Stamp

This is something that we do not have back home

It is my personal stamp to be used in official documents, in the bank and places like that. It's a small piece of wood attached to my name in chinese characters. I am not sure if it's a method safe enough, but the tradition probably comes from who-knows-which dinasty. You can find stone or carved wood pieces in handicraft shops, so you can have a more sophisticated or nicer stamp. Mine is kept by the ASIAA. I could have it, but since I rarely use it, I don't care. Ah, of course, it's used with red ink.

Paying the bus

One thing you must know when you get into a bus in Taipei is that there are two ways to pay depending on the bus. You pay as you get in in some, when you get out in others, and I have been told that the modality may change when you change zones (there is always some extra complication here). It is not difficult to know what type of bus is the one that's stopped in front of you, if you remember to look at the lighted sign over the driver and look for the character


(shang) to pay as you go in, or the character

(xia) to pay as you get out. I haven't been wrong yet, up to now. Of course, the driver does not seem to mind when you pay, as long as you do it.

EasyCard

The easiest way to use the underground and buses is to buy what they call EasyCard, the underground pass, and move around. It costs NTD 500, 400 for travels and 100 diposit that you are supposed to get back when you return the card. It can be recharged at any time in any of the machines that do it so it can be used indefinitely.


To use it, it has to be put near the sensor placed on the way in and out and it automatically deducts the cost of the trip made. There is not a unique fare, but you pay depending on the distance. For a few stations, four or five, it's about NTD 15, but to go to Danshui is around 50. There is an extra discount of about 25% off the normal price when using the EasyCard.

If you can't or won't use the EasyCard, you must buy a small round piece of plastic that must pass over the sensor when you get in and that you must drop into a slot on the way out. In this case, you must look in advance how much the trip costs, in order to pay the right amount.

EasyCards can also be used in buses. If not, use coins. I am so used to the unified fare system of Barcelona, that it feels strange having to pay twice when changing from the MRT to a bus, but there is some extra discount if you do it here. I am not so sure about how much buses cost. It's NTD 15 for one zone, and I'd say 30 for two zones. People say that buses are cheaper.

My EasyCard is behaving strangely as of late, it takes it a long time to react when I put it on top of the detector, but it still works. I should probably return it and get a new one. The thing is that I also use it to get into my building after normal working hours, and I would have to do the whole process again. Technology: I am using the underground card to get into a building. Magnetic strips are like that.

Buses

Taipei has a very modern metro system, but it does not cover a big part of the city. So, there is also a wide bus network. It is a little bit confusing, because I could not find any bus guide I could understand until a few days ago. And even that is not so clear.


Another solution is to look at the information in the bus stops, but as you can imagine, it is not so easy to understand. This is from one I have close to my apartment

After three months here, I begin to understand some of the names of places I know, but it's just that. I have four or five lines that stop close to my apartment that can take me to my office or to the IAA. I don't usually ride the bus unless I am in a hurry to go to the IAA or, I guess, the day that rains so much that I must take it.

From what I understand, there are several bus companies managing the lines. There are urban and interurban lines. With different prices. The buses are a mix between city buses and coaches in Europe. The seats are more comfortable and, sometimes, the distribution is closer to the one in coaches. As I will tell you in more detail, you can go in or out either through the front or back door, depending on the bus (or through both, because they are not precisely Swiss here).

Some big avenues have their own seggregated lane/s, stops in the middle of the street, exclusive underground pases, etc. I guess it's the only way to escape the rush hour traffic. It is usual to see a long line of buses, one almost touching the one in front, on these lanes. Sometimes, there are lines of up to four of five buses in some stops.


Trips are always interesting, even if it's just because the way they drive. I don't know if it's their style, traffic or the road condition, but you'd better get hold of something. Fortunately, the air conditioning is on all the time. At least, that.

MRT

I have been talking about the MRT for three months. Well, I guess you already know that that's the acronym for Taipei's underground (Metropolitan Rapid Transit). Taipei's metro system is very modern; the first line started service in 1996. It is easy to see in the building style of the stations and in the trains. Everything is new still, well lighted and with a very similar design (many stations look almost the same). It's the same feeling I had in Bilbao. It is also well kept and very clean. One of the reasons is because it is strictly forbidden to eat and drink in it, and you can tell.

Looking at a map of the network,

there are 7 metro lines, but they are really four with different endings or extensions. The metro goes underground in many parts, but there also several open air stretches, either overhead or at street level. So, there are underground and "overground"stations.

I don't know why, but I like riding a metro in open air (I loved it in London and Berlin). I guess it is more entertaining and appealing. They have a huge expansion plan
of the network, which, if it's finished, will give them a very extense mesh. That won't hurt Taipei's chaotic traffic situation.

The stations remind me of the ones in the BARTA in San Francisco, with long platforms to accomodate the many cars of each train. The underground stations look very similar, but I began finding the different characteristics of each one (apart from name) with time. This is the one closer to my apartment, Wanlog.

I think that the separation between stations is, in general, larger than in Barcelona. They must probably cover a longer distance too and this makes the trip faster. It works between 5am and 12:30am, with very decent frequencies. I am not sure how full it can go. I have been in very full cars, but not so much as what you see in Japan.

Getting in or out of the train at the central station (Taipei Main Station) is truly an experience. Two metro lines and the railrorad lines meet there. It is really a sea of people and it is the only place where I have seen a fence all along the platform with doors that are only opened when the train doors open.

Another curiosity of Taipei's metro is that there are lines painted on the platform where people must make a line to board the cars. They are very respected and it is a good idea for very busy stations.

The stops are announced inside the cars in four languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka and English. The lighted signs give information in Mandarin and English. It's easy to find your way and you can practice the characters you are learning.

Fridge

Things one learns when leaving alone and having to leave on a week long, or longer, trip. You must estimate how much food you will leave in the fridge, so as to throw away as less as you can. And you'd better not do it the day before leaving, because it's too late then. It's something to start doing a week before, at least. Of course, if four hungry boys had access to the fridge, they would take care of it, and it would be easy. Being alone, not so much.

I could do it reasonably well in my stays in Columbus and Madrid. It's also always interesting to experiment how well preserved are different kinds of food in the fridge and for how long. It's usually longer than we imagine. Of course, there are always, smelly, failures that set the boundaries of reality.

Itinerary

Ok, if all went well — the taxi that had to pick me up at 4:30am was there, I arrived to the airport and I left&mdash, by the time you read this I will be on my way to the conference in Jiayuguan. These are the routes I will follow in my trip

Taipei-Hong Kong - Chengdu - Lanzhou by plane and Lanzhou-Jiayuguan by train on the way there. On August, 2nd: Jiayuguan-Lanzhou by train and Lanzhou-Changsha-Hong Kong-Taipei. A long trip. I am trying to travel light, no laptop, but I will see what they do to my bag. I'll see what's the Gobi desert like.

Inspiration

OK, I will write a metapost today. According to the counter on the right, I have written 64 posts in this blog and 92 in the "original" one. Some "readers" complained some days ago about my frantic rate of posting. Well, I am sure that they would also complain if I did not write.

I am also surprised that I am still maintaining this blog. At first, I could not imagine that I had enough subjects, time or disposition to do it, but I apparently do. To tell the truth, writing something every day is becoming an addictive habit. I don't think it is because I have any special skill, but I have used two little tricks that have been very useful: make an effort thinking what I could talk about and, when I have any idea, write it down. It's just a matter of spending a little time afterwards typing the post.


What surprises me the most is this thing of explaining (part of) my life in a public medium. Maybe we all have an inner exhibitionist. I want to think that it is a mix of personal therapy and sending messages to my future. Because the day will come when I will like to know what I was doing in such and such day.

True, it seems as if I am beginning to run out of stories, but I think we go from a routine into another. It is in those moments when it looks like there is nothing to tell about. It's not completely true, we only must search deeper or more far away, maybe. Fortunately, there is always an outing or a trip coming to our rescue. I will tell when I am back.

But don't leave yet, there is more coming...

Culture

This is a post I should have put up a couple of weeks ago, when we had that workshop, but the week was so exhausting that I could not do it. And it was exhausting because of the workshop that made me stay out of my office most of the time, and because of the unavoidable social life one gets with people attending the talks: dinner and post-dinner activities. One good thing, though, is that I joined them to do some sightseeing. In the two months or so that at the time I had been in Taiwan, I had made several outings, but few visits around Taipei. And I should start fixing that.

So, on Saturday, two weeks ago, we went to the National Palace Museum, which has one of the most important, if not the most important, chinese art collections in the world. They are basically the imperial treasures, which they took out of Beijing in 49. The museum is located in the northern part of Taipei, far from the city centre and not very well communicated. But we were four, and the taxi was quite cheap.

It had been years since the last time I had entered one of these big museums. Not because I dislike them, but because I know I will end up very tired after the four or five hours I am sure I will spend inside. That's the reason I did not visit big museums in Paris or Madrid recently. I decided to skip this rule and go, this time.


And it was very good. I have never been a big fan of chinese art, but there were lots of very nice, interesting, and impressive things on exhibition. We did not finish visiting the whole museum, because some were too tired and complained, but it was worth it. Particularly, because it is not an unsufferable accumulation of objects, even if being part of the emperor's collections, there are things that only called to the personal obssessions of one emperor or the other. In fact, it could be argued that it is almost frugal. I guess I will go back eventually, it's worth it. Specially, because they change many pieces every few months.

We took a taxi after that and went to the Jade market, which is found closer to the center. I was very very surprised by the amount of sellers and all the different kinds of jades, little figures, necklaces, etc. And the prizes of some!.


Next stop was a handicraft market near the TaiDa hospital. Four stories of all types of chinese handicraft. It's a very good place to find a present or ideas for it.

We finished the evening with a "hot pot" dinner in Gongguan (a pot with boiling soup where you put whatever you want to eat) and some beers to say good-bye to the visitors. Nice, in general. Good company, but I was very tired too.

I also became aware of one funny thing. Compared to just-arrived westerners, how differently I react to things here and how much I am becoming familiar with mandarin. Now, I should study a little bit more, maybe.

Monks

I have made quite a few posts with pictures showing things, buildings, people that are in Taiwan. There is one picture I haven't taken yet though, and I am sure that it is something curious for western eyes. I talking abou the monks, possibly bhuddists, that walk around the streets. It's not full of them, but you can see them quite often, men and women, with the brown or grey robes, very short hair or no hair at all, begging or walking; in the MRT, talking, laughing, coming back from shopping, doing anything. It wouldn't be too hard to take the picture, probably, but it would have been in not very respectful circumstances up to now or too much like common unpleasant tourists.

Talking about that, there is a king of meditation center five minutes from my apartment, where you can see many women in the evening —I guess men must be there at some other time—, in a big hall that faces the street, kneeling, sitting, singing or reading from a book that they have in front of then. It is a very curious palce, with a wooden floor and many little statues, bhuddas or little gods, in many and different positions all allong the wall. All the women wear the same kind of robes, similar to the ones the monks carry, but I have seen different colors in different days. There are two statues of two elephants at both sides of the door of this place. The funny thing is that one of the doors opens to a corridor leading to a supermarket entrance. Welcome to Taiwan.

House keys

There are some obvious things in life, but some take a more transcendental meaning when you are far from everybody you know, in a foreign country and with a language so different. I went through a very brief scare last Sunday night. According to the weird click that made the lock of my door, I thought I had broken the key and that I couldn't go in. Fortunately, it wasn't so, I only turned the key in the wrong way (as I suspected it would happen eventually)

I don't usually have too much trouble with my keys, but some of you already know that I had some strange stories in Columbus: leaving my keys on the outer side of the door (as somebody who reads this probably remembers), forgetting them on a bridge, etc. Nothing special happened, but it's one of the things I try to consciously control, specially if the doors are locked when they are closed, as the one I have here. Every time I go out, or in, I check that I have my keys in my hand. So far, so good, but it's one of those things that just needs one mistake to make you blame yourself for days.

The big question then is where to keep the second set of keys. Inside or outside. Dilemmas.

To the beach

All right, I already swam in the Pacific Ocean. On Sunday two weeks ago, we finally went to a beach north of Taipei. We took the MRT to Danshui, at the end of the red line, some 20 stops from the center, and then a bus to BaiShaWan beach (the White Sand Bay). The bus ride was another interesting experience, because the driver seemed to get crazier with time.

I already knew that taiwanese are not too fond of water, but what I saw was ridiculous. The "baywatchers" had put limits on a place where the water barely reached my navel and got really nervous if anybody tried to cross them. The water was as quiet as in a bathtub, just like in the very quiet days in the Mediterranian. It was even worse, because they "closed the shop" at half six. I was fed up with them. Anyway, the water had a perfect temperature and I could swim a little bit.


Afterwards, I could assist to another sunset at sea, with a very spectacular day at some moments, while we could see how a storm was beginning at the horizon behind the hills.


We took the bus back to Danshui when it was dark, and visited the old street that goes along the river, which is very wide here where it meets the sea. As always, shops and more shops, lights, noises, loads of people and food everywhere. I ended up tasting new things, as usual. In years past, Danshui was one of the more important harbors of Taiwan and still has remains of european buildings:

english, dutch, spanish. To finish, a midnight metro back home and fast to sleep, because I had to be in a workshop at the ASIAA early the next morning.

Street scenes

I think I am beginning to find similarities in anything. Last night, when I was coming back home, I walked by a scene that I don't think it's possible to see in Barcelona, but I am sure it happened some years ago and, I hope, still happens today in small villages. There is a hairdresser's a couple of streets from my aparment. It looks very modern and fashionable. Yesterday, there was a group of people, seven or eight, sitting in front of it below those porches that you would think were made to park scooters in them. Sitting, and drinking and eating. It seemed the typical family or neighbor reunion. They seemed very satisfied with it. It's difficult to see a scene like that in a big city, but I have seen this kind of stuff in Taipei more that I imagined. And it was also probably the best idea, given yesterday's heat.

A minute later, a little out of shape guy jogged by me, panting and puffing. He had a white ribbon tied around his head and was dressed all in white (shorts and undershirt). He was sweating a lot. It reminded me of a mix of some japanese movie and the film of the '36 Berlin marathon, with the two japanese runners in front.

It's true, I write a post about anything these days.

Helmets

I walk by several shops selling motorcycle helmets, in more than one of the several paths I can take to go from my office to home, It is not so surprising, seeing so many scooters on the streets, but the shops look different from the ones I am used to. First, the helmets are just that, they cover the skull but don't go down to the chin. There are few integral helmets; maybe it is due to the heat. The best, though, is the decoration. All colors and designs, many are pink, or have flowers or little cats, or whatever. Now that I have spent several weeks here, I am not surprised any more, but I thought I had stepped into one of the many manga cartoons that are shown in TVs all over the world at the beginning of my stay. Some, similar to bike helmets, look very futuristic.

I like the red one with the white star placed at the last right row. It looks so seventies, Evel Knievel and all that stuff (if you are old enough to remember that, of course).

Kalmaegi

On Thursday morning, the tropical storm was upgraded to a Cat. 1 typhoon. The forecasts said that it should hit Taipei that same midnight. But I guessed that something had changed, because it was not raining and there was almost no wind at about 10:30pm. Yesterday, I saw on the web, at the japanese agency, that as soon as it touched ground, it turned West, and just before reaching the other coast it turned back North and said good-bye. Another postdoc, Simon, told me that that, and the weakening of the storm, is the typical effect of Taiwan's mountain range.

The result was that it rained non-stop the whole morning, since who knows when —it was already raining at 7am when I woke up— until around 3pm or 4pm. I expected more, because I had already experienced this continuous rain in Columbus when the remains of a hurricane that had hit the South reached us. But I am not complaining either. In the afternoon, I could see how the sky was clear towards the East, behind the mountains.

And with this, I finish the weather report.

Ceramics

I can't complain, the postdocs group plan something to do almost every other week. Two weeks ago, as part of the farewell of Jinhua, a chinese postdoc who was returning back home a few days later, we went to Yngge, a city about 20 minutes by train from Taipei, which has a museum of ceramics, and later to SanShian, a city next to it, known by an old shopping street built at the beginning of the 20th century, lined with two-floor red-brick buildings, similar to those of the 19th century factories.

The museum of ceramics was good. It has the typical modern style of this kind of museums, and shows a permanent exhibition of the evolution of ceramics in Taiwan since the aboriginal time to the space age.

There are many curious things about the different styles of making bricks, tiles, bowls and all that stuff, with many mixed influences, chinese, japanese, western. There was also a temporary exhibition of installations and other more modern ceramics, with the typical modern aesthetics, but also with very atractice objects.


We took a bus from there, the price of which was included in the ticket, and went to SanShian, where we visited the Old Street,

which is full of shops selling food, obviously, clothes, handicraft objects, etc. This region was famous for the indigo dyes and the industrialists competed in building the more impressive shop to attract clients. Now, they are shops. Some sell small croissants with viking-looking horns, and some top them off with ice cream.


Later, we visited the temple at the end of the street, which is fairly old for Taiwan, more than 200 years and quite large. And beautiful. I could see how many people were making votive offerings to the gods, lightning incense sticks, leaving fruit and food at the altar, etc. Quite busy!.


We had the farewell dinner when we came back to Taiwan. A new indian postdoc, Kanak, joined us there. He had been only three days in Taiwan and I could finally get off me the "newbie" label. What a character!. He quickly connected with several japanese because of their mutual love for beer. As many other indians, he laughs just about everything. I foresee funny stories ahead.


So, it was a very funny and tiring day.

Weather

How was that saying about getting up early and God would help you?. Today, I think it was the day I was leaving the earliest to go to work and what a shower fell when I had just walked for three or four minutes. It lasted only two minutes, enough to get soaked if you did not have any umbrella or no porches were around. I had both, fortunately. Afterwards, there was only a very fine drizzle.

Right now, 20 minutes after that, I see through my window that it does not rain anymore and that the Sun shines again. We were told yesterday that a tropical storm (Kalmaegi) is approaching, although it has not been designated a typhoon yet. Anyway, I guess that the beautiful days, with blue skies, a shining Sun and white clouds, we had recently are coming to an end. Even if it's very warm, and I know some people do not like this kind of days, I love them. I feel much better with blue skies than with grey ones.

(Back from the Past) The Garbage Truck

(from 20/5/2008)

Right now, sitting at my office, I heard trough the open window the little song that is becoming so familiar to me. It comes from far away, because there is some distance to the street. It is a tune that reminds me a little of the one used by the knife-sharpeners back home, but more elaborated; these are electronic times. What is this music?. The one from the garbage truck.

There are no trash containers in Taipei, and it is difficult to see trash cans either. So, at certain pre-established times, the garbage truck goes by, followed by a small truck that takes care of the recyclable stuff, and everybody must take the bags down to them:



Every place has a different collecting time. It is after 5:30pm in front of NTNU. It was at 5:30pm in a street in front of my window last Saturday. It is just after 8pm at my place and I saw yesterday that it's at 9:15pm on the other side of the street. A little mess. But you'd better pay attention or you will miss it for sure.

The first time I saw it, I didn't quite understand. But japanese have told me that it's very similar in Japan. No wonder, you shouldn't leave any trash fermenting in a container in a tropical country, but I am sure I will have trouble with it more than once. C'mon, get the truck!. Curiously, these trucks do not seem to run on noise as the ones in Barcelona.

Visa (two)

I got my visa to travel to China today (or "mainland China" as many people say here), that is, the People's Republic. Now I can board the plane on the 25th to go to the East Asia young astronomers meeting (EAYAM2008) at Jiayuguan in Gansu. The travel agency took care of everything. I guess that it is a little more expensive that way, but I only had to care about getting all the documents they asked for and to take new passport photos.

I will get the flight tickets any day now. Several students from Taiwan, from different universities, are also attending the meeting and booked the tickets all together. A student here has helped me a lot in all the needed procedures, working as a liason with that group of students. Much easier, because if not I would have been flooded with e-mails written in Chinese. Now I must make my mind about how much money I change. In order to attract more people to the meeting, the local organizing comitee is paying for everything there, but there are always extra expenses.

Let's see how it all turns out. I still have to finish the talk I must give there, which shouldn't be so difficult. I must also prepare my camera for the total solar eclipse of August 1st. That's the real reason for the trip... but don't tell anyone.

Stinky Tofu

Well, I wasn't expecting to do it this way, but it can be said that I officially tasted stinky tofu today. I was at home, thinking what to cook for dinner, when an american student that was here for the workshop and went for two days to Hualien, Taroko Gorge and thereabouts before going back to Baltimore, called me. We met at Gongguan and were thinking about having something to drink.

Since neither of us had had dinner, we had one of these taiwanese omelettes made with oyster (taiwanese oyster) and we tried stinky tofu. I had already done that one night, very late, in a bar, but I didn't think it really counted. I don't know if it was because of the wind today, or maybe I am really getting used to it, but I could not smell it in the street. We finally ordered a small dish to share and there it goes. It wasn't particularly stinking, but the taste was the right one. From all the varieties of fried tofu that I have tasted, this had a special taste. Stinky tofu is a form of fermented tofu very popular in South East Asia and also in Taiwan. Its smell is maybe the first strong and disagreeable smell I remember when I arrived. Believe or not, I have been getting used to it with time and it doesn't seem so stinking now. But I guess that it is the first test the newcomer is put through to have a laugh at his expense.

Little surprise

Life can be surprising and, even if it's not much, I received a nice little present today. Or maybe I should say, I got two.

Today was the first day I could go to my office and do the work I could not do last week. The most urgent task, and maybe the simpler, was to finish the answer to the referee of that seemingly never ending paper that I had almost finished the previous week. So, little by little, I finished everything.

The only thing left was the more dangerous: to run a model with a new ratefile. I must do it sooner or later, but this is probably not the best time to do it. So, I took it easy. Taking all the necessary steps as carefully as I could, and writing everything down because I want to explain it to a visitor. Check the changes that have been done in the formats, which always makes me curse a little, and run the first trial. Terrible results. I tried it again, checking other things, but the more I looked at it, the worse it seemed. Bad, because if don't find any mistake and those are the new results, the paper is screwed.

So I spent a long while making new tests, checking the code, but I saw I was not getting anywhere. So, I went back home, feeling very low, with a little headache and feeling very tired. There were still several things to try, but I didn't count on them too much. It is in these moments when you wish you could fly away.

I arrived home, after crossing the trench that has become the main door —they have been working on the street since last Wednesday at least—, I soiled my brain with some TV and I made a last review. At the same time I found a possible reason for the bad results, somebody knocked on my door. It was my landlady bringing me dinner!. It's a pity that I cannot speak to her and I can only thank her very simply. I don't know if it's because of some holiday, which I know it's coming, or because they received the rent, or maybe they are just like that, but it's been a little big gift that added to the other one (if it works) leaves a very good taste in my mouth today.

Paying the rent

Another month has passed and it is time to pay the rent (and other bills) again. I have all the papers in order, so I can transfer the money from my bank account to the landlady's account. So, on Friday morning, before going to the last sessions of the workshop (the discussion sessions) I went to the nearest ATM to do it. It is good to be able to use the menus in English, but I found problems immediately. After typing many numbers, it looks like it is about to do the transaction, but a message tells me that I have not activated the option. I could have been told at the beginning. An example of excellent programming.

Fortunately, I tried it at normal office hours, so I went into the office just there, looked for a clerk who could speak English, filled up a form that was written only in Chinese —something that I am very used to, and that it is not difficult because they tell you what to put in each box— in order to activate the service and they did it just then. Yes, the card worked perfectly when I tried to do it again. Now, I hope I introduced the right bank account number.

Workshop

It's Friday afternoon. The fifth and last day of a workshop on numerical simulations, chemistry and radiative transfer that has been held at the IAA. It was a more or less informal meeting, with the goal of sharing knownledge and techniques of the three fields. I was told about it on last week, about Thursday, and I was really encouraged to go after my talk on models.

There were all kinds of talks, as usual, but it's been generally interesting. But I am exhausted. All day listening to talks, discussing with people; going to dinner with them; I feel as if my life is turning into chaos. Maybe it's the breakup of routine. So much that it is almost impossible to answer e-mails. But who knows what will come out of it?.

Lottery in the tickets

Every time I bought something during my first days in Taiwan, people insisted on giving me the sale receipt. Ok, they are given everywhere in the Western world and you are supposed to keep them, but it seemed a little bit odd until I was told that there is a bimonthly lottery in Taiwan where the winning numbers have to be compared with the numbers found in the upper part of the sale tickets, which already come printed out like that. The prize is higher the more coinciding numbers there are, beginning from the right-hand end.

It is part of a government program that tries to fight fraud, pirated products and, I guess, tax evasion, encouraging people to ask for the tickets, which are designed by the goverment. There is a web address on the back side where the winning numbers corresponding to the sale months of the tickets are published. I looked it up one day, out of curiosity, but all was written in Chinese. So, I either ask somebody or I will never know what is my luck. Or maybe I must look harder. Anyway, it can be difficult, and crazy, to try to find a number that has any prize


I have been keeping the tickets, but I could as well throw them away, because I understand very little on them.

ps: I made a better search and I found a webpage in English. The result?, keep on trying.

First talk

I gave my first talk at the ASIAA yesterday. It was supposed to be rather informal and I thought it would be short, but it filled up all the available time, after questions and because I (finally) did it slowly. I had been asked to explain something about chemical models of the interstellar medium. And not by people working in the same field I have been usually working, star formation, but on the other end, late stars (the ones getting closer to die, so to speak).

Since it is a rather wide subject, and I don't know that much, even if I have worked with people that know almost everything and something has probably filtered down, I tried to make a simple review and to explain the things you usually do when you make models. Several people told me that it was very clear. I don't know, I always get the impression that I bore them to death. The truth is that they asked many questions and, even more, several told me that we should look into some things and maybe start a collaboration. Excellent, that was the idea, but if things keep going like this, I will be so busy that I won't have time to do anything. What bothers me a little is how fast people tag you as 'the expert' in something. I can't deny I know how some things work, but I think I am still far from being an expert.

Anyway, it's been a way to inaugurate my departamental personal webpage and put there the file of the presentation. Mass communication!.

Taxi drivers

It happened to me a couple of days ago and it happened again last night, and at other times too. I am walking on the street and I hear that somebody is blowing the horn of a car. When I lift my head, it is a taxi driver that is trying to get my attention to see if I want to take it. Of course, they don't know my general aversion to take taxis (long stories to tell about Barcelona that don't matter now). Even then, I still miss a little bit those Columbus taxi drivers, who barely spoke English and did not know half the streets, but had the car full of little prints, trinkets and all kinds of pseudo-religious stuff. The two best ones were two ethiopian drivers, who were some strange version of christians, that didn't stop talking and telling me stories about their lifes.

I felt a little bit bad, not much really, about a guy that almost stopped his car next to me the other day and was short of getting out of it to get me. I didn't even look at him, of course. But I don't know how could they stop sometimes, if I needed them, because they usually don't slow down a bit. They probably would cause a multiple collision. It was funny last night, because the guy used the horn when I was literally under my window. Yes, it was almost midnight, but we had just had the big Thursdays meeting on Wednesday, and I had been helping two very disoriented students.

Of course, I was going with a japanese girl that was looking for a taxi one night, and there were none in sight. She ended up taking the MRT. It must be some part of the test they must pass in order to get their license.

End of term

July is here and you can tell by the amount of students I find in my building's elevator or at the cafeteria. Fewer!. It's been days since I had to share the elevator with 8 other students, while it stops in many floors. Because my office is in the last one, the eighth.

If I understood it right, the system here is of two semesters, so the last exams were last week. I could already see then a square made with tape where there were old and broken things. Since last Monday, I've seen many more. It is some order in trash. A square where people can throw all that they don't want any more. You can imagine. But with the showers that we have almost every afternoon, I don't think that anybody can make any use of them. I saw an old football today, that made me think about the past.

It is also the time when students must leave the dorms, maybe because they finished and are leaving or because they must move to a different building, as a student told me, because their dorm is closed for the summer. There are also students arriving. Yesterday, I saw on and in front of the stairs that lead to the cafeteria a large sprawl of computers, flatscreens, clothes and cardboard boxes, and several cars from which they were unloading more stuff. We only had a narrow path to go through.

Ah, the change of seasons!.

(Back from the Past) Rain

(from 23/5/2008)

I got a little wet today in my (almost) daily pilgrimage between the NTU and NTNU campuses. A hard rain just began, with lightning and thunder, when I left the ASIAA. I thought it could be one of the famous tropical thunderstoms that last about 20 minutes, so I waited a little bit. No way, I decided to risk it half an hour later. Little by litte, and taking a technical stop at a Starbucks to wait if it dissolved or under a small balcony, I reached my office. I have been fortunate of the typical porches that are in many Taipei buildings. Like these


It doesn't take a great intelligence to see what is their main utility. They are also packed with shops and more shops, with all kind of signs, little lights and things to sale.

The rain has lasted for more than an hour, but at the end, even the Sun has reappeared. I don't know if it was a tropical storm caused by the heat or what is to be expected in the rainy season, though. I think it will be a wet evening/night.

NTNU

I told you about Taida yesterday, today about Shida. Shida is the colloquial form of NTNU, National Taiwan Normal University (Kuoli Taiwan Shifan Daxue). Shida is a much smaller university than Taida, but they are really proud of the quality of some departments, specially the Chinese Culture Department. My office is in the little campus that they have in the Gongguan area, which is the Science campus. The main campus is about 2km NW from there. Not very far, but it takes a while walking.


This campus is small, specially compared to Taida's. But because of that, it is very quiet. It has some sport fields, and then an avenue with the department buildings, at the end of which it is my building

and several student dorms. Everything is near by. There is an elevated highway and the river just behind it.

There are not many vegetal decorations, but there is a little garden in front of my building, where I've been having lunch lately if it's cloudy, and a little farther away a small wet area where you can hear frogs at night.



It is a pity that there is a small hell of noise, cars, scooters, and concrete between the Shida Branch campus, as it is usually called, and Taida.