SICK - yech!

Been out sick for four days and I do not deal well with this. It is hard to do work from home due to lack of focus and being sick. It is hard not to do anything either.

Now on my third antibiotic in a month. Three weeks ago, I had a couple of insect bites that really swelled up on me. I asked our secretary about whether I should see the nurse, and before you could say boo, both of them had shipped me off to the clinic in the Science Park. This is a government run facility for simple things that operates as part of the infrastructure of the Science Park, including things like a grocery store, a bank, a travel agency, an employment agency, etc. So I go to the clinic, they check me out and give me an antihistamine for the swelling and an antibiotic in case there is some infection.

One week later, I am feeling like I have a urinary infection. This I think I can handle with lots of extra fluids, normal exercise, and rest. Fine for the weekend, then Monday starts the chills and fever. So Tuesday, back to the clinic, this time for another antibiotic. Oh - and I should note for my US friends, that the cost of the clinic visit, exam, and drugs, is about $15.

Home sick - fever abates with the antibiotic but urinary infection continues. So today, we travel to China Medical University Hospital where the system is pretty amazing. Teresa has been here before so we know some of the ropes. You have an appointment, sign in on the first floor in registration (or let the English speaking information desk people help you sign in), then go to the doctor's office listed in the email with your appointment and wait for your number to come up (on a board outside his/her door). Almost all doctors speak English by the way. A nurse helps shuttle patients in and out as well as manage the flow of files and orders. Physical exam, laboratory tests (where you take an order form to the lab, leave your sample, and then return to the doctor for the results - all data is kept electronically), lunch break, doctor consultation, longer dose of antibiotics, return visit scheduled (and paid for) to the doctor with followup testing (all included in the original bill). All this costs about $75. And they are apologizing for having to charge me so much because I do not have the National Health Insurance card which would drop that by about 90%. I'll talk more about being sick, but man, do we ever need health care reform and now!

So still sick, on more antibiotics, but feeling not too bad all considering. I certainly have nothing to complain about. The system works. And with my brother-in-law recovering from radiation and chemo (light), I thank God for all the miracles small and large.

Weekend walks in Taichung (3)

Our next weekend walk was again on a very hot Saturday afternoon. Trying to wait until things cooled down to go out, but this is simply not possible in Taichung in the summer.

Some signs caught my eye.

From Several weekend walks

We like this restaurant and have been there a couple time. It is very close to our apartment.

From Several weekend walks

This is a breakfast place that has recently had a make over. The sign and the restaurant facade is new. It is one of the few places open at 5:30 or 6:00AM when I go out jogging.

This sign was hanging on a corner along the parkway to the Art Museum. It promotes the "last available corner commercial lot".

From Several weekend walks

It is not quite the last available corner, as the next one is also empty.

These flowers have interested Teresa for a while. They hang by a thin stem from the tree

From Several weekend walks

From Several weekend walks

and sometimes can be found littering the ground after a wind storm or a rain storm.

This bird was sitting on the ground and bulging out his neck. We did not know if he was trying to attract a mate or trying to keep cool.

From Several weekend walks

And this temple which is along the parkway caught my eye in the evening sunlight. When I jog by in the morning, there is often someone there lighting incense which wafts out to the street. I try to acknowledge the gods as I run by.

From Several weekend walks

Weekend walks in Taichung (2)

Our next weekend walk took place after we got back from the US. We actually went out for a walk on Saturday morning and then did some sightseeing on Sunday afternoon (more on that in a minute).

Our morning walk allowed me to catch up on construction on the "National Museum" building.

From Several weekend walks

Good progress is being made but I cannot tell yet if they have topped it off.

There were some beautiful flowers out in the park by Moonlight Basin and HotelOne.

From Several weekend walks

From Several weekend walks

You can see from the pictures that the weather was threatening rain.

I took a couple pictures of this building on a corner lot on the parkway heading towards the Art Museum. It has always interested me in how much glass there is on the building. The lower floor (or two floors) look like they will eventually be a commercial space and the upper three floors and the roof are housing, though I cannot tell if it is one or multiple apartments.

From Several weekend walks

From Several weekend walks

You can tell from the plants that people are living in the upper floors now.

We walked past the Taichung Cultural Center to see the corner which had been in construction for a while. Neither of us could remember if this sculpture was new or old.

From Several weekend walks

The construction is complete and the corner is back and usable which is good for the fall when I start running outside again. The construction complicated my favorite route.

We walked around the Art Museum and along a street of restaurants, several of which we have visited. This one, Le Mout, we had not and that turned out to be our plan for Saturday night. It was our best and most expensive dinner in Taichung. And will need to be the subject of a full entry later.

From Several weekend walks

Weekend walks in Taichung

I took several walks in the late afternoon over the past month or so. The first was one Sunday while Teresa was in the U.S. and I was still in Taiwan. Walking from home, I was struck with the construction ongoing with this building.

From Afternoon in Taichung

They were working hard on a Sunday afternoon. The small structure in the foreground with the odd angles is the "apartment palace" or sales office for the building going up. It is somehow called the "National Museum of Natural Science DC". The National Museum is several blocks away. Perhaps there will views of it from the upper floors? I don't know.

On the opposite corner, the National Hotel is being renovated. To do that, it is common to wrap the building as you see here.

From Afternoon in Taichung

The sales office does a nice job reflecting the other structures

From Afternoon in Taichung

and the sign for the building is here

From Afternoon in Taichung

This sculpture sits at Taichung Gong Rd - a major artery - where it crosses the strip of park land that runs between the Science Museum and the Art Museum.

From Afternoon in Taichung

A store front walking past Taichung Gong Rd. and towards the museum caught my eye.

From Afternoon in Taichung

I hope they sell very fancy candies!

And as always, scooters are everywhere. This is a row of parking on the far side of the museum.

From Afternoon in Taichung

I was also struck with a (new?) bit of graffiti on the canal under a bridge.

From Afternoon in Taichung

I am never sure what the sense of the graffiti is - that is a conversation I have not had yet with a Taiwan friend.

Returning hope, the mist was rising from the atrium (mist nozzles were running)

From Afternoon in Taichung

and then I decided to check out the view from the roof.

From Afternoon in Taichung

From Afternoon in Taichung

From Afternoon in Taichung

From Afternoon in Taichung

From Afternoon in Taichung

From Afternoon in Taichung

All in all a pretty nice afternoon!

Typhoon Morakot

Well, it is Friday and this is our first "Typhoon Day" of 2009. Morakot is planning to cross the island near the north on Saturday and yesterday it was quite rainy. All the local governments called off work and school for the day today, so we got to sleep in and stay in. It was a chance to watch mostly the wind today, and to hear it shake the frame of the sliding doors every once in a while. All in all, a nice quiet day.

Back in Taichung

We have been back in Taichung for a week now after time in Meiguo (the United States). It really was nice coming back and feeling like home after a short visit in Danville (for me) and a week in Corning (to teach class). More on those later.

Coming back to all the folks here and feeling welcomed back is great. We connected with some of our AmCham group on Tuesday at our monthly Happy Hour, today at church with our group there, and of course at work.

It is definitely summer here. I remember last year running inside only until about October or November. I don't think I had an outside route till then. Now, in July, even at 6AM it is very hot and humid and best to switch back to running in the gym. I tried once or twice outside, once when we were up early with jet lag. Hen la (very hot).

I also got Teresa to try the pool (one year here and we have never used it!). She had a good workout swimming laps.

Balcony garden

It is a common thing on almost all the apartment buildings to see plants, trees, and all kinds of growing things on people's balconies. The weather is hot and tropical so many things grow crazy. The apartments are smaller and the air conditioning runs most of the time, so indoor plants do not do as well. And winter... well, there is not much that really feels like winter.

So we decided last year, almost as soon as we were settled in, to gather some plants. We visited the Floral Market as I mentioned in an earlier post and began our collection. I do not know if many things from that purchase still exist. But our cleaning lady, Flora, adopted our balcony and us, and we have grown and grown in our collection.

We also bought some pots along the way and repotted things as they grew. I say we, but I really mean Teresa who does all the heavy lifting and tracking of the plants. Her green thumb, not a characteristic she uses much in the US, is evident here.

And new things seem to appear every few weeks from Flora - as well as some old things disappearing. It all makes for a great display and a nice place to hang out albeit briefly. As a Corning colleague was leaving for the US, I also bought a small gas grill for the balcony, and some hangers for plants on the railings. It is looking more and more like a living space.

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

Now we can look like the apartments where things grow out over the balconies and a little forest like environment comes into the city.

Freaky TGI Friday's

OK this is just too weird!

We have been to TGI Friday's in Taichung a few times - some days you just want a margarita (yes, Gayle) or a burger. There are several, one is close to our apartment and we walk to, the other is close to Carrefour and Teresa's hair salon, so we drive. They both have the normal TGI Friday's eclectic mix of wall decorations with posters, pictures, and memorabilia prominently displayed.

The farther one however has one poster in the bar area that freaked me out. It is from the first ever Rolling Stones concert in the United States. This was June 2, 1965 and the location was Lynn MA - my birthplace and home town. How weird is that? First, of course, that the Stones would play at a high school football field in a town outside Boston. Second, that a poster celebrating that event hangs in a TGI Friday's in Taichung. Too weird.

I finally remembered to bring my camera to Friday's at our last visit to document the weirdness.

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

Yet another weekend away - Sanyi and Tung Wa Festival

On May 10, we took a drive to Sanyi, a town about 60 min north of Taichung, for the Tung Wa (or Tung Flower Blossom) Festival. Sanyi is an interesting little town that is really just one major street of shops (woodworking and wood crafts are the major tourist attraction normally) and an old railroad station just outside of town in the hills which was the focus of the Tung Wa Festival. Due to the Festival, which had publicity everywhere, as we approached Sanyi on the highway, there was a backup for the exit ramp that extended several miles before even getting off the highway. OK, but what the hell, we were there anyway. So after a hour to go the few miles from the exit ramp to the town (merging down to one lane), the flow was a little smoother. We found a very lucky parking place almost to the railroad area (as someone pulled out).

The town is a scenic wonder in itself - we had visited on a much quieter day in the fall. You can read about Sanyi here. The slide show below covers all my pictures (with my new camera) from the day. We walked around, saw a really nifty little ride-on model train which went up and down a short section of track, walked through a short trail along the mountain to see the flowers, and walked back to town to sit and rest a while.



Taiwan is a small place and you do not realize how this works until you have days like this. On the hiking trail, we ran into a work colleague with his wife and two children. We were stopped and chatting for a couple minutes, when another work colleague comes by with his family. So we chat and then move on and continue hiking. When we come back to town, we bump into the first family again and sit - they are there for both the Tung Wa Festival and to hang out to see the fireflies, which were out in that area and apparently another big thing. We hung around for a while and chatted while sharing snacks and water. We then decided to head back to go to dinner.

On the way out we noticed the signs for the old railroad you see in the pictures. We stopped for a brief walk around and some more pictures.

So our day ends with following the road out of town and planning to head back into town to a restaurant we know between Sanyi and the railroad station for dinner. I decided to stop for gas at a station on the way and pulled into the pump. One of the gas station attendants motioned me that I was in a truck lane, so I decided to back up and pull into the next lane which was for cars. At the same time, a truck decided to come in from the highway, into my blind spot, and so I backed up into his front fender! Wow, my first accident in Taiwan and not even on a roadway.

So, the procedure when having an accident is to get out, look, motion dumbly while the truck driver yells at you in a language you do not understand, then call for help. My first couple tries (the car rental company and the insurance company) failed miserably - Chinese recordings only (Saturday night at 8PM or so). I finally got a work colleague, who called a wonderful guy in the admin dept. at work (Jacky). Jacky called me back and let me know the procedure. By this time, the police had arrived to take information, and so Jacky talked to them, then me, then them so more. I was to follow the police to the station to file a report along with the truck driver to document the accident. So our entourage pulls out from the gas station and about a kilometer down the road to the police station. Here we are given seats, served tea, and generally treated like royalty while filling out a police report. The night captain tries to use his limited English, and we try our limited Chinese. I think he was especially impressed by Teresa's business card and title. Several more calls to Jacky make sure the report is filled out correctly and we and they understand each other. Anyway, several more cups of tea later, I sign the police report with red ink thumbprints, get our official copy, and am ushered back onto the road.

By now it is after 9PM and I have lost most of my appetite. So we head for home, park and then go out for a bite and a drink. The damage to my Tribute included a severely dented bumper (to be replaced since it prevented opening the rear hatch) and a broken tail light cover. Not much, but a decent record after a year of driving in Taiwan. The damage to my ego, a little worse! All in all, I feel like an idiot even now writing about it, backing up into a big truck. But stuff happens, and the Taiwanese redeemed themselves once more in the face of foreign stupidity.

Catching up - a Saturday drive and walk

On March 21, we took a simple Saturday outing to see the giant Buddha of Baguashan in Changhua, about a 30-40 minute drive from Taichung. It was a very impressive statue in a scenic area on a high spot in the town. Besides the statue, temples, monastery, and park - which we toured and spent most of our time around - there is also a botanical park and an aircraft park on the mountain. Fodder for another Saturday trip.

Here is the Buddha.

From Simple Taiwan Weekend

And here are the pictures from the whole weekend. This also includes a couple pictures leaving Taichung (driving and steel work from a restaurant renovation) and a baker's dozen of pictures from our Sunday walk around town. There was a festival in People's Park with kid's games (hence the giant space shuttle) and a couple doing wedding pictures on a Mini Cooper in the middle of the street.

Catching up - my new camera

After trudging around Taipei all day, we hit the photo equipment street to shop for my birthday present. I was not exactly in the shopping mood and had done research but not made a final decision on what I wanted. I might have punted. Teresa however was a good influence and gave the right amount of encouragement to keep us on track.

So now I have a new Canon EOS 450D with two lenses. Here's a couple pictures from the photo shop where the shop owner (laoban) acted as my teacher (laoshi) to make sure I knew what I was doing. The shop owner and his assistant (who spoke a little more English) were extremely helpful.

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

From Taiwan 2009

I am happy!

Catching up - Taipei Saturday

It's been quite a while since entering stuff in my blog. So this weekend will be a little catching up in addition to some work (for my second boss - Teresa). Around the time of my birthday, we had the occasion to spend a Saturday in Taipei. The local MIT Educational Council (of which we are members) was hosting a lunch for all the admitted students from Taiwan - 5 from all over the island, including one young woman I interviewed. Of course, this may not be all the Taiwanese, since some may be in the US or elsewhere for high school and interview there. And then there are the Taiwanese Americans who are coming as American students.

Anyway, after lunch from noon to 4:00, we headed off. The art museum was a quick stop as they were installing a new exhibit and much of the museum was not yet open. This temple caught our eye and we stopped to investigate.

From Taipei Saturday 2009

From Taipei Saturday 2009

From Taipei Saturday 2009

It was very old and sparse (unadorned). We think this is Buddhist, and perhaps was part of a monastery. Another temple further up the street shows the difference. This was probably Taoist.

From Taipei Saturday 2009

Then we walked to a pair of larger temples across the street from each other. The first is the Confucius temple was also adorned but in a simpler style and quiet. You could sense the peacefulness of the place. The second, Bao-An Temple across the street, is a Taoist temple with lots of people and offerings all over the place. See if you can tell which is which.