Let’s step back a week and a half and share how Taiwan went. It started with a flight booked through Hong Kong, and I got there the day after the airport shutdown. Which I learned about when I had 2 hours to go on the flight and brought up the live satellite news on the flight.
Wasn’t much a choice at this point, but as I found out later this was announce just before I took off from SFO, which might have been why the plane was so empty, and I thought I just got lucky.
When I deboarded, I found my next flight to be cancelled as pretty much expected and was told to go to the transfer desk. Took a minute to find it and almost got on the train, but glad I didn’t as I was about the 20th or so person in line. About 30-45 mins later I was at the counter and I told them I could fly into Taipei as an option and he said he found a flight that left at 6pm! A lot of keyboard clicking later, he hands me a ticket and says “This leaves in an hour, but your baggage may not make it” and I hightailed it through transfer security and to my gate. I’d say I got lucky here, but my luggage did get “lost” till Friday morning.
I landed in Taipei and the person to pick me up in Taichung had traveled to Taipei to meet me there. This is a picture of us when I was on my way out and her name is Judy.
She was very nice and made sure everything was okay. We took the High Speed Train to Taichung where her car was sitting, then to dinner at a very nice shopping centre and finally to the hotel.
The original plan of mine was to help with uncrating, entire setup, fix technical issues on the field, help CSAs, Inspectors, training event staff, making sure things are running smoothly, running matches, then teardown and recrating. The typical job of an FTA (FIRST Technical Advisor) for an event. But instead I was surprised by how prepared they were.
I got there Tuesday so Wednesday I could help out, even got a second FTA, Shahar to join me due to timing of him wanting to do a mileage run for airline status. As the new plan had become that I only help setup the field and not uncrate, and I didn’t have my bag we figured we would walk around and see about finding some shirts, so I had a bit more than carry on clothes. Funny thing about night markets in Taiwan, they are pretty much only open at night. We’ll afternoon at least, as we found nothing within walking distance.
Funny thing about night markets in Taiwan, they are pretty much only open at night. We’ll afternoon at least, as we found nothing within walking distance.
Wednesday later afternoon, Judy had told us she would take us on a tour, so we ended up at the National Taichung Theatre (NTT) for a tour of the building, complete with English Audio tour! There was some interesting things but the most difficult thing was that it didn’t quite make sense why the things were important. Like telling us of the fire suppression system, or at one point describing the inside of the theatre rooms, but we can’t go in, so “if you look towards the back” didn’t really work. And even asking us if we can spot the face silhouette within an art exhibit of the architect that we just learned his name. Google searches later and it was much more interesting.
Thursday we finally got to help with the event, many roads are “two way” but only 1.5 cars wide. It was a pretty typical setup day with the exception that it was the 3rd floor of a building and the crates didn’t make it up, so they hand unloaded all the game specifics and AndyMark field border.
There was one slight difference I learned a bit too late, Taiwan Inches. This is NOT 25.4mm to 1 in. And we had to do a bit of adjusting, once we started putting in an end wall. Sorry, free WordPress doesn’t do video, download the full time lapse:
They did a great job of preparing too. They had tested out schedules, did rehearsals for opening and closing ceremonies, and had a full day of training for volunteers on Friday. It made the job as an FTA go almost so smoothly that it could have become boring. Good thing I got to learn about things like Kuai Kuai and a bunch of Chinese that I’ve already forgot.
What is Kuai Kuai? In short, it’s a superstition that has national attention. The green flavor (coconut) is the one to go with according to everyone here, as green means go or operational. So bags are put everywhere you need things to “behave well”. We had a small repeating issue with the Sandstorm here, and once this was in place, no more problems!
Saturday was the first day of the actual event, 18 teams, and 8 were pre-rookies, meaning they had never done an event. Inspectors had a lot of fun explaining what the rules really were and why, as well as some misunderstandings like the KoP chassis that you can build as a large square but is designed so you can go either long or wide, but can’t do both and still be within the rules. Many got passed with the understanding that a real event, this wouldn’t be accepted, but this was all about training.
If you are heading to Taiwan and have been asked to visit or help out, expect gifts. Everyone was happy to have us there and thanked us for helping so much, even though we didn’t feel like we did much.
We had a traditional 7? 8? 9? course meal. I don’t remember but all of it was good, some things had a consistency that you don’t grow up with in Indiana, but good all the same. This was with all our hosts.
The first day of the event, officially I think we were 20 mins behind public schedule, and we finished up Sunday right on time. It was amazing to see how well everything went together.
Sunday night we had dinner at Dǐng Tài Fēng, which breaks my rule of going to a franchise place, but since it started in Taiwan it was a must. If you like dumplings, this is the place! And they are all over, if you find one, GO!
Future plans are to go back to Taichug next season and help them with their inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition. As it’s not official yet this may or may not work out, but I’ll help if I can.
tl;dr: Taiwan is worth the trip. If you get the chance to go, you should, but hopefully you can stay clear of international politics, cause that’s never fun.
