Taiwan - Hello and Goodbye

I arrived a week ago, jet lagged, excited, but also confused and unsure of what to expect. I had high expectations, maybe too high, but after an adjustment period, it's been great. I want to stay longer!

I'll admit, it's been difficult not being able to speak the language very well, but it's motivated me to learn it even more.

I have taken over 500 pictures, so all of you who said, "take lots of pictures," have no fear. I will post the good ones once I sift through them at home. Maybe I'll release them in short waves as I have time. I don't miss working at all, but it will definitely be nice to see my friends at home again.

I get on the plane in 7 hours. It will be a 40 hour Tuesday for me. This jet lag is going to kill me. Totally worth it.

Sunday Afternoon in Room 17062

I'm right here, working in the lab.

Working weekends is not fun cause tomorrow is Monday and everyone will ask,

"So Eric, how was your weekend?" and I have to respond, "I worked all weekend. How was your weekend?" and they will probably feel a little awkward because they had an awesome weekend but they don't want to tell me about it cause it'd be like rubbing their happy weekend in my face.

Am I bitter? Nah. It's only the Colts season opener today. !!!

Work-Alcoholic?

Hey you,

Yeah, you. The friend I haven't spoken to in ages. I want to let you know that it's my fault. With these rather ridiculous hours I've been working, I haven't been the best at keeping in touch. I apologize. I pray that I won't be working like this much longer.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my team, but these extended evening sessions in the lab are getting old.

Here is an interesting observation I made to Emily, one of my coworkers, yesterday. It went something like this:

"It's funny how much time we spend working with the names of people we don't even know. And through our work we are inherently forced to hate them."

Either inclined or forced, you can only imagine how many times one of us has yelled, "I hate [complete stranger's name]!!!"

"If I ever saw [insert annoying stranger's name here] on the street, I'd smack a bitch." - Emily

A quick explanation: I go through a lot of other people's data at work. Depending on who the person is, my team is required to jump through certain "hoops." We're at the point where we hate jumping through hoops. We prefer walking. Walking in any direction we please. Preferably with a bottle of booze in our hand. If we get tired, we'd enjoy sleeping. But no. "Hoops" and "loop-dee-loops" we do, late into the wee morning hours.

But, I digress. I love my job and I still manage to go out and party...hard.

Good night, friend. I'll catch up with you soon.

Some Bubble Gum and How 'bout a Whopper?

Great times with Drew, his fiancee Sara, and my good friend Kristin who came to visit me in San Francisco over the Fourth of July weekend. Highlights include dinner at Plumpjack, drinks and dancing at Gravity, Punchline Comedy club, lunch at Sausalito, and Karaoke--"Lost in Translation Style"--in Japantown.

We even randomly ran into Uncle Frank and Aunt Grace at a restaurant called Horizaons in Sausalito. What a small world!

Singing our hearts out

Chillin on the roof

Shakira Shakira! Oooooh, my hips don't lie and I'm startin' to feel this way...
Back to the grind in SF, but lovin' it.

Sex Panther

Steve and I just got our couch this Friday! We've been waiting for over a month for it to be delivered! As far as I'm concerned our apartment is now complete. I haven't decided on a name yet, but I've been considering "San Diago" or "Sex Panther" a la Anchorman. :)

Ok, so we still need to decorate the walls and we need a coffee table, an end table and kitchen table, but we have a couch! I echo my sister's sentiments when I say, "Can I get a hellz yeah? We got a couch!" (See her sofa entry from last year).

The delivery guys couldn't get it up the stairs so they had to delay a week and we paid EXTRA for them to take it apart and assemble it in our living room. Ehh. Oh well. When we move, I think we'll be able to get it out the back.

Check it out!

Check out the sweet throws, throw pillows
and my Spanish Steps panoramic

The Fun Never Ends

Last week end I took Friday off so I could go back to Indy and attend my friend's wedding. Ashley Zimerman is an old friend from IU and she asked me to play the violin at her wedding. It truly was an honor and pleasure to play for her ceremony. Afterwards, I realized just how foolish and selfish it would have been for me NOT to perform. Congrats to Ashley and Nick.

Call it good timing, but I Drew and Sara were in town from Phoenix for a night so we all go to hang out. I also went to Broad Ripple with Coop, Erin, Charles, and Kristin. Saturday after the wedding we partied in Bloomington at Blaire's, Nick's, Upstairs, and Sports. Long story short, I ate, drank, and was very merry all weekend. :)



I have an end date for LA. June 30 I'm coming home to San Francisco! Drew, Sara, and Kristin are coming to visit me in SF that weekend too. I'm so pumped for that it's not even funny.

Germany in just a few days! Wahoo the World Cup!

Unlimited Fun Tickets in Nashville

I made an unscheduled (by that I mean I didn't mention it on my blog) stop in Nashville the next weekend. It was so refreshing and almost emotional being around the people with whom I grew up. Like I told Tim Walker, "We have so much history together." We are so comfortable around each other and to keep with the sappiness, we are so happy around each other. I miss all of you. On a less serious note... We are the professional partiers. No one gets in "fights" better than Drew. No one drinks Guinness better than Charles. OK, maybe Byron does, but somone had to represent in his absence. Robert parties like he has no more fun tickets. No one passes out and rallies better than the AsianTourist.

Other great news: I got world cup tickets! France vs. Korea!!! Woohoo!

Back to Indy in one week! Now to fun pictures...
Congratulations to the graduates, Charles and Robert!















The Walker Family. No further comment.




















The Funks, my neighbors at 829. That's 828 + 1!








Bobert and Blob's owner

Professional Partiers run Amok in Nashville!

Two weeks ago, I went home to Indy for an early Mother's Day celebration and to party in Bloomington for IU's graduation weekend. I got to see some of the college crew I hadn't seen since I started working: Andrew, Adam V, Holleh, Kristin, Blaire, Brooke, Meghan, Ross, and Dan. One word: FANTASTIC!

Rossaroo!

Kristin

Meghan

Blaire

Indy For Sure, Germany Too

I went home a couple weekends ago to move from 220 Randall Street to 2242 Fillmore Street. Pacific Heights here I am! Come visit me at my new place!

Vegas was lots of fun. Much money was spent but it was still fun hanging out with my college buddies. Thanks for an awesome time, gentlemen (and random women). Here's a random question: What is your beer of choice?

Recent Locations:

4/5-9 - Washington, D.C. (Angie, Swan, Kelli, & Mersine)
4/20-23 - Las Vegas, NV (Tim, Kevin, Adam P, Adam V, Steve)
Weekdays - Los Angeles, CA (work)
San Francisco, CA (NEW HOME!)

Future Destinations:

5/5-7 - Indianapolis, IN (Family and IU, Ball State Graduation)
6/2-4 - Indianapolis, IN (Family and friends, Ashley Z's wedding, maybe see Drew)
6/15-25 - Augsburg, Germany (World Cup Game?)

Hello, Old Friend. I Missed You

That's me, playing the violin in an Irish pub called Fado in Washington D.C. I've never been to that bar. I've never seen nor heard of the band that was playing that night (Scythian). Still, I jammed like I've never jammed before. Ridiculous! Here's the story.

Swan, Mersine, Kelli, and I had a great dinner with my sister, Angie, and her boyfriend, Neil. With a few drinks in us, we headed over to Fado and had a few more drinks. We were all feeling very good and merrily clapped and bounced with the celtic music. Imagine loud, fun Irish jigs with a couple violins, a guitar, bass, awesome vocals, and a rockin' drummer.

Not to sound totally arrogant and cocky, but most of you know that I've played the violin pretty much my entire life. So, I leaned over and told Swan, "I think I could do that on the violin."

Swan responded, "You should go up there! I kinda know the guitar player."

I said, "No no. Don't worry about it. They don't want some chump going up there. They have their set list all written out and [normally] it'd be stupid for them to let some random guy up there."

Well, Swan somehow worked her magic and got me a mini "audition." All right. Pull my leg. I went up on stage and thanked them for even letting me up there and said, "You guys are awesome. Just lay down some chords and I'll just play whatever."

Guitar player: "Well wait. Do you know Hungarian Dance?"

I played Hungarian Dance for him. Then I played Irish Washer Woman, the only real Irish jig I could remember from my beginner days. They seemed convinced I could play, so it was on. They mic'd me and verified my name one more time before introducing me to the bar. "Hey everyone! This is Eric and he's gonna play a couple songs with us."

I hadn't seriously played the violin since my recital last April. It was kinda sloppy, but I managed to play through the rust and hold my own. Great times just improvising my fingers off. I forgot how much fun it is to play the violin, even if it was just some fiddlin'.

Here are pics with the lovely ladies who were INCREDIBLE hosts. Thanks so much for the fantastic weekend!

Eat, drink, and be merry.

Maybe I should call this blog, "Always A Violinist."

I'm Platinum

Recent Locations:

3/8-11 - Scottsdale, AZ (Drew, Sara, Charles, Stumpf, Robert, FTS Crew)
3/11-23 - Las Vegas, NV (Drew, Sara, Charles, Stumpf, & Robert)
3/18-29 - New York City, CA (Sangeeta, Mersine, Sim, & Parmita and friends)
Weekdays - Los Angeles, CA (work)
San Francisco, CA (home)

Future Destinations:

4/4-9 - Washington, D.C. (Angie, Swan, Kelli, & Mersine)
4/20-23 - Las Vegas, NV (Tim, Kevin, Adam P, Adam V, Steve)
6/2-4 - Indianapolis, IN (Family and friends, Ashley Z's wedding, maybe see Drew)
June? - Augsburg, Germany (Philip, Moritz, Kimberly)

Since I've stayed at Starwood Properties for 50 nights this year already, I've achieved Platinum status. (www.spg.com) - Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis, Four Points, Le Meridien, and W Hotels) I get free upgrades to preferred deluxe rooms when available, a little gift each time I check in, free breakfasts and internet, and faster accumulation of hotel points to use towards free nights anywhere Starwood has hotels.

While it may be crazy to think about being away from home as much as I have been, I'm enjoying the traveling. It just sucks to pay rent in San Francisco when I'm never there. So, Platinum status is a nice reward even though the reality is that I probably achieved that status way too fast. (50 nights in a hotel in less than 3 months!)

No end in sight for the Tourist in Los Angeles. It's cool for now. Pictures soon to come.

I've been Trippin'

So I've been traveling...a lot. After dropping off the parents, Sim, Coop, and Swan at the airport soon after the new year arrived, I parked my car at SFO's long term parking and hopped on a plane to LA.

My new friend, Karen, and I rented a car and drove down to visit beautiful San Diego the first weekend. It was my first time there and we stayed at the Westin Horton Plaza. It was a great weekend cause it was relaxing but we packed in a lot of sites and activities. This sunset photo was taken near Seaport Village.

We drove along the coast and visited Coronado, Mission Beach, and La Jolla before driving back to LA. Call me a dork, but I like pronouncing "Jolla" like an ignorant Hoosier with a hard "J" and a hard "L". "JOLLA!"

The next weekend, (believe me I do work between weekends), I flew to Phoenix to visit Drew. We went to a bar called Mickey's Hangover that had a nice outdoor patio and another place called the Rusty Saloon. Yes. People were wearing cowboy hats and they played country music. Good times. It's ridiculous that you can sit outside at night and feel like you're indoors in the middle of January.

Thanks to Drew, Sara, and friends for treating me like another member of the group. Too bad the Colts lost. Just like in the movies, our friend Andrea accidentally sat on the TV remote and turned off the tv right as Vanderjagt kicked the last field goal that would have tied the game. Everyone gasped, "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Oh well, hilarious as it was, he missed it and I was sad. I still don't like to think about the loss.

I hung out with my parents this weekend in LA cause they're taking care of my grandmother while my aunt and uncle take a vacation in Spain. It's always good to see the family and get lectured in Taiwanese by A-ma (grandma).

It's actually been quite beautiful in San Francisco this weekend. After three weeks of being away, I just stand in awe as I look out my bedroom window at the skyline and bay bridge. It's good to be home.

I'll be flying back to Los Angeles early Tuesday morning, while the city lights are still a twinklin'.