Weekend Plans
Finally finished a week of teaching... on Friday evening this time instead of Saturday noon. I've got tomorrow off so I can go participate in my first adventure race in the mountains around Ping Lin between here and Taipei. I think it's called the G4 Challenge or something, and this one is like the preliminaries. I think about ten countries are participating, and each country will send the four best to some big race far far away where a team will drive away in a Land Rover G4.
Don't worry, I don't have any deluded fantasies about winning or anything, I'm just very excited about this thing. Our biking club gets to send a contingent for free because not enough people signed up... just the team power bar guys and other equally hardcore, fully sponsored types.
Anyway, should meet some cool people, and of course the race itself is going to be sweet. The details are secret, but I do know that it will involve mountain biking, running, climbing and rappelling, kayaking, orienteering and even technical driving. Oh boy. My only advantage, at least over other mere mortals, will be in the kayaking (open top style) and mountain biking. I say I might have an "advantage" in kayaking because most Taiwanese have never been in a boat, never mind paddled a boat. I have been in a boat, and feel that I have, at least, a better chance of not tipping over. My mountain biking "advantage" is assuming that we will actually be on trails... I have contended in the past that MAYBE Taiwanese can't mountain bike very well, though this is only because most of the country is paved. Finding a good trail is not easy, and I have observed that people in the biking club that I go out with seem a little unsure of what they can handle off road.
That all being said, my goal is not to be in the bottom 10 %. Wish me luck.
I've included some random photos with this posting, selected under the rather broad catagory of "things I saw while biking in Taiwan".
Ok then. Other than that everything is going swell. Only three weeks until I get on that jet. Not long now, and a lot of thing to do (read: buy). Oh boy.
Don't worry, I don't have any deluded fantasies about winning or anything, I'm just very excited about this thing. Our biking club gets to send a contingent for free because not enough people signed up... just the team power bar guys and other equally hardcore, fully sponsored types.
Anyway, should meet some cool people, and of course the race itself is going to be sweet. The details are secret, but I do know that it will involve mountain biking, running, climbing and rappelling, kayaking, orienteering and even technical driving. Oh boy. My only advantage, at least over other mere mortals, will be in the kayaking (open top style) and mountain biking. I say I might have an "advantage" in kayaking because most Taiwanese have never been in a boat, never mind paddled a boat. I have been in a boat, and feel that I have, at least, a better chance of not tipping over. My mountain biking "advantage" is assuming that we will actually be on trails... I have contended in the past that MAYBE Taiwanese can't mountain bike very well, though this is only because most of the country is paved. Finding a good trail is not easy, and I have observed that people in the biking club that I go out with seem a little unsure of what they can handle off road.
That all being said, my goal is not to be in the bottom 10 %. Wish me luck.
I've included some random photos with this posting, selected under the rather broad catagory of "things I saw while biking in Taiwan".
Ok then. Other than that everything is going swell. Only three weeks until I get on that jet. Not long now, and a lot of thing to do (read: buy). Oh boy.
6 comments:
the race sounds good. but why don't you think you might have some climbing advantage?
I liked the arthropod pictures. I should have brought them to my lab yesterday(armoured inverts lab) and had my students place them into the correct classes/orders in the phylum. I don't know how well I'll do with the latin names, but maybe I'll give it a go this weekend.
Regarding 'things to buy', maybe you should email me a christmas list... I'll give it to mom as well.
Oh, and I'm still waiting to hear about potential roommate number 2.
I would like to hear about those other possible roommates as well....
Aaron, Time for Beer.
Hey Simone, get a move on with those latin names ok!
What good is six years of university biology education if you can't perform a meaningless task like classification.
I jest.
The roommate story will follow soon.
As for the Christmas list... just give me a couple days.
Is that a photo of a bike trail above!? Or is there a constant stream of narrow cars and trucks on that path? If it is a bike trail, that's great! I used to bike everywhere, but kind of had to give it up since moving to Taiwan. It looks like I just went to the wrong part of the island.
Great blog!
這些台灣的照片 我都很喜歡~~~~ 我記得你有中正紀念堂的照片對不對? 在哪一篇呢? 我找不到耶~~
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