One Year

Even if it may not seem so, I landed in Taiwan exactly a year ago, in a cloudy and humid April afternoon, after a long trip from Europe; with some vague images about this place in my head, but, in reality, with a whole world to discover. How many changes and how many new things I have experienced in one year; positive, most of them. I have met a large bunch of people; with some I have some kind of friendship, not with all, of course; some have already left the island, while others have just arrived; a very reduced number of people have gotten very close, some one much much more. New roads.

Right now, I am looking ahead to the second year. A lot of work to finish, and more to start. With doubts, certainties, knowing what is coming, gettig ready. Excited and not missing too much the land that I left behind —that does not mean that I do not miss them—, and wondering if I should look even beyond that. Maybe it is too early yet.

A year is made of many scenes, little details, big ideas, sad moments, exciting instants, unforgettable memories. I cannot cover it in a few lines. So, I must keep on walking. To be continued...

Little bottles

This is a very usual image in the streets of Taiwan

two, three, four little plastic bottles filled with water and hanging from the bottom of a more or less large shop awning, trying to keep it in a vertical position. Not all the shops have them in this way — because some have a metallic structure attached to the wall to do just that—, but you can find enough of them to appreciate the popular solutions very quickly. Sometimes, depending on how strong is the wind or on how fast you walk, you'd better pay attention to avoid hitting your head against them.

Relax

I finished the three nights of observations that I had scheduled for this weekend on the early morning today. Luckily, I could finally do more than I imagined in a moment of almost despair during the first night. When I check the data more thoroughly, I will see if there is anything particularly interesting there.

Right now, I must go back to a normal schedule. I only slept a few hours again today, because I wanted to attend a talk at noon. So, I will be sleepy for a little bit longer. In any case, I realized, when I was going back home this morning, that the word of the day is relax, even if I have to do some work, of course.

Why?, well, as I was walking back home this morning, as on Friday morning, it was almost five and the sky was getting light. It was that very quiet moment, in the twilight, just before it is too bright. There were people already exercising around campus. The funniest ones, three old men that were doing something that resembled gymnastics, accompanied by choral music (buddhist?, religious?), very calm, which at that time seemed to engulf everything in it. In fact, it was that way on Friday, because yesterday they were chatting before starting, I guess. Very relaxed already.

No IYA

This year is, as I guess you have seen advertised in many places, the International Year of Astronomy. For that reason, professors and students of Shida held several activities to promote Astronomy in Taichung this weekend: some talks, observations with telescopes, etc. They have been working at it during months and they asked me if I wanted to give a talk to high-school teachers, similar to the one I gave here last year. Yes, of course, I said.

The problem was that, first, my observations were scheduled for this weekend and, later, my talk in Tsing Hua was also delayed to last Friday. Everything at the same time!. At first, recklessly, I thought that I could manage to do it all, provided that I could get some sleep in the buses; but they convinced me not to do it, because I would end up very tired, and the audience was changed to primary school teachers, for whom English can be an additional major problem. In short, I stayed in Taipei, maybe well rested, but I feel bad for them. I hope that they had better weather down there than we had here, because it has been cloudy and/or raining the whole weekend.

Talk at NTHU

Last Friday was a very tiring day. I spent the early morning hours, until five in the morning, doing some remote observations —not the ones that I had planned to do; a little disaster in fact, because I did not check a basic thing, but once the dates were set there was not any other solution—; sleep four hours and get up to take the bus to go to Hsinchu, to Tsing Hua University to give a talk in the afternoon. After that, go back to Taipei, because I had another night of observations. I slept a lot yesterday.

But I am not complaining. The talk was fine, even if I have done better ones. I had a very nice coffe after the talk with some of the people there, the day was beautiful, and I could see a little bit of nature out of the cities. Very impressive, the white flowers in some of the trees of the forests I saw from the bus, which, from the distance, seemed to alternate between dark green and whitish green colors; it looked as if there was snow on the hills. Thanks to that, because the buildings along the way are not really pretty.

The best of all is that I have almost done all the urgent things I had. Now, I will be able to go back to a normal life again.

St Jordi

St Jordi's Day (St George's Day) in the distance always feel very strange. To me, it is one of the more magical days in Catalonia, with roses and books, Spring in full bloom and, usually, accompanied with good weather (or that is how I always remember it). When you are away, you cannot see the flower and book stalls, people on the streets, with roses in their hands, couples meeting, the smell of the air, the particular light of that day, all that. Far away, it is not a special day for people around you, but it is still for you. And I always did something on this day if I could.


Today, after days of rain and clouds, we had a very sunny day, a blue sky with white clouds, and warm, as it should be. Perfect to remind me what day it was, even on the far end of Asia.

And yes, I could find a red rose, small but very pretty, to give to a beautiful girl.

Post-docs

There is a new activity since last week to increase the interaction between post-docs at the ASIAA: postdoc tea every Wednesday. To drink something, eat some cookies and talk about something. I went there last week; not this one, it was raining and I was busy. And, after all, seeing what I have to do there, maybe it is best to save it for another moment.

All this post-doc stuff is very curious. I am not really used to it, because in my stay in the US, I only interacted inside our group, where we ended up being quite a number of people, but it was something different. Here, there are many post-docs in the institute. Most of them are either Taiwanese or Japanese, and then there are some exotic specimens like me: two or three indians, a canadian girl, and that's it.

Understandably, foreigners are prone to do more things together, because it is normal that Taiwanese post-docs have their own life here and/or other personal goals: they are the ones who will stay in the long run. The way in which everybody reacts to other internal or external issues is also different. People come and go, it is difficult to establish deeper friendships, often relationships are very superficial. I do not generally worry too much about it, but sometimes I can feel tired and disappointed: too much effort for apparently so little. That is the way life is, I guess, and it is ok. Besides, I am also used to look outside these circles for other people, something that my Barcelona experience imprinted in me.

Anyway, you can see why I did not go there today.

Desk

I used, for the first time today, the desk that I have been assigned at the IAA to be able to spend some more time here every week.

It was a request/requirement from the director —you should spend at least one day a week here—, and what can you say?. That meeting with the director was a couple of months ago, but due to the dire space problems they have, before they can move to the new building, they did not find a desk for me until last week. My idea is to come here on Tuesdays, which is also the day that we have, usually every other week, the Star Formation group meeting. Today, I also had a meeting with a french visitor about modelling of the chemistry and it was very convenient to have a desk where I could leave my laptop and my bag. That's one advantage.

My desk's office is full of PhD students, but I am next to the window, in direct view to the Taipei 101. It is another step in my process of integration in the institute's affairs. In any case, it remains to be seen if I will come every week or not, because I feel very comfortable in my other office... and one must fight for his independence.