Company Outing Day 1 - The house of drunk experiencing

My company is celebrating a 25th anniversary of the founding of the corporation this year so each site is having some sort of celebration. Back in the States we rented out part of a country club for the day and had an outing with food and games, golf and tennis for those who wished to play. I was disappointed to find that it was scheduled for about a month after my departure so I would be missing out on all the action. I was hoping that I made it to Taiwan in time for their outing.

On the first or second day of work here in Taiwan someone commented at lunch that we have until tomorrow to register for the "outing". Ooh, maybe I made it in time! Turns out I did, but I had to sign up quickly for one of four dates as they could not accommodate all of Taiwan in one event. Here was our itinerary (via bus tour):

• Friday morning pickup at the office
• Head to lunch in Puli
• Visit Puli "winery"
• Head to Sun Moon Lake
• Dinner
• Spend the night in the hotel
• Saturday head to aboriginal village/cable car/amusement park
• Get back to office Saturday night

I blindly selected a date as the deadline was drawing near and didn't sync up with any people that I knew so it was a total crap shoot. The event was for all of Taiwan, not just my office so I actually know a slim % of those in attendance. It's been difficult to go from knowing, seriously, about 400 people to maybe a couple dozen, if that. But that's part of the excitement of the opportunity to meet knew people instead of seeing the same old faces every day.

The first presentation I received said we leave the company at 8AM. Then I received an itinerary that noted, 8:20-8:40. In the week beforehand I emailed the tour coordinator and asked, "What time does the bus leave?" and got back 8:20-8:40. That's way too vague for me. The problem is, I am without a car right now and am taking this shuttle to work that arrives at ~8:50 AM so that won't work for 8:20-8:40 so I had to take the subway to the freeway bus and then cab it to the office to get there in time. In time for the bus that didn't leave until 9:20AM. To date, nobody here has ever been on time for anything. Yet they sell watches in every market. Just a fashion statement, I guess.

But we were off to the first stop: lunch. We had 3 buses and each had a tour guide with a microphone to tell us what our plans were and some history of Taiwan and the areas we were visiting. Our bus had 4 non-Chinese speakers, myself, a German guy and two Korean guys. So our tour guide was at least bi-lingual. She also studied Spanish and lived in Spain but said she had a really hard time with the language and the tenses; but, she was very good in English, albeit, incredibly repetitive, especially when telling us that we should spend our money at the places we were stopping. I swear the tour guide must get a cut.

We stopped for lunch in Puli before the winery visit and we only had 4 people show up at our table (assigned seats) and the lunch was prepared for 8 so we had loads of food. It was a traditional Taiwanese meal where there is a lazy susan in the middle and everyone shares dishes. We did the best we could and then off to the winery. I knew there was no way the winery was a winery and I was correct. It was a distillery, but, OK, details, details.  I didn't buy any booze but there were some nice local crafts on site to and I picked up some souvenirs. On the craft floor they had a room with a slanted floor and the doorway was labeled, "The house of drunk experiencing".  Then we were back on the bus to head to our hotel at Sun Moon Lake. It's in the center of Taiwan and named for its appearance in the shape of a sun and a moon.

I laughed when she said to be prepared because it frequently rains in the center of Taiwan. Like the constant rain in the north of Taiwan (Taipei) would make us unprepared for the center of Taiwan as it has been raining every day for quite some time. I saw a guy across the street with a stockpile of wood. I think he's working on an ark. Checking in to the hotel went quite smoothly and the room was very nice. We all had lake view rooms and there was a Japanese room with sliding screens and a deep tub with a view of the lake. There was some master technology panel which controlled the TV and all of the lights. Oh, and there was a TV in the tub. We were allowed to bring friends and family but I was travelling solo, unfortunate since it was on the company's dime.

On the ride up we were told that we had several options for the event immediately after arrival:

• Option A: Bus tour around the lake - the guide recommended we not choose this one as something about the storm and the road and the bus would be weaving and we might get sick to our stomach. If I can handle pig guts soup, I think I can handle the bus.
• Option B: Boat tour around the lake at an up charge of $6 (USD). She recommended this option. I was a bit hesitant because of the weather and figured I would see how it looked when we got to Sun Moon Lake.
• Option C: Hang out at the hotel

About 30 seconds later she made her way up the aisle with a checklist and an envelope and made everyone choose right then whether they were going on the boat. This should have been of no surprise to me as this is very indicative of everything I have experienced in Taiwan. If someone is going to describe some choices to you, you must choose right away. The part of this that most makes me an outsider here is the fact that I was even going to size up the weather as a deciding factor. Weather is never a factor for the Taiwanese. They carry an umbrella at all times and just go with the flow.

The boat was covered. That's another thing about Taipei, in particular, there is a lot of coverage. Most of the sidewalks have an overhang to shield you from the elements, be it sun or rain. The tour guide says that Sun Moon Lake is covered in mist in the morning and fog in the evening. I think that's just tour guide speak for, "It rains all the time at Sun Moon Lake."

The boat made two stops, one was at a temple a top a hill with a nice walking path to get up to the top. There were a lot of people here and there was a rock overlooking the lake which made for a scenic photo op. I think this video is very Taiwanese. If the Japanese are known for taking photos of EVERYTHING, the Taiwanese must be known to take photos of themselves, IN FRONT OF everything. This turned in to a scene which looked like paparazzi lined up at the red carpet. There were even people taking photos of me taking a video of people taking photos of people standing in front of the rock. Check out the way they each strike a pose at the rock:

We barely had time to check in before it was off to dinner. This time the other 4 showed up so we would at least to be able to eat most of the food. We joked that they let us down at lunchtime and left us with a lot of food to eat. Dinner was almost the exact same meal as lunch but there would be "games" afterward. They started with bingo which was actually good for the sake of learning my #'s in Chinese which I am actually doing pretty well with because you need to pay for things and that involves learning numbers. Though I did almost get into an embarrassing bingo situation where I mistook 30 for 13. In Chinese, thirteen is the equivalent of "ten three" (10+3), thirty is "three ten" (3*10) and when the guy was quicly rattling off numbers, I got confused, but the guy next to me straightened me out before I called a false bingo.

There were some activities with kids on the stage and then a new game started and the tour guide lady volunteered me for the game so I went up on stage, in front of about 200 people. One of the bus tour guides who must be an aspiring DJ or TV host ran the show and we were setting up in teams of two. Now flashback to a week ago:

I was at my desk and had to log in to the HR site for something about the Dragon Boat Festival and noticed that there were some presentations about former company outings and I was taking a look and came across the budget for a "beer drinking" game. I'll save you the details since you already know where this is going...

So I am now on stage for the company tradition, the beer chug contest. There are about 10 of us and "Arco", standing behind me, informed my that he was my teammate; I chug first and then he goes. First team to finish wins. Oh, another thing, when I'm done, I have to flip the mug over and yell my company's name, like, samurai style as demonstrated by the mow-hawked MC running the event. One of the other competitors asked what country I was from and when I said I was American, I think he slipped off stage to place a bet on me with his bookie. About 200 people were fixated on me as I was one of two Westerners in the entire room and the only one on stage with a glass of beer in his hand.

But it could not be so straightforward and easy, right? We each had to put a straw in the glass and drink through the straw. At this point I knew I was doomed.  I strengthen my Chinese comprehension on this night as it relates to games. "Eee, err, san" ("one, two, three") will forever be burned into my vocab. At least I knew when to start drinking. I sucked as hard as I could while still remaining conscious and actually finished my leg in 2nd or 3rd. I don't think Arco ever finished his. After the team chug they picked two guys to stay behind and chug a tall boy of Taiwan Beer out of a bottle, no straw, no time limit. One on one. Neither finished and one bolted off stage to the bathroom. Mind you, there was no other alcohol at this event. No even I could have swigged down that beer.

Next there was some sort of line dancing game and thank goodness I was not involved in this train wreck. Entertaining, though...




After dinner we took the bus back to the hotel and the tour guide advised that we get some sleep for the day tomorrow and have really nice dreams. She said, if we have nightmares, they will probably be about HER. I think I might have laughed a little too loudly at that one.