Taiwan Calling

Eric

2009-12-10T16:44:00.001+08:00

I am here with Eric now and he has a few words to say. "What? I don't know. Are you a pig? Are you a handsome boy? That's it."

Interesting.

Mark

2008-06-27T16:45:00.010+08:00

I have arrived safe and sound in California. My flight landed generally on time, at around 8:30 pm, and all went well with luggage, and customs, and immigration. My mother was waiting for me when I came out of the airport, and all seemed great.

We had to rush back to the high desert because we needed to pick up my father from the Palmdale regional airport at around 10:20. Although we knew we would be late, we still made good time on the freeway, but at around 10:30 we got a voice message on my mom's cell phone. As it turned out, my father's flight to San Francisco had been delayed by several hours because of fires in the region and had caused him to miss his connecting flight to Palmdale. Instead he would be arriving at LAX at around a quarter to 2. Since we were already 3 quarters of the way home we decided to return to Lancaster, where I rested for about half an hour. After that I drove alone back to LAX, making excellent time, and arrived at around 1:15 am. But, again I was in for a surprise; my father had taken an earlier flight. But his luggage was still on the flight that was supposed to arrive at a quarter to 2. Also, he wasn't entirely certain that his luggage got transfered from the Palmdale flight to the LAX one. We waited, and 2 am rolled on by, but no flight, and no luggage. 3 am came and went and still no luggage. We waited until they closed down the luggage carousel, and all the employees had gone home. There were no United personal at the airport to ask about his missing luggage. So we came home, arriving around 4.30 am. Tired, I went to sleep, but only slept about 4 hours.

This morning I was still very tired, my soul still lagging somewhere over the pacific (souls not being able to keep up with Boeing 777s, according to William Gibson), and so really didn't do anything. My father attempted to find his lost luggage, but the best he could do was leave a voice message on the lost luggage hot line. Chances are it will stay there unnoticed until way after the presidential elections, but who knows.

I finally fell into a deep sleep around 6 pm, and slept soundly until 9. Now I am wide awake at 2.10 am writing this blog. Tomorrow I hope to rejoin the world, and maybe get something to eat.

Mark

Jeremy

2008-05-07T18:31:00.003+08:00

I am still teaching on this fine Taipei day in May. Two different students, not wanting to be out done by Kevin, have made it clear that they want to post something too. So to begin, we have some comments by Jeremy: "I am Mark's student. I like to play games with Mark because he is very very fun. Also, I like to read Captain Underpants."

They always remember the games, but overlook the teaching. Kids will be kids.

As for Michelle, it looks like she doesn't have anything to say after all. Perhaps I can get her to add something later.

Mark

Kevin

2008-05-07T15:07:00.003+08:00

I am teaching Kevin about blogs right now. He is tearing up some paper, and asking me about computer games. He just said "what are you doing?" So, Kevin do you have anything to say to the world? Kevin said, "Teacher Mark is a pig. And he is fat. And he likes to play games. Oh, and he is crazy."

Well, it is good to be loved.

More later.

Mark

The Fastest Elevator In the World

2007-08-12T01:02:00.000+08:00

I went to Taipei 101 with my son yesterday. The weather was slightly cooler than usual, probably because of the two typhoons that blew through the region. It was nice to just spend the afternoon with my son.

We started the day walking through Warner Village (not called that now actually; I don't know what its new name is). There were a lot of people there, mostly teenagers interested in the comic book exhibition going on at the nearby world trade center. My son was quite happy because we took the bus there. The 912, which we can take from a bus stop near our home, runs from Shenkeng to the Xin Yi district. It is only about a 15 minute ride now that the new tunnel is open; it's very convenient. We walked along the foot bridge that connects Warner village to the department store New York New York and then to Taipei 101. We then took the 'fastest elevator in the world' to the observation deck on the 89th floor. It only took about 45 seconds. The adult ticket was NT$350 (about 10 us dollars) and Matthew went for free. Matthew seemed to have a good time. The view was spectacular.

Afterwards we went to McDonald's, the only place my son actually gets excited about going to other than the zoo.

When my wife came home from work (yes, she works on Saturdays) She asked Matthew what he did. The only thing that he said was that he went to McDonald's. It wasn't until further questioning that he admitted to also "ridding in an elevator."

I am going to cut this short because I have to get up early for some 'quality time' with Justin and Dennis in the morning.

Summer Return

2007-08-10T19:44:00.000+08:00

I am back (again) in Taiwan. It is really hot. I wish I was still at the beach. It was a nice 20 to 25 degrees in Ventura, I sometimes actually felt cold. Taiwan on the other hand is a sauna.

I have been looking on Tealit for work, but I haven't yet seen anything that I find attractive. I guess as September approaches I will be less and less picky. On a good note, Linda at Shi Hsin has managed to get me another class so that now I will have four classes when the semester begins. This means that I won't have to teach as much at a buxiban when I do find a new job.

My good friend Mathias was in Taiwan for a few days and my wife wanted me to help her talk to him about selling her company's product in Europe and Thailand. I had to act as interpreter and I have to say it was very difficult. People talk in long sentences and don't usually give you time to translate. Also, more often than not everyone wants to talk at the same time. It was very frustrating at times. I now truly understand how things get lost in translation. I am sure not looking forward to doing that again anytime soon.

I am writing this on my new MacBook Pro and I have to say that I am very happy with it. Most people give me strange looks when I tell them that bought a Mac. They don't really understand what it is like. I still have my windows machine but I have hardly touched it since I came back. I am sure I will need it for some tasks (like games) but so far I haven't missed it much. Of course I could always try out Boot Camp and then I won't ever have to use it again.

The EBS crew (and alumni) are going out to Odeons next week. I am really looking forward to that. I miss them all very much, especially my students. That's it for now.

Noogy on a Sunday Afternoon

2007-03-11T17:58:00.000+08:00

I am back in Taiwan now. It is Sunday afternoon and I am waiting for Dennis to get his shit together. I am not sure if that will happen anytime soon. But if he can, then we can play some bloodbowl and start some killing.