My new campus

Since I didn't go to NTU, I am really unfamiliar with everything. Now that I am here, the one upside of it is the beautiful vegetation here, having a major agricultural school. This first picture is of the main thoroughfare of the school, called the Royal Palm Avenue. We have lots of palm trees, as you can see.


It is also now near the end of the azalea season in Taiwan and it is sort of a flower of Taipei for there are azalea festivals in the municipal parks as well as on the campus.
Also a little lizard I saw...

coco's cellmates

The first cat is brand new today, even without a name tag. Seems like a young baby, kept meowing nervously. The second one is called meomi and she is mean! Every time I walk by or look at her, she hisses at me. The gray cat is really docile and his name is taco...

lab space

There is a Chinese phrase '百廢待舉' that can be roughly translated into 'hundred ruins waiting to be renewed'. I guess that is my lab now. The upside is, I have the view of the tallest building of the world, circled in red.

stuff arrived and gray wall

So my 18 boxes arrived Monday and I've been diligent in opening and clearing and organizing. Here is a look on Wednesday, along with my gray wall that I like more and more everyday.

Taiwanese election

For the lack of better focus, politics to Taiwanese is like religion to Americans. The presidential election is on March 23rd so this Sunday is called 'Super Sunday' here with lots of events and parades through out Taiwan. The parade route for the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) in Taipei is on our block. I even got a glimpse of the candidate. What it reminded me of, is the various parades in New York, like St. Patty's Day. People seem jovial and calm, even though their candidate is the underdog by a decent margin. Although I thought there would be a lot more people. What happened was that the people were spread out a lot so there is a really long stretch but not very concentrated.

Coco in jail

well... that is not fair... she didn't do anything... I had to move her so that she needs to be confined for 3 weeks (hopefully the stupid document will be here in time). The people at the facility is very nice and thanks to Catherine, I have a 20% off discount for being an employee at NTU (Coco is in the NTU vet hospital quarantine facility). So it would roughly cost me 250 dollars for the 3 weeks.

Here is the room that Coco is at and the cage that is open is hers. There are right now only 4 cats there. Her immediate neighbor is a gray cat called Taco, also from the States. He doesn't seem to be interested in anything. Hopefully he is not depressed since he is in jail. The big cage covered in a towel has 2 cats from the States, one of which is an ill-tempered black cat, called Onyx. He does seem interested in Coco's toy, unlike coco. Here is a paw shot:

One funny American reference:

So this should've been the first post

I had to vent before anything else. At the moment, I feel a little unhinged, so the choice of the fragmented title font and the gray color. But gray is also the accent color of my new room. I am still debating if it is too light. Left is a picture the light and dark color.

Another thing is the painted closets, which I am extremely happy with. See the huge difference with a new coat of paint.

I literally just stepped into my home 6 hours ago after a 14 hour flight and 5 hours of struggle with the BAPHIQ people. So we'll see what happens.

Coco to Taiwan

I'd like to think I am a reasonable person with an average intelligence level. I even completed college in an top-tier Taiwanese university (although not without hurdles). I somehow even got a Ph.D. at an Ivy League!? So how is it that I can't understand the 'simple' procedure to bring my cat, Coco, back to Taiwan? Coco landed with me today in Taiwan after a month in SF. During that time, I called my vet in New York, set up a new vet in SF, and scheduled appointments with the California USDA. I called the Taiwanese equivalent of USDA (BAPHIQ) several times to confirm that I have everything needed to bring Coco back. And of course I am still 2 criteria short. Even though the form listed the name of the vaccine that Coco received 7 months ago, apparently with all the vet in Taiwan, they don't know which kind of vaccine it is (whether it was an activated or inactivated form of Rabies vaccine), which took me less than 3 minutes to find online. Also, while they accepted my vet's email saying that the vaccine was a booster shot in previous exchanges, since the USDA didn't stamp that letter, it was not good enough. So later tonight, I have to make more phone calls to the US to contact the USDA, my vet and who knows what. ARHHHH!!!