the strawberry digression:

my mother had never heard of strawberries growing up. she met and became friendly with a group of japanese students at university and one of them said to her he most missed strawberries from his hometown. my mother hadn't the faintest idea what strawberries were (she'd read of them in books (草莓) but you couldn't google image them back then.) off she went, undeterred, hunting high and low in all the grocery shops and supermarkets, for this thing called 草莓. at long last she found some -- not fresh ones, mind, these were tinned, preserved strawberries in syrup, and costly they were too, back in 1970. she bought them and pounced on her friend happily saying, here! i have found you some strawberries at last! now you'll not be homesick! the fellow was very diplomatic about it. he accepted them and thanked her and did not tell her that these were not quite it, and it was several years later that she travelled to japan and saw fresh strawberries for the first time, and it was a real revelation -- both as to the nature of the fruit and the diplomacy of her friend. she's always loved strawberries since. (also because, she says, they are the only fruit you can slice across different planes and still look heart-shaped.)