So It Begins

Today: At the office, then transit via Kinmen Island (Taiwan) to Xiamen, China
Tuesday: Fly to Shenzhen
Wednesday: Fly to Beijing
Friday: Fly to Xiamen and transit back to Taipei via Kinmen
Saturday: To the office
Sunday: To Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Thursday: Back to Taipei
Friday: Work
Saturday: May have to travel back to Kinmen, but this is optional

Taipei Thanksgiving Dinner

Last year my Thanksgiving sucked. I worked really late and then went home to a cold and small apartment before grabbing a quick dinner by myself. This year was more than a little different. I got off a little after 6 (not too bad really) and met the ladyfriend.

We went out to the Da'an district of Taipei to a small place that was serving a moderately priced Thanksgiving dinner. They had the turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, something that was kind of like cranberry sauce, salad, some veggies, and something that resembled bread stuffing (the house wine was quite good though).

It was by no means the best Thanksgiving dinner I've had, not even close. But it was still good. The thought really does count. Living abroad it is always cool to find things like this that resemble the States. On top of that, great company helps too. All in all I'd say it was a nice upper 70's Thanksgiving in Taipei.

Just a note, in Taiwan dogs are not necessarily prohibited from being inside various establishments. In this case, the owner's dog just walked around inside.

And for all of you who still read this thing Happy Thanksgiving! I wish you nothing but the absolute best.

An Expat Thanksgiving

Life as a (young) expat here in Taiwan is generally pretty cool. But the one thing that I dislike is when it gets close to Thanksgiving (and later on near Christmas). Maybe it is since I don't have an oven to cook with, maybe since it is in the low to mid 70's outside right now, maybe it is since Taiwanese people don't really eat turkey or cranberry sauce, or maybe it is just being away from home and missing the whole feeling of the season.

There is just something missing about it over here. Then again, that just may be since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here among the locals so the feeling that goes along with it is missing. It is just a feeling like something is missing.

Unlike last year when I worked late (hence a dinner by myself), I have a nice dinner with the ladyfriend planned tonight. We are going out to a restaurant/bar that is breaking out all the trimmings. I am pumped!

My Vidoes from the AVB Show

Here are some of the better videoes I took during the show. My ears were blown out, it was crowded beyond belief, and I was learning what it means to sweat like a hog. But I still think I have some good (if not short) stuff here. However, on the last video my camera's memory card was running out of space so I wasnt able to get it when the beat kicked in. The title of the last song is called "Broken Tonight."

My hearing is finally returning today. But it was still a great idea to go to the show. Overall it was great fun and the spectacle was incredible. If he comes back to Taipei I'll go see his show again.

I'm not sure if I'll post any pictures here. I may just post them in a big album with some other stuff on facebook.

Armin Van Buuren

This Friday I went to a nightclub in Taiwan that I absolutely detest to see the top DJ in the world, Armin Van Buuren. I had heard from Colin that the show would be life changing. So I went there early.

I was blown away; it was over a 1 hour wait to get in the door. The line looped around the nightclub (Luxy) a few times. I have no idea if there are fire codes in Taiwan to mandate how many people can be inside an enclosed area--but Luxy was without a doubt breaking each and every one of those codes. Even now I have no idea how so many people fit inside. It was actually a little scary.

The other downside was that it was hot beyond all belief with so many bodies. By the end of the night they were handing out napkins to people to wipe sweat (a bottle of water was $5).

Below are some videos other people took of the show. I'll try and post some pics and videos of my own on Monday:



If you watch a few videos you should hopefully be able to tell why I couldn't hear a thing when I got out of the club (4 hours of assaulting your ears will do that to you). Even 20 hours later my hearing is still a little below where it should be. Next time I'll listen to my mom and bring ear plugs.



The video below is probably about 3:30am. It was at this point that the Luxy dancers came on stage to do a little dance.



This last video is towards the end of the set but should give a good idea of the atmosphere. After he was done he signed some autographs and then did a little encore. The set went from 1:30am-4:30am then another Taiwanese DJ came on (at which point I left)



The show was actually pretty interesting. It was much different from the rock shows I'm used to. Basically he played lots of pre-mixed songs of (there was also tons of free-style stuff too) and would every so often put his hands up in the air (and expect the crowd to do likewise).

Still, the show was incredible. I was actually sober the entire time as I had been drinking earlier at a company dinner and I didn't want to fight through hundreds of people to reach the bar. Even being sober the way the music, video screens, and the lights all came together was amazing. I had a very good time and came home at 5:30am.

Not Just Any Wedding

So last night the lady friend and I were set to go to dinner at a Thai place with a mutual friend. Then he called and said he had to change plans and at the last minute go to a wedding reception, and he wanted to know if we would like to come along too as his guests. Hell yeah! Chinese weddings are awesome. There is lots of good food, flowing booze, and tons of toasts.

But this was not just any wedding. This was a mafia wedding. One of the sons(?) of one of the top 5 mafia groups in Taiwan was being married and our mutual friend's family has--lets say--a connection to some of these groups.

It was pretty awesome. There were tough-looking body guards dressed in black all over (they formed phalanxes around the top guys and formed a tunnel to get into the wedding). Another guy had a shaved head with a dragon tattoo on it. At least one person I met was rumored to have killed someone. Oh yeah, some of the top Taiwanese mafia dons were also in attendance(I got pictures with them and I'll try and post as soon as my friend passes them along).

Thing was, I was the only white guy there. But I'm used to that now.

Edit: Here are the pictures from the wedding. I blacked out the faces of the mafia guys. I also blacked out my lady friend's face per my policy of not showing here in a public forum.

Firecracker

Well those of you who are intrepid facebook stalkers already know, but I am dating a new and very lovely lady. This time I was in much less of a rush to jump into things. But after being introduced by a mutual friend of ours we really kicked things off and found we got along very well together.

Suffice to say the new lady is very funny and very cool. So far, I have always had a lot of fun hanging out with her. To say she is a firecracker or spark plug is not any stretch of the imagination.

However, given this is a fully public venue I will resist further comments about her. My rule is the names of lady friends and their pictures are not to appear on this venue (after all, that information is on facebook).

Electronic

I have been thinking about this for a long time now. But a lot of the popular music is the US is being Euro-fied...it's going electronic. Look no further than such upstanding citizens as Kanye West or a lot of the others associated with that genre of rap music.

The reason I write this post is since I do appreciate the eletronic stuff. A few months back I went to a techno show on the beach. This coming Friday there is a huge techno show (Armin Van Buuren) here in Taipei that I will be at.

So I was not all that surprised to see this posted on facebook from someone else I know who likes techno. A song featuring some American rappers and the DJ Tiesto:

Kaoshiung and Globalization

This weekend I took my first ever trip to the south of Taiwan. I feel bad about being here for so long but never venturing down there. Part is me being lazy and part is me knowing it is pretty comfortable here in Taipei (I do want to take it easy on the weekends).

Saturday I woke up early to catch the 8am high speed rail train from Taipei to Zuoying (Kaoshiung) station with my boss. The high speed rail (HSR) is great. It is clean, fast, on time, and easy to use.

When we showed up there we went out to meet a business contact of ours. After some initial confusion, there are two malls of the same name where he wanted to meet us, we met up and had a great lunch and business talk.

I don't want to reveal too much about what was said but it revolved around doing business in his country (he is from Africa). The whole time I was amazed. Here I am a white American working in Taiwan and meeting an African about doing business with him in his country (along with help from his Taiwanese wife).

Bye Bye Charlie

It is time. Charlie Weis must go. The question is will he make it easy and resign to save face or will he force the school to fire him?
I stuck by him during the losing season in his third year (I told myself it was a recruiting problem from the previous coach and poor assistants that came back to bite him in the ass). But the results have not improved. He outthinks himself, he refuses to pound the ball, he has sloppy teams with poor fundamentals (tackling, blocking, etc), his players do not noticeably improve (outside of quarterbacks), he cannot decisively beat teams, and his teams are almost never fired up.

For whatever reason, Weis couldn't get it done. In the end, getting the W is what matters.

I should also be very clear about something. Weis has a reputation as a blowhard and a jackass. But in my (very limited) interactions with him (I organized a charity run for his foundation) I found him to be very nice and very committed to his family. I think he is a good guy and I from the bottom of my heart I wanted him to succeed. He is a fellow ND alum and he understood the school (talking to each dorm after his hire). Weis also pulled the program out of the hole left by Willingham and was able to bring in top athletes. But he has shown himself incapable of getting the program back to where it needs to be--he is a great NFL coordinator but not a great college head football coach. The effort was there but the results were not.

Looking forward, whoever comes next will have a LOT of very good talent. If the next coach can bring in some good assistants and teachers they will have a full cupboard since Weis was a very good recruiter.

I know I speak for a significant portion of the fanbase when I say, BRING ON GRUDEN!!!

Same Old Stuff

I have been really bad about keeping this thing up to date. I've been a little busy but it has more or less been me being lazy and not having anything too exciting happen. So here are some highlights from the past few weeks:

I went to a classical music concert with my boss and and a business partner. There was a 20 year old violinist who was just unreal (even though I was fighting off sleep until intermission when I could grab a coffee).

Hanging out with some friends after work.

Halloween. I was supposed to grab a dinner with an old friend of mine at her restaurant and then come back home early for a rest. Instead, I ended up staying long and talking with my friend in Chinese (as she doesn't speak English). Then out of nowhere I suddenly became the most popular person in the world and everyone started texting me with parties to go to. I ended up going to two different parties and got home at 4am. At some point, I may try and sort out the events from both parties but not in this post.

The October Oriented (an organization that organizes events for professionals in Asia related fields) Happy Hour. The routine is go to classy bar, meet people, talk for 3 minutes, give them your card, and move on. That is the usual routine. Instead, I talked for a long long time with a diplomat who happened to be an alumni of ND. It's really amazing that I run into people from ND over here. So it was great to talk football with someone who actually understands football. Before he left he said something along the lines of, "Man, you are one of the first normal (foreigners) people that I have met over here." I take that as a great compliment (if only that sucker really knew me!).

Being called "Clint San" in meetings with Japanese people.

Going to a launch party of some new Scottish malt whiskey (57% alcohol!) with a friend. The Scottish guy who was there was unintentionally funny. He was describing the aroma (the aroma was pretty good) and taste (alcohol mixed with cinnamon and more alcohol) to the gathered audience. Imagine any flavor you can think of and he said it was in the whiskey. Road tar? Yup, he said it was in the whiskey. Seaweed? Yup, he said it was in the whiskey. What is the experience like drinking the whiskey? Like being pulled into the largest whirlpool in the world he said. He was a nice guy to talk to though.

There were several earthquakes yesterday. For one I was in the office (it was about 6.0 but more centered in the southern part of Taiwan) and for the aftershock I was on the subway. As I told my mom, as far as I know my house was built to stand them. But in case the worst comes to pass there is only one floor above me, hence less rubble on top of me.

Looking ahead, I may take a trip to Kaohsiung (in the South of Taiwan) during the next 2 weeks. On the 20th the DJ Armin Van Buuren (thinking of you Colin) will be playing at a nightclub I normally try to avoid. I'll go there to see him though.

Funny thing is, when I look back at this post there were some interesting things that happened. But I still feel like they are pretty run of the mill for me--which is pretty damn sweet when earthquakes, concerts, trips, parties, and happy hours are becoming run of the mill.