Saturday, December 11, 2010

It's been a long December...

It will have been 14 years since that song came out from the Counting Crows, yet it still resonates with me. The soulful lyrics bring me back to those lonely December nights where I felt I had no direction in life, and the month just seemed to stretch on forever. The weather being cold, drab and overcast only added to the misery.

This December marks 20 years since my mom passed away so unexpectedly. My family tells me that I changed so much overnight, from a rambunctious 10 year old to one that was very quiet. While my character change was dramatic, her death and subsequent losses the next few years made me the person I am today. Strong willed. Independent. Caring. For that, I am happy in the fact that I know I am the kind of man that would make a mother proud of her son. Yet I feel incomplete. There is still a yearning to explore and enjoy life and all its wonders and mysteries, but also at the same time settle down and raise a family. Who knows what the next year will bring, but like the lyrics say, "maybe this year will be better than the last."

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

"Congratulations! We've chosen you..."

"...as our host speaker for this year's Global Sales Meeting dinner!"

Me: "Uh, thanks? I didn't realize I had signed up for this....honor?"

"Well, we were looking for someone who is cute, funny, and can speak English decently. So naturally, you are a great choice!"

Me: "Ok....who were the other candidates?"

"No one else, you were first and only choice!"

Me: "Fuuuuuuuun."


So yes, I will be the host along with another girl at my work's annual Global Sales Meeting dinner, where marketing and sales from across the globe converge in Taiwan for...I honestly have no idea. Not only do I get to host, I get to write my own speech too, so yay? At the very least, it will make me very visible since I'll be speaking in front of 300+ people and who knows what I could parlay this into. The dinner is being held at the Grand Regent Formosa Hotel, so it should be pretty good food if nothing else.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings from Taiwan and Happy Thanksgiving! Some of you have asked if I was able to eat any turkey here, and the answer is yes! I enjoyed a full thanksgiving meal at an expat bar with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and yes, even pumpkin pie. It was a bit pricey at $700NT ($23USD) but it was a nice change of pace, and I met a lot of new people, including a couple of Texans! Hopefully they can make it out to the UT/A&M game watching party I organized at another expat bar tomorrow night, so I can finally get the Taiwan Texas Exes network up and running after all these months.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Christmas Creep

No, it's not some fat perv that annoys you during Christmas. For those who don't now what Christmas creep is, it's the progressive creeping of Christmas (or any other holiday) decorations, songs, ads, etc. well before the month of December (or respective month). I thought living in Taiwan, I would be immune to this. Unfortunately, it's just as bad here, if not worse. Exiting the MRT mear my house back in October, I heard some Christmas songs blaring from one of the many shopping malls. Again a soli two months before Christmas, and even a month before Thanksgiving, the Taiwanese were already exposed to the creep. A near majority of the people in Taiwan are raised Buddhist, so the meaning of Christmas is lost to them. So to find such an an abundance of Christmas decorations for sale near where I live was quite surprising, and even a bit nostalgic. Christmas is not officially observed in Taiwan, but up until recently, the day was a holiday, coincidentally because the Taiwanese declaration was signed on that day back in the 1950's. Rest assured, even on Christmas day, it'll probably be warm enough for me to wear a short sleeved shirt and khaki shorts.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Privacy, please?

No one ever really wants to use a public bathroom, let alone go number 2 in one. But when you do use one, and inevitably, we all have to, you would expect to get some semblance of privacy. Well, that's the US way of thinking. You get almost none in Taiwan in the public restrooms, with cleaning ladies cleaning the urinal next to you when you're doing your business or mopping the floor and getting some splash on you. I figured that was just in public, but oh no, it's the same at companies as well. Regardless of what's going on, those cleaning ladies barge in and start cleaning away. It's like the US Postal service slogan, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" but for cleaning ladies. I half expected them to knock on the bathroom door to offer me an industrial roll of toilet paper. They do it to the girls room as well, but at least they are the same sex. Although I'm pretty sure that a male cleaner would get hit or slapped if he went in to the women's room to try and clean it if a girl was in there.

ACCESS DENIED

I had my first taste of dealing with the ASUS corporate structure today, and let me tell ya, it's all about CYA over here. I happened to have two separate issues at around the same time which set me back about two hours of doing work. The first issue I had was with my work badge, which was a temporary "Overseas Visitor" badge. These badges not only get you onto the campus, but what floors you have access to (ASUS HQ is 16 floors). Also on the card is an allowance for lunch and if you work OT, dinner. With an OV badge, I got 200ntd a day, which is about 50% more than what the locals get,but all dumped into the card's balance at once. My coworker likes starbucks a lot, so in addition to the breakfast/lunch/dinner meals, he would get some coffee from Starbucks, which start at about 100ntd. This put him over his monthly allowance a bit early, and we had to go through HR to add more money to it from my department's budget. But they figured since it happened to him, it would happen to me soon, and I should go ahead and top off my card. This is where the fun begins. Apparently, I'm classified as a contractor/freelancer, which means I don't need to be in the office and can technically do the job from wherever I have an Internet connection. Because of this, they change my badge access from OV to visitor, which means my floor access is restricted to 4 floors. Oh yeah, I can't use the super convenient rear entrance for employees, and have to go all the way around to the main entrance for visitors, an extra 5 minute walk. HR was so adamant on this because of my status and was unwilling to change, even though I've already been here a month and I'm doing the same job as my coworker, but he was a transfer from Singapore. Another coworker had been helping me out translating all the stuff I didn't understand, and he was annoyed as well. Apparently, after we got back to our floor, the HR department contacted our director and lodged a formal complaint at us and the "attitude" we showed towards them. The HR department, and to an extent, the entire corporate structure here, is so ass backwards where it takes a mountain of paperwork to get the smallest thing like adding a pittance of an amount to a card. Companies should enact a "common sense" rule besides the rule, "is this good for the company?".

That was run in number one. Number two deals with the MIS department, or better known in the states as the IT department. There's an entire floor dedicated to just IT, and it's crazy the amount of people they have to support, since there's about 3000 employees at HQ. Not long after lunch, all of my inter/intranet access was shut down. Not knowing what was going on, I checked with my coworker, and his access was still up, so I moved on to my translator friend for some assistance. I checked my Ethernet port at my cube, since I'm quite familiar in dealing with various levels of IT. he called them up, told them what was going on, then finally gave them my port number. They talked for a bit, hung up, then told me that my access was shut down to "unusual activity" with a google account. As it turns out, there were over 4600 requests to a google site that they were not familiar with, way more than any other person in the entire building, so they shut it down as a preventative measure. Turns out that 4600+ requests were from my google voice extension I was using in Chrome. I use it to communicate with a few friends here and there, but even when I'm not using it, it still autochecks every few minutes. I went up to the IT floor, they asked what I was using, and I showed them, and they just asked me to disable the extensions, which I was fine to do. After that, I was on my way and back up and working. Since they don't have gvoice phone numbers here in Taiwan, they saw no need to shut down access to those ports. I sure showed them :) I don't have the extension running anymore, but the access is still there, so feel free to send me a text if you're bored ;)

I had posted another version of this story from my iPhone, but for some reason I can't find this post, and another I wrote, so I'm re-publishing it. Most of it is was written that day, but the last little bit was finished just now, as I was mid thought when the MRT got to my stop. Maybe it'll show up again, who knows.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Changing Seasons

Ah, fall is finally upon us here in Taiwan! That means I don't need to take a shower two times a day and its cold enough to where I don't need to turn on the AC. In many aspects, Taiwan winters don't differ from Austin, or Texas for that matter. One aspect that is different is the humidity. While cold, dry Canadian air blows southward, the cold air from China still has to cross over some ocean, so it picks up humidity and dumps it in Taiwan.

Hot or cold, humidity and I just don't mix. Yes, I won't be sweating very much, but when I do, it'll still be miserable and take forever for the sweat to dry off. At least now I can expand my wardrobe and dress in some long sleeves without excessively sweating. For now, the weather has been perfect. Highs in the mid 70's lows in the mid 60's. It's funny seeing Taiwanese adjust their clothing to the temperature change. I first noticed this when I visited Taiwan in the winter time for the first time back in the late 90's. Anytime the weather dropped below 70, the locals bundle up in their thickest winter coats, like the ones you go skiing in, all for 69 degree weather. I would often get exasperated stares when I wore khaki shorts and a polo because they assumed I was crazy and would freeze to death. I don't know how many times I had to tell my extended family that no, I was not cold. In fact, could they turn on the fan and point it in my direction? It's really easy to spot a foreigner in the winter time, just look for the ones wearing what normal people in the US wear at 75 degrees.

In other news, my friend Nicole paid me a visit this past weekend from Texas! Even though I just saw her not more than a month ago, it was still nice to play host and have some familiar Texan company. She flew in on a Friday afternoon from Hong Kong and left this past Monday for Beijing. I went to more touristy/site-seeing places in those two days than I have the entire time I've been here in Taiwan, and packed in a good amount of fun. Thanks for stopping by Nicole!

I didn't get my afternoon nap at work today, so I'm getting groggy as I write. Until next time friends!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Writing as a profession

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but most of that is read and self taught, not natural intelligence where someone picks it up and automatically gets it. In that same mold, I'm not terribly creative. I'm a creature of habit, going back to the same tried and true things over and over. Very rarely do I stray outside my comfort zone, and when I do, it's usually in the company of friends and family, so there's always a semblance of support nearby.

Where am I going with all this you ask? I think one cannot truly realize their maximum potential unless they are put into a situation where they are forced to survive, beit physically or fiscally. Someone I once met told me when you being able to afford to eat depends on you being able to sell something, don't just think you can, you'd better be damn sure you can lest you starve. Which brings me to my current state of mind. Having never done writing for a paycheck before, I have a newfound respect for journalists and bloggers alike. While I am fortunate that I'm writing on topics that interest me for the most part, there is the occasional bit of writer's block where I just don't have the creativity to come up with a coherent thought. Sometimes all that's needed is a refresh in scenery, instead of being chained to a desk with a computer. To the other writers out there, what other tricks do you have to overcome your occasional lapse in thought?

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Back to work, 1st retirement officially over!

Dearest friends, my humblest apologies for the hiatus in blogging. I have been negligent in my duties to keep you up to date on my life, even though I do speak with many of you online on a frequent basis. This will hopefully cease, and I will bore you more often with the mundane details of my thoughts in this crazy country.

In any case, much has changed in the almost two months since my last post. The last post was about how I interviewed with ASUS, and that they were thinking of offering a freelance position and my general thoughts on the situation. Well, as it turns out, their term for freelance is the US version of temp/contract to hire. Once that was cleared up, I accepted their contract offer and as of 10/15/2010, I rejoined the working class. I'll be a full time employee starting January 1st, 2011 if all goes well, but both my manager and I are confident that I'll do fine. I'm really liking the vote of confidence already, considering I've never really written on a professional level before. I believe it will be challenging, but at the same time quite fulfilling, as I love learning about new technologies and gadgets, and what better way to do that than being "forced" to learn about the product so I can write about it?

Most of my future posts will most likely be observations in working in a foreign company, as ASUS is headquarter in Taipei, and I'm right in the thick of it. So far, it's been busy learning about all the products I have to write about, but fortunately I already have a good base knowledge of the industry, and happen to know a good deal amount more than the Product Managers themselves. The only real thing I have to get adjusted to are the working hours. Officially, it's 9am-6pm, with about 1.5hrs for lunch, where you can also nap at your desk without being disturbed. However, most people work overtime, as is standard practice in Taiwan. Other than this past Friday when I had prior plans for a friend's going away dinner and left at 6:15pm, the earliest I had left was around 7:15pm, on average leaving around 8pm or so. Tack on the 45 minute commute I have to get home, and I get back around 9pm or so, relax for a bit, then head to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. Once my schedule gets settled down a little more, I'll look around for a tutor to continue my Chinese language studies.

On a sadder note, Texas football is having a bit of rough patch lately. I've had some fair natured ribbing from UCLA fans, as there's a large alumni base here for UCLA, USC, Cal, etc., as they are all west coast schools, but thank god I haven't met too many from the Big 12. Losing to Iowa State AND Baylor, at home? Come on guys...At this rate, I'm not going to bother watching the games live like I have been.

There's so much more to write, but I'll leave it here for now, as I need to get some semblance of sleep before I go to work tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Wow, 2 months since my last post.

Hey folks, I can't believe it's already been two month's since my last post, so I need to catch everyone up on what's been going on.

I finished my 1st semester of Chinese class at Shida two weeks ago, but decided not to register for the upcoming semester, as I want to focus on getting a job and restarting my career. That lull in my resume will become a bigger question for future employers the longer I am without a job.

I interviewed with two companies, a small high tech company, and ASUS, a globally recognized company. I would have loved to work for ASUS, as that would have allowed me to possibly transfer back to the US with a job with ASUS in either California, or their office in Austin. However, like AMD, the interviewer at ASUS was concerned about my Chinese language ability, since I would have needed to communicate with their R&D/Engineering departments and the dialogue would have been outside my current level. She did however, offer me some freelance editing work for some of their Marketing copy, as well as pass on my resume to other departments who might not need such a high requirement for Mandarin. So, I'll most likely be working for the other company, not that that's a bad thing. Since it's a small company, I'll get to work with a lot of different departments and learn a lot of various roles, which could translate better down the line, whenever I do move back to the states/wherever.

As for the semester (quarter) of school, I learned a lot in those three months, and made some lasting friendships that I'll always remember. Hanging out with my classmates after class definitely made me feel like I was back in college, and helped stave off that feeling of isolation before class started. Some moved back to the states, another taking a class elsewhere, another is doing some traveling with his dad, and the rest, save me, continued on with their studies, albeit not in the same class or teacher. If I do find a job, I'll try to find a private tutor, or maybe do some language exchange with someone who knows pinyin, so I can continue my studies. I should pick it up much faster, since I'd be forced to use it all day interact with coworkers.

Other important items of note that's happened is my brother and sister-in-law came to Taiwan to visit my dad so we could celebrate his 60th birthday together. It was a fabulous Japanese style dinner, with my mom's side of the family on hand to see both my brother and I together for the first time in over five years. Along with his visit, he dropped off my new Taiwanese passport, so I dont have to leave every 60 days with my US passport, and can save some money.

Since my 60 days were coming up, I needed to make a trip somewhere, but I also already had a Chinese visa that I got when my original plan was to move to Shanghai to learn Mandarin. Luckily, my former roommate Vic came to the rescue! His work sent him to Shanghai to do some training, and put him up in the Holiday Inn. Now, you're probably thinking, "the Holiday Inn? Couldn't he have stayed somewhere nicer?" Well, turns out in Shanghai, and outside the US, Holiday Inn is quite nice, being a 4 star hotel. Vic, being the ever gracious friend, offered his room for me to stay in for the week I would be visiting. I got to explore Shanghai during the day, and met up for dinner after he got off work. We ate great gastronomical feasts for dinner, and enjoyed every minute of it. Pictures will be posted on Facebook, all taken by Victor the überphotographer.

My friends have asked what I thought of Shanghai, and I respond by saying that I loved the city, the architecture, and history, but couldn't stand the people. I'm not sure if it's all mainland Chinese, or just people from Shanghai, but they were some of the most rude, uncivilized people I've ever experienced. They're loud and obnoxious in person and on their mobile phones, push and shove to get in and out of places, when waiting a few extra seconds would allow for everyone not to rub up on each other, and have no respect for others when waiting in line. I was routinely cut in front when queuing for the subway, buying tickets to the World Expo, and even ordering food. Once I spoke up and confronted them about it, they would apologize and back off, but seriously, have some patience people! However, I'd say the thing that bothered me the most was the hygiene, or rather, lack thereof, of the people I encountered. They hack and cough, spit and excrete without care, wherever, whenever. The most disgusting thing I saw was a mother squat her son down and opening up a slit in her son's pants to allow him to poop. In the middle of the sidewalk. When I saw this, I made a face and scoffed at her a bit, which embarrassed her, but only enough to move her son from the middle of the sidewalk closer to the edge near the street, to continue the poop. Blech.

In retrospect, I'm definitely glad that I made the option to stay in Taiwan to learn, as I can barely understand the Shanghainese accent, and not sure I could have stood dealing with the locals. It's made me appreciate so much more what I've experienced here in Taiwan, from the new friendships to being able to see my dad on a regular basis. Ok, time for bed, since I might need to take off suddenly tomorrow afternoon.

Ciao ciao!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Things I've seen lately...

So today, I saw some humorous things in Taiwan.

Item #1:
Living in Texas, I've grown up seeing my fair share of my mullets. Living in Austin, with a high gay/lesbian community, I've seen Fe-mullets as well. With the population density of Taipei, I was bound to see an Asian mullet, which is of no real surprise. Now, I've seen it all: an Asian Fe-mullet. Her front said she was butch, but her back said I'm a princess! The bonus is, I'm pretty sure she wasn't a lesbian, it was just really bad Taiwan fashion.

Item#2:
I saw someone wearing a t-shirt today that said "I "recycle" Boys" using the "recycle" symbol instead of the actual word. Pretty neat shirt I thought, girls wearing it would be pretty funny. Except it was a guy wearing it. It would be funny, even if it was a gay guy wearing it, but I'm almost positive that this is just another case of bad Taiwan fashion, or people not knowing what the things they wear actually say. It reminds me of this old video (Language NSFW):



If I could have captured a sneak picture on my iPhone, I would have submitted it to http://poorlydressed.com, where I found this lovely gem:



There's a lot more bad fashion I've seen over the last few months, but these are fresh in my memory, and I've been wanting to blog more anyways. Time to ride the MRT during rush hour again and see if there's any new observations I can make.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Currently in Singapore

Greetings friends! I'm keeping up with my once a month blog posts, this time from Singapore. I'm here to visit my brother and sister in law for a few days, as they moved here back in May from San Francisco, but also having the added benefit of the trip being a visa run, which needed to be done anyways.

I got in fairly late last night, and had to wait about 15 minutes extra because Jetstar forced me to check my carry-on bag at the gate as it was a sold out flight and they needed the extra overhead space. I'm not sure i want to fly either Jetstar or AirAsia again, as I felt like a sardine in a can while on both flights. The prices are super competitive, offering some of the cheapest options by as much as $200USD, but it comes at a cost for those who are more familiar with US based carriers. The distance between each seat is about 2-3 inches shorter than the shortest seats on Southwest, which is about the only comparable low cost carrier in the states. This is fine for the majority of Asian travelers, as they are usually smaller/shorter than their white counterparts, but for someone who is considered "average" sized in the States, my knees were almost touching the seat pocket in front of me.

I was finally able to sleep in today, as I've been going to Mandarin classes at the lovely time of 8am every weekday. Another reason I'm here is to get my Taiwanese passport. Since I entered taiwan on a US passport, my visa stay is only good for 60 days each time I enter, which means lots of international trips. I'm also worried about the required military service for all males under 35 who were born in Taiwan, regardless of citizenship. Now, since I moved to Texas when I was but a wee tyke, and never spent more than half the year in Taiwan whenever I went to visit, I didn't need to worry about being drafted into the military. Since I've moved here indefinitely, that becomes a little more of a problem. However, I have multiple sources telling me if i get an "Overseas Taiwanese" passport, I only need to leave every four months, and I'm exempt from the 180 day rule. So I've been all over Taipei prepping any documents i might need for the passport, such as my Taiwan national ID number, a health exam, and the actual passport application (which is all in Chinese, so needed translating).

Getting my national ID number was interesting, since apparently someone else has been using it for the last, oh 30 years or so. As it turns out, there was a double booking of that number over 30 years ago, when data was still being entered in manually. The guy is 2 days older than i am, but since my parents registered me first, the number is more legitimately mine than his. But since he's never left Taiwan and uses that number for everything, it was just easier to obtain a new one for me, which is needed for the Taiwan passport application. As it turns out, I didn't end up needing the health exam, so that was a waste of about $50USD. At least I know for sure I still don't have any STD's!

So back to the passport application. I went to the Taiwanese consulate/embassy/whatever here in Singapore with my sister in law, and the lady processing the application at first was a bit rude and seemed annoyed with us. She was confused as to why I had the incorrect ID number written down and also why some fields were left blank. Once I explained what happened with the ID, she recalled the conversation she had with my brother and dad when they called earlier this week regarding my situation. After this, she became more helpful and even partially filled out a new form for me, since mine were now scoured with corrections. One last minor snag was my photo. I take my own passport photos with a digital camera, as it's much cheaper to just print out a single sheet of six 2x2 photos (standard 4x6 photo sheet). There's no special gimmick for passport photos, they just have to be the right size and can't obstruct any part of your face. Well atleast those are the US rules. Taiwan's requirements call for smaller pictures, which the lady could have just cut off for us. She even took out a ruler to measure and was getting set to, when she notices I'm smiling in the picture. Apparently, no teeth are allowed to be shown on your Taiwanese passport photo. She gave us the name of a place that would do passport photos, and off we went, meeting up with my brother to grab some lunch and the passport photos before heading back to the consulate/embassy. For 8 passport photos, it cost a total of $15SGD, which equates to a little under $11USD. For a simple photo on a white background, taken with a digital camera, that they then slap into a pre existing size format that they already have on their computer. Such a big rip off. If I can part one word of advice of this post, it's not to buy passport photos from the Post office, travel place, etc. Do it yourself on the cheap! And with that, I will now head to sleep. It's been a long day, and the weekend's just getting started.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Whirlwind travels

Wow, it's been almost two months since I've posted to my blog, and for the few people that actually read this, I apologize. A lot's happened over the last month and a half, with the highlight being my surprise visit back to Austin for my 30th birthday. I told very few people about the trip, so I could maximize my surprise from my friends, which was difficult enough, as the purpose of me flying back was to enjoy the start of my 3rd decade with my friends, and that would just be wasted time away from them in the short amount of time I had.

I started classes at the Mandarin Training Center (MTC) today, and it's a lot more intensive than I thought it was originally. It's nice to have a routine, and get out and interact with people. I was starting to get a little stir crazy the last few weeks being cooped up in the apartment. My class is fairly diverse, with people hailing from Brazil, Brunei, India, Myanmar (Burma), a Tibetan monk, and 3 others from the US. There will be a lot more to update, but for now, I need to finish up my homework and get some sleep as my class starts at 8:10am (blech).

Wan an!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Back in Taiwan

The last three weeks have been a blur, traveling from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, back down to Bangkok, then to Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, back to Bangkok again, a flight to Hanoi, back to Bangkok YET AGAIN, and then finally home to Taiwan. I've made some new friends along the way, and it was a real treat to be able to share the experience with a now much closer friend. Thanks again Hoan My!

As for a full recap of our adventures, that will have to wait for another post as I didn't get much sleep yesterday, and spent a good amount of today traveling from Hanoi, to Bangkok, to Taiwan. This post is more to let you lovely folks know that yes, I am alive and well, and can look forward to more mundane posts about my life abroad :) For now, good night!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Seoul blog

Hey folks, sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I had a blast in Seoul, and made some new friends along the way. I got my Taiwan visa taken care of, which was the main goal of the trip, so now I can stay for up to 60 days in Taiwan before needing to leave the country, but more importantly, I can now apply for a student residency visa or a work visa, whereas I could not with my visa exemption entry waiver.

The first day in Seoul I had lunch with some former coworkers from AMD, and was treated to a very good traditional Korean lunch with fish, bulgolgi, soup and all the standard side dishes. One coworker was very impressed that I tried/ate everything, and liked it all, since most of the people they host from the US only like Korean BBQ and just pick at a few other items that are ordered for them. The rest of the day was spent exploring a few palaces and walking around Seoul, before heading back to the hostel for a group dinner with the owner and some other people staying there. If anyone reading this ever goes to Seoul, I highly recommend staying at the Backpackers Inside Hostel. Afterwards, we all went out to a club, where foreigners got in for free, but locals had to pay ₩10,000 (~$9USD), so we all chipped in some money to get the owner of the hostel in. We got back pretty late, but I got in 2hrs of sleep before heading to the DMZ in the morning.

After 2hrs of sleep, one of the other hostelers and I were picked up by a bus going to the DMZ, where we got to see the 3rd tunnel that the North Koreans dug from their side to try to get to Seoul, the area overlooking the border of North/South Korea, and an area near the "Freedom bridge" where captured POW's were exchanged between the North and South. It was definitely interesting, and the South Korean soldiers take their jobs very seriously, even going so far as to ask for my camera and delete a picture that I had snuck overlooking the border (it's forbidden). After getting back to the hostel around 3pm, I took a long nap until the evening, then went out to eat with more hostelers.

On Sunday, my new friend Britt (UT Law, '08) and I went to the GS Caltex vs Pink Spiders volleyball game to watch former UT player Destinee Hooker play. I, being the diehard fan I am, brought along my UT flag to wave in the stands and show support for Destinee. I had already emailed her on facebook letting her know that I would be in the stands, and she flashed a big smile and hook'em when she saw us waving the flag. We stood out wearing burnt orange, but I'm all for spreading UT love! I must say, that was probably some of the most fun I've had at a volleyball game, and I've been to my share of games, since I was in the UT Volleyband back in the day. Crazy cheers, announcers, and dances are all to be expected should you ever watch a professional volleyball game in Korea. After the game, we met Destinee and got our pictures taken with her and my flag. The flag is now residing in the hostel, greeting travelers while they relax in the common area.

The next days weren't too eventful, just getting the visa taken care of and exploring Seoul some more, and enjoying the great food the city had to offer. I was unsuccessful in finding the koala hat, but I have people on the lookout for me. On Tuesday night, I met up with the remaining AMD folks I missed on Friday, and again, enjoyed a great meal. Some of the people also know the folks in Taiwan, which can also help with my trying to get a job with AMD Taipei. Two people that I worked with frequently had to cancel at the last minute, but passed along some gifts that I will definitely be able to use on my trip to Thailand/Vietnam. They included a laptop bag, super absorbent towel, polo shirt, and an HDMI cable. All were AMD branded, except for the HDMI cable, which I thought was random :) I always did love working with the AMD Korea team the most.

I do wish I could have stayed a few extra days in Seoul, since it snowed a good inch the night before I left, and I would have loved to see all the palaces covered topped with snow. Until next time, I suppose. I'll wrap up this entry and start up on another entry later, but first, I'm headed out to a St. Patrick's day party tonight!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Asia's got Seoul!

I've made it to the hostel I'm staying at in Seoul, and I've already met another Texan, who happens to have went to UT law, and knows my good buddy Ian. I flew Cathay Pacific to get here, and it was nice that even though it was under a 2hr flight, we still got a meal with wine. After landing, there was still a one hour bus ride before I reached the hostel. Once I checked in, I went to dinner with another hosteler from NYC and had a ridiculously cheap and good meal of 1500won (~$1.31USD) for 12 dumplings right around the corner:

I have a full day tomorrow, meeting up with some ex AMD coworkers, and dropping off my passport at the Taiwanese embassy for my visa, then partying the night away with some of the hostelers here.


Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Getting settled in

It doesn't feel like I've been in Taiwan only a month, but much, much longer. I've been at my place for almost a week, but I still didn't fully unpack until two nights ago. My dad helped purchase a few more things to make the place feel more like home, like a few pots and pans, silverware, and a rice cooker. I also got a foam overlay mattress that makes the bed a bit more tolerable, instead of how rock hard it is now. I'm finally getting settled in to my new place, and starting to explore my neighborhood a bit.

As far as activities are concerned, there's a night market near by with a lot street food that I'm sure I'll be eating at a frequent basis, and again, the MRT stations are not more than a 10 minute walk from my place, so the whole city is easily accessible (hint, hint, for friends to visit). I also went to an expat sports bar and met some nice folks out there, some that had just moved here like me, others who had been here for years. I even made a job contact with a Scottish fellow who runs his own high tech company, so my job skills may be of use to him. I'm still hoping that the AMD job comes through, even if I do have to wait a few weeks.

I leave for Korea on Thursday, but it looks like I'll be going solo. My friend Jason in Japan had to back out since he wasn't able to book the flight at the cheap price he was seeing, and my other friend Jason couldn't justify missing the studying time he needs for the GMAT to take an international trip to see his favorite UT volleyball player play in Korea. Thankfully I still have ex coworkers I can meet up with to show me around! With that, I'm off to bed since it's past 3am, and I have a busy day with laundry, packing for Korea, and a date with a girl I met at the expat bar. Ciao!

Oh yeah, Happy Texas Independence Day!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

It feels like my first day of college...

I've moved in to my new studio apartment, close to the center of Taipei, and am starting to get settled in. I went to a Carrefour about 6 blocks away to get household items for my apartment, where I spent around $120USD on various things, but had to delay buying certain items since it would have been to heavy to carry everything back the 6 blocks. I've gotten too reliant on cars to get groceries and household stuff, and need to relearn certain habits (ie, no large purchases without lining up transport for it).

Along with some food and silverware, I bought some cleaning supplies, since the studio was covered with soot when I moved in. No one has lived in it for about a year, and the window was slightly cracked open. On the window ledge right in front of the cracked area, was a nice thick area caked with soot from the Taipei air. From there, the entire floor, which is all tile, had a thin film that would leave prints when I walked in it. I bought a swiffer wet wipe pad to use, and it just left the dirt in streaks when I tried it. So I got down and dirty on my hands and knees and wiped the whole floor clean, then once more just to get rid of that sticky film that was leftover from the spray I used. I think my next purchase will be some throw rugs to warm up the room, as opposed to the sterile feel it has now.

In job related news, I had an informal meet and greet with two directors and the VP of AMD Taipei, and they all seemed to like me. Collectively, they all liked me, but individually, it was something different they found interesting and was enthused about my being in Taiwan and my particular skill set I could bring. Which takes a lot of pressure off me from my dad. Now comes the waiting game, as they're currently going through a re-org, and won't have positions firmed up until mid/late March. I'm in no rush, as classes won't start until June and I'm still hoping to take that trip to Thailand.

Now that I've dispensed with what's going on with me, I'm going to start posting a new segment each post called "things I notice", that has to do with trends here vs the states. Today's observation are glasses worn by the youth. It's always been a stereotype that Asians have horrible eye sight, and to some extent, that may be true. I really don't know the statistics, if there are any, but I'm the only one of my generation of cousins that doesn't wear glasses or contacts (my brother doesn't count since he got Lasik :P), and that's 13 of us. So their options are glasses or contacts, or stumble around into things all day. A lot of the youth I see wear what appear to be glasses, but turns out to be just the frames, without any lenses. A lot of these frames look like "birth control glasses", what the military issue for soldiers in boot camp. They call them BCG's because if you wear them, you'll never get laid because they're so ugly. I first noticed this with my 18yr old cousin the first week I was here. Apparently, they don't wear the lenses because their eye lash extensions are so long that they would brush against the lens. I just find it odd that they wear contacts, and still put on the lenses for the sole purpose of a fashion accessory. And that folks, is something I've noticed. Until next time, please skype/email/facebook me, as I am getting lonely sans friends :(

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Staying put

So I've made the decision to stay in Taiwan to relearn Mandarin and get a job during the time I'll be here, as opposed to continuing on to Shanghai. I have a good support system already in place, and if I move to Shanghai, I won't have that to fall back on. As it is, I'm already getting a pretty sweet deal with housing, and I got set up with a wireless broadband card for my Macbook, so my monthly expenses are very, very low, allowing me to save most of what I already did have saved up for the travels. I move in to my new place tomorrow, which is pretty much in the heart of Taipei, about a 10-15 minute walk from the Taipei Main Station, with the rest of the city no more than a 40 minute MRT ride away. So for all my friends who wanted to visit me in Shanghai, sorry, you'll have to settle for visiting me in Taiwan.

I met a German expat that has been in Taiwan 30 years while doing laundry today, and we had a nice little chat on the shoddy state of the Taiwan Air Force and what's being done to correct it. How we got this discussion? He came here 30 years ago as part of a German military unit to train Taiwanese pilots and never left. He eventually left the military and has had odd jobs selling various mechanical hardware for use in the military. I liked this random meeting, as I've only had a few discussions in English, other than the few skype calls I've had with friends. Somehow, it felt strange, since I've been trying hard to just use Mandarin, to just bust out English. The easiest way to describe it was as if I were using a different part of my brain I hadn't used in the while.

In other news, the weather has gotten warmer, to a balmy range of 70-75 degrees. Now if only we can get rid of the humidity, it would be perfect! I'll be happy to cruise around in shorts and a tshirt in this weather, but everyone else here will still be wearing heavy coats. I guess the natives really are that afraid of the cold, since they almost never have cold water from the fridge either. All water is either room temperature or hot, which are the bane of my existence. Ok, that's a bit much, but I don't like it when I'm already warm.

I'm about to leave for dinner with my dad, his g/f, my ex coworker, and his g/f, since my dad wants to meet this "mystery ex coworker" who might be able to help me out with my job search. Dinner will be at a very well known xiao long bao (small dragon bun) restaurant. Adios!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Why won't it stop raining?

It's rained non-stop for almost 6 days now. All the planned trips to the various coasts with my aunt were all scrapped because the weather has been so crappy. Oh well, looks like I'll just have to explore on my own.

As for what's been going on, I've been trying to get my iPhone working again, but for now it's just a really expensive iPod. That's what I get for not paying attention when I'm clicking through things in iTunes. I have a few pictures I took on there to upload for your viewing pleasure, but that'll have to wait for now. Bah. It doesn't really help me either that I still can't get internet working on my Macbook at my dad's place. I've tried everything that I know, and can get an IP address, but can't connect to the internet. It's really, really annoying.

On a more positive note, I'm headed to South Korea from 3/4-3/10 to visit my friend Jason, who will be visiting from his current residence of Japan. I was planning on visiting him in Japan, but he's going to be in Seoul during the dates I looked at, so we decided to just meet there. Flying to Seoul is also much cheaper (bonus!), and I get airlines miles out of it (double bonus!). Hopefully I can also get my visa resolved over there as well. I'm also starting to plan a trip to Thailand with my effervescent friend Hoan-My, as she'll be in Vietnam visiting family. I can't wait to explore ruins and beaches :) I just hope it won't rain everyday while I'm in Thailand :P

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Ringing in CNY with the Mom's side

I'm writing today's blog from my uncle's place in Banqiao, where I attended a family lunch and dinner with my mom's side of the family, and am staying the night to spend tomorrow going shopping with my aunt (I think?). Now, while it's only been 5 years since my last visit to Taiwan, it's my first CNY here since I was the ripe old age of 5. So that's almost 25 years of not experiencing a CNY in the homeland, and let me tell ya, it was damn fun. My mom's whole side of the family gathered to celebrate, coming from various parts of Taiwan to visit. My mom was the oldest of 7, only one of which was a boy, so that means a lot of aunts to ask if I have a girlfriend or not. I told them they shouldn't be asking if I have a girlfriend, but rather when my brother is going to have kids :) Even though I'm almost 30, I'm still considered "young" because I'm single and am still given a hongbao (red packet) I'm not going to turn it down, as it would be rude to, but it does feel awkward to still be receiving gifts at my age.

Lunch was at a restaurant that featured a karaoke set in the private room we reserved, and listening to my aunts and cousins croon out Asians hits was hilarious. My aunts doing background dancing to one of the songs was a nice touch as well. The lunch was delicious as well, and I think we had 8 or so courses, but I won't tease you with all the food pics, mainly because I didn't take any.

After lunch, we all head back to my uncle's place and were somehow able to cram 16 of us in that tiny place. Over the next few hours, we gambled to throwing dice in a cup and putting bets on what numbers would show up. Think of a poor man's version of craps. Everyone played, including the same 10 year old female cousin who told the joke, and all my aunts and most of my cousins. It. was. a riot. Fun times indeed. Eventually dinner rolled around and we all ate wherever we could find space, since obviously we can't cram 16 people around a small little table suited for 6.

And now, I'm headed to bed, as it's past 1:30am here, and I've got a full day of walking around with my aunt tomorrow. Let's hope that the rain stops so we'll actually make it out. Xin nian kuai le!

A game I like to play

I have this game I like to play whenever I travel to a foreign country. It's called "spot the foreigner". I've played this game (usually by myself) in Italy, Buenos Aires, and now, Taiwan. Obviously, non Asians are easy to spot here in Taiwan, so the fun lies in trying to spot out other folks like myself who have moved back from the states. I haven't been able to spot many, and it's hard to verify unless I hear them speaking English. It keeps me occupied enough to people watch on the MRT and other places with a large crowd. Am I only the one that does this, or are others as weird as I am?

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Gong Xi Fa Cai (Have a happy and prosperous new year!)

Happy Chinese New Year folks! The weather in Taiwan finally got cold, and I'm definitely enjoying the cooler temperatures. I've been out the last two nights meeting up with the few friends I have here in Taiwan for dinner, and in turn meeting more people out here that I can hang out with when I get bored.

On Thursday, I met up with my dad's friend's daughters whom I have known since I was a little kid. Our families used to hang out all the time before we moved to the states, but we've kept in touch over the years, especially when Facebook became available over here in Taiwan. Dinner that night was Japanese food, with about 10 courses (there is more to Japanese food besides sushi) and a pitcher of beer that I mostly drank since the girls usually only drink cocktails. I was stuffed, but I went out afterwards to a house party that my friend's boyfriend was hosting with some other people for CNY. They had a gift exchange similar to a white elephant, but without the stealing aspect. There was one other person there that didn't know anyone else except the person that brought them, so I talked with her for a little bit. I felt a bit mischievous, so I took the bag of extra condiments from the pizza that they ordered, and put it in another bag, and set it down next to the other gifts that they were being exchanged. We both got a kick out of it as a few people acted like they were reaching for it, but went for something else. The ruse was up when the participants were sorting through the remaining gifts and someone looked closer at the semi transparent bag and noticed the condiments.

On Friday night, I met up with an ex coworker from AMD for dinner and drinks. We met when he was still working in AMD Austin, then moved back to Taiwan to work at AMD, quit to start his own business, and finally got back into the high tech industry back in October only to be recruited by someone to go back to work at AMD. It's the job position that I was hopeful to get back in September, but he has more experience and is probably more qualified for the position than I am. Definitely no hard feelings, but we discussed my career and what options are available to me now, which is bringing me to an interesting crossroads again. I'm seriously considering scrapping the Shanghai part of my whole move and just staying in Taiwan, especially if I might have a job with AMD again. I already have a place lined up to stay thanks to my dad's friend, which would be really central to everything in Taipei. I've also looked at Mandarin language classes I could take in the evening while working, which is a huge plus considering the whole move was originally to relearn Mandarin anyways. The main factor in all this is of course the possibility of the job opening at AMD Taiwan, which I am being considered for, but have no idea when the headcount will open up, if it all. In the meantime, I have to leave Taiwan by March 5th due to my 30 day visa expiration, which means I need to plan a trip somewhere (Japan, HK, S. Korea, Australia?)

In the meantime, I'm still subject to lectures from my dad, as well as his accordion playing. I've started to develop a headache whenever he starts lecturing, which is not a good sign, but I'm just trying to make it to the end of the month. He's mentioned to me that before I got here, if he had trouble sleeping or woke up in the middle of the night, he would bust out his accordion and then go back to sleep. Thank god he isn't doing that now.

Oh! I almost forgot, I've discovered this delicious new snack in Taipei. Oh. My. God. The last few times I walked through the Taipei Main Station, this fragrant smell just overwhelmed the area, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. My friend and I were walking through last night, so I stopped him and had him point it out for me. It's this bread that's baked with a coffee flavored cream on top, and is so delicious, that mere words would do it an injustice. Seriously, if you're ever here visiting, you MUST try this. I'm starting to crave it as much as I crave/miss Tex-Mex/BBQ/Cajun food/etc.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My dad is a playa.

So I get a call from my dad around 11:30pm, saying that he's not coming home tonight, and is just going to sleep at his office (which has a bed/tv/etc). Now, I wonder if he's actually staying there, or going over to his girlfriend's. Will I need to teach him the finer intricacies of putting a sock on the door to the condo, should he not want to be bothered here if things get intimated with his girlfriend? This is uncharted territory, as father and son are both bachelors living together. Suggestions anyone?

In other news, I am happy to report that I have a working Macbook Pro again, and can hopefully figure out this mess of a network so I can get internet on my laptop at home, instead of using my dad's. Also, the acupunture did help a bit, but there is still some pain there in the lower back. It's not as pronounced as it once was, especially in the morning, but I can still feel it after walking all day, like I did today.

Monday, February 8, 2010

That was a bit painful...

So I went to the acupuncturist today, and was his first patient at around 9:30am. I later saw the list, and sure enough, there were about 6 or 7 other names beneath mine after I got out at 11:30am. The doctor has been in the same spot for 20+ years, and the layout hasn't changed, so says my dad's friend. By the looks of some of the Time magazines I picked up from 1998, I'm not surprised.

The guy spends half of the year in Taiwan, and the other half in the US, so he understand English very well, and speaks it decently. Thank god for that, since I have a hard enough time describing normal stuff versus medical stuff in Mandarin. He does a few flexibility tests on me, and asks me the normal questions and concludes that my back is almost healed, but the lack of flexibility and pain isn't 100% a result of the back injury anymore, but rather muscle tightness and my body still trying to protect itself from re-injury. So he went to work on my neck and mid back with the needle. Except this isn't the acupuncture that you think it is. Oh no, it's something that hurts. While typical acupuncture needles are at 34 gauge and IV/injection needles are at 22 gauge, the single needle he used was probably a 26 gauge. He used it a total of 10 times, with 5 times across the neck and 5 times down the middle back. It's about 10hrs later, and my neck and back still feel like they were punching bags and are quite sore. The good news is, my flexibility did improve fairly quickly after each poke, and he thinks that most of my pain will have dispersed by tomorrow morning. Here's hoping.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The weekend

Friday, February 5th:
I awake to my dad turning the light on into my room at 7am, which really,really, annoys me, but I am rested, so I begrudgingly wake up. The day consists of traveling downtown to get my visa issue taken care of, only to find out that I can't get a visa, since I'm already here. That means I'll have to leave Taiwan in 30 days and come back, so I'll get a trip to somewhere in Asia. Maybe Japan to visit my buddy Jason.

After the visa fiasco, I search around and find a place to take my Macbook Pro to be serviced, with the guy telling me to be back by 6pm, since he can't call me, as I am still without a working phone. In the meantime, I decided I need to take care of that problem, so I go get a prepaid SIM and pop it into my iPhone. I head back to the Apple shop, only for him to tell me that he can't get it working either, so he's sending it in to get the hard drive replaced, and I'll get it back on Wednesday. Here's hoping that it works when I get it back, and I can load all my stuff back onto it. It'll suck to have lost 2 years worth of photos.

For dinner, I call my dad, and we meet up for with his new girlfriend, who seems nice, but I still need to get to know her. After watching my dad interact with her, I am amazed at how he was able to land my mom with the way that he acts with women. Maybe it's just a different generational and cultural thing, partially the reason maybe I have a hard time connecting with my old man. My dad and I take the MRT back home, where he tortured me before going to sleep with his accordion playing.

Saturday, February 6th:
I went out with my dad to a hosted lunch by one of his friends celebrating CNY. He introduced me to one of his friends who has some experience in the semiconductor industry, and to discuss my career path/future. I later find out from my dad that he asked him to talk to me about trying to stay within an industry and not jump around from place to place. He said he had it in mind that if his friend helps me, then when his friend's child grows up, I can help him out too. It doesn't always quite work like that, as much as we would like it to.

After lunch, my dad and I parted ways, him to play mahjong with his friends, me to buy stuff for the condo, since my dad clearly does not know how to live like a decent bachelor. I went to the Carrefour (think super walmart) one stop down on the MRT from home, only to find the store had closed one week earlier. I think the sign said something about renovating it? I have no idea. In any case, I walk the rest of the way home, only to make it back right before it started pouring. I ended up staying the rest of the afternoon/night in catching up on tv shows and being bored out of my mind. I really need to start meeting people my own age to get out more.

Sunday, February 6th:
Today's the day I go see my mom's side of the family, who I hadn't see in 5 years, which was the last time I visited Taiwan. But first, I head over to the Shilin area to check out my dad's shop. He's rented out the 2nd and 3rd floors, but worked out a deal with the building's owner to have a giant advertisement on the outside of the building along the windows for all 5 floors. It's really well done, and looks pretty in the evening. The latest advertisement he has out features pictures of my brother and sister-in-law from their wedding photos, along with some other random women in dresses.

I take a look around, and it's well done inside, but then he sits me down to rehash/lecture the story of how he got to be where he is in his business. Now, I've heard this story before, multiple times even, and I got it the first time he told me. It's all getting a little old and tired, especially the part on him lecturing me about life and my career/future, etc, etc. It gets to the point I actually start developing a headache just from listening to it. I *rarely* get headaches, which will show you how much it actually bothers me listening to the same tired speech. I quickly nod and agree to everything just so I can leave and get to seeing my mom's side of the family.

After another 40min MRT ride, I finally make it to Banqiao, where four of my mom's six siblings are there to greet me, along with three of my nine cousins. It was great to see them again, and my little cousins are all grown up, but they all say that I haven't changed a bit, except that I lost some weight. I stay the day there, catch up with them, eat lunch/snacks/dinner before eventually heading to the MRT station to head back home. This entire time, my youngest cousin of 10 years old seems fascinated by me, and my general lack of knowledge of certain words and the inability to read most words. She's very inquisitive, asking if I know this word or that word, and being a typical 10 year old kid. Now, what I wasn't expecting was the joke that she told me that was for all intents and purposes, pretty racist. I won't repeat it on the blog, but I was in shock that my 10 year old female cousin. Definitely nothing on how my aunt/uncle raise her, but more so I think on playground humor, and how it's perpetuated as commonplace in Taiwan/Asia.

On the way back to the MRT, I have my first pretty white girl sighting in a very unlikely place. She was by herself on a street that's filled with street vendors for food during the day, but at night it's fairly empty and just an alleyway that doesn't even have a street designation on a map. Not a place you would expect to find a foreigner, and definitely not a pretty female one at that. Now, I would have been inclined to stop and to talk to her, but felt that might have been awkward with my two aunts by my side, so I missed an opportunity. Oh well.

I saw a few other expats on the MRT, one of whom gave me the head nod and smile when we both exited the MRT at the same time. I asked if I really stuck out that much, and he gave a hearty laugh and went along his way. I guess it's pretty bad if even the white people can pick me out amongst my own race.

1st post...

Ok, so I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but figured there is enough demand from my friends to create one to keep track of me, instead of posting sparse updates on facebook. I don't expect more than a dozen readers to follow me on this journey, but who knows where it will take me, and I'd like to share it with my friends.

Before we begin, some background information that might be helpful:
  • My Mandarin Chinese is good enough to get around, but still very elementary, but that's why I'm over here in Taiwan. To get fluency to the point where I can use it in practical business/political applications.
  • I'm staying with my Dad in DanShui, just north of Taipei, about a 40 minute MRT ride from the Taipei Main Station.
  • The unit is fairly small, but has two seperate sleeping areas
  • My dad and I have not lived together in any extended capacity since I was 13, almost 17 years ago
  • My dad likes playing the accordian
  • My dad has a new girlfriend

Now that you have some basic info about me, let's begin with some things that have been going on since I got to Taiwan last Wednesday evening.

Thursday, February 4th:
I stayed home all day, partially because of jetlag, partially because I was feeling a bit sick. I guess all that packing/partying/traveling had finally caught up with me from the previous 5 days. Since I confined myself at home, I decided to try and figure out how to connect my laptop to my dad's internet connection in his home. I was desperate to watch Lost, and wanted to use my laptop instead of my dad's.

I can't really read any Chinese, so figuring out the connection stuff from my dad's computer was a no go. Instead, I decided to boot my Macbook Pro into the Windows 7 install I had from my desktop, which I transplanted onto a external HD connection. Bad Idea Jeans. This wasn't the smartest thing, as I hadn't done that before, and it caused my Mac OS X install to not properly boot up anymore. Throughout the rest of the day, I tried doing as much tech support as I knew how to try and get it working, to no avail. ***On a sidenote, I was able to download and watch Lost (thank you bittorrent!), since Hulu/ABC won't let me stream from Taiwan.*** I went to sleep around 7pm, defeated and tired, and didn't wake up until 7am the next morning.

I'll continue the rest of the following days tomorrow, but for now, I need to get some sleep for an acupuncture session I have to try and fix my back. Supposedly the guy I'm going to is a miracle worker, and always has people lined up to see him. Wish me luck!