WuiT #044: Daniel Wallace (part 1)

Filed Under: Long Terms in Taiwan, Chinese Friendship, Blogging or Writing.
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Daniel was originally from London; he gave up his job three years ago and started traveling around the world. We understand that he has been to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and China just to name a few. He had a personal website "Suitcasing", which is under construction at the moment, but you can see the passion he had for traveling.

The interview was done in a very relaxed fashion; Daniel talked about being a foreigner in Taipei, the different mannerism of the people between Taiwan and China, the pros and cons of blogging, the excellent hidden spots in the alleys of Taipei, and his general disappointment in the foreigners on the island.

Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to play “Englishman in New York” preformed by Sting during the show, the song that played repeatedly in our heads after our interview with Mr. Wallace.

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Daniel 來自英國，三年前放棄銀行的工作，開始旅遊，我們知道他去了馬來西亞、新加坡、泰國、昆明… 他的個人網站叫 suitcasting.com（目前暫時關閉），可以看出他對旅行的熱誠。

訪問在很放鬆的氣氛下進行，Daniel 談到一個外國人在台灣的感受、兩岸華人表現友誼的不同方式、寫部落格的優點與缺點、藏在台北巷弄裡的有趣的店鋪、還有，他對在台灣的外國人的普遍失望…

Daniel 其實是本節目最早的受訪者之一。訪問結束後，他來信表示當天表現的太客氣了，如果有機會重來，他會表達的更清楚。六個月後，我們又在他頂樓加蓋的公寓中見面，他還是很客氣，只是，這次他很直接。謝謝他花了兩次的時間，分享許多有趣的看法。

由於版權的限制，我們無法在節目中播出 Sting 演唱的 Englishman in New York。

WuiT #043: Nicholas Pena Alvarez

Filed Under: Night Life, Animal Care.
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Nicholas is a 27 year-old young man from Canada who has only been in Taiwan for merely 7 weeks when we did the interview, but within that short time frame, he managed to visit all of the popular nightspots in Taipei.

Nick is currently employed by the Landis Taipei Hotel as the chef of La Brasserie Restaurant. This is certainly not a common position for someone his age. He feels that he was hired due to his training and experiences, and the willingness to try creative new ideas, as well as his easy going personality, and we have to agree. Any hotel owner would be delighted to have a chef that can cook as well as entertain the guests.

Nick talked to us about the fascinating similarities between sugar and glass before the interview, he can basically create anything with sugar that you can do with glass. He has once worked for over 30 continuous hours in extreme heat to build a life-sized eatable jukebox. We are looking forward to seeing more of his amazing creations in Taipei.

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來自加拿大的Nicholas今年僅27歲，訪問當天抵達台灣才七個星期，但幾乎已經逛遍台北知名的夜店。

Nicholas受聘於亞都麗緻大飯店，擔任巴賽麗廳主廚。這個職位以他的年紀來說，絕對是非常年輕的。他自認受聘的原因除了他受過專業訓練、以及年輕人的敢於嘗試新點子，還有個性隨和。的確，我們覺得他非常有親和力。聘雇一位有才華的主廚，奉送公關能力，我想任何老闆都很樂意。

訪問前Nicholas與我們閒聊糖與玻璃奇妙的相似性，任何可以用玻璃製作的東西，他都能用糖製作出來。他曾經連續三十幾個小時，在高溫下用糖製作了一個實體大小，並且可以食用的音樂點唱機，希望以後能在台北看到他別出心裁的作品。

WuiT #042: Ekaterina Anatolievna Nikitina

Filed Under: Modeling, Photographer, Sun Moon Lake.
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Words like excited and anxious are understatements when we found out we had the opportunity of interviewing a Russian model, even though she ended up at our meeting with her handsome husband.

Ekaterina Anatolievna Nikitina(A.K.A. KaiDi) moved to Taiwan with her then boyfriend and now husband. They are both part-time models, and as you can tell by their picture that they are more than qualified for the job. Photography is also one of KaiDi's many interests; here are some photos she took on her trip to Sun Moon Lake.




This is a link to her personal website if you are interested in checking out more of her work. KaiDi also told us that she is more than ready to take pictures of the beautiful Taiwanese girls on the weekends, contact her by e-mail if you would like to pose for her. She will even give you a disk of your pictures as a memento.

The ending music was provided to us by Miss Cincin Lee, the winner of The Golden Horse Award for best musical accompaniment in a film. The awarded song's title is "Meeting Spring Wind", a very traditional and popular folk song of Taiwan. We would like to express our appreciation for her consent of using the piece.

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當我們知道要訪問一位來自俄羅斯的女模特兒，當然會有一種異常的興奮與期待，雖然最後她和一名帥哥同時出現...

Nikitina有一個中文名字凱娣（KaiDi）。她隨著當時的男友、現在的丈夫來台灣工作，兩人都是業餘的模特兒，看他們倆人的外表就很容易理解。KaiDi唯一的興趣是攝影，這裡是她所拍攝日月潭的照片。

還有 KaiDi的網站連結，有興趣的朋友，可以前往觀賞她的作品。KaiDi表示，如果有漂亮女生想在週末擔任她的免費模特兒，可以Email與她連絡，她會以拍攝完成的相片光碟相贈 。

節目結束的背景音樂是我的好友、鄰居，同時也金馬獎最佳電影配樂得主的才女、美女李欣芸的得獎作品：「望春風」，經過她的同意使用，在此致謝。

WuiT #041: Dieter Neumann (part 2)

Filed Under: Tourism.
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This week is the second part of our interview with Mr. Dieter Neumann; the topic is mainly focused on the development for Taiwanese tourism.

Here is a letter that Mr. Neumann passed on to us the following day of the interview; it is his views on Taiwanese health care. He asked us to present it for him, and it goes as follows:


My message to government and politicians:

The mandatory National Health Insurance and recently passed legislation to establish a retirement fund for employees at the expense of entrepreneurs is worth some praise, without much doubt, but do not let this be the beginning of copying the "cradle-to-grave" social care system that just now collapses in Germany after 125 years. Relieving people from performance pressure and self-responsibility will make them complacent and unfit for life. Do not lure them with false sentimentality; tell them the truth: Only the fear to fail keeps people alive and alert! Fear of existence and social pressure are the best guarantors for human efficiency! Sounds bitter- -but truth is like medicine; it MUST taste bitter, or it will not work! If you learn that from me, that only and nothing else, then I can pass away in peace, knowing that my 30 years of time on Taiwan were not wasted.

Dieter Neumann

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本週繼續是 Dieter Neumann 先生訪問的第二部份，話題集中在對台灣觀光產業發展的建議。

這裡有一份 Dieter Neumann 先生隔天寄給我們的信件，內容是他對保險制度的呼籲，他希望我們能放在他的介紹裡。