Skip to content

Tag Archives: taiwan

Random Thoughts on Taiwan

30-Dec-10

Wrapping up my trip in Taiwan, I’m struck by a thousand random thoughts… Taiwanese fashion iterates more quickly than the United States! At a breakneck pace — and even me, fashion-challenged as I am, can see this. Before, I thought it was the result of less expensive clothes that can be bought for less and […]

Tea Drinking Notes, Yuanlin

29-Dec-10

1. Oriental Beauty (fully oxidized): honey flavored, sweet and dry. light wheat notes, but mostly a strong honeyed flavor. Reminded us of darjeeling. 2. 10y aged Taiwanese oolong: quite sweet flavored and salivatory-making. Very smooth and drinkable, though a little too simple and un-nuanced for my tastes. 3. 2009 loose-leaf black puerh (puerh leaves, but […]

Taiwan vs American Culture: Public vs Private

27-Dec-10

Taiwanese and American cultures have different divisions between the trichotomy of public vs private vs intimate life. Taiwan culture seems to strictly divide public life and private life, with much more relaxed boundaries between private and intimate life. American culture, in contrast, has a more relaxed division between public and private life, while maintaining a […]

Finishing up the semester.

04-Dec-06

Finished up a semester of TAing. I really like teaching, so immediately rewarding, to see minds grow week by week. Research is so long-term by contrast (start working on a problem, get good results after 3 months, publish after 6 months). Signed Google’s job offer last week (will be working in their Santa Monica location […]

Five Years Ago Today

11-Sep-06

Five years ago today I had literally just moved to Taipei. At the time, I was sharing an apartment with an Indonesian dude who spoke very little English (and I, at that point, spoke very little Chinese…we communicated through lots of gestures and a Chinese-English pidgin, needless to say). So, it’s late afternoon (time difference, […]