Oded Sharon's Blog

I had this feeling on monday-tuesday. As if the bubble has just bursted. Everything before was “too good to be true”. Now it’s routine, and i start to recognize the down side in everything. I’ll give you a small insignificant example which was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for my bubble. Tea in paper cups. The kitchen here in the office (like many officed) was supplied with tea, instant coffee, and paper cups. This was when i first arrive in the previous three week trip.
I used to drink a cup of tea at least once a day. mainly because all their soft drinks (they have soft drinks in the fridge, which they told me i can have any i want from them) aren’t very good. Most of the soft drinks are either Ice Tea, or some sasparilla soda which i hate. I once or twice actually found Fanta or sunkist in the fridge, and that’s it. So gradually the number of paper cups and tea bags decreased to 0. First the tea bags, when they run out, i started drinking the instant coffee.
The coffee is pretty disgusting. but then the cups ran out. I asked nelson about the soda in the fridge, and about tea and cups. He said that officially, the company only provides one thing. Water. And the fact that there’s soda is just because he had left over cases of soda cans at home and brought it there, And then he said i should ask bob to bring some cups from the bagel shop, because he’s the owner.
It’s not that important, (other then the fact that i think i dehidrated a bit yesterday) but it these little things amongst others that made my “everything’s perfect” bubble burst. It’s not perfect anymore. No more tea. or cofffe. or soda. or cups to drink the free water with.


ADDITION :
Today there suddenly appeared in the kitchenette a box of tea bag that i can use with the hot free water. however, without cups i’ll probably end up with burns on my hands, so i didn’t try to make tea.

I met leo at 13:30 at Bob’s bagel shop. I drank coffee while waiting and the girl who’s working there asked me how to write Humus and Schug.
How do you write actually Schug ?
Leo came and we went to the Beitou hot springs. It’s very nice. everything smells like sulfur, since the spring source is a vulcano…
We ate and went in into a hotel/spa/hot spring pool that Leo’s friend is the manager of, so he got us in for free. The water is hot and nice, and there are 3 floors with pools, small pools, jacousi sized pools, some with actual jacousi. the higest pool floor is the 7th floor which incidentally is the roof of the building. the view is pretty spactacular, and you can easily relax in the warm water looking at the view. I missed Lee.

After a short shower to take out the smell away, we took the MRT (the subway equivalent) and went to Tansui. Nice place, by the river with a long promonade sellng mostly seafood. I tried some barbecued Tofu which was pretty digusting, even tough i got through 2 bytes before i realized it. Then i had some Fish-and-Meatball soup. which was rather nice, and some meat filled steam bun, which was HouJa (delicious in chinese). All in all Tansui is very nice and romantic place. I missed Lee.

Leo is a nice guy, and had a few stories to tell, and he’s into improving his english, so practice makes perfect. Future perfect.

He didn’t mind gonig out on this day and i think he really enjoyed my company, as i certainly enjoyed his. As oppsed to yesterday’s lonelyness..
He claims that at 29, single life is pretty boring. Mainly becuase he’s lazy and spends time couch potatoing in front of the TV. He told me about his army service, and we i told him about mine. Guys in Taiwan have to do 2 years in the army. Girls, don’t at all. He also told me a story about this girl he wants to date which is a bit complicated because she’s 31 and divoreced + kid. But he claim they both like each other, so he’s taking it slow. He kept talking about her all day, so i guess she really means a lot to him. I obviously talked about Lee all day. I Miss Lee.

Hey all.

Unlike the previous 3-week trip to Taiwan, which felt like a very good and long vacation, this time doesn’t. It’s routine, regular, and non-vacationy.
No big show to prepare to, not a lot of touring, just sitting in the office playing games and watching TV on the big screen. And eating.

I was taken with Bob and mark to this meeting with one of the largest taiwanese game publisher companies here in Taiwan. The one that publishes WarCraft III. The entire meeting was in chinese, and every once in a long while, the other company’s big shot, would say something in english, or bob would, and i’d understand something of what’s going on. Other then that it was an hour and a half or boredom. Bob thinks that my presence there by itself, was worth it, and that the other company now thinks they mean business since i’m there. I hope it’s true.
I should really try and learn more chinese, but since there’s so much to learn in chinese and most of their words sounds the same it’s very difficult.
I did learn to say “cooked beef dumplings” : Swei Jau
If i only learn a word per day (which have been my progress so far) i’d knew 30 words at the end. But since the chinese language uses something like 300, it won’t be enough to understand them…

On another note, Bob and his wife Pheobe are expecting the baby this week. I’ll post more when the time comes…

Hey.
I’m back in taiwan.

The flight here was a bit longer then the one i was on before, it went through Bangkok instead of Hongkong. I have 2 extra wasted hours i spent in reading in the Bangkok terminal. But since i did some reading they weren’t as waste…

Just before the landing, at about 3000-4000 feet the plane started swinging as if the autopilot was off, it also looked a bit odd, the swingins weren’t very coherent, and resembled the kinds of corrections i make when i’m flying a Cessna. A boing is not a cessna. And also because the landing gear and flaps were down at the time, it looked odd becuase they usually don’t open them so high. Then all of a sudden the engines went up again and the plane started ascending. I knew there was something wrong and that the captain did a “go around”. He said something in chinese, and later repeated a part of it in english saying that there’s something wrong with one of the instruments. There were a few moment of absolout silence followed by a commosion and another of those frightening cryptic silences before the plane landed. We landed for the second time around, and since there were distinct visual conditions so i wasn’t THAT worried. I didn’t get to ask the pilots about that, usualy they stand at the door greeting you when you leave the plane, but not in this flight. My initial fear before landing was that there was something wrong with the wheels locking, and i was affraid of a belly landing, but i’m guessing his ILS or VOR or probably the GPS gave conflicting reading. I don’t know. I do know that i’ve landed and i’m safe. And too bad i can’t sit in cockpits during filght… Oh well…

I finally know what’s the thing i call chinese food – it’s actually Sachuan food. I ate with Bob at a Sachuan resterant and it was exactly like the chinese food i eat in israel (or the states), but again, no eggrols. For some reason, the entire chinese food in israel is called after only the small sub category or sachuan food… funny.

I’m think my Jet-lag is less severe this time around. speaking of which, i should go to bed. it’s 1:20 am already.

I’m so damn tired. I went to sleep at 4am, and set my clock to 11am. I Snoozed till 13:00. I’m going back to Israel tomorrow for a short visit, and I’d have to wake up at 7am to do that. I have no idea how I’m going to survive the long trip home, and my one day visit to hong-kong. I’m gonna buy some more stuff I need to bring home, and tie up some loose ends and stuff today.
I really have mixed emotions about this trip(s). On one hand I really want to come back and see Lee and all my friends, on the other hand it’s very nice here and I want to stay more, and what’s more complicated is that I know I’d want to come back here the week afterwards, and I’d want to stay and not leave Israel again. What’s more bothering is that I don’t know how long this thing is going to last. Until April, that’s pretty much for sure. But what about afterwards? Am I ready to just pack all my stuff into storage and leave the country for a long time? The hardest thing about all this is that I really want to leave, and really want to stay at the same time.

Anyways, That’s my last post from Taiwan for now, see ya back in Israel.