Thursday, October 16, 2008
你好 from 厦门
Hello from Xiamen, China. I took a plane to Kinmen island this morning and then a ferry to Xiamen. Right now I am in the local office of my company here. I came to 1. burn my Chinese visa that was going to expire soon 2. see the office and operation and 3. look into getting a new Chinese visa. Since I am at the mercy of my boss this could be an interesting trip (lots of pointless work since there is really not much to do and he wants to keep me busy). That means try and look as busy as possible and adjust to not having AC.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Hualien Trip
I got up at 5:10AM Saturday and rode the train to Haulien (花蓮, Hūalián) in the Eastern part of the island. The area is very very green and has great scenery. There is no public transport there as it is a relatively small city so that meant a lot of riding mopeds. I swore I would never ride those things again, well I had no choice. I actually got to drive one a few times and since I didn't crash I was pretty happy with myself. I was able to get comfortable riding on the back (second seat) of them as well. The downside is that the back the seats are pretty hard so your whole ass goes dead after about 30min or so.
We (two language partners--a guy and his girlfriend--and the girl's cousin) spent a night at a hotel outside of town. There was a water buffalo in a field next to the hotel, this thing was big and even though I really wanted to touch it I was dissuaded because of some big horns and being unable to tell if it was worried about people near it or just mad.
We drove around the town a bit and eventually ended up at the beach. Being of Scandinavian heritage and not being in the sun for a while meant that random place like knees and the tops of my hands somehow got sunburned.
After that, we headed out to a Shinto style temple and then to a Buddhist temple. The Buddhist temple was one of the largest (two floors) and by far the most tourist oriented I've ever seen (snack shops, hotel, bus parking lot, restaurant). We were lucky since they had a HUGE ceremony as we got there. There were enough fireworks to bust some eardrums and there were big drums that were pounded throughout the whole thing. They had dancers in big costumes (about 10ft high) that come in do ceremonial dances and some alter type things as part of a procession.
Then it got nuts. There was a Buddhist priest/holy man who took the sins/evil spirits of the people there into him, well that made him into a maniac and a half. What to do when you take on an evil spirit? Hit yourself with swords and sharp objects of course. He didn't hit himself hard but still managed to get bloody (see the blurry picture below) and then have a nice little exorcism type deal afterward.
From there, we rode through the rain (I had a jacket and a poncho) to a night market for dinner. When eating there were some aboriginal people eating there too, but I was a surprised that they conversed in Chinese and not a native language. I was told the native languages are slowly fading away in favor of Chinese, especially among young people. I had a steak and won some gum for shooting a bulls-eye with a bow and arrow. Then there were people lighting lots of fireworks on the beach for national day. They had some big mortars so it was cool to see that after missing the 4th of July in my neighborhood. We then had a quick tour of the local red light district, which was basically middle aged women hanging out of a window along a dark road. The night was finished with a meal of dumplings at a different night market.
The next day we went to the famous Taroko Gorge (太魯閣, Tàilǔgé). Along the way we stopped for a swim at an aboriginal village (normal little town, if not for being poor). There was a tiny Catholic church there as I was told most of the aboriginals are Catholic. As a note, the aboriginals were obviously the first in Taiwan and they and were followed by waves of migrants from the mainland over the years.
It was there that I had my first try of chewing betel nut, it doesn't taste like anything but makes you salivate a ton and makes all the saliva turn bright red (if you chew a lot over a long time your teeth and gums turn red too). Won't be doing that again.
We then went for a swim in the river next to the village. There had been one little girl in the village that was having great fun playing hide and seek from me before I went swimming (as I got into the water she was standing on a hill above us yelling "The foreigner is going swimming!" but no one really paid attention) and she eventually joined some other young kids about 100m down river from us. After a while, I swam down to where the kids were and got out and talked to them in Chinese. This was amazing to them since here was a white person--something they don't see much--who could talk with them in Chinese. They immediately asked if I was from the US, I told them I was from Africa and let that sink in before telling them I was indeed an American. They all had English names and had studied English in school and they asked me all sorts of questions (how to say monkey, apple, orange, etc. in English).
After some pictures with the kids, we finally went to Taroko Gorge (a big scenic gorge near Hualien) and drove through there and took some pictures. There really isn't much I can say about it. I mean, after 40min it started to all look the same.
From there we drove back to the train station and along the way picked up some Hualien speciality candy made from sticky rice Muaji and snagged some standing-room only tickets on the train back to Taipei.
I'll put more pictures up on Facebook soon.
We (two language partners--a guy and his girlfriend--and the girl's cousin) spent a night at a hotel outside of town. There was a water buffalo in a field next to the hotel, this thing was big and even though I really wanted to touch it I was dissuaded because of some big horns and being unable to tell if it was worried about people near it or just mad.
We drove around the town a bit and eventually ended up at the beach. Being of Scandinavian heritage and not being in the sun for a while meant that random place like knees and the tops of my hands somehow got sunburned.
After that, we headed out to a Shinto style temple and then to a Buddhist temple. The Buddhist temple was one of the largest (two floors) and by far the most tourist oriented I've ever seen (snack shops, hotel, bus parking lot, restaurant). We were lucky since they had a HUGE ceremony as we got there. There were enough fireworks to bust some eardrums and there were big drums that were pounded throughout the whole thing. They had dancers in big costumes (about 10ft high) that come in do ceremonial dances and some alter type things as part of a procession.
Then it got nuts. There was a Buddhist priest/holy man who took the sins/evil spirits of the people there into him, well that made him into a maniac and a half. What to do when you take on an evil spirit? Hit yourself with swords and sharp objects of course. He didn't hit himself hard but still managed to get bloody (see the blurry picture below) and then have a nice little exorcism type deal afterward.
From there, we rode through the rain (I had a jacket and a poncho) to a night market for dinner. When eating there were some aboriginal people eating there too, but I was a surprised that they conversed in Chinese and not a native language. I was told the native languages are slowly fading away in favor of Chinese, especially among young people. I had a steak and won some gum for shooting a bulls-eye with a bow and arrow. Then there were people lighting lots of fireworks on the beach for national day. They had some big mortars so it was cool to see that after missing the 4th of July in my neighborhood. We then had a quick tour of the local red light district, which was basically middle aged women hanging out of a window along a dark road. The night was finished with a meal of dumplings at a different night market.
The next day we went to the famous Taroko Gorge (太魯閣, Tàilǔgé). Along the way we stopped for a swim at an aboriginal village (normal little town, if not for being poor). There was a tiny Catholic church there as I was told most of the aboriginals are Catholic. As a note, the aboriginals were obviously the first in Taiwan and they and were followed by waves of migrants from the mainland over the years.
It was there that I had my first try of chewing betel nut, it doesn't taste like anything but makes you salivate a ton and makes all the saliva turn bright red (if you chew a lot over a long time your teeth and gums turn red too). Won't be doing that again.
We then went for a swim in the river next to the village. There had been one little girl in the village that was having great fun playing hide and seek from me before I went swimming (as I got into the water she was standing on a hill above us yelling "The foreigner is going swimming!" but no one really paid attention) and she eventually joined some other young kids about 100m down river from us. After a while, I swam down to where the kids were and got out and talked to them in Chinese. This was amazing to them since here was a white person--something they don't see much--who could talk with them in Chinese. They immediately asked if I was from the US, I told them I was from Africa and let that sink in before telling them I was indeed an American. They all had English names and had studied English in school and they asked me all sorts of questions (how to say monkey, apple, orange, etc. in English).
After some pictures with the kids, we finally went to Taroko Gorge (a big scenic gorge near Hualien) and drove through there and took some pictures. There really isn't much I can say about it. I mean, after 40min it started to all look the same.
From there we drove back to the train station and along the way picked up some Hualien speciality candy made from sticky rice Muaji and snagged some standing-room only tickets on the train back to Taipei.
I'll put more pictures up on Facebook soon.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
哭笑不得
There is a Chinese idiom (哭笑不得) that means “not knowing whether to laugh or cry.” That pretty much explains last night. The machine I spent all that time working on last week had problems over the weekend and could not run. So Sunday and some of Saturday were already lost for production and we were already behind on an order.
Well the local agent came in and couldn’t do anything, as is usual. So it went a lot like last week where I would take pictures and send emails to the company that makes the machine and then end up calling them to light fires under their asses to help us (some of those people have to hate me). I brought in my computer and used the built-in camera to make Skype calls so they could see what we were doing.
After many calls and instant messages (around 9PM) we found the entire problem that caused the machine to shut down was a loose plug in an outlet. At that point, I was not sure whether to laugh or cry—we had stopped production for two days and the second time in a week while we have a million piece order for Thailand this week—all for a loose plug.
We managed to pull off the order in time, which makes me look good to my boss and is nothing short of a miracle. But this makes me look like a dumbass to the customer since I warned them that we may be late twice only to be on time.
I really need some sleep after this last week. I can tell I am getting a little sick so I think I’m going to take it easy tonight and go to bed early.
Well the local agent came in and couldn’t do anything, as is usual. So it went a lot like last week where I would take pictures and send emails to the company that makes the machine and then end up calling them to light fires under their asses to help us (some of those people have to hate me). I brought in my computer and used the built-in camera to make Skype calls so they could see what we were doing.
After many calls and instant messages (around 9PM) we found the entire problem that caused the machine to shut down was a loose plug in an outlet. At that point, I was not sure whether to laugh or cry—we had stopped production for two days and the second time in a week while we have a million piece order for Thailand this week—all for a loose plug.
We managed to pull off the order in time, which makes me look good to my boss and is nothing short of a miracle. But this makes me look like a dumbass to the customer since I warned them that we may be late twice only to be on time.
I really need some sleep after this last week. I can tell I am getting a little sick so I think I’m going to take it easy tonight and go to bed early.
How to be The Most Powerful Person in The World
What you need:
Computer (with camera and hopefully a power source)
Skype (and headset)
Internet connection
I learned if you have those tools the world is at your fingertips. I came away amazed last night at the power of technology. With only the three things above I was able to talk with people in Germany, let them see our problems, troubleshoot those problems, and do it in one evening. I have no idea what would happen without it. Technology is truly amazing.
Computer (with camera and hopefully a power source)
Skype (and headset)
Internet connection
I learned if you have those tools the world is at your fingertips. I came away amazed last night at the power of technology. With only the three things above I was able to talk with people in Germany, let them see our problems, troubleshoot those problems, and do it in one evening. I have no idea what would happen without it. Technology is truly amazing.
How to Make Yourself Really Tired
When I think about it good times at bars are just a bunch of short stories and people thrown together. I am going to rate my weekend bar/club experience along these lines of pretty good, good, neutral, bad, or crappy.
So this weekend I went to the all you can drink Babe18—I have a knack for finding bars with strange names—which is NT$500/US$15 for the night. Behind me in line there were two Japanese girls talking in broken English with a Taiwanese girl hosting some event at the club talking equally broken English, quite funny (good). Talking to an American dude who was born in Taiwan and works in China (good). Then I realized his buddy was totally gone. I remembered the pictures of my 21st when people posed with a nearly-passed out me and when I checked the camera the next day I had no idea who they were. I returned the favor to this dude, just image his shock when he was too drunk to remember the white dude at the bar (pretty good).
The group of three people who I went to the bar to meet, the same people I went to karaoke with last weekend. They were smoking like damn chimneys (this isn’t too bad as the whole place was essentially a cig), not really drinking, hiding in the back, showed up late, and wanted to leave early (bad).
Talking to random but super cool people and then having them offer me drinks, oh the joys of being white (pretty good). The two girls dressed in school girl uniforms who kept stopping me and pretending like they knew me and telling me to go to their table—I was mystified by this situation until I realized they were the meat to attract guys to some table hosted by a nightlife party promoter (neutral). Ending up by that table only to see one of the other school girls was someone I met at a bar the week before (pretty good).
Bar getting out at 4AM and me deciding to wait 2 hours to catch the subway instead of taking a taxi back to my apartment—wait that’s what I did that one time at Fever, except that time I decided to walk home (crappy). Some guy outside the club convincing 4 girls to give me a kiss on the check and say, “Welcome to Taiwan.” (pretty good) Getting back at 6:30AM and very drunk to find ND beat Stanford (priceless).
So this weekend I went to the all you can drink Babe18—I have a knack for finding bars with strange names—which is NT$500/US$15 for the night. Behind me in line there were two Japanese girls talking in broken English with a Taiwanese girl hosting some event at the club talking equally broken English, quite funny (good). Talking to an American dude who was born in Taiwan and works in China (good). Then I realized his buddy was totally gone. I remembered the pictures of my 21st when people posed with a nearly-passed out me and when I checked the camera the next day I had no idea who they were. I returned the favor to this dude, just image his shock when he was too drunk to remember the white dude at the bar (pretty good).
The group of three people who I went to the bar to meet, the same people I went to karaoke with last weekend. They were smoking like damn chimneys (this isn’t too bad as the whole place was essentially a cig), not really drinking, hiding in the back, showed up late, and wanted to leave early (bad).
Talking to random but super cool people and then having them offer me drinks, oh the joys of being white (pretty good). The two girls dressed in school girl uniforms who kept stopping me and pretending like they knew me and telling me to go to their table—I was mystified by this situation until I realized they were the meat to attract guys to some table hosted by a nightlife party promoter (neutral). Ending up by that table only to see one of the other school girls was someone I met at a bar the week before (pretty good).
Bar getting out at 4AM and me deciding to wait 2 hours to catch the subway instead of taking a taxi back to my apartment—wait that’s what I did that one time at Fever, except that time I decided to walk home (crappy). Some guy outside the club convincing 4 girls to give me a kiss on the check and say, “Welcome to Taiwan.” (pretty good) Getting back at 6:30AM and very drunk to find ND beat Stanford (priceless).
A Long Short Week
So this last week was pretty rough. We had the largest typhoon of the year on Sunday/Monday so that meant we had Monday off as a typhoon holiday and sent out a late shipment to Thailand (but with the weather they said it was ok). Then Wednesday evening our most important machine started having problems. Well the machine is from Germany so guess who at the company happens to speak English and be in charge of these sorts of issues and communications…me!
Thursday we had the local agent of the company that makes the machine come in and that’s when it started to go down. The main guy in Singapore who does service calls was busy and isn’t too good with software (the source of the problem) anyway. So that meant I had to go direct to Germany. Now we have a 1 million piece order going on Tuesday that absolutely needs this machine and I was instructed that I was authorized to have someone fly direct from Germany if it looked as if we couldn’t solve the problem. The problem here is that in Germany they get to the office at 2PM Taiwanese time so it wasn’t until late in the day that we could find anything from them.
The process went like: this email Germany the problem and what we did, wait and get nothing, Skype call to their service hotline, they email, we try the suggestions, take a bunch of pictures, email pictures and results to Germany (so they could simulate the problem on a machine there), and then start from the beginning.
About 5PM I called Germany to see if they could send someone…bad news. The next day was a public holiday and if we couldn’t solve the problem the earliest they could send someone would be Monday (WAY too late) and they needed to know the source of the problem before they could send someone. It was then I knew it was going to be a long one.
So we went through some more processes and eventually Germany gave me an email of things to do. This was the beginning of the end. I’ll spare you the details but I was on the phone for 3 hours troubleshooting the machine (which I never operate). I was the (as Bush may say) the communicator but I had help from the local agent and a coworker. In the end, we solved the problem and I left the office at 11:30PM (15:30 hours at the office, I also went back to the office at 8AM the next morning).
Now this saved the company a boat load of money since we didn’t have to pay for a German engineer to fly out on short notice, for his transport, work hours, and hotel. And just as important I gave us a fighting chance to make our Tuesday order on time. That is important since Thailand gave us a 4.5 million order for next month, which is the largest ever and we need to show that we can handle that volume.
The problem with this is that I had to put off a lot of other work such as sorting out the software and production schedules for sample cards that need to be urgently sent to Thailand and a lot of the invoice and spare part orders on my desk as well.
My boss has a way of overstating things (getting my hopes up to travel to Cambodia, Indonesia, and Laos) but hopefully he wasn’t kidding when he said he is going to try and get me a mainland China work permit (just think of the irony there if I get it, I could work in China but not in Taiwan there I live). But he said that I’ll likely be travelling to mainland China next weekend for a few days to check out our operation in Xiamen and I think he’s serious about this one.
The GM was pretty impressed by my work this week and recognized me in the morning meeting on Friday and then gave me the day off om Saturday (we have to work one Saturday each month and this was it). That gave me the chance to go to a breakfast lecture club this morning held by an old ND alum here. It was not too good of a breakfast (toast and “ham”) but I met another old ND guy (52’ grad) who was in town. The talk was about services for foreigners from the Interior Ministry. Seeing how I am here not-so-legally there really isn’t much they can do for me so it was a little boring. Although the guy who was speaking thought I was in high school so I got a kick out of that, maybe I really do still look 17.
Thursday we had the local agent of the company that makes the machine come in and that’s when it started to go down. The main guy in Singapore who does service calls was busy and isn’t too good with software (the source of the problem) anyway. So that meant I had to go direct to Germany. Now we have a 1 million piece order going on Tuesday that absolutely needs this machine and I was instructed that I was authorized to have someone fly direct from Germany if it looked as if we couldn’t solve the problem. The problem here is that in Germany they get to the office at 2PM Taiwanese time so it wasn’t until late in the day that we could find anything from them.
The process went like: this email Germany the problem and what we did, wait and get nothing, Skype call to their service hotline, they email, we try the suggestions, take a bunch of pictures, email pictures and results to Germany (so they could simulate the problem on a machine there), and then start from the beginning.
About 5PM I called Germany to see if they could send someone…bad news. The next day was a public holiday and if we couldn’t solve the problem the earliest they could send someone would be Monday (WAY too late) and they needed to know the source of the problem before they could send someone. It was then I knew it was going to be a long one.
So we went through some more processes and eventually Germany gave me an email of things to do. This was the beginning of the end. I’ll spare you the details but I was on the phone for 3 hours troubleshooting the machine (which I never operate). I was the (as Bush may say) the communicator but I had help from the local agent and a coworker. In the end, we solved the problem and I left the office at 11:30PM (15:30 hours at the office, I also went back to the office at 8AM the next morning).
Now this saved the company a boat load of money since we didn’t have to pay for a German engineer to fly out on short notice, for his transport, work hours, and hotel. And just as important I gave us a fighting chance to make our Tuesday order on time. That is important since Thailand gave us a 4.5 million order for next month, which is the largest ever and we need to show that we can handle that volume.
The problem with this is that I had to put off a lot of other work such as sorting out the software and production schedules for sample cards that need to be urgently sent to Thailand and a lot of the invoice and spare part orders on my desk as well.
My boss has a way of overstating things (getting my hopes up to travel to Cambodia, Indonesia, and Laos) but hopefully he wasn’t kidding when he said he is going to try and get me a mainland China work permit (just think of the irony there if I get it, I could work in China but not in Taiwan there I live). But he said that I’ll likely be travelling to mainland China next weekend for a few days to check out our operation in Xiamen and I think he’s serious about this one.
The GM was pretty impressed by my work this week and recognized me in the morning meeting on Friday and then gave me the day off om Saturday (we have to work one Saturday each month and this was it). That gave me the chance to go to a breakfast lecture club this morning held by an old ND alum here. It was not too good of a breakfast (toast and “ham”) but I met another old ND guy (52’ grad) who was in town. The talk was about services for foreigners from the Interior Ministry. Seeing how I am here not-so-legally there really isn’t much they can do for me so it was a little boring. Although the guy who was speaking thought I was in high school so I got a kick out of that, maybe I really do still look 17.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
What a Day...
I got to work today at my usual 8:00AM. But I got off a little later than usual...11:30PM. I'll write more about this later but for now I am going to sleep.
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