Orchid images from international orchid show in Taiwan

Finally hit my turning point

Well it is day ...15?... 17?...18?...37?...43?....... ..who knows but it definitely feels like too long.  I am just about at my wits end after the day i had today.

For starters late last week, I was entertaining the idea of staying 2 more weeks past my 4 week plan, so that i could finish up a bunch of other stuff and stay for a series of important milestones in the project.  because we were so far ahead of schedule, it looked like it would work out.

so i kinda got the ok....and our entire plan was based on when we confirm the product....(now i cant really tell those of you too much about the details because it is all confidential, but i think you will get the point anyways.)...we were set to confirm monday....

well go figure, nope things just did not look right.  being that we have reviewed these same things over and over and over and this was about our 6th time or so. We were all very frustrated.  now we would try to confirm on wednesday....but unfortunately this change made the entire schedule bump out another week.............  YEAH!   sooooo that means 7 weeks!!!! I can tell you right now, there is no way i am willing to stay for 7 weeks...I will not do it and thankfully my team back home in oregon agreed. I said great! now we are scheduled to confirm on wednesday, if all goes well i will return sat.......today is wednesday...the end of the day............

so lets talk about food. on saturday i went up to sun moon lake with a coworker and her mom.  The mom was the cuties little ol lady...measuring in at about 4 feet something, teeny tiny/super petite, age 77 and wearing at least 5 layers that i can see (it was supposed to be cold).  She was just so cute and she would not let me out of her site as she feared i would get lost.  more about that in another blog.  back to the point, so on sat i didnt have a choice except for chinesse food.  i managed to choke some down and it wasnt too bad. still pretty hungry though....

so sunday comes around and as soon as i wake up, i know i have to get some decent food....(as you will see, decent becomes relative, as is everything, "all relative").  So it doesnt take me long to decide to go to subway and get a sub and .....well.....it starts to cross my mind that mcdonalds IS just beside the hotel....it wouldnt hurt for just some nuggets and the great buffalo sauce they have. 

So i head out...it was a beautiful walk(extremely relative) to the near by subway (about 3 blocks).  at least it was a very safe walk and i could view the city.  did i mention the low lying clouds that added a special touch to the view...which is great n all, but those arnt clouds, my friend.  That is pollution, smog, ...toxic even.  GREAT!  so i get to subway and its a pretty easy choice. a roast chicken sub, 12 inch.  I can have half for dinner and half for lunch the next day.  You ask about lunch today?  o no worries, i already have plans for that.  So on my way back from the hotel, i stop in at mcdonalds.  hmmm, no english.... and only a few pictures.  Thank God for value meals with numbers...I stand back from the counter and make sure i know what i want to order before i get up there, cause its hard enough to explain what i want, especially if i dont know for sure that is what i want.....at that point who knows what they will give you.  So it takes me about 10 minutes to decide....i went in with plans of nuggets, but actually left with nothing because its only 10:45am and they dont serve any chicken until 11. bummer

so i head back up to the hotel and drop off my sub, you would think i would just eat half and call it good and head to mcdonalds for dinner.  NOPE, my mind is made up, I want mcdonalds for lunch.  So i head downstairs to the little cafe and order a kiwi juice.  Just wasting time until 11:15 or so.  I dont want to go right at 11, cause maybe the chicken is undercooked.  but i dont want to wait to long after 11 cause then they might have already cooked it and then reheated it...so 11:15 should be just right for freshness(again relative).

so i am sitting outside in the sunshine (which i am pretty excited about) and the waitress brings out my kiwi juice.  Little did i know when they say kiwi juice, they actually mean they threw 2-3 kiwi's in the blender and added a little water....more like a kiwi and water smoothie.  O well, its just a time waster until i enjoy the tender juiciness of some mcdonalds chicken...

I read for a little while, choke down my kiwi smoothy (its sour by the way, not sour as in bad, but very tart, i especially dont like tart things).  So i finish up and head over to mcdonalds by 11:20, right on time! ; ) i stand back for a sec and make sure i know what i want. Then i walk up in line and stand behind the guy in line. He finishes up and walks away, the moment he takes the first step, this WOMAN comes up and cuts infront of me and starts to order. IM LIKE WHAT?  I look around and several people saw it but they didnt flinch.  Im thinking, did i miss something?  so i take a step right directly behind her, i am crowding her according to american standards, but i wont be having any more cutters taking my chicken!!!

so i get up to order finally and the girl cant understand which number i am saying.  to me it is a clear 9.  "number 9", "NUMBER 9", i say again and again, so finally i hold up my fingers and she gets it.  this is where it gets crazy, im not sure what happened, but when i left i had 2 bags in my hand and a big box of chicken.  I managed to order a small french fry, and the family chicken meal(9nuggets and 4 pieces of spicy chicken).  needless to say, i wasnt really too disapointed....oh and i had a coke too.

unfortunately when i got back to the room, the hole toile situation had occured(broke), so i had to wait to eat my chicken......but it was delicious.  my tummy was singing the praises of mcdonalds.

so then dinner comes and i eat half my sub.....great day for food, i must say.

ah yes, so now it is monday and i am supposed to confirm parts...but no...a few other things didnt go well that day either....so after a rough day, what would i like more than anything??????Mcdonalds! some normal food, especially after forgetting my sub for lunch and having to eat the chinese food in the cafeteria(by the way, did i mention it is free? all the factories offer free lunch to their employees).  So eat mcdonalds i did, actually first i ate the other half sub i had then i ate a number 6 from mcdonalds, a 2 piece spicy chicken meal with a large fry.  To top things off, i walked down to the cafe and also bought a chocolate cake roll desert.  yep ate that too.....ahhhh, normal food!  was very content.

gluteny is brutal though and things always have  a way of working them selves out.  I woke up at 2am in the morning after this horribly frightening, yet vivid dream and my stomach wasnt feeling too good.  I managed to fall back asleep, slept thru my 5am alarm and woke up after 6am.  Still not feeling well at all, nausious and other things. I was strongly considering not going to work.  I hung around the hotel for awhile and left a bit late.  had a little breakfast down at the hotel free breakfast place(rice, eggs, toast and banana).  All i could remember was that those things were easy to digest.  and I knew i needed to eat or i would be in trouble the rest of the day.

I get to work only about 15 minutes late.  Pretty quickly people are asking me if i feel well, because i am really pale.  no i dont feel well, matter of fact it feels like i am getting a fever. I eat about 3 bites of lunch(free cafeteria chinese) and i cant take anymore.  I was also sitting bymyself which is even worse because not only do i not understand the language to know if they are making fun of me, but now i am sitting by myself, feeling sick, hating the food and just plain ol irritated.  a little bit after lunch, my friend and coworker irene stops in the middle of our meeting (6 or so folks in them meeting) and says "Tiffany are you feeling ok?"  at this point i said, "what?" i was feeling pretty dizzy and didnt understand her.  So she asked again and i said "no, i think i have a fever and im real naseaous"  She puts her hand on my forehead and says yeah, i think you do too.   She says ill get you some medicine.  I kinda say, uh what kind of medicine, she says chinese natural medicine, it will make you feel better.  As skeptical as i am about this, i dont say to much because if they think it will work, then i will take it.   Pretty soon they are asking if they can use my driver to go get it i said sure.

As i am finishing up with the meeting and starting a new meeting, someone hands me these two small plastic grocery bags with clear fluid in them, a string tied around them to keep them closed and a straw.  Now i had seen people drink fluid out of a small grocery bag before, but until now i had not tried it.  

so i put the straw in  and took a sip.  It tasted like fresh coconut juice, and in fact it was. I thought well thats a relief.. I have had this before.  slowly but surely after drinking it i started to feel better.  Apparently all day i had been talking about how much i didnt want to eat any more chinese food, so lynn volunteered to take me to tgi friday's for dinner........mmmmm it was good, very bad, but very good.

ok...enough about food.  you get the point, i will do anything not to have to eat any more chinese food.  not sure why i got so sick, but am still feeling better.  I went as far as getting breakfast and dinner at starbucks today.  lunch was basically a pile of white rice.

as for the project..today was wednesday and we were supposed to confirm.  we had some minor changes in the morning and we were able to confirm in the afternoon.  that is for 1 part of the project, there are about 6 other parts, that did not confirm today and infact all facts are pointing to monday or tuesday before they will confirm......so ......that.....means....i  probably have to stay thru then. Definately not too happy about that.  And there is no way i can keep eating the mcdonalds and tgi fridays...im sure i already gained 5 lbs from it.  not sure what i will do....but i am sure  i will keep you posted!  

Good Night!

day 6

So here is a picture of the hotel i am staying in Taichung   It is a night shot from inside the van, so it is not great! The hotel is really nice...and quite pretty at night.  The view of the city of Taichung is also very pretty. I get to see it every night on the way home from work....

so some more fun facts about Taiwan.. This country has around 24 million people...i am not sure of the size...but i do know that it takes around 6 or 7 hours to drive from end to end...so what?.... that is about how long it takes to drive from portland to idaho, or about 3/4 of the way across pa....so it is very densely populated!!!!

So of those 24 million people, almost 10 million people own and drive SCOOTERS!!! yes I said SCOOTERS...here is a shot of a woman and her two dogs on the scooter.... they are actually 

driving on the sidewalk.  So in and around the towns and cities, scooters are everywhere, all over the place.  Not sure why this lady is driving instead of walking her dogs..but who knows?  

by the way, is that Spuds Mckenzie??? did he move to Taiwan?

Ok, here is another fun one, so you will hardly ever find ice water over here.  You wont find chilled bottled water or any type of cold water really.  So having noticed this, some of the expats informed me that, the culture here believes if you drink cold water, your body will make fat to help insulate your insides from the cold water.  So basically you will get fat if you drink cold water......uh WHAT?  are you kidding me?  

Since i couldnt believe this, i tried to confirm with several of the locals.....Well I wont say that the locals say it is true..but they do believe that you should not drink cold fluids because your insides are warm and if you drink the cold fluids then it disrupts your system...so its much better for your health to drink luke warm fluids or warm to hot fluids....so there you have it!  watch out for those ice cold drinks!!!

In case you were wondering, oh i don't know?...about convienence stores? well,  here in Taiwan all i have to say is 7-eleven, 7-eleven, 7-eleven, 7-eleven and 7-eleven....................................

 

unbelievable, there are around 40,000 7-elevens in Taiwan ....basically one on every block and you really cant travel too far without finding one....there is 1 7eleven for every 4000 people!  

Can you imagine there being 40,000 7elevens in pa, or in Oregon? no way!!!!

There is even a 7eleven at work, within the office buildings....truly surreal.

March 10th - Trip to Taipei

So today I had to head up north to Taipei to visit a couple of companies.  We decided to take the highspeed rail.  I was very excited about this because what would have been a 2.5 hr car trip was now just under and hour by high speed rail.    This is an image of the rail station.  The next image is a photo of the inside of the business class rail car. 

 

It was very comfortable and moved very quickly...approximately 186 mph.  

In between our vendor visits, we had time to visit the Taipei 101.  It used to be the tallest building in the world, last year.  I did not go up to the top because as you can see it is cloudy today, so we wouldnt get to see too much.  Its really really tall though, higher than the empire states building....

Here is a shot of me infront if the building....

just for proof i was there : ).....

On the inside of this building is a high end shopping center.  We went in to visit a specific store for my project, but i was pleasantly surprised to find a few stores! 

I have never seen nor been to a DeBeers store, so i was very excited about this.  I did not go 

inside, but kinda wish i had now....but we didnt have enough time.

So then when we went up to the next floor, what did i find directly above DeBeers?????????

A Tiffany's store.....how odd and coincedental!!!! 

Tiffany DeBeers...the GREATEST JEWELRY STORE IN THE WORLD!!!!!

So after we left the shopping center and visited with the next vendor, we headed to Fortune Tellar Row!

The ladies had told me about ancient chinese fortune tellers, so i asked if they could take me to one....just for curiosity....

So when we got here, we walked up and down the row until we found one that would be right for me....once we selected one, i sat down.  Since the fortune teller only speaks chinese, I had Irene to translate for me(she is on the right in the photo sitting in the chair against he wall.  She is a coworker from here in Taiwan.  

So i sat down and Irene told the fortune teller that we wanted the palm and face reading.  because of my age the facial location that would tell her the most were my eyebrows....: ) i hope they are not a mess? : )  So the fortune teller told Irene my fortune and Irene translated it for me.  It was a difficult process because Irene and the fortune teller would go back and forth talking for about 5 minutes and Irene would tell me 1 sentence......

We were finished after about 30 minutes.   overall, the fortune teller told me i would live to be 75 or 80, i would marry between age 32 and 36(in lunar years, which i am currently 31 in lunar years).  She told me all kinds of stuff about the age of the man i would marry and how i would have many choices of men to marry....all the information she provided was slightly random and fairly general...stuff that would apply to just about anyone...For example, she told me if i did not keep exercising, i would develope a disease.....: ) ok, and thats not happening with everyone?  it was a fun experience.  Oh and she advised me to watch out for men who lie about being married.....Duh!

ok another busy day.

March 8th - International Orchid Show in Taiwan

So today is Sunday and we are headed to the International Orchid show.  I have no idea what to expect, except alot of orchids???

Indeed I was right, but before the orchids, let me tell you a little about crowd control.  So we left early because we knew it started at 9am and we wanted to get there at the beginning.  Note: I am with a couple of expats that have been here for 5 year, so they have some experience with this. What they know from experience is that the Taiwanese like to stay out late at night, so they dont get up and going too early in the morning.  So us being at the show by 9am would make us beat the crowd.

so apon arrive to the show, you travel down these roads that literally have an orchid show sign posted on every single electric pole along the road.  So these electric poles and about 10 - 15 feet apart, so there are hundreds down this long road and there is an orchid show sign on each and every pole.  Not kidding!  There were a ridiculas amount of signs...it was crazy.

So we get to the show and are looking for a place to park the car.  we drive past the show buildings and they keep directing us past the parking fields to the way way back....so by now we have driven at least a half mile past the buildings and still noone is parking ....and we keep going. so they are parking people from the back to the front, so the first people in have to park the farthest away...seems a little backwards....after we figure this out we take a quick left and head down the road to exit the event.  We drive all the way back down to the main buildings

 and park in the very first row.  

So the show was very beautiful!  the first building had scenes set up where they were just filled with flowers like the image here.

There were several scenes and hundreds and hundreds of orchids.....

the entire show was a great opportunity to work with my camera and practice my photography skills.  I learned lots from Dan and Thanks Dan! 

Some more photos:

I thought this one looked like something i have seen in the lion king or some disney movie...not sure...but pretty.

I took around 400 photos so here are some more individual shots:

so after we were finished at the show, we headed to the car and all the parking lots for as far as the eye could see were full.  There were thousands of people here. as we were driving out, there were cars backed up on the roads leading up to the event for miles.  There were so many people, it was unbelievable!  Great experience.

Day 7 - Tainan City - march 7th 2009

Greetings!

Today i spent the day in Tainan city.  It is the most ancient city in Taiwan and was the capitol for many years.  These ancient cities tend to have ALOT of temples.  Our first stop was at a confuscious temple.  Confuscious means it is related to or dedicated to education.  So there was also a school on the grounds that was the first school in Taiwan.  So at the temple and around the temple there are various gates/arches to walk thru that are supposed to mean good luck or they hold ceremonies around them.  For example there is a teaches gate.  so one time per year teachers come here and walk thru the gate.  IT is considered good luck and is very symbolic. Also at the confuscious temple, people pray to the gods or worship  for educational wishes.  So students would come and worship to do better in school...etc   

The temples are typically elaborately decorated with lots of hand painted very detailed woodwork.  You can always tell a temple because the roof line always looks like the one above.  So they have this intricate design with dragons or other symbols. 

   

Outside of the temple was a prayer wall where you could pray to the gods for something you wanted. So i wrote down a prayer and placed it on the wall..bet you cant find it!  There also seems to

 be a stamp with a symbol representing that temple or building, so the red marks on the yellow paper are the stamps..

After visiting the temple our next stop was to find lunch.  We were headed to the most famous noodle place in Taiwan.  This place has been around since the early 1900's.

This was my lunch...I am not exactly sure what is in it, but i do know there were super thin rice noodles which i love....this tasted very good.

I think there was some pork also....i cant really compare but it was definatly better than most. dishes i have had and it didnt have the typical taste that i find in so much food here.  Ill talk

 more about the taste of food later....

This next image is of the man that makes the bowl of noodles and stuff.  He hand pulls the

 noodles and throws em in boiling water, then adds a little this and a little that...and BAM you have a great little bowl of noodles...highly recommeded!  Allthe dishes in front of him are the ingredients he adds. 

 I dont think you can see it, but directly in front of him is a bowl of hot stuff with a massive piece of sledge on the top...or course it comes to mind? what is this sludge?  well it is 20 + years of residue from whatever is being cooked in that dish..i think its pork.  Yeah so 20 years ???? i inquired.  The answer i got was that as all great foods in asia, the flavor is in the residue so the longer you can keep it, the better your flavors become.  For example, sometimes for deep fried foods they dont change the grease often, because it contains the flavor....I would consider that the flavor that i find in alot of foods here, that i do not like....its almost impossible to avoid.To be clear these noodles as shown above, did not have that taste, despite the sludge on the cooking dish.  I find myself not being surprised by these kinds of things anymore.  I am always ready to hear it and am usually hungry enough to try it.  I trust my taste buds and instincts to tell me not to eat it.  I run into something daily that i get the warning not to eat and dont eat it. I have been able to tune this instinct during my many trips here to asia. 

Our next stop was to some type of market/temple and war museum.  They all happen to be with in the same block.  This is typical.  So almost all over the place, including outside temples you will find street vendors.  On every street just about everywhere, you will also find these

 street vendors.  Sometimes they are not clean and its obvious.

other times like the image to the right, they are clean and you can just tell it will be ok to eat.  you might not like the taste, but it wont make you sick....

so in this image they are making something like an onion pancake. dough, onions and deep frying it.  90% of food here is deep fried.  They say americans eat bad, but in

 comparison, in my opinion, the food here has SO SO SO much more grease.  everything is deep fried and if it is not, then it is cooked in a pan with many tablespoons of oil. even fresh vegetables.  

the onion pancake was good, reminded me of an onion flavored dough boy....Thats IT!  most of the food here is like we would see at a fair or carnival...all these little vendors cooking whatever.

Here is another street vendor....He is selling these "sea shells".  Despite my absolute disbelief that people bought these and air them, i did see people eating them.  

They would take the shell and suck our the inside...DISGUSTING!  i did not try them nor was able to watch for too long....

Right beside the shell street vendor, was my favorite street vendor!  "Ah yes Dragon Beard Sugar". a sweet delicious treat.  So basically they take sugar that i think has been mixed with butter and allowed to harden back up into a yellowish harder blob.  They take a handful of the blob and start to stretch it with their hands(wearing gloves! yes!).  they make it into a snake (like play dough) and then keep stretching it while dipping it into flour.  so it makes this super

 thin (like angel hair spaghetti, even thinner),

 strands of sugar, butter and flour.....after they

 stretch it enough for all of it to be in little strands they cut it into small sections and stuff it with sesame or peanut powder and make it into a little ball.  Sounds a little strange, but it is great!!!!

In the image you can see she has pulled the dragon beard candy and is filling it with peanut powder before rolling it up and placing it in the little white container.

So i liked this so much when i tried it, i bought one when we were leaving to take back to the hotel in Taichung and enjoy during my week.  Unfortunately, after i returned to Taichung and when i attempted to open it and have a taste, the candies had gotten too hot and melted back into a single blob, so no more angel hair sugar.  I was a little disappointed.  Hopefully i find it again before i leave. 

Another stop was outside of the temple/war museum/street vendors....This is a photo of a burial ground.  This is only 1 type of burial ground that is here.  

As you can see in the picture there are tombs as far as the eye can see.  some are smaller which contain urns.  others are larger because they

 contain caskets.  it seems very surreal. almost creepy.  What is odd is that they are absolutely packed in like sardines.  There is only maybe 6 inches to a foot in only a few areas of space.  They are literally side by side and in all directions.  It looks as though there is no organization and very unlike the typical rows that you would see in a grave yard in the states.

This type of burial ground is typically that of the rich here in Taiwan, simply because this type of  tomb costs so much.

The other type of burial ground here consists of a building with small little sections and doors where an urn is stored.  they have rows and rows with many floors.  this is the less expensive type of burial.

Burials, honoring the dead, temples and worship are all a very common practice in the religion here.  For example on the 1st and 15th of every month, everyone worships the land god.  They sacrifice fruits and vegetables, burn incense and worship.  There are temples in every area and town.  So the people of that area will visit the land temple every 1st and 15th, sacrifice fruit and other foods....they will also burn paper money, it is fake money but it is symbolic.  The burning happens near the streets.  So if it is the 1st or 15th, you will see people doing this all over the place....now keep in mind it is the 1st and 15th according to the lunar calendar....so it is close to the same dates in our calendar but not quite the same days.  Sometimes the dates fall on the same days, but not always.

This last image is of me at the war museum.  Standing on the balcony with the temple in the background.

As you can see it was a busy long day!

tb