Gehry and Gstaad

Earlier this week, I visited my dad's campus to meet him for lunch. Most of you know my dad works for Novartis, a pharmaceutical company headquartered here in Basel. A few weeks ago the International Herald Tribune wrote a piece on the campus, which I believe re-ran in the Times a few days later: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/arts/design/27novartis.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=novartis&st=cse

Anyway, the campus is really cool because each building is made by a different accomplished architect or artist collaboration, Gehry, Siza, Federle etc. Originally all the buildings were intended to be white squares, but then they decided that might be boring. Everything is still pretty square, but exciting to look at, and then of course there's the incredibly non-square Gehry. The campus also has the world's largest freestanding glass building. It's only used as a security checkpoint! But it's all glass, not even structural supports.

So, the main street, Fabrikstrasse:


The Diener & Diener/Federle:



The Sejima and Nishizawa collaboration:


The Gehry:



Last weekend I went skiing in Gstaad. Notable for the ridiculous weather. Here's a photo from the top.

You can see a bowl of alpine peaks just peeking out above a cloud. That is the cloud I descended into and stayed in all day. There was a visibility of between 5 and 10 feet. And cliffs. So I had to feel for death with my poles. It was terrifying, but I wasn't about to waste a day on skis. Even though at times the whiteout was so bad that I actually felt nauseous, as I literally couldn't tell what was up or down and couldn't see my feet and there was just impenetrable white in every direction. Weird to feel claustrophobic while in what would normally be actually is an incredibly open space.
The view from my chairlift, just before the chair in front of me faded from view:

So, my most eventful skiing in a few years. Also, the train I took to Gstaad was called the White Bull. I'm quite convinced this is the tackiest thing Switzerland has to offer. The train had bullprints down the aisle, and occasional seats covered with "white bull" fur. Every time the train left a station there would be a Southwestern "yeeehawwww welcome to the white bullllll" except awkwardly in German. The guy who brought the coffee cart around was dressed in a white bull costume.



Hopefully I'll be traveling a bit soon. Will definitely be in London by the 28th, New York on the 2nd, followed by DC and Boston. Let me know if you're going to be in those places. I'll be looking for playmates/places to stay.

Basel Doldrums and December Review

It's been over a month and a whole new decade has begun since my last post. Quick review of my eventful december:

Marina came to visit! It was so wonderful to have a friend come by. I've been getting pretty lonely in Shanghai lately, and feeling homesick. I regret that I was kind of busy when she did come (it was finals/end of semester prep time) but I'm so glad that she did! We did all the touristy things, did a lot of shopping and even threw in some obligatory KTV. Marina gets a shoutout for mastering the essentially Chinese practice of riding on the back of my bike to get everywhere. She also brought me a ridiculous survival package - coffee, reeses, jolly ranchers and tide pens galore.

Oh, and we went to the top of the Jin Mao and marveled at the ridiculousness that is the Giant Bottle Opener. Shanghai, you are ridiculous.


The end of the semester was so sad. My students were all really awesome - as I'm sure you all know by now - and I was really sad to see them go. I do get to keep two for next semester though! I'm optimistic for the next group. I didn't really know what to expect this past fall, and my non-expectations were certainly exceeded. Spring, you've got some work to do, but mainly I'm just excited to meet you all and be better at my job since I know pretty much how things work now.

Due to a last minute scheduling change, I found myself with almost two months off between semesters rather than the two weeks I originally expected. A blessing and a curse. Great, because who doesn't enjoy vacation time? Not so great, because I'm poor and thus can't travel too much. Right now I'm still at my parent's house in Switzerland where I've been the worst tourist ever. I've rarely left the house, although to my credit it has been raining quite a bit. Mostly, though, it's because I don't really know what to do in Basel as a single person who doesn't speak German. Ideas welcome. That said, the flight from Istanbul to Basel is one I sincerely recommend a window seat for.

Basel from the air (note the background Alps:

And, my parent's village from the air:



I did get out for a bit with a family road trip to Luxembourg and the Black Forest. Luxembourg was EVEN MORE adorable than Switzerland (see posts from March 2008) - as if that's even possible. I failed at finding my grandfather's cobble shop (is there a name for that, like cobblery or something?), but I would like to go back and try and delve deeper into the Melsen clan.

The Black Forest (southwestern Germany) was also adorable and pretty much made of gingerbread houses and cuckoo clocks. We threw in the Heidelberg castle for good measure.


I spent my first New Years with family and not friends for the first time since I was about 10. That was weird. Mom, Dad, Clayton and I went to the oldest bridge over the Rhine to watch the fireworks display. It was impressive, but a bit lonely, as you look around and everyone else was in giant groups of friends and couples. I've since learned that it's Swiss tradition to spend Christmas with your family, and then ditch them to spend New Years with your friends, which explains this a bit. Regardless, the fireworks were pretty and I had several embarrassing conversations with people on the tram in German. Surprise: my German is not up to par. Also, this dude filled his backpack with fireworks, threw a bunch of matches at it, and ran:



But, like I said, things have been painfully slow recently. If you're in Europe right now, PLEASE let me know. I WILL visit you. Or you can swing by here.

~L

Shanghai Stuff

For about the last week, my showers have been excruciating. So, so, so, sososo hot! My shower has always had basically two settings: hot and cold. There's no such thing as warm. This hasn't been a problem before, because the hot temperature has been perfect. So, I've chalked up the past week's pain to the sudden turn of cold weather and being too weak (like going straight from playing in the snow to a hot tub and it kinda burns).

Then, today, I looked at the water heater. After some serious translation and lots of button pushing (my water heater, like my washing machine, closely resembles an MP3 player), I pulled out the units converter. Somehow, my water heater had reset itself to 47 degrees - in American that's about 117 degrees. Pain. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that it can go up to 99 degrees - over 200 in American.


It's been fixed.

Also, my trials with baking in a toaster continue. Again, with the Celsius! 120 degrees sounds so low. I was baking a chocolate cake today and actually burnt the top! I didn't even know that was possible, and I'm dying of shame.
All ended up just fine, though:


Anyways it's so crazy that the semester is going to be over so soon! And then I'm off to an unplanned 2 month plus couchsurf of unemployment. Any ideas what I should do from mid-December to mid-February?

~L

Front Row Center

at Armin Van Buuren.



No big deal.

I love puppy posses.

On Thursday morning we had a lecture at NCCU by Professor Chung-li Wu of the Institute of Political Science Academia Sinica on Taiwan Politics and Government. Professor Wu explained Taiwan’s Democratic Electoral System; it’s political parties, constitution, and the five branches of government. Professor Wu went into each branch (or Yuan) in depth: the Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Examination and Control. Professor Wu also discussed the major world organizations of which Taiwan is a member (including the WTO) and those that it is not recognized by (including the WHO) and the effect this has on government practice. Professor Wu finished his lecture by discussing the most recent major elections held.

Following this lecture, we went to the Taipei Municipal Muzha Vocational High School, headed by principal Chen-Huei Hsu. The school of 2000 students is one of only seven public vocational, and 30 senior high schools in Taipei. It has 162 teachers and 47 staff. The majority of students continue on to science and technology universities in Taiwan. Though traditionally vocational enrollment has been declining, with the economic recession Muzha Vocational High School has found its enrollment numbers rising, possibly because of the demand of vocational jobs. Tuition at the school is $10,000 TND per semester. After this brief information session and a campus tour, we were paired up with Muzha students for lunch and discussion.


This lunch was fairly awkward. Actually really awkward. But really, I guess no matter the language barriers, luncheons with 16 year olds surrounded by curious pre-teen onlookers is going to be awkward. Lunch was followed by a MASSIVE photo session, when conversation simply dissolved into a seeming competition between the students to see who could get the most photos taken with the foreigners. Our bus was actually stormed on the way out by people eager to get their photo taken with Barack Obama.


Thursday afternoon we visited two companies: Taiwan Mobile and Saab. Taiwan Mobile deals in phones, wireless communications and cable television and internet. The company boasts 6.25 million customers, a 30% cell phone market share, and $2.06 billion in revenue. Taiwan Mobile is now starting to enter the wireless repeater market in a push to replace landline phones. Taiwan Mobile’s parent company is the Fuban Group.



Saab is a car company based in Sweden and owned by General Motors. We visited Saab’s Taiwan headquarters for a look at how a foreign owned company operates in Taiwan. The facility we visited mainly did repair service. We had a chance to tour the facility and to ask questions. The manager talked with us about the current economic market and about the hiring and training process of employees – which are often directly sourced from vocational high schools in Taipei.

Thursday night I went with Anna and Isabelle to a vegetarian restaurant called Om Ah Hum. According to my guide, the "red toy poodle" claims all the attention at the restaurant. Little did we know, this meant a literal POSSE of TEN miniature poodles ALL in DIFFERENT OUTFITS. Usually clothed animals make me sad, but this was just too much cuteness. Too much. The one dressed as a piggy may have peed on Isabelle. I am possibly in love with the one dressed in plaid. They were often found sleeping in piles of cuteness, or riding around in the POCKETS of the owner's APRON.




After dinner (which was insanely delicious) we went night-marketing (oh my God, again) and got fun clothes. The night market near Taida is much more bohemian and cutesy than the others. I wish we had had more time to spend there. We eventually ended up at a coffee shop till 2am. I love, love, love that coffee shop culture exists in Taiwan. It's one of the main things I miss in Shanghai, and a huge impetus for considering moving here.

Of Milkshakes and Tea Meals (a side of Government)

Tuesday morning we went back to NCCU for lectures etc. In the morning we had a lecture on environment and community development. I had been hoping for a look at Taiwan's environmental policy, but instead it turned out to be a case study on some village where the fish were threatened and what they did about it. It was interesting, but not necessarily what I was hoping to learn about.

Tuesday afternoon we were able to attend a session of the Legislative Yuan where we witnessed some of a debate on legalizing U.S. beef imports. Following this audit, we met with a representative from the KMT and the DPP, Taiwan’s two major political parties. First we met with Yun-Kuang Kuo, Director of the KMT Department of Overseas Affairs. Mr. Kuo gave an overview of the KMT party and answered questions students posed on politics in Taiwan. These questions included both KMT-specific questions (such as the party’s official stance on various issues) and general Taiwan questions (such as with whom Taiwan maintains formal diplomatic relations). Students also inquired, and received answers to, Mr. Kuo’s personal opinions on what is needed in government reform, the presence of lobbies in the legislative debate, the current economic situation, and the path towards normalizing relations with Mainland China.

Next we met with Representative Wong of the DPP. Representative Wong is a second term legislator and a former women’s rights activist. Our session with Representative Wong was also run in a question and answer format, and because of her background, much of the initial discussion centered around women’s issues in Taiwan. Representative Wong also discussed political and inter-party corruption, major accomplishments of the DPP during their years of majority rule, the DPP stance on Taiwan-China relations and the future goals of the party.


Tuesday night I went with some NCCU students, Anna, Isabelle, Shaun and Jose out for a life-changing meal and some more night-marketing. We went to Kiwi Burger, a New Zealand burger place that makes amazing veggie burgers. It was arguably my first real Western meal since August, and it was amazing. There was goat cheese. And fries. And cranberries. And I got a MASSIVE milkshake. So fat and heavenly.

On Wednesday morning we had the opportunity to visit the National Palace Museum. At the museum we saw various works of Chinese history, dating from prehistoric times to the Qing dynasty. These included works (mostly statue, vessel and tool) made of bronze, jade, porcelain and ivory.

The museum was so, so so crowded though. No one was really able to enjoy anything because you were constantly being shuffled about by bajillions of people. It was hard to hear our tour guide and difficult to stay at any one exhibit longer than about five seconds. I wish we had a longer amount of time, and less crowding to contend with.

For lunch Crystal took us to a restaurant where everything was made out of tea. Cool concept. I had bubble tea (of course), green tea dumplings, and Stephen, Isabelle and I split waffles made from tea for dessert.


After lunch, Amanda, Stephen, Ann, Shaun and I went to the hot springs at Beitou. It was an awkward experience. I was, of course, the only person in a two piece. We were collectively the only white people and the only people under 60. There were 6 pools. One freezing, one kind of freezing, one lukewarm, one warm, one hot, and one scalding. You were supposed to start cold and work your way up. Success, although I couldn't stay at either extreme for longer than 15 seconds. I'm pretty sure I may have experienced actual burns in the top pool, and my lungs were cold 5 hours later from the cold one. My lungs.

Then we went to Danshui, a port town just north of Taipei. We checked out the night market, and sampled a bunch of snacks. Some delicious (kale filled dough thingies), some foul (wind dried, unknown bird eggs). The meat eaters had the danshui specialty: tofu wrapped around noodles and clams. We took a water taxi up to the Lover's Bridge, and I later met up with Anna and Isabelle for some more shopping and Sassy delights.

Mondays in Taipei

On Monday morning we had a lecture at NCCU by professor Chen-shen Yen entitled Taiwan Religion and Culture. It turned out to be really interesting, but I do wish it had more to do with religion. Professor Yen’s lecture was an excellent introduction to our trip as he gave a good overview of he ethnic, linguistic and religious makeup of the island before delving further into his topic. Professor Yen also covered identity issues faced by Taiwanese populations: Zhangzhou versus Quanzhou, Minnan versus Hakka, Han versus Indigenous, Ming (Han) versus Qing (Manchu), Chinese versus Japanese, Taiwanese versus Mainland, Taiwanese versus Chinese, and Taiwanese Chinese versus Chinese Taiwanese. Next, the professor discussed the various theories of Taiwan’s origin. These theories fall into three camps: Southern (Taiwan), Northern (China) and Austronesian (Australia and Indonesia).

Aside from the ethnic population divides discussed earlier, Professor Yen also went over cultural and religious cleavages including: ethnic versus sub-ethnic, linguistic cleavages, regional cleavages (East versus West), religious identity, and vertical versus horizontal class cleavages. Finally, Professor Yen ended his lecture with a discussion on Taiwan’s relationship with Mainland China, and the possibility of reunification, with an emphasis on the ramifications on Taiwanese identity.

Then we had a quick tour of campus. The capus was really nice and the weather was gorgeous. They had a ton of fabulous amenities and a bunch of the buildings are built into the surrounding hills. It's metro accessible, but it's way on the edge of town so you can go for hikes and walk along the river, and from several academic buildings there's a wonderful view of the city.

On Monday afternoon we had a lecture at NCCU by professor Yih-Chyi Chuang on The Economic Development of Taiwan, which was intersting and the professor was great, but I will never be totally fascinated by a subject that always leaves me feeling so lost. The lecture began with some data on population, imports and exports, land use and industrialization of the island. Professor Chuang touched on the narrowing wealth divide between rural and urban incomes, the structural change brought on by rapid industrialization, and the recently growing unemployment rate.

Next, professor Chuang discussed some important historical economic policies. These included: the 1953 Land to the Tiller program, the 1949 Compulsory Rent Reduction act, the 1951 movement to sell public land to tenants, the 1960s outward oriented development policies, the 1968 implementation of Export Processing Zones (EPZs), the 1979 development of research and development institutes and industrial and science parks, and the 10 major infrastructure construction projects of the 1970s.

After a discussion on Taiwan’s export partners and markets, including its largest – China – Professor Chuang ended his lecture with a set of goals he felt the Taiwanese economy was now faced with. The first is to normalize relations with China, and the second to expand Taiwan’s economic cooperation with other countries.

I did have an opportunity to duck out in the middle of the lecutre for a bit to meet with the head of GW's study abroad office who coincidentally happened to be in town checking out the school for a future exchange program on the same day that I was there.

On Monday I also asked out host at NCCU - the dean of the OIC International Affairs School - about graduate school. They offer a few programs in English that really interest me - various Asian studies degrees, cross strait relations, Masters in IA, etc. Also, a masters here is extremely cheap, and the government is offering substantial scholarships to foreigners for next fall/academic year. If I can figure out if the program is internationally recognized, I'll be looking into it further.

Monday night, Darci, Ann, Anna, Isabelle and myself, along with some NCCU students, went out to the night markets. It was raining, which blew, but we saw a bunch of shops and got to try a bunch of interesting snacks. We visited Shida and Taida, and tested noodles, tire cookies, brown sugar bubble tea (omg so good) and began out ongoing addiction with a spectacular store called Sassy.


After we got back, Anna and I went out again in search of a mysterious night market that was apparently all delicious food. We walked for about 500 hours, epically failed and got wet feet, but did come out successful re: deep fried taro balls. Picked up some beer and watched what became out new favorite show: Role Play Queen. After dark, or maybe all day - we've only watched TV at night, channel 85 and 88 became softcore porn. From midnight to 1 AM is Dancing Queen - an upskirt camera dancing show. It's as awkward as it sounds. Then, at 1:30, Role Playing Queen comes on. I think the two shows are linked as some sort of variety show. Role Playing Queen begins with the host dressed as a nazi marching girls dressed as sexy soldiers around. Then he dances and juggles a blow up doll, then we cut to the store. Each night the girls don a different costume which progressively comes off during the show as they complete various variety show tasks. Anna and I have become committed to the drama of teh show - you can call in and vote for your favorite girl - and we're rooting for "sexy cat."