recovering from travel, not recovering from skin condition
I was planning to write some kind of nice summary post this weekend, which is a long weekend in Taiwan for 中秋節 Mid-Autumn Festival. But then last night i got drunk and the queen dying got me on a musical tangent and i posted some nonsense here at like 3am or some stupid hour.
But here's the thing. This skin condition is still enflamed all over my body, and the itching is keeping me awake at night. I only slept about 3 hours, and woke up by 7am, scritching and scratching. It's so fucking frustrating. I've tried various different mechanisms to sleep all night, and nothing really works. Like booze will work for one night, and then not the other. Antihistamines work one night and not the other. Just like the steroid cream soothes some of the inflammation after several days of use, so i stop using it again, then a few days later red spots break out elsewhere on my body. Meanwhile the itching never stops. I cannot wait to see a doctor about this, it's so exhausting.
Geneva was exhausting too. I've now been on several company trips in my career, and every single time it's the same deal. In theory you are only working regular hours and meeting up with the gang for dinner or other teambuilding activities - there should still be some private time... but in practice that's absolutely not the case. You need to be "on" 100% of the time, and there isn't any space to decompress. I definitely see the value of getting all the team together in one location, it really does help break down barriers and improve your communication when you get back on Slack or Zoom or whatever once everyone goes back to their own office, but it is probably the most exhausting work-related thing that could exist. When i went on the company trips back in Germany it took me a week of "sick leave" and working from home till i had the spoons to get back in the office. This time my week was spent in quarantine.
But before talking about quarantine, let's talk a bit more about Geneva. I don't have many photos because so much of the time was spent with colleagues and/or in pain, so i wasn't enthused to explore and play tourist. We did go to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, though, and it's pretty much as beautiful as any postcard you see when you put the name into an image search. We took a cable car halfway up a mountain on the southern side and then did about a 3 hour hike to an alpine lake and back. As usual, southern side mountains are better to climb because the sun beams directly down the whole time, and there aren't many (or any) trees. My kind of scenery. Despite my skin woes, i was amongst the front of the pack and enjoyed the climb. Of course being a major tourist destination, it never felt like you were really in the wilderness - the paths are clogged with other hikers, trail runners and rock climbers. Still, it was a nice break from the city. Yes, i got sunburnt, but not on the worst-affected patch of skin around my neck and chest, which i covered with a scarf.
Here's me halfway up.
I took a bunch more, but this isn't a picture post, so i won't spam you with a million shots of jagged peaks and blue-green lakes.
On the evening, after avoiding most of the other drinks evenings on the journey (i instantly noped out of tapas when i realized it was just the whole team standing up all night in a very hot, enclosed basement), we went to the Geneva Street Food Festival, which is basically a 夜市 night market in Europe. There were food trucks with a bunch of different world cuisines, but i ended up going to one of the Chinese ones where they were making a very authentic-looking 煎餅果子 filled pancake. The lady was pasting on the hot sauce like they do in China, and it's a kind of sauce that i haven't seen at any of the 葱油餅 or 葱抓餅 spring onion pancake joints that they have in Taiwan, so i was craving it. It tasted just as good as it looked. I also introduced it to one of my Taiwanese colleagues who had never had it before but had been craving something that wasn't bread, and he was very pleased.
I didn't take a photo. So, instead, here is a photo of what i ate every morning for breakfast when i was over there.
God, i have to admit, i was feeling my colleague's despair at the endless fucking bread by our last night (especially after team fondue dinner), but now i am back in Taiwan i am already missing the bread. In Europe i had bread and fruit and nuts for breakfast. Whatever vegan option was getting ordered into the office for lunch. And when there wasn't a work thing scheduled for the evening, i just got fresh brötchen (bread rolls, don't know the French name) from the supermarket, a couple cans of beer, then sat in the park dipping the bread into olive oil and salt for dinner. Some dates on the side, maybe a banana. It was so good. European bread, especially Germany-adjacent bread, it's just perfect.
Anyway, back to the night market... Most of the team just browsed around ordering their own stuff, and we met back on a patch of grass that we shared between about 20 of us. It was very low-key and far more casual than our other shindigs. And then the later it got, the more bottles of rakija the visiting Macedonians pulled out of their bags. Dear lord, rakija. It's one of those typical herby East European liquors, and of course it's polite to do it as shots. Na zdravјye! I think most of the non-drinkers got a wise early exit, but as usual i hung on till the end - along with senior management - getting royally mangled. We all piled on the tram back to the hotel and passed out. Everyone's flights were the next evening, so it seemed alright.
Of course that meant on my last day - the only day really free to do sightseeing - i had a terrible hangover. But i rolled myself out of bed and packed everything up then got on the tram to the United Nations. I had to at least see the outside if nothing else. I was planning on having a quiet day just wandering around on my own, but sure enough the moment i got off the tram, i bumped into three of my colleagues who were doing a little sightseeing of their own. Fucking company trips! You're never free. On the upside, i did have the rare opportunity to get a full-body shot instead of a selfie.
After the UN we walked down to the botanical gardens where we enjoyed a very expensive lunch at the little restaurant in the park. My colleagues started to get more and more antsy, though - they wanted to get to the airport 4 hours ahead of the departure time - and they finally decided to peel off and head back to the train station where they had their suitcases stored. That was fine by me, because i got to do a bit more wandering on my own. I looped round a bit more of the gardens, then took a bus to an outlying village that i thought had a bunch of manors or haciendas or whatever you call it in French. But... every single one of them was private property, with locked gates - only available for booked events. It was a weird corner of town too, almost every car had diplomatic plates, and i almost crashed a wedding photo shoot for some very wealthy-looking people. I couldn't even find a coffee shop or döner place out there.
I did find a nice view of Lake Geneva, though.
Then i looked on the map and decided it should be possible to walk to the airport. And... it was! Europe, how about that? I picked my way through as many parks and back roads as possible, went through a cycle tunnel under the freeway, and popped out in the airport parking. It was great! All cities should have walking routes to their airport. The hilarious thing is that i still ended up getting to the gate ahead of the guys who had been so stressed to arrive hours ahead of time. Traveling in a group with suitcases has got to be the biggest slowinator of all time.
We had another 4 hour layover in Istanbul, where the guys all stocked up on stacks of apple tea, Turkish delight and other silk road snacks for their family and friends. Gotta say, Turkish cheezy airport souvenirs are way better than Swiss ones, where the only real option is chocolate, of the exact same brands you can buy anywhere else in the world anyway. I got a simit and a Turkish coffee and some Turkish delight to tide me over in my quarantine, then it was time for the long and uncomfortable flight back to Taipei.
Thank God they took pity on me and gave me an exit row. It was great to stretch out, but also i spent the whole flight itching and squirming so didn't get much sleep anyway. I did watch the new Matrix movie, though, which was great.
And then back to Taoyuan airport, register my phone with the authorities, PCR test, alcohol spraydown, taxi direct to my apartment, head inside, shower, sleep and three days of isolation. It was much nicer to be in my own place than in a quarantine hotel, even though the food at my place was less varied (porridge in the morning, noodles for lunch and dinner). The only vegetable i had was some edamame in the freezer and kimchi in the fridge. I also had lots of dried fruits and nuts that i took with me from Europe. It's so easy to find dried fruits and nuts in Europe - and so cheap! I couldn't get over how cheap the dates were in Geneva. Here they cost a fortune, if you can even find them, and the local alternative - dried jujubes - are far less delicious.
But i made it through the "3" part of the "3+4" quarantine. After the 3, you are allowed to go outside to do shopping, pending a negative result on COVID rapid test. Wednesday i tested negative and headed to 家樂福 Carrefour to buy some fresh fruit and veg.
And that pretty much takes me through till now. Sunday my "+4" ends, which means i am allowed to go outside and resume a normal life. Technically you're not supposed to go anywhere other than direct to work or grocery stores during the "+4", but i did sneak a few moments to sit in the park and just got a late 炒米粉 fried vermicelli from the noodle guy on the corner tonight. I didn't go into the office, because the recommendation was to take the full quarantine at home. Fine with me. I haven't yet replenished the energy to interact in person with my colleagues anyway.
I gotta say, though, that walk to the shops on Wednesday... Yeah that's when i really felt happy to be home again. Although Europe is an extremely comforting place to visit for me, everything feels familiar and cozy and just how i expect it to be... it doesn't really have the same kind of clamor and excitement that i feel walking around here (or in China). Taipei is a proper 24 hour city. There's always stuff going on - you can buy food or booze or whatever you want anywhere, any time. Geneva - like most European cities - has these long quiet patches where it feels like everyone just disappeared. It's relaxing, but it's not engaging, if that makes sense. In Taipei you gotta watch out all the time you're not going to get run over by a scooter rider, or step on a scuttling cockroach, or bash your head into a low-hanging neon sign. It feels vibrant... exuberant, just to exist.
I know i'll miss the peace and quiet and pedestrian-friendly urban design, access to greenspaces, good bread, cheap dried fruits and nuts... but i won't miss not being able to go shopping after 7pm, or having everyone around me be heavily-perfumed, snazzily-dressed and speaking so much goddamn French i started chainsmoking. Although, to be fair, by the end of the second week i could almost muddle my way through a few basic conversations, including a visit to a pharmacy where i managed to get some more steroid cream to last me through quarantine.
And here i am. Covered in cream. Still can't see a doctor till Tuesday at the earliest, because my health card is waiting for me in the office. But goddamnit i am going to try to fix this skin condition because it truly is driving me up the wall. I'm trying to enjoy my life and kick ass at work despite it all, but it's a lot. It's really a lot.
Trying to catch up on all your journals and comments. I have two days ahead of me where i all i need to do is eat mooncakes and kick ass. And i'm all out of mooncakes.
But here's the thing. This skin condition is still enflamed all over my body, and the itching is keeping me awake at night. I only slept about 3 hours, and woke up by 7am, scritching and scratching. It's so fucking frustrating. I've tried various different mechanisms to sleep all night, and nothing really works. Like booze will work for one night, and then not the other. Antihistamines work one night and not the other. Just like the steroid cream soothes some of the inflammation after several days of use, so i stop using it again, then a few days later red spots break out elsewhere on my body. Meanwhile the itching never stops. I cannot wait to see a doctor about this, it's so exhausting.
Geneva was exhausting too. I've now been on several company trips in my career, and every single time it's the same deal. In theory you are only working regular hours and meeting up with the gang for dinner or other teambuilding activities - there should still be some private time... but in practice that's absolutely not the case. You need to be "on" 100% of the time, and there isn't any space to decompress. I definitely see the value of getting all the team together in one location, it really does help break down barriers and improve your communication when you get back on Slack or Zoom or whatever once everyone goes back to their own office, but it is probably the most exhausting work-related thing that could exist. When i went on the company trips back in Germany it took me a week of "sick leave" and working from home till i had the spoons to get back in the office. This time my week was spent in quarantine.
But before talking about quarantine, let's talk a bit more about Geneva. I don't have many photos because so much of the time was spent with colleagues and/or in pain, so i wasn't enthused to explore and play tourist. We did go to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, though, and it's pretty much as beautiful as any postcard you see when you put the name into an image search. We took a cable car halfway up a mountain on the southern side and then did about a 3 hour hike to an alpine lake and back. As usual, southern side mountains are better to climb because the sun beams directly down the whole time, and there aren't many (or any) trees. My kind of scenery. Despite my skin woes, i was amongst the front of the pack and enjoyed the climb. Of course being a major tourist destination, it never felt like you were really in the wilderness - the paths are clogged with other hikers, trail runners and rock climbers. Still, it was a nice break from the city. Yes, i got sunburnt, but not on the worst-affected patch of skin around my neck and chest, which i covered with a scarf.
Here's me halfway up.
I took a bunch more, but this isn't a picture post, so i won't spam you with a million shots of jagged peaks and blue-green lakes.
On the evening, after avoiding most of the other drinks evenings on the journey (i instantly noped out of tapas when i realized it was just the whole team standing up all night in a very hot, enclosed basement), we went to the Geneva Street Food Festival, which is basically a 夜市 night market in Europe. There were food trucks with a bunch of different world cuisines, but i ended up going to one of the Chinese ones where they were making a very authentic-looking 煎餅果子 filled pancake. The lady was pasting on the hot sauce like they do in China, and it's a kind of sauce that i haven't seen at any of the 葱油餅 or 葱抓餅 spring onion pancake joints that they have in Taiwan, so i was craving it. It tasted just as good as it looked. I also introduced it to one of my Taiwanese colleagues who had never had it before but had been craving something that wasn't bread, and he was very pleased.
I didn't take a photo. So, instead, here is a photo of what i ate every morning for breakfast when i was over there.
God, i have to admit, i was feeling my colleague's despair at the endless fucking bread by our last night (especially after team fondue dinner), but now i am back in Taiwan i am already missing the bread. In Europe i had bread and fruit and nuts for breakfast. Whatever vegan option was getting ordered into the office for lunch. And when there wasn't a work thing scheduled for the evening, i just got fresh brötchen (bread rolls, don't know the French name) from the supermarket, a couple cans of beer, then sat in the park dipping the bread into olive oil and salt for dinner. Some dates on the side, maybe a banana. It was so good. European bread, especially Germany-adjacent bread, it's just perfect.
Anyway, back to the night market... Most of the team just browsed around ordering their own stuff, and we met back on a patch of grass that we shared between about 20 of us. It was very low-key and far more casual than our other shindigs. And then the later it got, the more bottles of rakija the visiting Macedonians pulled out of their bags. Dear lord, rakija. It's one of those typical herby East European liquors, and of course it's polite to do it as shots. Na zdravјye! I think most of the non-drinkers got a wise early exit, but as usual i hung on till the end - along with senior management - getting royally mangled. We all piled on the tram back to the hotel and passed out. Everyone's flights were the next evening, so it seemed alright.
Of course that meant on my last day - the only day really free to do sightseeing - i had a terrible hangover. But i rolled myself out of bed and packed everything up then got on the tram to the United Nations. I had to at least see the outside if nothing else. I was planning on having a quiet day just wandering around on my own, but sure enough the moment i got off the tram, i bumped into three of my colleagues who were doing a little sightseeing of their own. Fucking company trips! You're never free. On the upside, i did have the rare opportunity to get a full-body shot instead of a selfie.
After the UN we walked down to the botanical gardens where we enjoyed a very expensive lunch at the little restaurant in the park. My colleagues started to get more and more antsy, though - they wanted to get to the airport 4 hours ahead of the departure time - and they finally decided to peel off and head back to the train station where they had their suitcases stored. That was fine by me, because i got to do a bit more wandering on my own. I looped round a bit more of the gardens, then took a bus to an outlying village that i thought had a bunch of manors or haciendas or whatever you call it in French. But... every single one of them was private property, with locked gates - only available for booked events. It was a weird corner of town too, almost every car had diplomatic plates, and i almost crashed a wedding photo shoot for some very wealthy-looking people. I couldn't even find a coffee shop or döner place out there.
I did find a nice view of Lake Geneva, though.
Then i looked on the map and decided it should be possible to walk to the airport. And... it was! Europe, how about that? I picked my way through as many parks and back roads as possible, went through a cycle tunnel under the freeway, and popped out in the airport parking. It was great! All cities should have walking routes to their airport. The hilarious thing is that i still ended up getting to the gate ahead of the guys who had been so stressed to arrive hours ahead of time. Traveling in a group with suitcases has got to be the biggest slowinator of all time.
We had another 4 hour layover in Istanbul, where the guys all stocked up on stacks of apple tea, Turkish delight and other silk road snacks for their family and friends. Gotta say, Turkish cheezy airport souvenirs are way better than Swiss ones, where the only real option is chocolate, of the exact same brands you can buy anywhere else in the world anyway. I got a simit and a Turkish coffee and some Turkish delight to tide me over in my quarantine, then it was time for the long and uncomfortable flight back to Taipei.
Thank God they took pity on me and gave me an exit row. It was great to stretch out, but also i spent the whole flight itching and squirming so didn't get much sleep anyway. I did watch the new Matrix movie, though, which was great.
And then back to Taoyuan airport, register my phone with the authorities, PCR test, alcohol spraydown, taxi direct to my apartment, head inside, shower, sleep and three days of isolation. It was much nicer to be in my own place than in a quarantine hotel, even though the food at my place was less varied (porridge in the morning, noodles for lunch and dinner). The only vegetable i had was some edamame in the freezer and kimchi in the fridge. I also had lots of dried fruits and nuts that i took with me from Europe. It's so easy to find dried fruits and nuts in Europe - and so cheap! I couldn't get over how cheap the dates were in Geneva. Here they cost a fortune, if you can even find them, and the local alternative - dried jujubes - are far less delicious.
But i made it through the "3" part of the "3+4" quarantine. After the 3, you are allowed to go outside to do shopping, pending a negative result on COVID rapid test. Wednesday i tested negative and headed to 家樂福 Carrefour to buy some fresh fruit and veg.
And that pretty much takes me through till now. Sunday my "+4" ends, which means i am allowed to go outside and resume a normal life. Technically you're not supposed to go anywhere other than direct to work or grocery stores during the "+4", but i did sneak a few moments to sit in the park and just got a late 炒米粉 fried vermicelli from the noodle guy on the corner tonight. I didn't go into the office, because the recommendation was to take the full quarantine at home. Fine with me. I haven't yet replenished the energy to interact in person with my colleagues anyway.
I gotta say, though, that walk to the shops on Wednesday... Yeah that's when i really felt happy to be home again. Although Europe is an extremely comforting place to visit for me, everything feels familiar and cozy and just how i expect it to be... it doesn't really have the same kind of clamor and excitement that i feel walking around here (or in China). Taipei is a proper 24 hour city. There's always stuff going on - you can buy food or booze or whatever you want anywhere, any time. Geneva - like most European cities - has these long quiet patches where it feels like everyone just disappeared. It's relaxing, but it's not engaging, if that makes sense. In Taipei you gotta watch out all the time you're not going to get run over by a scooter rider, or step on a scuttling cockroach, or bash your head into a low-hanging neon sign. It feels vibrant... exuberant, just to exist.
I know i'll miss the peace and quiet and pedestrian-friendly urban design, access to greenspaces, good bread, cheap dried fruits and nuts... but i won't miss not being able to go shopping after 7pm, or having everyone around me be heavily-perfumed, snazzily-dressed and speaking so much goddamn French i started chainsmoking. Although, to be fair, by the end of the second week i could almost muddle my way through a few basic conversations, including a visit to a pharmacy where i managed to get some more steroid cream to last me through quarantine.
And here i am. Covered in cream. Still can't see a doctor till Tuesday at the earliest, because my health card is waiting for me in the office. But goddamnit i am going to try to fix this skin condition because it truly is driving me up the wall. I'm trying to enjoy my life and kick ass at work despite it all, but it's a lot. It's really a lot.
Trying to catch up on all your journals and comments. I have two days ahead of me where i all i need to do is eat mooncakes and kick ass. And i'm all out of mooncakes.