Technology

Internet is wonderful, especially for all the little tools to be found and to be used so easily. As you probably know, this is the English adaptation of my original blog written in Catalan. Maybe somebody reads this or maybe not, but it is a personal experiment. Recently, I added to that blog one application, if you don't deactivate javascript, that facilitates the translation of the blog to many languages using the Google translator

The translations are quite fast and the results are... well, as they are. They can be more or less good depending on how I play with the structure of sentences. But it is very funny to see what you wrote in Catalan translated to Chinese and only be able to understant a few characters. In any case, it can be used to practice or to help somebody to understand what I wrote.

This doesn't mean that I will stop writing here, at least not for now, but you know where to go if you want to read the posts I may not duplicate.

Typhoon Day

We had the visit of another typhoon, Jangmi, this week-end. They are popping up everywhere lately, almost at a rate of one per week, but not all of them reach Taiwan —I saw right now that there is one approaching Vietnam. This time, specially yesterday, the wind was much stronger at home and the rain did not stop at all. I think there was some influence from the monsoon more to the Southwest too. So we have had three days of non-stop rain.

The typhoon touched ground last evening and it apparently was lost in the (tall) taiwanese mountains. It is very curious to see in the radar images all the turns it made until it found the other coast and left. As a result, the government decreed a day off for schools and official places, and I think also for banks and other offices. So, I stayed at home, but the weather was not so bad as yesterday. It was still raining, but without any wind.

This is what they call Typhoon Day: a holiday because of the forecast of very bad weather. I am sure there are people that really look forward to it. It is my first one. I missed the previous one, because I was in China. Some people would say that I missed a holiday.

Horns

More street scenes. I was walking up Roosevelt Rd yesterday evening in the direction of the ASIAA where I had to meet two postdocs to go have dinner and talk about serveral things related to group meetings. It was past six, which is when it seems that there is more traffic, and more chaotic, and I could hear a siren. There was an ambulance trapped on the other side of the street, in the middle of many cars and scooters. While I was walking by I kept looking at it and almost nobody was moving. Probably because they could not do it, or if they did it was very difficult.

What surprised me the most, in the more or less one minute that it took to the traffic wave coming from the downstream light to arrive, was that I could not hear any car horn. I am sure that there would have been a concert in Barcelona, among the people that would have wanted to move aside to let the ambulance pass, the ones who could not do it, the ones who wouldn't do it and the ones who are more righteous than anybody else. Not here. I may have talked about it before, but they only use the horns in extreme, for them, cases. Sometimes in normal situations, too. I am grateful, because the last thing we would need is to have something like I saw in China with the huge amount of traffic here. But, at the same time, I am beginning to think that it may make it more difficult to get used to the way they drive here.

The Last One in the List

Ok, another talk done, and I have finished with all of them, even the ones that popped out of nowhere. This last one was remunerated, since I am not directly affiliated with NTNU —I am in another strange position, for a change. Not bad at all. The audience was not specialized, many people were not in Astonomy, and I tried to adapt to them. I only hope they understood something. As usual, I got a couple of ideas from them.

Not a bad day, and we even managed to do a two-way videoconference with Skype. The little one is not so much, but she moves more than ever.

Remains

When you arrive to a place so far as this one, you must look for an apartment, and then you spend several weeks looking for furniture, household things, matresses, etc. And the other way around, when you must leave the country. You spend days and weeks trying to sell them, or giving them away, or finally throwing them away. You can't and it's not worth it to take most of the things. So, there are several cycles of people passing things from one to another.

All of us who have been away have done that at one point or another. In the end, at least for me, I don't care how much I can get from all the stuff, I only want to get rid of it and forget about it. So, the australian couple have spent a few weeks trying to sell their furniture. There were a couple of things I might have been interested in, but since my apartment was already furnished and they were secondary things, I did not decide to buy any.

But yesterday at midday, they called me to ask me if I wanted a foldable mattress that they initially intended to take with them, but had finally decided not to do it. Typical. So, I went to his office today —they already left this morning— to take it. It's not small. I was a colourful character walking down the street with it, I guess. Specially late this evening, it was windy and rainy.

Well, if anybody pops up at my apartment now, they won't have to sleep on the floor or on the couch.

Open House

There is only one left. Talk, I mean. I gave the one that was cancelled last week because of the typhoon yesterday afternoon. I had been asked to give this talk inside the Open House day of the department of Earth Sciences of NTNU. About "the Invisible Universe".

The talk was for high-school students that had been the whole day doing several activities. Even if their English was fairly good, from what I could hear, one of the PhD students was translating or summarizing what I was saying. That made the talk proceed very slowly, but maybe it was better for them. Taking into account that I had not had much rest the night before, the talk went really well. The students seemed to be very interested and attentive, and they asked me many questions, which doesn't seem to be so usual. Well, maybe the selection of pictures I had made was interesting enough.

After that, the real Open House started. They had installed four telescopes in the building's roof and there was also free access to the dome that holds the 45-cm reflector. I didn't stay too long, because I was very tired, but I could see many people going up, with the ever present young astronomy fans that want to know about and look at everything.


After all the work of several weeks, I believe that the organizers can be very happy. There is another typhoon nearby and we have had nice days lately again. At least, you could see Jupiter and three of the galilean satellites very well yesterday. That's no small feat for Taipei's night sky.

KTV. Part 2.

As part of the farewell party of Simon and Lisa, we went to a KTV again last night. Some of us spent more than 8 hours in that room; another, japanese, went directly from the airport to the KTV around midnight, and was welcomed with a big ovation. All in all, a memorable KTV session, that I am afraid it will be difficult to best.

It was very funny. Apart from playing the clown singing, we laughed ourselves silly. Even after the first time I went to a KTV, I didn't imagine I was going to have such a good time. This was a different one and there were many more English and Japanese songs. And you could tell.


Anyway, if I could sing the Hanoi Rocks's song Tragedy, you can imagine how it was.

Tea time

One of the traditions at the IAA is the tea time at about 3pm. It's a moment when most of the people there get together, if they are not too busy. There is coffee and tea for everybody, with cakes, cookies or fruit. Some special days, be it because somebody is celebrating something, like having a baby, to welcome somebody new, or to say goodbye to somebody who leaves, the amount of food can be larger and more varied, and of better quality. Since I am staying in a different campus, I miss most of them, if I am not there because of some talk or paperwork I had to do.

Today, we said good-bye to Simon, an australian postdoc that was here for more than a year and a half. I became friends with him and his partner, Lisa, not only because they are some of the few "westerners" here. So, we have had the traditional giving of keepsakes, good luck wishes and all that.

It's surprising how many people I have met that is leaving. The postdoc's fate. As it happens, his next postdoc is in Barcelona.

We still have KTV tonight, though.

Píjiǔ

I was asked yesterday if there was any beer in Taiwan. Of course, there is. Apart from the bars that have specialized in imported belgian beer, of high alcohol content, or other american or european beers, there is also beer brewed in Taiwan. The ones I have tried are generally similar to a Heineken, a little softer probably. There are two main brands, one maybe better that the other. Neither spectacular.

I saw one beer very different last Friday. I was told later that it was part of a special edition brewed by a taiwanese beer lover who brews his own beer. One night, I had tried one of his, 14 per cent, that he had brewed to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the bar where we were. This one has something else

a Creative Commons license. It has a version number too: 3.2. An open source beer. It wasn't bad at all, belgian type, but with a different taste. I don't think you can install Linux on it... yet.

Water

No, the typhoon has not dragged me to the sea. I have only been too busy to remember to write anything. Now I think I finished the more urgent things.

We saw the Sun again today. We had been seeing only cloudy skies for days, but there was a beautiful sunset this afternoon. The typhoon has gone away and now it is going slowly towards the south of Japan. It was still raining hard yesterday morning, softer and on and off, the rest of the day.

But, how much rain these last days. I read in a newspaper that they estimate that it fell 1 metre of water in the mountainous parts in just three days!. Looking at the maps of the rain, I'd say that it rained maybe over 800mm in Taipei. It gives you an idea of the scale of the thing. In the end, because the central part of the typhoon did no cross over Taipei, the wind was not as strong as I had expected, or so they say. I have seen pictures of the damages it has wrecked on the island. Five or six dead people, some fallen bridges, overflowing rivers. Nature does not joke.

Sinlaku

It is finally here. The typhoon Sinlaku has touched ground or it is about to do it. It is a large one and it has spent a few days getting closer, because it is moving very slowly. According to the forecasts, tomorrow is the big day, if I may say it so.


I have seen some very strange changes in the weather this last couple of days. As soon it was raining a lot for 3 minutes as it stopped, there was a fine rain a few minutes later, then another shower, anything. For instance, yesterday evening, I saw an impressive show of changes of colors in the clouds: from red to purple, then blue, and finally gray, in less than 10 minutes; water curtains that don't let you see anything farther away than ten meters, and then a clear view.

The talk that I had to give today was postponed to next week and they cancelled all the events planned for today. So, after buying some more food this midday, I will spend the weekend at home. It was raining the whole day today and, even if it's not windy yet, it's uncomfortable to walk around in this weather.

And the truth is that I have enough work to do to keep me busy for more than one day.

Second one

This afternoon, I experienced the second earthquake since I arrived to Taiwan. I was in my office this time. 6.1 too. The building swayed softly like a cradle. The feeling of rocking still took a while to go. What about people?, they do not seem to care. If the tremors are like this, it's ok.

Now, we'll see if the typhoon that is nearby comes here or not. It looked like one was brewing, because we had splendid weather and clear skies these last three or four days. But there was an odd rain this evening. Very fine, but constant, with almost clear skies on top of me. We aren't exactly bored here.

Night markets

I mentioned them many times, but I think I have never really talked about what it's known here as night markets. And that's what they are, on their own particular way.

In different parts of Taipei, or other cities, there are whole streets, usually narrow, where the shops are open until late. Late depends on every zone and the day: it can be until 9, 10 or 12pm. Every place is different. That's basically a night market: many shops, selling any thing, lots of places to grab something to eat or to drink, be it restaurants or stalls in the middle of the street. All full of little lights, many billboards and people, rivers of people. I was told that one of thing that taiwanese love the most is to go to a night maket. It really looks like it.


I don't know how many there are in Taipei. Some, as the one in Shilin, are very famous and can be found in all the guides. Others, as the ones in Gongguan, Shida or Jinmei, are not so well-known, but that does not mean they are empty, quite the opposite. I was also in one in Keelung. All have things in common, and things that set them apart. There you can buy, apparently, anything. They are specially places where you can try really good dishes, even if the environment does not look like it. So you can try stinky tofu, bubble tea, all kinds of dumplings, fried things, taiwanese oyster omelettes and all those things I have talked about in other posts. And also places where you choose where you want to eat and they cook it in the pot in front of you, while you are in the queue and keep out of the way of all the people coming and going, of course.


When I was in China, I saw one in Jiayuguan too, but it was small compared to the ones in Taiwan. I guess they must be very different in the big cities.

Thinking about it, it's been quite a few days since the last time we went to one, not counting going to a restaurant nearby. Oh well, I don't think it will take too long to go there again.

Storm

Nobody knows where it will begin. You thing you are going to talk about something and that it won't be long and, all of a suddent, you find yourself in the middle of a road filled with possibilities and many different ways to go. Even if it is always a little bit dark and you presume that many of the possible paths go nowhere, it is always very exciting to follow them until you reach that obstacle that definitely blocks your way.

That is what happened to a french postdoc, who has been at the IAA for five years, and me. I wanted to talk to him about a proposal we were planning on submitting to use the SMA (Sub-Millimeter Array) on a subject I do not have much experience with. We were there for more than two hours, because during the process of understanding what was the goal of the project, if it was feasible or not, what could we get from it, ideas started popping out, related to the original one or not, of other things to try. We left the room with two or three ideas that had to be further explored, and we only had written a few sketches and notes, nothing really defined and well thought-out.

I do not know what will come out of it, not much probably —we have already seen today that we'd better forget about one of them—, but there are few more attractive things than a good old-fashioned brainstorm. It is the beginning of a road that you never know where it will take you. All in all, that was one of the goals of my travelling so far from home.

Return

To finish already. The return trip began by taking the train from Jiayuguan to Lanzhou. Bunks again, but the boarding of the train was less chaotic than in the previous trip. I fell asleep very fast again and I continued sleeping, even if somebody in one of the bunks around me was snoring so loudly that he was probably heard from Beijing. I was too tired to care.

We went back to the hotel where we had left our luggage on the way out when we arrived to Lanzhou, to have breakfast in the restaurant. It was the easiest option. Even if it was mainly another chinese breakfast, there were some sweet things, even some milk, and it tasted like heaven after having breakfast that seemed lunch for a week. Chinese breakfasts are something from another world.

The more adventurous part of our trip back began when we took the taxis to go to the airport, which is located far from the city. We were about 20, counting the taiwanese, koreans, and people from other places. We took six taxis, with at least one mandarin speaker in each. I was in the last one, with a guy from the Philippines and another from Malaysia, but from chinese origins. So, when our little convoy started, I had a little bit less than two hours before my flight, and soon we saw that it would take some time to get out of the traffic nightmare of that city.


After a while, it was clear that we were not following the same route that we took on our way in: we were in the right direction, that is westwards, but we had not crossed the river yet nor taken the desert highway. When the malayan guy told the driver, they began a very curious conversation. It wasn't clear if they were quarreling or if that was their usual way to talk, as sometimes happens. The driver said that there were two ways to go to the airport. So, why did he take that one?. I don't know, we guessed later that maybe they were saving some money off the highway tolls. The ride had its own charms though: we stopped once midway in a gas station to refill the tank — and because the taxi used that compressed gas, we had to wait outside the car, standing, for security reasons; yeah, that was the last thing we needed— and later in order to fill the tires of another taxi (yeah, when they were already warm). We could also see the more industrial and poor side of Lanzhou. So much so, that the filipino guy said when we were crossing some streets, with roadwork all around, muddy and with humble houses, that it looked like the worst neighborhoods of Manila. There was also a thick smog all over that made everything look dirty and polluted, very different from the clean looking appearance of our way in.

We got into the airport highway in the end, and when I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get to the airport, we were almost there, with time enough to check our bags and say goodbye to the other groupgs. Of course, our flight was then delayed for a little over an hour, because the Changsha airport had been closed. I could then enjoy another great exhibition of how to jump the line made by the locals and also to savour the blocking abilities of one of the taiwanese students (she was as good as an NFL tight end).

There were no further problems. The luggage zone at Changsha in the domestic flights terminal was literally a madhouse —I'd better not describe how packed and "watered" was the men's room— with people running around everywhere, who knows how many thiefs. But they checked that the bags you took were really yours. The international terminal was the complete opposite, almost the definition of peace and quiet. It was closer to a hospital.

The flight from there to Hong Kong was as placid as can be, and we could see a beautiful sunset and the show of the clouds with a storm far away (I could see wonderful lightning inside the clouds). In the end, dinner in Hong Kong while we waited for our flight to Taipei. Some kind of dumplings with bubble tea. Tasty.


When we arrived to Taiwan, and thanks to the students it was easy to find a taxi to take me home, I was really tired, from the trip and from so many intense experiences in so few days. A very interesting trip. And a lot of fodder for the blog too.

Passports

I am sure that due to the unusual international status of Taiwan, there are probably many curious, strange or just plain ridiculous procedures and situations in their dealings with China and other countries of the world. I say that because I have already experienced several.

The citizens of the ROC (Republic of China) have two passports. One is the passport they use when they go around the world, Hong Kong included. With dark green covers, it's a normal passport. But if they happen to travel to China, they cannot use it and then they carry as identification a kind of passport, issued in Hong Kong, with light green covers, which is the one they must show to the chinese police. I would say that the people from Hong Kong have something similar. Of course, both documents have different numbers.

So, we were in Chengdu airport, checking our luggage again to fly to Lanzhou, when four of the taiwanese students of our group found that, because of a mistake of the travel agency, their electronic tickets had the taiwanese passport number. Well, to be more precise, the sour-grapes-faced woman who was doing the checking told them and added that they did not recognize that number, and that was all (translated, screw you).

Fortunately, in the age of internet and electronic tickets, they could phone to Taiwan and ask the travel agency to correct the numbers of their tickets. They went back to the same counter, already when the checking should have been closed (but it was China and you know...), and the same woman checked their bags without making any comment. They must make a point of it, of course. As if we didn't know already. Incidentally, my last name was wrong in all my electronic tickets (they interchanged the r with the t), but nobody said anything about it. It is not so strange, if we take into account the different alphabet and how difficult it is for them, but they don't care, I am not important.

It was even funnier when we had to check our luggage to go back to Hong Kong. The students showed the chinese document to the air company lady, but she told them, no, no, I want the other one. They had to show the chinese one to cross the last control, of course. The nice things of these non-nationalist people!.

Rainy night

Little things. Last night, it started raining, very hard. It's not anything I have not seen before, but it had been weeks since the last time I had heard raining that it wasn't in the afternoon. In fact, I could not really tell at first if what I heard was the rain falling onto the little roof of my balcony or maybe a truck. And it sure did rain a lot. There was a torrential rain for about half an hour, as many I have already seen here. After a grey and cloudy day, I did not imagine that it would finally rain like that. It kept on raining this morning for a while, and it had also been many days since we had had a day so foggy as today. It seemed that I was in a different place and in a different season, because the temperatures were also lower.


Going back to last night again, the street turned into a kind of river and the cars and buses were splashing all over. It stopped raining before midnight, while I was finishing, really eating up, a Raymond Chandler book (The Lady in the Lake). Imagining that Marlowe is Bogart, following the characteristic rythm of Chandler's stories, and enjoying his always excellent dialogues and plot twists could not have a better backdrop than the sound of the tires of the cars rolling over the wet asphalt. It does not matter that it's not LA, you cherish that feeling so vital and distant at the same time, with a little touch of loneliness and emptiness, that a good 40s film noir movie is always able to convey.

Eclipse

At about 18:15, the eclipse began, with the known sequence already familiar from partial eclipses. In spite of that, I could feel how my excitement was growing. I guess, everybody's. The solar disk was progressively dwindling in the next hour and a gradual darkening could be appreciated in the air about us. My excitement reached its peak when the eclipse attained the maximum. What a difference!. To be able to look at the Sun with the naked eye and see the black disk of the Moon circled by the dazzling corona of the Sun. Near by, Mercury! and Venus. I took a couple of pictures, but they are not very good.


I have managed to get this one, from one of the guys in our group, which probably gives a better idea of how it was.

It wasn't completely dark, particularly because the whole horizon, which we could see very clearly, was lighted. There was a very strange light in the air, as if from below to above. Everything seemed very quiet at the same time. I can't really say if it was because of me or maybe the few birds around had really fallen silent. I remember a great feeling of quietness, while I was bursting inside. It was something that I had wanted to see for many years and I could finally gaze at it now. It may be somewhat ridiculous, but I was filled by all kinds of emotions and memories. A truly unique and spectacular experience; I think I can understand why people were so upset by it in the old ages. Even knowing what was what I was seeing and making sense of many things, I could not escape the feeling of enormity of the things happening in front of me.

Suddenly, a ray broke the edge of the black disk, and we had to put on our dark glasses again. The ocultation had finished, and the eclipse was beginning its way to the end. Two minutes that lasted so long and so little. I would say that there was a big explosion of euphoria among people at that same moment, and everybody was talking about it, taking pictures of everyone and everything, things like that. Sharing the experience. Happiness.

But, sadly, my bus had to leave an hour later to go back to Jiayuguan, so we could take the train that would return us to Lanzhou. Last pictures, many, many good-byes. Many mixed emotions and last unforgettable looks. The sunset that made us company at the beginning of the way back was a beautiful closing to a very intense day.