Sayings - some translate some need no translation.

The grass is greener on the other side of the hill. This one translates.

What comes first the chicken or the egg? This needs no translation it seems universal.

He is the north end of a south bound horse. This one seems to be Texas unique translating into western USA.

Worthless as tits on a boar hog. Definitely difficult but understandable in other countries.

Slicker than snot. Does not seem to translate. This was tested after sliding on slippery steps and Americans (not Texans) nor Taiwanese got the message.

Shot at and missed and shit at and hit. See above response (minus the slipping).

If you get 'um by the balls the hearts and minds will follow. This one seems universal when explained with hand gestures. If the phrase "short hairs" is substituted for balls it falls flat.

Takes two to tango. This one works OK most people understand dancing or taiwu as we call it in mandarin.

If everything lands jelly side up. Chinese don't eat jelly this one falls flat on it's face.

That dog don't hunt. Bad grammar and doesn't translate well.

Fall flat on it's face. This one works universally, who hasn't fallen forward?

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer- not in common usage but the understanding is universal.

Not playing with a full deck. Universal.

Watch what you ask for. I wish I could remember the confusion way this is said, it is very poetic, suffice it to say it is universal.

Water flows down hill. Universal, everyone understands this concept of the path of least resistance.

Stick a fork in it it's done. Not universal, people who eat rice don't seem to understand the finer points of potato cooking.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Must be the most universal stupid joke.

I'll think of more I'm sure but it is amazing how many stupid sayings are reflections of wisdom and how wisdom crosses cultural and language lines.

and finally,

Circle jerk, no comment I don't know what that means and my Taiwanese friends won't admint to knowing either :-)

My Mountain

When we walk out the front door of our apartment building, we look directly into a park, Elephant Park. If you walk through the park, you will arrive at a National Park and my mountain, Elephant Mountain. The city park is home to an endangered species of tree frogs. I have never seen one, but during mating season, I know that they are there. Elephant Park is everything you would expect in a park. Every morning there is a group of older women who practice Tai-chi in the shadow of the mountain. The roosters start crowing about 5 a.m. and the chickens can been seen all day. Couples leisurely stroll down the tree lined walkways and a basketball game is always in progress, unless it is 5 a.m. or pouring rain. I enjoy looking at the park and watching what is happening from our balcony. Most days though, I walk past the park to get to Elephant Mountain, my mountain.

It got its name because an explorer thought it looked like an Elephant's Head with the trunk extended toward the ground. The statues in the picture are on Elephant Mountain, but they don't mark the start of a hiking trail, they just look good I guess. The hiking trail begins about 100 yards further south. When we arrived in Taipei, Mark was the first of us to hike on Elephant Mountain. We weren't in very good shape for climbing mountains and only tackled the trails when feeling very brave. Gradually though I realized that I really like hiking up a mountain, even in the heat of summer. The occasional hike turned into a frequent hike and now I hike on my mountain or its neighbor, Tiger Mountain three to four times each week. Mark usually comes with me now about twice each week. My mountain isn't a big mountain but you need to climb up and down about 2500 stair steps to make it up the trail and around the mountain. It takes about 1 hour now. When we started, much more time was needed. Now though, I often sit at the summit and visit with friends, or read or just look out over the city. This week because of the typhoon, I missed my usual hikes. So today, I waited for afternoon, hoping the trails would dry out and then took off to see my friend, the mountain.

It is a rain forest environment, complete with ancient ferns, snakes, lizards, frogs, snails, mosquitoes, amazing foliage, moss, and lighted, granite-paved trails. It is after all a popular mountain. I have met people who climb to the summit of the mountain every day to have lunch with their friends, or play badminton. And on clear days, photographers by the dozens line up to take the perfect cityscape picture, including the 101. I like to say hello to the people who I see on the trails. I am starting to recognize some of the regulars. But I know that it is my mountain even when I share it with everyone else because I always feel better after visiting it for a while.

Typhoon season in Taiwan this year is starting to get tedious. For starters, each of the three that we have had this year were glancing blows to the northern part of the island, where Taipei is located. During the second typhoon, the one that really walloped Hualien really hard, (on the central coast) we managed to be off the island so only had to contend with the rain in Hong Kong and in Shanghai.

There were no mass evacuations in Taiwan, for any of the typhoons. People are instead instructed to stay home. Most of the island that is habitable is near sea-level, but it is after all an island so where would people go. During the last typhoon, by contrast, mainland China evacuated 900,000 people away from coastal areas. During this typhoon about 2 million people are projected to be evacuated in mainland China. Here, we stay home. And surprisingly, precious few people are hurt or killed. During the current storm, two construction workers were killed. In the last typhoon, two or three were killed, in traffic accidents and a mud slide.

I cannot really explain the safety of the Taiwanese people during these storms except to say that I have observed no beach-front living. People live near the coast. We really only live about 20 miles inland, but the ocean front is largely unoccupied. It really isn't habitable anyway, although in the US, we would have probably plunked down several hundred condominium communities in these uninhabitable areas, and then we are conceited enough to believe that we can overcome the forces of nature. Also, when instructed, most Taiwanese really did stay home.

I think that these are the two lessons that the US needs to learn about hurricane safety. There is a reason why no one lived on the waterfronts until recently. It isn't a safe place to be. Also, people in hurricane zones need to heed safety instructions the way people in the path of tornadoes follow instructions and warnings.

So in the meantime, I will stay home, indoors and bored with all the rain. I am pretty sure that being bored with a typhoon is the best possible situation to be in.

Well This is Mark, I'm just back from a vist to one of our customers in LongHua China. This is a town about a 2 hour drive from Hong Kong. I'm getting a bit used to the scale of whole cities in China springing up from nothing in a span of years now. For example Shenzhen next to Hong Kong was a town of about 30,000 people 20 years ago before China decided to develop it into a trade zone. now it houses 18 Million people.

I digress, The customer I went to visit is named Hon Hai or english trade name of Foxconn. Again to get an idea of the scale of industry here they have more than a quarter of a million people working at the factory I visited. If you doubt my blog see the article below from the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118677584137994489.html?mod=blog

100 years young!

I went on a whirlwind tour from Taipei to my Grandfather's 100 birthday celebration in Hastings Nebraska the weekend before Labor Day.

Observations:

- My Grandfather has seen a lot in his time. He has gone from living in a sod house and farming with horses to the jet age.

- Grandpa was the one that brought it to my attention that we had 5 generations of family together for this event.... wow!

- It was great to see my extended family. Kathleen, thanks for encouraging me to make the trip, damn the cost or something like that I think you said!!

- People don't change much over time. Us cousins were close as kids during summer visits but all have our own lives. It is amazing how we can pick up as if we were those kids when we get together now. This reinforces my belief that we are all 10 years old inside.

- In the picture my grandfather is the fit one. Since I'm 1/2 his age perhaps I should take note?

Mark