My undoing

珍珠奶茶 zhenzhu naicha or bubble tea. That will be my undoing in this world. It is a Taipei speciality. I had my first one today and as soon as I did the only thing I could think of was to get another. The drink is a milk tea with a huge straw so you can eat the tapioca pudding type things at the bottom. Yes, they are only a dollar but I plan to have a lot of them. In a related story, I still hate chou doufu (stinky tofu) with a fiery passion.

More on the weekend...

So this weekend I went to the zoo. It was hotter than all hell, and I am convinced Satan is mad at me for not having any beer recently. Either way I was happy to see the African animals were hot too since I realized I wasn't the only hot one. But I was happier to see the vending machines with cold drinks. Then I went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial, which was cool. I was able to see the changing of the guard. That was memorable since one of the guards snapped the stock of his rifle during the ceremony. After that I walked to the Taipei 101 building and checked out the mall full of expensive designer clothes (too expensive for me and besides there is a Lacoste store just across the street from my place). Finally, I went to the Longshan temple. Usually most temples are pretty similar, and therefore get boring quickly, but this one was super ornate. Then I came back home and had my beef noodle soup for dinner and read a book at the bookstore--better to use their AC than to use my own since I have to pay for it.

I was planning to do laundry on Sunday but ended going to lunch with my boss and his family at the American club. Strangely, there were few Americans. But I didn't care, the lunch buffet was amazing/to die for/etc and I probably had 5 plates since it was so good (it was the first time I used a fork in two weeks). Then we went to Costco...yes Costco. There are two in the city.

Side note: I am reading "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. A must read for anyone remotely interested in world affairs. It talks of globalization and how the playing field is being leveled, which is a good thing. Well my first world is flat moment was at work. I am an American working for a Taiwanese company who had to sort out supply chain issues with a Swiss machine part supplier and convey those to the machine operators who are Filipinos. The second world is flat moment came in Costco. Everything was the same as the U.S. All of products and quality were the EXACT same. If not for everyone being Taiwanese, you would never know you had left the U.S. Incredible, just incredible.

Today at work I was learning things from the ground up. That meant learning from the Filipino machine operators, who speak decent English. They were amazed that I wanted to leave the U.S. Who in their right mind they would want to leave the very country they all wanted to go to and make money for a job that doesn't pay much in Taiwan? That aside, they are pretty cool dudes, even though they have to work a ton more than I do. Sure made me feel thankful for all I have and hopefully I never complain since they have it so much worse than me, and yet they do it all with a smile since they are grateful for the opportunity.

My weekend

So who ruined the world's karma? Zimbabwe is a mess, George Carlin is dead, and it was 108 degrees here this weekend (according to weather.com on 2:30pm when the humidity was factored in-for that matter it has only been below 80 once since I've been here). My theory is that since I haven't had any beer since I've been here all is wrong with the world...only one solution. Below are some pictures from this weekend, for more look on facebook in the coming days. They are of my trip to the zoo ($2 to get in), the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, and the Longshan temple.

More pics of my place and musings

Here are a few pictures of my new place. As you can tell its pretty small and I still need to buy some things to make it feel more like home (I still haven't finished unpacking).

As for my daily musings...There are a ton of stray dogs here, they are all over. The thing is that they are pretty nice and don't cause problems. The same cannot be said for drivers here. I thought that after being in Beijing it would be easy to get used to traffic rules. But I'm not sure there are any rules here, red lights and one way streets are suggestions. Combine the hundreds of scooters that are out there and its nuts, I'm lucky I haven't been hit. Also it rains everyday here, rather it pours, at 2pm and then it drizzles until about 7pm before tapering off That means that no matter where you go you always have to bring an umbrella no matter how nice it looks outside or you risk being caught in an insane downpour.

View from above

The view out of the window of my new apartment. Much cooler than the tiny inside of the place. Its expensive for how small it is but I still pay a lot less than my neighbors since my boss can negotiate like a mofo and my landlord loves me. You see he only rents to foreigners (read English teachers) and of them I'm the only one able to speak Chinese. The downsides of the place: small, rather expensive, separate power and utilities from rent, smells like mothballs. The upsides: 30 second walk from the subway (the only way I get around), around the corner from tons of places to eat/markets/shops, great security, oh and did I mention how convienent it is.

As nice as it is to have a place, today at work sucked. It started off cool with the usual document translation (including some employment paperwork I have to wade through) and I was totally cool with the market research I was working on for Central Asia. Then everyone decided as the only English speaker there that I would be able to diagnose and fix the problem with some huge machine (a hint: even with the manual I can't). Basically any time people need a question sent to a vendor about whatever machine they have I do it for them. It gets annoying since I have no idea what I'm talking about with these machines and very little idea what they do. For example, today I had to call some company in Germany to discuss the problems a label dispenser and they started asking me all these questions about the machine's settings, use, model numbers...I had no idea whatsoever.

On a lighter note, I was at lunch with my boss and he gave me the sex talk for white foreign men in Asia: if you're in Thailand and the women throw themselves at you just use a condom when you can't help it. This was on top of the earlier comments to me about how I need to be careful around Taiwanese women (he wants to screen any future lady friend). Then there was the random old lady in the elevator in my building who was able to speak English, her quote, "Oh you handsome, so many girls want to crush you!" That was when the warning my boss gave me became clear, watch out for the Taiwanese women since they all want to crush me.

Funny things about Taiwan

Over the last few days there have been three things in particular that have struck me here in Taibei. The first was yesterday when I was looking at places to live with coworkers. I heard music coming from the street, just like the ice cream trucks in my neighborhood when I was young. I turned and looked but I didn't see an ice cream truck...it was a garbage truck. So I laughed and pointed this out to my coworkers and didn't give a thought as to why the garbage truck would play music. Then when I was waiting at a bus stop later I heard another one play music and then come to a stop on the street. At that point things exploded, people started coming out of nowhere and running to the truck. It was then I realized that they play the music so people can bring out their garbage since you have to take care of you own garbage (they don't pick it up per se).

The second thing is that although we in the West see the Chinese and Asians in general as all having black hair and black eyes that's not true, especially here in Taiwan (much more so than mainland China). I don't know if its from the native Taiwanese but there are a ton of people with reddish hair. The final thing I've noticed is 7-11. In the U.S. its innocuous but over here it is literally on EVERY block so you are never more than a short walk away from 7-11. Its like the Starbucks of old in the U.S. just on uber steroids.

Also congratulations to Matt and Amy on getting married back at ND.

Some things I've noticed

First thing, around my office there are tons of hole in the wall places that sell betel nut or binlang. It is a stimulant that is mildly addictive, stains your teeth red/black, and mainly chewed by long haul truck drivers. Well half of the sellers are scantily clad young women. To get an idea check out this flickr album: http://flickr.com/photos/tobie_openshaw/sets/72157594581621891/. However, the other half of the sellers are old women, I wonder who does the best business with the male truck drivers?

Also at my office its like kindergarten, there is a designated nap time after lunch. Literally everyone comes back to their cubes and then takes a nap after they eat lunch. The thing here at the office is that everyone speaks Chinese and they speak super fast accented Chinese at that. So I'm still struggling to pick it up (my conversational Chinese is awesome but that's a far cry from a business meeting or office environment). Right now I'm trying to find a place to live here in the city, basically I'll be in a tiny studio and try and live near a subway station so I can get to work really easily. I was also a surprised when I was flipping through the tv channels in my hotel. Most Taiwanese tv is talk show based but at least half of the channels are exclusively devoted to Korea, Japanese, and American programs. There is even one channel that is solely devoted to Japanese porn, I'm definitely not in the U.S. any more.

I had a funny experience this morning. I went to buy a green tea in 7-11. So I found the tea section and saw a bottle with the character for "green" and since I was in a rush I grabbed it and paid. When I drank it, it was unlike any tea I've ever tasted. Then I saw my mistake, had just I bought green asparagus juice. Well, live and learn, next time I'll look at the entire name of the drink before I buy it.

The first day of the rest of your life...

Sorry to be so dramatic. Its been a long day(s). I spent well over 24 hours on planes and in airports and I hardly slept before I left. I got into Taiwan at 6:00am and it was already 78 degrees and super humid. Customs was a breeze because they didn't even check my cards (damn, I filled it out for nothing). Then I checked into my hotel went with my coworkers Sam and David to breakfast at Starbucks. If it wasn't for the fact that I have to find a place to live I would have been able to go to Thailand with David next week, but I'll have more chances. After that I went to work. I met the CEO and other people whose names I've forgotten. Basically, hardly anyone speaks English, which means my Chinese is going to be sick (even though I'm rusty everyone says I'm pretty good except for the fact that I have a mainland accent, but its not my fault if people here can't speak properly!). Then I came back and took a nap and nearly missed a dinner with the ND club and the students who are over here from ND for the summer. It was cool to meet some new folks and see some people who I know from ND. Below is a picture of the event.

Mumble, Mumble

What stuck me most about the trip (other that the 13 hour flight from LAX on top of a long layover and flight from PDX) was the captain on my plane. I flew Malaysian Airlines, which is pretty sweet really. But the captain only mumbled his announcement that were in languages other than Malay. Below is the terminal at LAX, and you can tell I'm already a minority, it's like the Green Day song "Minority" where they sing "I want to be a minority." The bottom two pics are from the approach into Taipei, it's very lush and green in the countryside. I am dead tired so I'll post more later.

Two Suitcases

Two suitcases. That's it, that's what I have to fit my life for the next two years in. I leave tomorrow and it still hasn't hit me just how long that I'm going to be gone in Taiwan. At this point, the earliest point I would come back would be a two week visit next summer. So this means that I have to fit everything for that next year (two really since I'll be there a minimum of two years) into those two suitcases and two carry-ons. Packing always stinks since I tend to take way too much so this just exacerbates that tendency. I mean what will I need, what clothes will I wear, and what books and toiletries will I use? Basically, who will I be in the next year?

Of course, leaving good friends here at home and at ND doesn't help. Leaving and saying goodbye is always tough for me and its something that I hope I never get good at. But at the same time I had four amazing years at ND and I have some buddies for life. This last year and especially this last semester was absolutely incredible. As for my buddies here at home I knwo that we have had an incredible run and that I will always stay in contact with them and we will definately get together once more. On top of that, the last two weeks at home have been awesome. So even though I'm sad to leave it makes it better that I've had such great times recently and those are the freshest memories in my mind.

Storm-drain diving

So two days ago I couldn't say I had been inside of a storm drain by my feet...well today I can! Check off one more notch on the belt. After we came out of the Shanghai tunnel following a nice night out, a friend (who will not be named) pulled out his phone to make a call. No doubt that the sight of all the Portland women latched onto the sailors in town for fleet week made him shake with anger so much that he dropped his phone down the storm drain. Now the nice bouncer made sure that we could pull off the metal grate to the drain and had brooms to try and pick the thing out of the sludge at the bottom. Then the bouncer informed us the only way to really do it was to lower someone into the abyss. There were no volunteers so I took one for the team. I emptied my pockets and had some of my friends and unlucky bystanders hold me by the legs and lower me in. Well I got that cell phone and despite the dirt covering my hands I was once again victorious...this time over storm drains and cell phones. Lets just say from an outside a storm drain looks like pretty innocuous, like the one on the top but inside it's more like the one on the bottom.

Nervous Anticipation

That's the best way I can think of to say how it feels to be going to Taiwan. In three days I leave the country for a minimum of 2 years. I'll live in a place where I know absolutely no one, have never visited before, have no place to live (yet), work a job for which I have minimal experience, in an industry of which I know nothing. I wasn't nervous until this last week. Then I realized that I will be gone from family and friends for a long time and I'll be in the uncertainty of a foreign land. I guess the saddest thing about going into the unknown is not having my friends there with me.

At the same time I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Since my junior year I knew that after I graduated that I wanted to go to Asia. Despite my mom's worries about money and all I feel ready to do this. I have always liked to be independent and find new adventures and that is exactly what this is. At the same time, I'm sure at 3:20pm on Sunday when I walk into the PDX security checkpoint I will be downright scared. But that's the best thing in the world since cool experiences that make you grow are never easy. And that's the real reason that I'm doing this--the experience. If I travel half as much as the company let on (maybe a bit less now since it was too big of a pain to get a Chinese visa) then I will be having tons of cool experiences.