Fight!

Ok, so not really. But that sounds cooler.

I was out the other night with Nick and a few friends. We rolled into one of the watering holes here in Taipei and despite the fact that we were the youngest people there, we had a good time. As might be expected, I was boozing pretty hard.

Well as we roll out of the place I jump in a cab and begin to tell the driver where to go when I realized Nick isn't there. I looked out and our friend was telling me to get out since Nick was getting into it with some dude. So I jumped out and went to stand in between them both. There was another Taiwanese dude who joined me.

This dude that was into Nicks grill was pretty big, definitely drunk, and looking for a fight. He shoved me a few times and since I only wanted to keep them apart I didn't push back. I was more concerned since Nick had a knife out, so if I fell back into him I was not in a happy place. He also managed to try and slap me too. Jackass is toast if I find him when I am sober, good thing I don't remember what he looked like. Eventually the bouncers came and we left before anyone got hurt. Of course, they thought Nick was the aggressor.

The back story is that the dude was a friend of another dude that Nick had some beef with. Combine this with the fact that the dude there was a jackass already and it wasn't good. So when he saw Nick he got into his grill and looked to pick a fight. Of course, Nick escalated things by pulling the knife (he had it in case he saw friends of his insane Taiwanese ex) but he honestly believed he needed to defend himself.

My biggest regret was that when I came back home, still drunk. I sent my ladyfriend a facebook message saying we almost got into a fight. Of course, I wrote it in English so she thought I had been in a fight. So the next day I get a concerned reply wondering if I was hurt or how bad it was. Sorry about that one.

Trip Report

So I have some time. Which, right now, is bad since this is the second night in a row I have to stay late at the office to wait for someone else to do their work so that I can then finish mine.

I digress...

A few observations. Thai people love pickup trucks. I have not seen that many pickups even back in Oregon. The people there thought 80 degrees was quite cold and some even told me that was the coldest Bangkok has been in a long time. It was a high of 6 or so back in Indiana. I had some kick-ass dinners on the trip. The strangest thing for me was feeling like a real businessman (sorta) when I have a tie and slacks on in the airport on my way to see customers. Cathay Pacific is a great airline. Below is my only picture, from when I left the airport.
So I got up damn early on Wednesday and got into Bangkok in the afternoon so I could get a Chinese visa. Well the visa office was closed. So I bought some gifts and then went for a little swim before my boss got in. That night we went to dinner with a client at one of the nicer hotels in the city. I liked the dude since we had an interesting conversation about politics and he was very anti-Thaksin.

The next day I applied for my visa and I ran off to some meetings. I had a little slip up though at lunch. We were with engineering and marketing and since we were there for a party the company was throwing (I thought it was a whole company party and everyone knew) I asked about it right off the bat. Thankfully engineering didn’t catch on. After more meetings and a massage we went to a nice dinner with one of the marketing people and her friend. My boss dropped all kinds of money for a great Italian meal and two super expensive bottles of wine.

The next day I picked up my visa and we had some more meetings. We talked with an old contact and now we think that we might do some business in Laos. So there is a decent possibility I may go to Laos in the next few months.

We then went to another Italian place with another contact for lunch…more wine.

After that we got ready for a dinner time party with the marketing people. It happed that the boss and I came across an open bottle of $300 wine there. But it was the best booze in the place. They had tons of whiskey but it was watered down.

My performance went relatively well. It was a change of pace from lip-synched Chinese and Thai songs with corny/half-assed dances. You know, for that matter it went as well as it could have gone.

The next day I got up for a breakfast with the Laos contact then headed to Hong Kong. I was able to take a little break and go hang in Hong Kong for a few hours. Then it was back to the bone-chilling 50 degrees in Taipei. Below is a picture of a Chinese New Year show in a Hong Kong mall and the view from Jordan Road.

All that means I feel more like a businessman, I got in a nice trip and visa run, I had some nice food, and now I have a Chinese visa for 6 months.

I Guess the Secret is Out

When these things are on Facebook the word spreads pretty fast (I see that Jim and Scriv dog were on top of this one). The young lady I descibed a few posts below and I are now an item as they say in the papers. We shall see how things work out.

It is a little odd, I guess, since we communicate in Mandarin, which is a second language for both of us. That said she is very cool and very pretty.

However, right now over the Chinese New Year she is spending time at home on Hong Kong.

Going Back a Little

So about 2 weeks ago we had the company dinner party. It went pretty well...to a point. It was a really good seafood meal. The downside was that I had to give a performance. The good side was a coworker brought in some whiskey.

My performance was a magic show in preparation for my performance in Thailand with my customer's year end party. Well I didnt prepare AT ALL. So I was pretty newvous and the first things went alright. But I dropped the ball on the last one and took an early bow.

After that I could really start to have some drinks. It was funny to see my somewhat stoic coworkers loosen up after about 1 drink. Every time I talked to one he was slapping my back really hard.
When most of the people had left I went up with some coworkers to sing a karaoke rendition of the timeless MC Hot Dog classic "我愛台妹."

Getting Ready

The sound isnt always the best but it's still a great performance by the boss.

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=xql3ob0XORY

I'm am so damn excited to have PRESIDENT OBAMA!

I'll post about my Bangkok trip soon.

In Hong Kong

Well I have 6 hours to burn before my flight leaves Hong Kong. I left the arrival area since if I get three entry stamps in a year period then I can get a frequent visitor card to speed my way through customs. So I am 2/3 of the way there right now.

I have 200 Hong Kong dollars so maybe I will have to take the train into the city and get something to eat then come back and catch my flight.

I'll try and write something up about my last few weeks and this trip when I get back to Taiwan tonight. I will say leaving the 80 degree weather for the 60 degree weather is not too fun.

Chinese Visa

Well I now have a multiple entry Chinese visa for the next 6 months. Last time I applied I had to have all sorts of reservations and jump through hoops. This time it was pretty easy. So hopefully this means I'll be going to China a bit more.

Bangkok

Well I am in Bangkok now in the lobby of my hotel. I run out to apply for a Chinese visa pretty soon here. I'll try and write a bit more later if I get a chance.

I also still need to post some pictures from my company party last weekend.

Yeah, I know I haven't kept this thing up to date well enough.

A Few Things

Today the company is having a year end party. Apparently they serve some booze at this little event. So in a meeting the other day a coworker asked if I can drink, all I could do was laugh and look at her and say yes. The thing is I may need some serious booze to get through this evening. You see I have to give a magic show. I have the requisite tricks put I have not practiced them and I am damn horrible at it, so what better way to solve this than drink heavily then give a show?

No, I actually won’t do that but I will still do the magic show since I have to give it again to a bunch of people in Thailand next week.

After this little party I may go out to the bars with one of the ND students who is still in town.

I am actually looking forward to Sunday since I have a nice little date lined up with the girl mentioned at the bottom of the post below. I actually had a nice little outing with her last weekend as well. We went to dinner, a movie, and then had some friends come out to a hookah bar. Good times.

A New Year Update

Happy New Year to anyone who still reads this thing. I really need to write about my last few weeks. Thankfully, I am at the office today since I have to show up the first Saturday of each month but I don't want to work so what better to do than waste some time, right?

Work
So work the past few weeks has been a real bitch. The plus side is that we have a party next weekend for the year end and in two weeks I go to Thailand. But two weeks ago we had a huge machine breakdown that stopped all production (which was already behind schedule). The problem is that all the engineers who help us were on vacation for Christmas and the ones that were around on the help line could not do anything. So to make a long story short I had to make special arrangements and work with the Taiwanese Foreign Affairs Ministry to get a visa for a Filipino engineer then arrange all of his travel and work. We got the machine fixed. Of course, then we had to deal with Thailand culture, they like to play games and kept switching the shipment dates and requests on us—which was good really since we weren’t late on the shipment.

X-mas in the Office
All that work meant that I had a grand total of 5 days off in December. I had to work on Christmas. That really sucked bad. I was happy though to make my coworkers happy and spread some cheer. I went with a coworker and two friends to dinner and had a good time but not as much as I would have at home. Below are some pictures of me with co-corkers.

ND Club and a Real Club
The day after X-mas the local ND club held a huge dinner banquet for the year end. I know most of the regulars who come in so I was able to bs my way through and have a great time. It was damn expensive for stylish food (a little steak with two spears of asparagus and some swirls of fancy sauce—screw that, just give me a big ass steak). I ran into my old buddy, Mike, who helped me get the job I have now. I saw the number one man in the club, who is a business tycoon here in Taiwan. He was more than a little full of himself and knew he was damn important—in his words 2009 is going to be a rough year but if you can make it through then you can make it through anything. It was also good to see some of the ND undergrads there.

Afterward we all went out to the fanciest nightclub in Taipei (Primo) and after pre-gaming hard, waiting for a police raid to finish, lying to bouncers, and sweet-talking we were able to make our way in. This story will continue in the last part of this post.

ND Football
I am so happy that ND won. The bowl monkey is off of our back for sure. Now we need to start winning in the regular season.

New Place
I am going to move into a new place. I live in what can only be described as a cell/summertime sauna now. I am moving in with my friend Nick who is from California into his place. It is about 6 times bigger than mine. I am really looking forward to it for sure. The other advantage is that I have been able to meet a lot of his friends so new place and new social circle. If any of you are ever in Taiwan you now officially have a place to crash.

Starcraft
Nick and I have been making like the Taiwanese and having a lot of late night gaming sessions at the local internet cafes. He has been giving me a hard ass kicking in Starcradt—a game I haven’t played since middle school.

New Girl?
These are famous last words, I know, but I will say them anyway—there is no way this can last long. At the club after the ND banquet, I ran into a girl from Hong Kong. That is really not all that amazing. But after that I went to breakfast with her and her friends and spent the entire next day at her friend’s house. A little bit more about her (no names or pictures here, but if you want it shoot me an email or a facebook message), she is a 20 year old student from Hong Kong here in Taiwan to study, I think she is really pretty, she can read and understand some spoken English, but this is no problem since we both speak Mandarin. The black mark is that she is a smoker—I hate that shit. Yesterday we went out to dinner, a movie, and hookah (ok so maybe the smoking isn’t so bad, wait, it still is) and we seem to get along well. We shall see.