Where’s the Beach Sancho?

For those of you who read my last blog and are assuming that I’m outside of Shanghai on our next assignment then you guys are in for a shocking surprise.  That’s right, we got another last minute phone call and destination change from the head honchos in Chicago.  Instead of heading to Hong Kong and then to China, we were now supposed to head to Malaysia, stopping in Kuala Lumpur to prep for one day (wheew..dodged a bullet on that one).  While this information is absolutely great, we got even better news, we were instructed to take 5 days of vacation before the next job started.

In an effort to not rub this in everyone’s face (send all hate mail and negative comments to someone who deserves it, maybe the class suck up..I even have some in my online classes), I’ll keep the details of our vacation brief and uneventful.  But, be assured that our trip was neither uneventful or dull.  I’m not even sure how we pulled this one off, but we did, and we ended up spending 5 awesome days in Thailand, specifically Phuket and Ao Nang. We didn’t even book our flight to Thailand until we arrived in Kuala Lumpur…got the ticket for an early departure the next day, then we headed to our hotel in KL to try and book hotel rooms for the next 5 days.  I think I’m getting pretty good at this last minute holiday booking stuff, it’s frustrating as hell trying to get it done but once you arrive it’s well worth the hassle. This trip was the make-up for the 5 months we toiled out in Jiao Kou River Town, although if it was a true make-up then we’d spend at least a month in Thailand, but I’m not complaining one bit! I’ll post a few pics of the trip in the blog and I’ll move onto more regular banterand let the face rubbing cease with the pics.

So, right now we’re sitting in Melaka, Malaysia (half way between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore) getting ready for about a 6 week job, but I hope it’s longer!  I’d like to enjoy another winter in 90 degree weather and miss out on the blistering cold of Chicago which I’ve, up to now, have missed three in a row.  There seems to be some nice things to do around here, but I’ve yet to make it out into the city and roam around like a stray dog. Perhaps I’ll make it out in a few hours and see what’s up around here, maybe see if I can make it out towards the sea (most refineries are on the coast so we’re usually near the water). There is a chance, that if I can find some binoculars, that I can see the island if Sumatra, Indonesia from the roof of our hotel. Melaka is located on a fairly narrow straight that divides Indonesia from the Malaysian penisula.

I have to start getting ready for my Advanced Seminar class which is the final GIANT project needed to graduate with your MPA so even though most people are off for a few weeks, I’ll have to start thinking about and preparing for this project. I guess the semester has ended and this might be our last blog for the year.  I’m sure everyone will miss the random stories I present, well, maybe my mom will.  You can always count on moms to give awesome feedback; however, I did receive some funny, random comments throughout the semester.  Anyways, congrats to everyone on finishing up the semester, now you’re one step closer to graduation and that job with the CIA you always wanted!

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Refinery Complexities

I can only imagine how many of the random few who come across my blog realize how another week in a compound will give rise to yet another blog and potentially another reason many of you have grown sick of my rambling, but I argue that this lifestyle challenges me to be..blah blah blah…I tried to be positive and offer some words of wisdom, but nothing about a refinery compound is all that glamorous.  This blog will just be another brief window into a refinery compound and the daily routine that constitutes my life for another few weeks.  Honestly, I’d apologize if I had anything else interesting to talk about but I don’t, and unfortunately for you, this is what your going to get.  When I’m stuck in ANOTHER complex (yes, engineers often call this a refinery complex, hence the title) that revolves around the refining of crude oil then my sanity, however questionable it may be, succumbs to the monotony of daily compound life…again.

With that being said, I have to mention that this week is technically “Fall Break” for the University of Co, but as it just so happens, taking online classes really doesn’t provide you with any breaks.  Sure, I could take the week off and not do anything, but that doesn’t help out the deadline of my paper, which I’m struggling to find the motivation to do. I guess since taking online classes allows me ample opportunity to explore a lot of different locations while traveling, it also forces you to be self motivated in order to get everything accomplished on time.  Fortunately I’ve never had a problem with getting my school work done, but since this is my last semester of classes before my capstone class, I seem to be running on fumes.  I need to recharge my batteries before my final hurdle to graduation…If I could fine some turkey for Thanksgiving, that might just be the ticket for finishing off the semester.

I’m guessing this Thanksgiving, compared to last years, will be a little disappointing.  Last year we were in India and, granted they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, they did provide a turkey meal out by the pool which satisfied my craving for a “traditional” Thanksgiving meal.  Nope, this year I’m expecting my wife to be working away at the refinery and I’m going to enjoy a nice can of tuna fish and maybe some prawn flavored potato chips.  Oh well, not much we can do about it except for trying to get out of here ASAP.

So, the only thing even relatively interesting to happen this past week was our trip into town where we mistakingly thought that we’d find some good food.  Apparently, the Taiwanese think that all American’s like Fried Chicken.  While I don’t dislike it, I just think it’s funny that they stereotype all of us based on one food; however, it’s not like we don’t think that all Asians enjoy rice at every meal. Like Dave Chappelle has said before, “We have stereotypes for a reason” (and if he didn’t say it, then I did)…I mean come on, what would Rick James think about this?  We walked into a typical “Taiwanese” hot pot restaurant and the first thing the young lady said, who spoke pretty good English, was “They serve fried chicken across the street”.  I couldn’t help but laugh and make a rude comment that’s not acceptable to post on here.  Believe it or not, as determined as I was to find something decent to eat, we ended up across the street, eating fried chicken, all the while I stared across the street at this young lady thinking to myself “it’s a good thing you know martial arts, because I wouldn’t normally stand for this.”

Other than another encounter with stereotypes, I haven’t had too much fun around here.  I’ve been doing some workouts on the 1980’s style home gym and trying to not flip out when the fire alarm starts going off, it’s gone off twice today already.  Hopefully everyone has a nice Thanksgiving and a good encounter with a Turkey and some Triptophan, maybe take back a few beers and watch the Lions loose another game.

Click Here Now…Just to Get Ready For Thanksgiving!!!

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Breast Feeding Room…Just Hang a Left!

Greetings from Taiwan and our lovely refinery compound.  That’s right, we’re in another compound. The word compound doesn’t exactly conjure up any images of pleasant living, rather it brings up images of remote Texas landscapes where weird religious sects live in seclusion.  Not that we’re that remote, nor are we trying to hide any questionable marriage practices, but we are indeed, again, surrounded by another refinery, yet this time it’s 5 times larger and includes two aromatics complexes…they make plastics etc.

So far it’s pretty boring in this compound, but that just gives me more time to focus on my research paper right? And, since the refinery doesn’t want to pay a lot of money for my wife to be here they’re already pressing her to work overtime in order to get out of here faster, including a suggestion of her pulling a 24hr shift.  Fortunately, that’s against her company’s policies and, against the assumption that these refinery managers have any common sense.  As you might recall from my last blog, if anyone actually read it, we  got a hurried wake up call in Chicago because the refinery wanted us in Taiwan ASAP, but wouldn’t you know it, we get here and they weren’t even ready for my wife to begin work. She came home from work two days in a row around 1pm because they weren’t ready, and then they gave her the weekend off so they could fix things.

A free weekend, what shall we do (good thing I’m not in Tiajuana orAmsterdam)!  She came home and we instantly decided to go to Taipei, about 3.5hrs away by bus.  The funny thing is that by this point in our travels we’re completely comfortable with pulling off unscripted weekend trips at a moments notice and not even be able to communicate one word to anyone until we arrive at our destination.  We hailed a taxi who knew, via our front desk staff, to take us to a bus stop, a very small bust stop, and drop us off.  We bought a ticket by only being able to say “Taipei” and 4hrs later we got dropped off somewhere in Taipei.  We hail another cab, point to the hotel address, just in case they can read English, but usually they can’t, then they just call the hotel phone number who gives them directions.  Bam…next thing you know we’re checking into the hotel and looking up directions to the Outback Steakhouse.  (Still waiting on that endorsement check Outback!)

Believe it or not Taipei is a very nice city.  Our hotel had great rooms, extremely helpful and competent staff, (unlike China) and a great breakfast, which is usually not the norm.     But, there is not that much to do or see inside the city, except for Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building. (From this picture it appears as though someone is over-compensating for something) It’s the tallest until this new building in Dubai is commissioned in the next year or so.  We found a few temples and night markets to hit up but nothing was really unique.  Apparently there are a lot of things to do, (outdoor, adventure, sightseeing) outside of the city but we didn’t feel like taking a cab out into the middle of nowhere with no real plan on how to get back.  I’m sure that would have provided for an interesting trip

Other than the nice weekend in Taipei, nothing new is going on here.  I’m working away on school work and trying to get this semester wound down.  I registered for my final class, our Advanced Seminar class and my last hurdle to graduation so I’m excited to get that underway.  Also, since next week is Thanksgiving I’m wondering what we’re going to do for the holiday.  If it’s anything like other holidays we’ve spent overseas it’ll just be another day that resembles all the rest; however, I think we might be able to find some duck to substitute for the Turkey and play the Adam Sandler Turkey song.

Now that you’ve read the article I guess I’ll explain the title.  When we got off on one of the main stops in the Taipei Metro I saw a sign that said “Brest Feeding Room” and it was off to the left.  I guess people have the need to breast feed in a subway so they made a room for it.  I’d rather ladies hang a left into the room instead of pulling out a mammary and providing lunch on the train, it doesn’t take much to burn an image into my mind that has the potential to haunt me for years to come.

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