"Where are you coming back from?"

I approached secondary cautiously. I was honest at primary, and had declared that I have food with me. Not fish, meat products, dead penguins or birds. Just some cookies, dried plums, pastry, as well as two (stuffed) bears and a white space monkey named Yuri, who was still recovering from the traumatic experience of being patted down by a large TSA officer.

The secondary officer eyed me and my two suitcases. One black, one white; one big, one small, with the markings of AirWei on the top. He took my customs declaration form, dyed red with scribbles of what I had declared, and blurted out: "Where are you coming back from? China?"

"Taipei," I said, to which he replied with a puzzled look. "Taiwan. From Taiwan," quickly I added.

"OK. Thank you, goodbye."

And I strolled through the airport to the exit.