I took LW to the vet in the morning--no more IV! Hooray! Happy Dance!! He is eating and seems to be in good spirits. He only weighs 1.7 kg, though, so I have to work on fattening him up.
In the afternoon I had a Servas meeting. What is Servas? This is from their website:
Servas Philosophy
Servas is an international, non-governmental, interracial peace association run in over 100 countries by volunteers. Founded in 1949 by Bob Luitweiler as a peace movement, Servas International is a non-profit organisation working to build understanding, tolerance and world peace.It operates through a network of Servas hosts around the world who are interested in opening their doors to travellers, and, "on the other side of the coin", many open-minded travellers who want to get to know the heart of the countries they visit.
SERVAS INTERNATIONAL has consultative status as a non-governmental organisation with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, currently with representation at many of the UN's hubs of activity.
There are over 13,000 Servas "open doors" scattered throughout almost every country in the world.
You can find more information by going to the Servas Website.
The meeting was typically Taiwanese: Everyone had to take a turn at the front, introduce themselves and talk about their Servas experiences. I hate this kind of thing! Oh, well, I bumbled through as best I could in my feeble Chinese.
It was kind of neat, though, because there are over 40 members in Taiwan now. Last year there were only about 15. There's a woman called Wong Xue Mei ('King Snow Beautiful'--aren't Chinese names just so poetic and romantic? My Chinese name, Liu Xin Hua translates to 'Willow Joyful Flower'. I love it!) Anyway, back to Xue Mei, she wrote a travel book and in it described her Servas experiences. The book has done well (7000 copies sold in the first three months!) and has led to a great jump in the number of Servas members. Yea! Here are the members who came to this meeting:
I then went to visit Tsai at her salon. She had an hour between customers so we sat in the park and caught up on the news. Tsai is also a Servas member but couldn't make it to the meeting.
I then decided to go to dinner at my friend's restaurant, 'Goethe Gourmet Gaasthaus.'
A few minutes after I arrived, Simon and Sophie walked in. What a wonderful surprise! Sophie suddenly decided that she was starving and wanted to have dinner with me. Simon stayed to chat for a while, then went off to a bookstore. Sophie and I enjoyed sauerkraut and ham soup and home made bread with pesto. I then had a salad (Soph's least favorite thing!). Next was a selection of five (yes, five) homemade German sausages. Sophie had a little sausage and all my mashed potatoes :'-( Finally we moved on to dessert: Soph chose a cherry cake and I selected panna cotta. When I told Daiyu what Sophie wanted she suggested that it was a bad choice as the cake has a lot of cherry brandy in it. No problem, I said, as I had also ordered panna cotta. I assumed that she and I would be switching desserts. Well, as it turned out, young miss Sophie didn't like either of the desserts so I ate them both. *burp* Ah, the sacrifices we make for our small friends... After dinner we went to the park while waiting for Simon to return. Sophie practised her leaping skills and then made instant friends with two little girls and played 'ghost' (tag) with them.
Simon joined us and we took the MRT home. After feeding the beasties I went up to their house for a couple of glasses of wine and chat.
What an awesome day. Happy Amanda!
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