Corning Family Day

On October 25, we celebrated Corning Family Day. This year as opposed to others in the past I am told, the event was held on the grounds of the plant with everything, tents, games, food, stage, and entertainment brought in and set up on site.

This is a big part of Taiwan culture to include all our families in the greater family of the plant. People want to come around and introduce you to their children and spouses. And you get to see everyone in their outside guise - as husband, father, wife, or mother. 

The entertainment was pretty interesting. Several groups from the plant put on acts. First was the Filipino contract workers as seen below. Then a group of women from the office did a routine. This group included some friends and coworkers of ours. Finally a group of guys from production did a ballet routine. I had met the "prima ballerina" a few days before and it took me a while to recognize him in this role. 

After the local acts, we had two professional groups. First was a singer who had been the second place finisher in the Taiwan equivalent of American Idol. She was great. And following her was a guy who fronted a band, and had been a judge on the show. Kind of like a talented Simon Cowell. 

Our emcees (professionals) for the evening

From Corning Family Day

The various Corning acts

From Corning Family Day

From Corning Family Day

From Corning Family Day

And our professionals

From Corning Family Day

From Corning Family Day

Taichung Jazz Festival

Several of our friends had alerted us to a real gem that happens in Taichung. This is the annual Jazz Festival. It happens very close to our apartment in the Civilian Plaza and along JinGuo Parkway. This happens to also be my favorite jogging route in the city. 

2008 is the sixth year for the festival and it is gathering international standing through great promotion and the tireless efforts of the Taichung mayor, Jason Hu (more about him in a later post). The festival attracts a world class mix of artists from everywhere. This year's concert line up is on the web here. 

The first day got off to a big start with an attempt to break the world's record for the most saxophones playing at once. Held by Toronto from 2004, the record was 900 and Taichung was aiming for 1000. The official count came in at 988! I took a lot of pictures of the event, trying to focus on people in the crowd. There were many school bands. I had on my Red Sox cap and got into a great conversation with another American who was teaching at an international school in Taipei and came with a whole class.

We returned in the evening for the opening concert and then several times during the week for smaller concerts on the small stages along JinGuo Parkway. In addition, there were food vendors all along the parkway, including from some of the best hotels in town. People were out in force every night and it was a blast. There were families, groups of friends, and just individuals, hanging out and enjoying the music.

The smaller concerts were by far the most interesting with the up close feel of the crowd and the intimacy of the small stage. Saskia Laroo and her band was the wildest, with people up and moving. She was introduced by Mayor Hu and the Taiwan representative of the Netherlands (their de facto ambassador). She has an enormous electronic collection to add to her own great horn work, and a backup group of stellar musicians. The Denny Euprasert Sextet was also great and I have some (not so good) photos of both concerts here. There are also some photos from other concerts and the closing show back on the big stage. My photos of Slide Hampton are taken from the big screens that flanked both sides of the stage. 

A great time was had by all, especially the two of us!

From Taiwan 2008

Rock-in-Taichung

Last weekend, we were walking out to a park near the apartment and came across a whole crew of guys setting up for "Rock-in-Taichung", which happened Oct 4-5. There were Taiwan bands playing on two stages from 4PM to 10PM each day. The concert schedule is located here and there are references to each of the bands.

On Saturday night, we came back from dinner and watched a couple of bands. This one was pretty good, with good musician-ship and some decent vocals and harmonies. 

From Rock-in-Taichung

From Rock-in-Taichung

The second band (on the other stage) was done up in full painted faces (a la Kiss) and had a very heavy metal style (not to our liking).

From Rock-in-Taichung

From Rock-in-Taichung

We came back on Sunday for a little while and found one band we liked and one we did not. All in all, it was pretty interesting, as the crowd was not your typical rock concert of teens and young adults, but included a lot of families, little kids, and grandparent types as well. 

Holidays in Taiwan

Another long weekend - I am off work on Friday Oct. 10 for Double 10 Day which is actually listed as "Independence Day". This is one I need to look up and better understand. We have two long weekends this month, the other being Oct. 31 (Chiang Kai-shek's Birthday). This follows two long weekends in September, Sept 13-15 (Mid-Autumn Festival) and Sept 27-29 (Confucius Day). There were no holidays in July and August, so I guess this makes things more even. 

OK - so Double 10 Day is a big deal. After looking it up, it celebrates the Wuchang Uprising of 1911 that led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. Since the ROC left the mainland, however, it is celebrated as a Taiwan festival and one associated with Taiwanese overseas. The Wikipedia article is located here.

Chinese Language

This week I had two Chinese classes alone with my teacher as Teresa is in the US. This was after four weeks away for me, when frankly I did not open my book or listen to the CD. So I knew I was behind and tried to cram this week before our classes.

I am so frustrated. I cannot hear the difference between lao and gao, between "l" and "g" as my teacher hears it. So when I try to use lao-shi (teacher) or lao-ban (boss) - pretty important words and things that the dialogues use all the time - she corrects me but I cannot understand what is different. There is a subtle position of the tongue behind the front teeth for "l" that I do sometimes but not consistently. What a pain! I have to work on this all week.

Luckily, I hit a home run with the pilot class I taught to some of my work colleagues this week. So that added some balance to my week. I traveled to Tainan on Wednesday and taught from 1:30 to 4:30. My education friends (Peggy, Teresa, and Catherine) had all helped me outline and think through stuff. The content was almost exactly correct for the available time. It was interactive enough and engaging with the group. And the future plan should now be easier to develop as I know more about what can be done and how to do it. Thanks to you guys for the help!

Another Saturday Drive

Actually, this drive happened quite a while ago, on Saturday July 20. We drove out to the port of Taichung where people had told us there was a very interesting fish market (with restaurants) and a boat ride. Teresa was interested in taking the ride, so off we went.

The drive was unusual in that many roads pointed in the direction we wanted to go, we had a map with directions, and we had our GPS on, but we drove for two hours and still could not find the port and market. We were close several times and then headed parallel to the coast (in the wrong direction). Finally, after circling twice, we did find the port. If had a wonderful fish market with everything coming directly from the boats which were docked immediately outside. Here are some pictures from the market.

And here are some pictures from the boat ride. I should say the ride was pretty uninteresting - for anyone thinking to do this, it is short and not very scenic. You see the Taichung harbor which is some commercial fishing and then the port which is very industrial. And you have a good view of the wind power farm slightly south of the port.

Typhoon Sinlaku

I arrived back in Taichung on Saturday, Sept. 13 after two weeks in the US and two weeks in Korea. Just in time for Typhoon Sinlaku. No real problems in traveling except a little bumpy landing in Taipei. Lots of rain, lots of wind for several days since the storm crossed the island slowly and headed north toward Japan. The only difficulty for us was disruption to flights on Sunday that forced Teresa to leave for the US from Kaohsiung instead of Taipei. 

The storm caused a lot of damage across the island and 11 death. People were killed in mudslides and by one bridge collapse. Crops were damaged mostly by wind. 

My friends in Korea note that there have been many fewer typhoons approaching Korea recently, something they attribute to global warming. Most storms now trend to the east, across Taiwan and into China, as opposed to menacing Japan and Korea.

Saturday drive to Sanyi

We decided on July 26 to take a drive to Sanyi, a town north of Taichung about 45 minutes. It is an island center fro woodworking and has a wood sculpture museum in addition to many shops and studios. 

We wandered up and down the main street. Many of the shops have a huge range of pieces from small "touristy" things to huge, ornate tables and desks that require cranes and other machinery to move. All of the wood is beautiful and much (I think) is local, though some articles now talk about importing of Chinese wood sculpture. There are a couple of interesting articles here and here on the town.  We bought a couple of small items.  I would like to know more about one of the gods depicted in many of the sculptures. He is variously hidden and in full view, often in a powerful stance. We took pictures so we could ask more about him. We bumped into one shop owner, Michael, who had obviously lived and studied in the US. His English was great and he explained many of the wood types to us.

We also knew there was a restaurant in the area called the Crescent Phoenix which is part of a group of five restaurants. We have eaten at two in Taichung (Santorini's and Jardin Giverny) and had great meals. The view from Crescent Phoenix was beautiful and the food delicious (though I would pass on the aloe appetizer myself). There is a good review of the place in Compass magazine, one of the great publications for expats in Taiwan. 

All in all, a very relaxing and fun day. We would like to go back and visit another little area nearby with an historic train station.

Typhoon Fung Wong

On Monday July 28, Typhoon Fung Wong came to Taiwan. Since the government was severely criticized for underwhelming the response to the previous typhoon, they went overboard this time. By Sunday night, the entire island had declared Monday as a Typhoon Day. 

Unfortunately for us, we had about 30 people here from all over the world for a business meeting. So after many phone calls back and forth on Sunday night and Monday morning, we decided to proceed. It was still not raining at all when we went to work on Monday morning and our normal 35 min drive took about 15 min with no traffic at all.  We had our meeting as planned, though with less attendance from the local folks who observed the Typhoon Day. Many people left early - Teresa took a taxi home at about 2PM - and had no issues. I left about 5PM, unfortunately just after the rain had started. I got wet getting to my car - and the driver's seat is still drying out - but otherwise had no issues. I had another vision of wild typhoon driving, though no photographer in the passenger seat to document it.

I would have thought (silly of me, I know) that in the pouring rain and wind, drivers would be more careful and polite. It seemed however, that wild and crazy maneuvers got even wilder and crazier. People drove on the wrong side of the road, made left turns from the right lane, and all the things I have come to expect, and then some. I guess this is another cultural difference to ponder.

Storm damage

For the days after Typhoon Kalmaegi, we kept our eyes out for storm damage. There was not a lot visible as the issue was mostly rain and the amount of it. However near our apartment is a canal that directs the flow of a river through the city. Usually a small center section (deeper) is the only part that is full and flowing. This is one of Teresa's pictures of normal flow. 

During the storm the full canal was flowing and the level rose (we heard) very high. One of the bridges across the canal near our apartment failed and fell into the canal. In a couple other spots, the walls of the canal were undercut. The city government removed the fallen bridge on Sunday after the storm and buttressed the walls in spots with concrete pieces that look like kids toys. We'll post pictures of that area soon. One of the spots gone (seen below before the storm) had a lot of interesting graffiti.

                                     

Typhoon Days

It has been a while since posting, due to mostly work, and a little fun.

On Friday, July 18, we were driving to work a little earlier than usual for an early meeting. We left the house at about 7:15. We knew there was a typhoon coming but had no real understanding of what that meant. Typhoon Kalmaegi (that means seagull in Korean), came with lots of rain. We spent the next hour (7:15 to 8:15) driving from our apartment to about halfway to work and then back again. The rain was unbelievable. Sidewalks (or what usually passes for them) were rivers flowing rapidly. Intersections were mostly lakes. It was not so bad to drive, especially with my Tribute, though probably more dangerous than I knew. It was more interesting to watch the people and cars and scooters. Mostly traffic was not moving, except for the scooters. Luckily, Teresa had her camera and her pictures are posted here.  

Scooters were up to the middle of their wheels. Some scooter drivers tried to stay dry with all their rain gear. Others knew they were getting wet and were in t-shirts and shorts. It was a hoot to watch. The water at some intersections was above the bottom of a small car's doors - keep those doors closed! In several intersections (aka lakes), scooters and a couple cars were stranded, probably stalled out. We finally got to Taichung Gang Rd (the main street to work) and found it blocked and closed by police). That and several phone calls from work colleagues convinced us to head back home and take a "Typhoon day". Apparently, sometime early in the morning, the government had decided the storm was bad and declared a "Typhoon day". This means all schools, offices, and other non-essential functions are closed along with most businesses. Our plant runs 24/7 so some of the shift workers who were there ended up staying for 24 hours to cover for those who could not get there. One problem with the Typhoon day was that the word came late and at least the middle school near us had some school kids already there and parents scrambling to get there to pick up their kids during the height of the rain.

We later heard some of the statistics. The storm delivered a full 1120 mm of rain (44 inches) in 24 hours. And the worst hour of that was 7-8AM (when we were driving) which saw about 140 mm (over 5 inches). About 20 people were killed in the storm on the island, mostly due to mudslides in the mountains.

The government was severely criticized over the following days for being to slow to react and for not alerting the public sooner.

Three mountain days versus no city days

Another short post

On one of my normal routes in the factory each day, I have a spectacular view of Taichung....depending. Some days when the weather is clear, you can see the entire city laid out with ranks of mountains behind it. On the clearest of days, you can make out at least three ranks of mountains, gradually taller and farther away, surrounding the city to the east (the ocean is on the west).  Those "three mountain" days come very rarely. Today was a "no city" day. I could barely make out some of the large downtown buildings. HotelOne was completely lost. I think the morning was so opaque due to a combination of smog and haze, probably held in place in advance of the coming storm (Typhoon Kalmaegi). Should bring us some rain. Then maybe some good "three mountain" days.

Habits in Taiwan

I had a short trip to Korea this week, and Teresa had one to Japan. So we got to test out parking at the High Speed Train Station, traveling in coach (rather than our usual business class), and returning.

I discovered that I am settling into Taiwan. As an example, the sewer systems in Taiwan are not as robust as people in the US are used to. You do not put paper (or anything other than bodily wastes) into the toilet. There is a small trash can in the bathroom for that purpose. It takes a lot more mental attention for a while to avoid that automatic reaction primed by years in the developed world. So, I went to use the toilet in Korea, and found myself reaching for the trash can. Oops. It shows how quickly some of those mental habits can be adjusted.

Some mental work is harder however. We have taken three weeks of Chinese lessons (2 x week). Most of this so far has been pronunciation of sounds (some of which are very different for us). Along with sound, we are practicing tones. Chinese has high (flat), rising, dipping, and falling tones which impute a completely different meaning to a given sound. It sometimes help to think of it like singing. But it is difficult mental work and will take more homework and practice than I am giving it at the moment.

We went for a walk on Saturday to visit the Flower Market. with the intent of picking out some plants for our apartment and then returning (with the car) to purchase them. It was a hot day, but slightly less humid and with blue skies.

In the next block from our place is a canal that controls water, particularly storm surges through the area. The canal winds across several streets at a high angle and makes for a nice walking path. Teresa walks here on her morning constitutionals (while I do the treadmill in the gym). There are many bridges across the canal, each of them different, and some quite unique. 

Crossing a major street, we passed what was (obviously) a butcher shop, with their truck outside. The sign above the shop shows the same graphic of cow and cuts of meat.

We crossed WenXin Road (or UenXin Road) on the pedestrian overpass for a view of the road. I am constantly amazed by the tropical flora, such as the palms trees in the middle of the road. I guess growing up in New England does not prepare you for that, no matter where you have travelled. Teresa had to pose on the overpass.

I also could not resist a picture of a store whose name would not go over well in the States. Why any store would be called Evil, and look like a normal women's wear shop, I do not know.

Back in Taichung

Well, it has been a long time since postings. We were back in the US for a couple days before heading off to vacation (planned before moving to Taiwan). The trip had us flying into Geneva, Switzerland, driving to Oyannox, France to visit with Andrea (our daughter), pack her up and take her with us, then off to Lyon, Venice, Florence, Sorrento, Rome, and Manarola, before leaving back from Geneva. It was a great trip (which I will write about later) that covered a lot of ground in a little over two weeks. We walked our legs off and realized we are no longer as young as our 23 year old daughter. Mostly, the trip whetted our appetites to return to Italy in the future.

We are now back in Taichung for a much longer stint. We have sent off our passports to get our resident's visas and eventually our ARC. So no travel and lots of work.

After driving in Italy, I now better understand driving in Taiwan. The best thing to remember is that rules are more like general guidelines or suggestions. They are followed but only in a general way. My Mazda Tribute gets us to work and back, to shopping, and anywhere else we need to go. Our Garmin GPS (named "Dora" by Teresa) guides us when we are lost (mostly).

I try to think of driving as a zen thing. There is a certain flow and motion to traffic. People drift slowly across lanes as they lean into where they are going. This applies to people in the right lane deciding to turn left, or vice versa, as well as ambiguous lane markings. Scooters (and there are many of them) flock like swarms of birds from one side to the other and jockey for position at the traffic lights.  You learn to appreciate the flow and try to maintain your relative position.  Sometimes however, certain moves take my attention away from the flow. Like the car that races up to pass me on the right and then does a left hand turn from the right hand (scooter) lane. Or the scooter who weaves around me at the light and then decides when the light turns to go in a completely different direction than the traffic. Or seeing an entire family (mom, dad, kids, pets) all on one scooter.

After Italy (especially Sorrento), the streets now seem wider in Taichung. Many are actually two lanes in each direction, plus an additional (separate) outside lane for scooters and "local" traffic.

 

Some near our apartment are one way lanes where you feel required to breathe in before navigating the road. And occasionally meeting scooters going the wrong way on those narrow one way streets. At least, all my original Boston driving skills are being put to good use.

Sometimes you find cars doing things like the one below, deciding at the last minute to make a left hand turn from the lane marked straight.

Walking Around

Here are a few pictures from walking around our apartment.

HotelOne is the tallest building in Taichung, easily seen from our balcony and pretty much anywhere in the city. It is a new hotel in the Landis chain. We have now tried out their TopOfOne restaurant on the 49th floor (for Teresa's birthday) and their 27th floor restaurant. More about those later.

Moon Light Basin is adjacent to HotelOne and is another apartment building where several work colleagues live. It looks out onto park on two sides.

A luggage store on the next block. There is a word for buildings whose shape mirrors their function. Like the drive-through pharmacy in Lexington, KY or the ice cream shop in Massachusetts. I have to look that one up. (Looked it up - the term is mimetic architecture)

A temple in another local park. There are many small and large Buddist temples scattered through the city and hidden like little gems where you least expect to find them.

Teresa was following me across the street. I hustled and she did not, leaving her in the middle of a major street for a sequence of lights. As you can may not be able to tell, she was not happy.

Arriving and settling in

This blog will be my attempt to chronicle our adventure as expatriates in Taichung for the next 18 months. On April 1, 2008, my wife Teresa and I arrived in Taichung for our official relocation. We have travelled many times to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan before and have each spent up to 4-6 weeks in Asia on project work. So the prospect of moving here was not too scary. And as one of our friends said, you can do anything for 18 months.

We had already made a housing trip to Taichung in March (along with officially accepting the assignment), so we had chosen an apartment after visiting 12 of them with our real estate guy, Andy, and our helper MT. So on April 2, we worked a 1/2 day at the office and (not too jet lagged), returned to the hotel where our lease car was delivered and MT met us. We drove to our new home to sign papers and officially move in. Sometime after going through all the papers, and getting MT to translate some of the devices, jet lag set in and I had done about all that I could of mindful work.

Days 2-5 were a mixture of washing everthing, shopping for all the stuff we did not pack (or have shipped to arrive next week), and settling in. We found two different Carrefour stores close to our place - one more modern than the other. We also found Hola (housewares) and Poya (lots of small stuff). It seems like a whirlwind now but we do seem to be finding our way around the maze that passes for streets in Asia.

How foreign is foreign? One example can serve. We have a combination washer/dryer made in Japan. The manual is in Chinese and no English version is available online. MT translated some of the buttons for us, but realizing that Japanese and Chinese are not synonymous means built in confusion. We were told we had cold water only to wash (this is typical in Taiwan). So Teresa pushed buttons and I looked at the pictures (of sad and happy clothes) in the manual and we managed to run a load of laundry. I doubt either of us could replicate what we did - I should take that back, she probably could.

Other appliances are equally confusing. The air conditioners are programmable with a remote control in Japanese. They can be set for day/night and various things. By pushing buttons and copying the one that is running, we got somewhere. Same goes for the water boiler, microwave, and a wireless router I requested. You do not realize how foreign foreign can be until you cannot read the buttons or signs and have no clue or even a guess as to what they might be saying. Oh well, part of the adventure.

I cooked my first omelet, one of my weekend specialties, on Friday. In my wok. Using minimal spices and lacking cheese, it still felt like a first step in making Taichung home. I think I'll buy a frying pan for the future however.

Oh well, that is it for now. We bought more food today and now it is time to cook my first dinner. No more eating out every night. And I get to return to my roots in kitchen chemistry.