Gaelic Football (English)

It is never to try new things! Today was the day I took part in my first Gaylic ... ehm sorry
Gaelic Football training across the full pitch.
Gaelic Football is a mixture of soccer (or football) and rugby. You are allowed to kick the ball, but also to pick it up. When you have the ball in your hands you must pass it by fisting. You get points for scoring above the goal post. The is no kick off point as there is in soccer and players stick to their position on the field and the man they are covering a lot more then in that sport.
Actually everyone is covering a player, whether offence or defence. It is rougher then soccer, but not as rough as rugby looks (I never played it myself, so I don't really know).
It was a lot of fun to play with these, definitely to some extent crazy Irish people and their fellows from other English speaking countries.We were also very lucky with the weather here in Taipei, no rain, no sun and about 24 degrees. Perfect to run around on the pitch.

PS: The team I played with are the famous Taiwan Gaelic Footballers, who recently won the Asian Cup in Singapore. Congratulations!

A short clip from the match! Thanks to 如秀 for the great camera work:

Waiting (English)

Waiting means, that what you want to do cannot be done right now.
We do have to wait a lot of times during our lives.
Waiting can put a lot of stress on us. Waiting can be very relaxing too.
We can wait for good things, that we think it is worthwhile waiting for;
we can wait for things that we don't actually want to wait for.

When I was still studying in good old Europe one of my teachers told me that we should be busy with Chinese language all the time, for example while waiting or doing the laundry. He recommened us to listen to CD's or maybe mp3's during those waiting periods, or periods when our brain is not fully used up. The reason for that is that our brain needs to get stimulated by the language we want to learn repetition.

Another thing that need a lot of training and repetition is dancing! A young man showed us today in the MRT in Taipei that waiting for the MRT does indeed not need to be a waste of time....

Raining Taipei (English)

This summer is really rainy and hot. It can rain for hours or days, and it always rains heavily...

Scooter art in Taipei (English)

Just a random shot of one of the many scooters driving around in Taipei. The owner of the species below seems to enjoy putting a special note to a common thing. He put some small plastic figures around the back light and scooter licence plate.
Ten points for creativity.
Another great discovery today was a scooter with an illuminating installation on the inside of the scooter tire. Only eye catching at night, but then a real threat to traffic safety.

Nice perspective (English)

Taiwanese women do quite enjoy a reputation of being sexy, or at least attractive. That is what the term 辣妹(la4mei4), or hot/spicy girl refers to.
Taiwanese men instead don't really have that kind of reputation. I think this is particulary unfair, and therefore I am starting a small campain to show that even Taiwanese guys have a lot of sex appeal.
One first indicator was found in my dorm today, some really interesting perspectives on the real potential of Taiwanese dudes:

Nice one, these slips will make every woman to make you see naked (a good way to head right to where you want to go...)

Well, if one biking glove is enough, why waste resources and wash both of them?

Wrong, the reddish thing below is not a nice blanket, and whitish thing next to it is not a beautiful towel. The left one is a pant, the right one a short. I know, you cannot wait to see them being worne.

同學們等一下 - or the FarEast Tone commercial shot (English)

A new star is born, or an old star sparkles yet again...haha!
Today was my first TV Commercial shooting ever in my life. I had to get up really early in the morning to be at the set at 8.30. I was there a bit earlier though and changed clothes right away. Today's mission: I am an office guy advertising the great goods and services of the telecommunication company FarEast Tone. I actually have no idea what the advertisment in detail is all about, nor do I know if I will be visible or cut out by the director.

It was a nice experience anyway. Nice atmosphere in a nice office building in the nice and new business district called Neihu in Taipei. But most off all the crew and the other actors were really nice and fun to get to know. One funny thing for me to learn was that the crew calls the actors 同學們 (classmates, fellow students), a way to address a younger person or your students (being a teacher), I thought this sounded quite funny.

The job was really relaxing, just standing around and walking in the right moment, or getting out of a crowded lift. I had no lines, so had no one else any lines.
The best part was that we were done after 2,5 h, instead of the estimated 5 h.



The full album:

FarEastTone_Reklame

Some pictures from Taipei (English)

Today, while waiting for my scooter getting cleaned, I just walked around the Wanlong (萬隆)-district in Taipei to take some pictures of normal Taipei.

The full album:

Taipei

German restaurants in Taipei (English)

Sometimes you cannot help, but have to go back to your roots. This can be done in several ways, one is to go somewhere, where you expect dishes from back home. Taipei offers a variety of German style restaurants. Today I checked out the Goethe Gourmet Gasthaus, close to the National Taiwan University and the Gongguan shopping area. I went there during tea time, so there was no great variety in German foods offered. Instead there was a choice for 2 people including 2 pieces of home-made cake, 2 drinks (from a choice of different coffees or teas), two sandwiches with German sausage and two sandwiches with something like Saumagen (pig stomach) for 420 NT (excluding service fee of 10%). The taste was not real German, yet close enough. Generally prices in the specialities restaurants are on the higher side, so is the Goethe Gourmet Gasthaus. Yet some teas are offered with free re-fill or the re-fill for half the price. The atmosphere is not like you would expect it to be in a German Schwarzwald restaurant, but also not really intellectual as the name Goethe might suggest. There was no real flair in my eyes. The service was proper, yet cold (haha, at least some German atmosphere, one might believe).

Goethe Gourmet Gasthaus
No. 11, Lane 283, Sec.3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei
Tel.: +886-2-2362-0060, 2362-0124
Fax: +886-2-2362-0164.

Home sweet Taipei - Resume on Vietnam (English)

I am back. Home sweet home, Taipei. My city of the moment. It is a good feeling to be back. A place where I know how things work, how to get around. I can speak with the people here in their language and I feel a lot more relaxed.
The trip to Vietnam was great though. I had some less positive experiences, but these were mainly related to the state of developement of that country and its people. The countryside itself is not only beautiful, but astonishing. I still cherish every moment I spent sweating and hiking in the Sapa mountains or relaxing on the boat in Ha long Bay.
Another great thing about Vietnam is the tasty and cheap food. The ingredients were always very fresh and tasteful.
About the service in Vietnam? I figure things were the other way around, the customer, not the salesman or service personell are responsible for the mood. So, as soon as you greet first, are very polite and open minded, the Vietnamese mostly reacted in the same way. But don't try to ask someone for help when you are in a bad mood or feeling down, they will directly reflect on you and this creates a vicious circle.
Whenever travelling to a country or dealing with people from other backgrounds you do of course have to be aware of some historical facts. The Vietnamese people were not actually very lucky in terms of strangers in their own country. They were ruled by either the Chinese or the French and we should not forget the not so long ago war with the Americans.
Now every foreigner is welcomed as being a cash-cow to pay back some of the debts from the past. Which is of course not very comfortable for the individual.
But that definitely is only half of my experiences there. After only about 10 to 15 years of opening to foreigners again, the country is already showing that they are very good at what they are doing. Tourists can already get around really easy and there are a lot of interesting sights in Vietnam to see and discover.

And another plus are the toilets (you may laugh!!!), but I really think that good toilets are quite important for your success of travelling. No one really likes dirty and smelly places, that barely offer any privacy. And in terms of that the Vietnamese toilets set an Asian standard for me. I could neither in Taiwan nor in China find so wide-spread, good quality wash rooms as in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese economy is following the great country at its northern borders and is growing rapidly. I am sure, the next time I have a chance to travel to Vietnam I will not recognize a lot of it any more and will be astonished by the new standard there. Vietnamese people seemed to be, though not really hard-working, yet very eager to reach their goals and they are tricky and smart enough to reach them with not the most effort.

Quiet Taipei (English)

Taipei is actually more then just a noisy, crowded and polluted metropolis. There are some spots in the city that have a nice sphere and let you relax after a hard day of classes or work.
One of them definitely is the Da'an Park (大安森林公園):

I spotted this house on my way to the park in Wenzhou road (溫州街).

Old people can be frequently seen in the park, either chatting, exercising Qigong or playing some kind of boule.

Right on, Taiwanese people love it to socialize, even at high ages. Other social activities in the parks are dancing and sports.

I simply love it to take pictures of Taipei 101...