Tissues are also versatile. You can use them to wipe-up, to dry your hands, to stop bleeding, to wipe less than pristine tables or eating utensils. You can even make a paper flower if that need ever arises.

3. Baby wipes - when I was teaching, I realized that baby wipes are great for so many things beyond the intended purpose. You can remove make-up, paint, grease, tar, mud, sweat, and blood. You can sanitize your hands, a cut or scrape, eating utensils and table in less than pristine condition. Best of all, most baby wipes have to be safe for a baby to chew on so no need to rinse. (I'd think twice about buying some made in Mainland China though.)

4. Bottled water - about twice as much as you think you will drink. You will drink it. Mark has observed that Asians so not drink water with their meals, generally substituting soup or other boiled, hot liquid instead. There is, I'm sure, a good reason and I am willing to not test that hypothesis.

That is my list, pared down to the most important things. I know that I should add sunscreen and a first-aid kit, but with the exception of my daughter breaking her elbow, no one has gotten seriously hurt when I've been travelling. A first-aid kit would have been useless. Heck she didn't even go to the doctor for two weeks. What can I say about sunscreen - well folks, the sun doesn't shine during the rainy season; you'll wear long pants and shirts in the cool season; and you'll sweat the stuff off almost immediately the rest of the year.

We just returned to Taipei after spending five days in Shanghai. It is a beautiful and vibrant city. Individually, the residents were nice enough but as a crowd, it was intense. Shanghai is much different that Taipei. So here are some observations...in no particular order...

The trees in Shanghai are all young. Plenty of trees line the streets along the major thoroughfares and parks. They all look to have been planted within the last ten years,replacing the trees cut down and used for fuel during the Cultural Revolution. In fact for an old and historic city, the trees look like those in Frisco, TX, also recently planted.

The architecture is divided into two groups. There is a substantial number that were built during the heyday of Shanghai and predate the 1930's. The Bund is lined with lovely art-deco style banks and mercantile exchanges. The rest of the buildings have been built in the last 20 years. It makes for a great skyline. But from about 1930 to 1990, it appears that there was almost no construction in Shanghai.

Shanghai is a clean city, by China standards and the air quality was pretty good with a strong breeze blowing in from the Pacific. The Yangtze River which cuts through the greater metropolitan area was home to an incredible amount of barge traffic and had a noticeable chemical smell.

When looking for a restaurant in Shanghai, the choices are many but western chains are many. We spotted the usual McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, HagenDaz, Starbucks, Pizza Hut and also a Hooters. I'm thinking that the waitresses don't look like the American Hooters though. I think they need to eat a little more McDonald's and Burger King for that to happen. The chefs may be a little unclear on some of their ingredients though as our pizza in a lovely Italian restaurant, although advertised as Sicilian pizza was sprinkled with garden peas, an interesting combination with the pepperoni. We did have an amazing meal in a Macao/Portuguese Restaurant.

Western style toilets are common in Shanghai but there is some uncertainty as how one should be used so public restrooms are just scary in some places. Out in the countryside - forget about it.

Also out in the countryside, never eat in a restaurant where the only English word the waitress says is recycled. What she means is that the meat you will be served is recycled from previous meals and will be recycled until someone is hungry enough to eat it.

It was an amazing experience and I would like to go back to explore more of the country soon. The depth of the history really puts us Euro-centric cultures to shame.

But for now, I am glad to be back in Taiwan.

Size is a relative thing. And like living with relatives, it can be a tricky emotional thing. In the United States, I considered myself to be medium sized. I am bigger than some women and smaller than others. Thanks to the up-sizing of Americans, I have worn the same size clothes for the better part of 20 years, all the while gaining 20+ pounds.

Now however, I live in a country of smaller people. I am taller than about half the men my age, most of the women, and am certain that I weight much more than the majority by a huge margin. (Margin is huge, not me!) Most of the time I just comfort myself by saying that the other foreigners from the US and Australia are still larger than me. Justification aside, it is an issue that I confront every time I wander into as clothing store.

I do have a favorite store that generally stocks clothing in my size. Although the label is well known in the US, all the clothes are Japanese-sized. Japanese are probably even of a more slight build than Taiwanese. So the first few times I headed into the store, nothing fit, so I went up a size, and then another. Well, I didn't get bigger this time but the size inflation is non-existent so now I wear a XL. At first this bothered me so I carefully removed all size labels from the things I bought. Now I have decided that it is Okay to be the size of an XL Japanese woman. I am relieved that Japanese women come in XL at all. Also, I have decided that maybe I'd like to return to being medium sized, only this time, a Japanese medium. It seems like a healthier size to me.

In the English language, the letters "Z", "X", and "Q" are practically useless but in Chinese pinyin, they are really important. It is nice that these letters are getting a workout and my tongue is finally getting use to them. The X in particular makes a nice "hs" sound, common in Chinese but not English, so I can mostly pronounce the sound and "Z" or "Zh" is really no problem. "Q" however is a bit more of a problem. It fortunately is rarely teamed with u and takes the hard ch sound by itself. But occasionally it is teamed with an u and then I always want to mispronounce it.

But there are still other misunderstandings that can arise. For example, the Pinyin spellings are not consistent. Romanization of the phonetic characters happened at different times and designed by different people so there can be many acceptable spellings of the same word. This happens in English too so I cannot complain when XinYi Road is spelled Xinyi, Xin Yi, and Hsinyi all within a mile radius of the Taipei 101, the world's tallest occupied building. Personally I prefer XinYi because the capital in the middle designated a second syllable to the word , making pronunciation easier for us novices. We won't even discuss the dreaded tones, the bane of life for all Westerners trying to learn Chinese. I don't actually worry about tones because I probably don't know enough yet.

Still, my biggest problem with listening comprehension is that I don't actually hear much Chinese during the day. If I go to the neighborhood grocery, I will hear Chinese and Taiwanese but if I go to Jason's supermarket (Australian) or Citysuper (HongKong), I mostly read and hear English spoken. Our favorite restaurant now had English menus (only two) so we can more easily order when we visit. Everyone at Mark's company speaks English as a condition of employment so they are always polite and converse with me in English. The taxi drivers mostly all understand some English and will play American music when I get into the cabs. The subway gives all destinations and directions in Mandarin, Taiwanese and English. The local cineplex has 18 screens and shows movies in the language they were made in so I see all the movies I want in English.

I guess I'll just have to study harder and try to watch Chinese TV.