Archive for November, 2009
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
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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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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 or
Amsterdam)! 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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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
The week and a half family trip is over. I’ve taken three separate flights and driven 500 miles and I think my body is letting me know it. I feel exhausted, but I’m glad that I got to spend some time with everyone else, because just as you might have guessed we’re off to another assignment. Fortunately for me I got to find some time to squeeze some school work in, and now I have to find some time to prep for a big exam this week.
We flew back into Chicago on Sunday and I tried to get some rest, but as things should have it, our rest was short lived. Originally we were supposed to leave for Taiwan once the agreement was signed, but the agreement was never signed and our tickets had yet to be issued. Well, we got a phone call early Tuesday morning, around 7:00am, telling us that the customer wanted us in Taiwan ASAP, and asked if we could be on a plane the same day at noon. That phone call set a spark under our tails because we had to finish packing, go get a Typhoid shot, return the rental car and head to the international terminal. We finally made it and here I am, again, 35,000ft above the pacific ocean heading to Tokyo for a connecting flight to Taipei.
I could spend this time ranting on how much I hate flying economy on long flights, but that would just make me sound like a pompous ass. But, the truth is, once you fly in business or first class on an international flight of 8hrs or more, then flying coach on a 12.5hr flight is enough to drive you nuts. I tried to upgrade using my miles, but the airline makes it so bloody difficult that I question the reason I even accumulate them. Now, I’m sitting next to some Talky McTalkerson (remember who coined this phrase!) who keeps putting his feet up on the bulkhead in front of us. If any of you find the need to do that on a long flight, or any flight, make sure you’re socks match. Oh well, can’t do anything about it now, guess I need to suck it up and fight the urge to give someone the Roadhouse (see this past weeks episode of Family Guy) while sitting in my tiny seat not being able to sleep.
Apparently we’re heading to a small town in Taiwan that might resemble the small rural town we were stuck in in China; however, we are within driving distance of Taipei, the capital, so we can make an escape if needed. I am also a little scared because we’ll be staying in a refinery compound, which means, there is not sh!t to do there. Consequently my wife e-mailed some colleagues that have been to this location before and found out that it’s not nearly as bad as good ol’ Jiou Kou River Town in BFE China…we all know how much I enjoyed that place. I think there may be some food to eat and a small grocery store to hit up for extra supplied if needed. At least this assignment is only scheduled for three weeks, but I know how that goes. If you’r in a crappy location, the assignments last forever, but if you get sent somewhere nice, they go by faster. Kharma is a bitch. I should have fed those sacred cows a little more when I was in India.
I’ll have to apologize for the lack of pictures; although, I’m going to post one pic from last week at the Goat Bar that best represents my mood right now (see below). I’m going to post this while I’m sitting in the Tokyo airport waiting for our connection. Since my camera cords are in my checked luggage I couldn’t get any recent pictures onto my computer to upload, but that may be good for you. Just imagine the person sitting immediately to the left of you, regardless of the sex of the person, and pretend they have messed up hair, blood shot eyes, and a pissed off snarl of a look on their face; it may very well resemble some of your co-workers, but that’s what I look like now. Poor Sancho doesn’t feel any better himself and he actually started barking at the Japanese security screener when we went through security a few minutes ago. DOWN BOY!!
AHHHHHH Another Loud Talker is Standing RIGHT BESIDE ME….it’s 3:15am in Chicago and my last nerve was severed when I figured out the air conditioning is non existent in this airport.
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