Botanical garden

Continuing on the pictures of plants and flowers that I put up these last few days, I went to the Botanical Gardens of Taipei last weekend. I had intended to go to take a look for weeks, but for some reason I never remembered to go (probably week-end laziness). I finally did last Sunday. I arrived a little late, but soon enough to take a walk.





It was a beautiful day, and warm. At sunset, it was very nice.



And when I said I was late, it was because some parts were closing around 5pm, or they began watering the plants

Surrender

I do not particularly hate them, but as it happened during my stay in the US, I enjoy not carrying a cellphone, especially if I do not have too many people to call. But after much insistence and taking into account that I cannot use the language/s of the place, I finally could not resist the temptation (or opted for the more reasonable side of the problem) and I sold my soul to technology again.

Last Friday, with the help of a student, I did the deed. I got a new cellphone, then. At least, I will be able to use it in Europe.

Spring

Spring began last Friday, in the evening in Taiwan. At least, the astronomical spring, because it has felt like Spring here these last few weeks. So, to celebrate, some pictures of flowers




and of other non-classified plants

or of blossoming trees.


All very beautiful. And it is a pity that I am unable to take a decent picture of the many, mainly white, butterflies that I see fluttering around campus every morning. It was a long time ago the last time I saw so many in a city.

Toys

After the series of traditional style animals and demons of a few days ago, now a picture I took several months ago, in my visit to Yingge, with a different kind of modern pets. All together now.

Shops

One of the first things that you must learn here is where is the nearest convenience store. Shops that apparently never close —I saw many open even for Chinese New Year— where you can go to buy anything to eat, or to drink, or reading material (if you can read it), or for other small personal needs, at any time.

There are different shop chains, the best known is surely 7-Eleven

part of a Taiwanese economical empire. But there are other, like Family Mart

or OK Mart

etc. You can trust that there will be at least one, open, anywhere you go.

For Rent

As part of the global economy, Taiwan does not escape the world economic crisis. And people begin to be worried. Exports have plummeted, unemployment grows, factories close down or must merge, there are rumours about the reliability of some banks. That is what newspapers print. But I realized the other day that some things are changing around me. For instance, the office that opened in my building in November has been closed for more than two weeks. Or here, at the crossing of Roosevelt Rd and Keelung rd, where there was a car dealer, it is completely empty now and on the outside is the character

zū: for rent. Maybe they are really related to the crisis.

Animals (part 4)

And then, there is the category of small figures, monochrome generally, scattered on the edges or near the tips of roofs. They seem to watch the horizon.



As you can imagine, there may be many, and very different.

More farewell parties

March. New post-docs are surely about to arrive, but at least one, Youhei, is going back to Japan. A funny guy that arrived here a month ahead of me. We had a farewall dinner for him last Thursday. At Shao Shao Ke, a northern Chinese food restaurant in Taipei, also remembered by lots of graffiti on the walls and ceiling.


The food is very good. The typical dessert, made from deep fried cheese ans sugar, is excellent; but it has to be ordered in advance.

A night of eating and drinking.

Observing (SMT)

It is a little over 3am in Taipei right now. I am about to begin the first of two nights (or mornings) of observations I have with the Sub-Millimeter Radio Telescope (SMT) in Arizona. I will observe a source in the collaboration I have with people of the group in Madrid where I was two years ago. It is a follow-up of the observations I did in early December.

Maybe the day the paper we submitted is accepted —if all goes well—, I will tell you more about it. Now, it would be a little bit too early. If we are lucky with the weather, we will observe lines of CO, ¹³CO and C¹⁸O. Nine hours today and nine tomorrow. I will spend this weekend either working or sleeping. That's Astronomy.

Flowers

Since I arrived to Taiwan, I can tell how the weather changes as the months go by and you can probably say that there are seasons; but the differences are not so large as in other latitudes. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that spring was here. Leaves are sprouting again on many of the trees that had lost them and there are many flowers, preferentially white, pink or a pale red on the campus gardens.

And while they last, they smell really good.

PS: The name of the flowers in the picture is dù juān: indian azalea.

Fog

The buildings fade away; the mountains?, nowhere to be found. Fog covers everything.

Can you find the Taipei 101?

I cannot. Taipei, yesterday afternoon.

Animals (part 3)

Another kind of little demons (maybe lions or dragons, too, I do not know) to finish, for now.


watching a bridge,

just lacking a cigar in its mouth

Clash

Different cultures, such as Taiwanese or Japanese, deal with things in different ways. Then, it must also be taken into account that each person inside a culture is probably like a very different island from the next one. The result?. Sometimes there are very strange encounters, almost collisions.

I witnessed a colossal one yesterday. In the end, we did not know what to do, whether to laugh or to get annoyed at the surrealism surrouding it, when we realized that we had wasted two hours in a meeting that had turned irrelevant at the last possible moment. I will not go into details, but the more I think about, the funnier it is. Some people are truly special.

By the way, anybody interested in doing a postdoc in Astrophysics in Taiwan?

Animals (part 2)

Today, a few dragons. They can be on roofs, very colourful,


or in a fountain (Marvel style)

or fighting over a sphere (maybe the world)

Animals

One of the first things you can see when you walk by, or enter, one of the temples strewn over Taiwan are the lions, demons, dragons or other animals, some made of stone, others from different materials, standing at the doors, or on columns or roofs. They can also be found in front of other singular buildings.

They may have different symbolic meaning, especially dragons. The ones guarding the doors are the ones that look more terrible, but their purpose is not to scare the faithful, but keep away bad spirits and other evil creatures. That is why they are shaped in those wild and contorted poses. It looks like not any two of them are the same, even if they are similar. Perfect motives for a camera, even if it took me a long time to realize it.

For today, some examples of lions. The first two were a pair at the door of a temple





This one, huge and not very traditional looking


And I am not sure what is that, if a lion or a dragon


More to come, soon.

Paths

Have you ever wondered why do you follow a certain route on your way from home to work, or anywhere else? —particularly if you walk, because it is not so easy to try when using other means of transportation.

That is a question I have asked myself again since I am in Taipei and I walk from my apartment to my office in the Shida campus in the mornig (or to the ASIAA). What a silly thing, isn't it?, but I think I have changed my preferential route three times in these few months. Why?. A mix of looking for the shortest distance; finding one with less traffic and, consequently, safer and not so noisy; or just because I needed some change. It reminds me of my high-school days; how the initial route, maybe slightly more efficient, changed for more pleasant ones. It is not so easy to explain if you do not experience it.

Something similar happens here. During the first few months, I alternated between a shorter route, but with cars and scooters whizzing by at an inch from me, and another that followed Roosevelt Rd, very noisy. Until I found a narrow street that cuts across the middle, even shorter and very quiet. We will see how long it lasts, because one needs some variety in life.

Cartoons

I have never been to Japan, yet, but when I think about it, a mix of high-tech and manga images come to my head. Taiwan is not the same, but many people say they look alike. Sometimes, I feel I am living in a cartoon land. As an example, this figure that sits at the entrance of the Shida campus in Gongguan

Nobody has managed to give me an explanation of its meaning, but it is taken care of: changes in decoration, it is clean. I cannot imagine anything like this in Europe.

Ring of clouds

These last few days, specially in the afternoon, the Taipei basin is covered by clouds that can reduce a lot visibility and make invisible the mountains around the city and some not-so-distant buildings. Today, I could see how the clouds assaulted the Taipei 101 building.

Or began rolling down the slopes of the hills, looking a lot like what some 10000 km away is known as la peluda (freely translated as the "hairy one")

but this one does not carry so much cold with it.

Noodles

Almost at the end of our visit to the Taiwan Folk Village, when we were going back to our hotel, I could see this

recently made noodles left to dry to the air and the Sun of that morning. From what I have been told, this is, more or less, the traditional way to do it and, depending on the different ambient conditions and how strong the wind is, the noodles may have different characteristics. For instance, Hsinchu noodles are famous, very thin noodles on account of the wind of the place.

When I took a closer look at these, it was impressive

and the smell of pasta filled the air. I was almost suddenly hungry.

Baguashan

Near, or in, Changhua is Baguashan (Bagua mountain),

an island of calm next to a very busy city. This place is famous for the giant Buddha statue sitting on top of the hill, which can be seen from all around.


It is a large mass of steel and concrete, of about 22 m of height, fairly modern (from 1961), which can be visited from the inside

up to some point.

I think it is up to the neck, but when we went up those stairs, the access was closed from the third or fourth floor. I don't quite like the windows that pop up at the sides or at the back, though.

Crossing past the open space behind the Buddah, there is a nice three-storey building, the big Buddha's temple, each floor apparently dedicated to a different kind of deities, or maybe beliefs, although they are very mixed in Taiwan.


We had an almost perfect afternoon when we visited the place. The warm Sun and the nice temperature increased the sensation of peace that spreads all over it (even if we could still hear the weak faraway humming of the city at the foot of the mountain). We did not wait until the Sun set, but we could still see the nice changing patterns of the shadows of the statue or the trees of the garden.


In front of the Buddha's sight, just at the edge of the hill, there is the Nine Dragons Pond, related to the history of Buddha. The nine dragons that bathed the just-born Sakyamuni.

We could even see the fountains working


All in all, I think I took far too many pictures