Ahh... back from my workation in the Florida Keys

It's good to be back... Although I did spend about 10 hours or so working while on vacation, being down there was relaxing. Back to work... just in time because we have several product launches over the next few weeks and months.

The aunt and uncle will be with us until next Wednesday. It will be good to just get back to the house having just me, my wife, and two cats. I really don't know how Taiwanese (and Chinese in general) manage to have two or more generations living in the same house. Having my wife's aunt and uncle with us for the last few weeks has had its share of troubles because the two generations have very little in common.

Older folks (60+ years old) never want to just sit down and relax. They always have to be doing something. On the good side, they always try to help my wife and I (sweeping the floors, doing dishes, and so on). However, on the bad side... the dishes aren't actually that clean (bad eyesight... foodstuffs still stuck on the utensils) and the sweeping causes more harm than good. :(

Off to Key West...

Me, the wife, and her aunt and uncle are off to Key West, Florida in the morning for our third vacation this month.

The Taiwanese Language Barrier...

Now that my wife's aunt and uncle have been here for awhile (seems like forever), I began to think of what my relationship would be with all of my wife's relatives once we move to Taiwan.

On trips to Taiwan, we stay with my wife's mom and dad in 永和. We spend each day of our trip with my wife's friends or relatives. We typically visit five relatives' houses: three in 基隆, one in 北投, and one in 台北).

All of my wife's relatives primarily speak Taiwanese at home and two of my wife's aunts know very little Mandarin. So, as you can guess, I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to understanding their conversations. They're very nice, down-to-earth folks, but pretty much all I can do is throw out a few key Taiwanese words at particular times (such as, "Ho Jah" [好吃] when given food) and smile and watch TV.

Sometimes, we are there for several hours. But, since my wife and I only visit every other year or so, I try to be patient and let them chat without me asking, 可以走了嗎?

So why do I tag along with her on these trips to her relatives' houses?

1. If you've been to Taiwan, then you know that each city has its own food specialities. During our visits, we always go for the goodies!
2. It's polite if I go along.
3. My wife's parents are boring.
4. I'm one of those husbands that has to carry everything for my wife. And, by the time we finish our visits for the day, I normally have 20 pounds of stuff spread across five or six bags (various food stuffs, knicknacks, and so on).

So, after we move to Taiwan, do I always have to go with her to visit relatives? Can I go may only every other time?

Let's hope... because Taiwanese is pretty difficult. I still cannot distinguish the pronunciation of "oyster" and "taro" (both are similarly pronounced as "oh-wah").

Retiring in Taiwan: 5 Questions...

From time to time, I will post five questions and their answers (sometimes repeating the questions to see if my answers change over time).

1. Once you retire in Taiwan, are you going to teach English? Hmm, I think that would be fun since I wouldn't be in it for the money. I came pretty close to going into teaching instead of computer programming and I do love to teach others (well, as long as they are interested in learning). I'm not sure, however, if Taiwanese would accept a 49 year old guy teaching (although I currently look a lot younger than I really am).
2. If you don't teach, what are you going to do all day? Well, I'm pretty sure my wife won't let me sleep until noon and play video games all afternoon. Sometimes I daydream about waking up in the morning, walking downstairs to the street market and eating at several stalls while speaking Mandarin and a few words of Taiwanese to the locals. After breakfast, hmm, good question. I really haven't had any significant time off since college (16 years ago) so I'm sure it will take some time for me to not have a bunch of to-do lists and goals (or at least smaller, simpler goals).
3. If you're planning to spend part of the year in Taiwan and part of it in the US (Florida), does that mean you're not going to have any pets? Another tough one to answer. We have two cats now are they are the best. Sure, they cause a lot of trouble, money, time, and so on, but they're also part of the family. Both of our cats are around 12 human years old (got them about a year before getting married), so I'm expecting that they will not be around 9 years from now. So, we will move to Taiwan without pets. Since we will be bouncing between Taiwan and the US, I don't really see how we could have any pets. Sure, we could find a friend to help out or to put it in a boarding place. But, what would be the point? We would essentially be away from Taiwan (where our pets would be) for months at a time. I'm sure my wife is going to want to have a pet... should be an interesting conversation. I hope her answer is not, "Let's just stay in the US and not move to Taiwan."
4. When you're in Taiwan, do you think you will have any 老外 friends? I assume that I will although I'm not sure the best place to make friends. My wife already has a pretty large group of friends that she's stayed in contact with since college. I want my own set of friends also, so I guess I will have to wait and see.
5. How well do you think your Chinese (written and spoken) will be when you move to Taiwan? Hopefully, I will be fluent by then. However, to do that, I'm going to have to totally immerse myself in Chinese every day while I'm still living here in the US.

Work-Life Balance... Really ready to retire

Today was another one of "those" days:

1. Overwhelmed at work with too many tasks and fast approaching deadlines.
2. Trying to reschedule tomorrow's meetings to Friday because I have to drive to the airport with my wife at 9:00 tomorrow morning to pick up her aunt and uncle (they're back from a short side-trip). I will have to work from home once I get them back to the house (after eating out for lunch).
3. Trying to get as much done at work because I'm going on vacation (again) sometime next Wednesday (to Miami with my wife's aunt and uncle).
4. I have some serious deadlines for the end of September, so I'm probably going to have to bring my laptop to Miami and work at night or early morning.
5. My wife has a cold and is in a very "needy" mood.
6. My "honey-do" list is too long and grows daily.
7. I'm not getting enough sleep because I'm working late each night and waking up early to beat the traffic nightmare (a good day takes 45 minutes to reach work, and a bad day (typical) takes up to 1.5 hours.

Oh, I wish I could retire tomorrow. No more work. I'd be left with just a "honey-do" list.

Retirement Pros

1. No need for an alarm clock.
2. No more 24/7 on-call support.
3. No more daily commutes (I spend almost 3 hours a day on the road).
4. No more sitting through "feel good fluffy" meetings at work.
5. No more working 12-14 hour days to meet deadlines.
6. No more learning of new technologies for work (I'm a programmer). Sometimes I really feel like my brain is nearly full.

Retirement Cons

1. I have to pay for the new gadgets instead of my employer (MacBook Pro, etc.).
2. I have to pay for my iPhone data plan (my employer pays for the data plan).
3. No more paycheck! Ouch! My wife will really miss this one more than I will. The plan is to retire with enough money so that we won't be stressed out about not having a paycheck. That's the goal, at least.
4. No more 401k match.
5. We will have to live on a budget (we don't really have to do that currently).
6. Since we'll be on a budget, our international travel will most likely decrease.

Somebody posted a clip from the Superband Las Vegas concert on YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgBbzfX7Sxo

Michael Turton's Teaching English in Taiwan Web Pages...

A great website: http://www.michaelturton.com/Taiwan/teach_index.html

My Close Encounter with 周華健 at the Noodle Shop...

So, I was in Las Vegas to see Superband at the Mandalay Bay casino and on the day of the concert, my wife and I were looking around to find something to eat. We walked up to the Noodle Shop to look at the menu posted next to the restaurant.

Standing about 10 feet away, I noticed an older Asian guy in a black shirt. A few seconds later, he turned around for a few seconds and my jaw dropped. Although I'm pretty bad at recognizing Asians, I actually got this one right.

周華健 was standing only 10 feet from us, waiting in line. Thinking back, it's interesting that he was actually waiting in line instead of being treated like a VIP and immediately brought back to a special room. Interesting.

After a few seconds, I thought I'd whip out my new iPhone and snap a quick picture. Well, my wife had other plans. She's definitely the more outgoing one. She told me to approach him and ask him to turn around so my wife can snap a picture of me standing with him. I nervously passed the few folks in line between me and 周華健 . However, when I was only three feet away, his assistant stepped in front of me, put her arm around my shoulder and steered me away and said, "Sorry, he's with his family, blah, blah, blah."

Shoot! So, close. While walking back to my wife, 周華健 did a quick turnround and said, "Sorry" (although not looking at me in particular).

Still kind of in shock that I almost met him and my wife in shock that his assistant wouldn't let me approach him, we forgot to actually try to take a picture of him from our original vantage point. Oh well... :)

Back in Atlanta with some Superband (縱貫線) concert pix...