There is lots of traffic. In downtown SF, the 405 and the 238/580/880 interchange.
In the states, you have to follow rules- no running red lights, no weaving, no excessive speeding on the street, or else you get ticketed or fined. But here in china, the lights are there just for decoration, and there's pedestrians trottin in the middle of a 6 lane intersection. And bicycles too. They(we) are everywhere, zipping between traffic and in armies on the road.
And on the little pond in zhongshan park, there is tons of traffic. We rented a little electric powered boat on the pond and cruised thru the weeping willows listening to some cover band, and avoiding fishing lines. And there's little bridges to go under and such, and mind you its a complete loop. And people just CAN't get anywhere!!! They are all head to head inside a tunnel shaped for one boat, but 4 just keep on charging in. sigh. The little kids about 7 or 8 yrs old were the smart ones backing out and maneuvering backwards. props. after that it started to down pour and so we went swimming. We got our swim caps, required at the pool here, and hopped in only to find a bunch of lap swimmers!! The last time we came, it was chock full of kids, and unable to swim straight anywhere. Some people swim cross wise to the lanes and so there was a bunch of crashing going on there, but still a cool way to pass the time on autumn festival.
Visa update: I don't have to leave the country!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
expat show-and more
Finally. A moment to sit down!
This is day six of my seven day work week. October holiday has creeped up on us, and we are required to work the weekend, to get 7 days off. Mandarin lessons, planning, apple pie baking, cell group, and family phone calls have kept me out n about every evening this week. So tonight I rest! I hope to finish The tipping point by Malcom Gladwell, respond to emails and of course update my blog here.
So last weekend was the expat show. It was a wide variety of vendors, from wine sampling to pre-schools, the million tree project and buying fruit online. A few friends had booths there, including Taisley Red interiors where I took a rest on a sweet sofa, Shokay, "luxury with a story, style with a touch of humanity" where i sampled yak cheese:
So between it all, we managed to find ourselves in the fruit online booth. I have a bad habit of getting sick from fruit here, so I was interested in the imported fruit, if it wasn't too expensive. Actually what really caught my eye was the avocados(aka alligator pears) they were selling. which reminds me of a logo i designed for an xP iron chef event:
3 for 39 rmb(75 cents) So of course they had a show deal, if you sign up you get x amount free, so we signed up for granny smith apples and avocados! And they came this week, and so we made an apple galette. (Actually my mom sent me her recipe, but she didn't tell me the oven temp, so I had look it up.) I made my own pie crust for the first time as well.
And I realized how I miss normal flavored chips. The chips here are chicken flavored, itailian redmeat, blueberry, and cucumber even! What ever happened to sour cream and onion?? The only cheetos they've got are both meat flavored. And not even anything close to chili cheese fritos. Well, I guess thats kinda ironic!
We also hit a birthday party at JWOW, and I had my hair curled at a local salon. . . and then in the humid wind filled cab ride there they all came out : ( The most inspiring part of the night was these two girls who came decked out in huge fluffy dresses (the theme was "glam") and you get closer to them and...their dresses were made of plastic bags!! like the big black ones, and white ones. It was pretty slick and majorly impressive. Wish Ida photo of it!
What else interesting things have I been up to?
This is day six of my seven day work week. October holiday has creeped up on us, and we are required to work the weekend, to get 7 days off. Mandarin lessons, planning, apple pie baking, cell group, and family phone calls have kept me out n about every evening this week. So tonight I rest! I hope to finish The tipping point by Malcom Gladwell, respond to emails and of course update my blog here.
So last weekend was the expat show. It was a wide variety of vendors, from wine sampling to pre-schools, the million tree project and buying fruit online. A few friends had booths there, including Taisley Red interiors where I took a rest on a sweet sofa, Shokay, "luxury with a story, style with a touch of humanity" where i sampled yak cheese:
So between it all, we managed to find ourselves in the fruit online booth. I have a bad habit of getting sick from fruit here, so I was interested in the imported fruit, if it wasn't too expensive. Actually what really caught my eye was the avocados(aka alligator pears) they were selling. which reminds me of a logo i designed for an xP iron chef event:
3 for 39 rmb(75 cents) So of course they had a show deal, if you sign up you get x amount free, so we signed up for granny smith apples and avocados! And they came this week, and so we made an apple galette. (Actually my mom sent me her recipe, but she didn't tell me the oven temp, so I had look it up.) I made my own pie crust for the first time as well.
And I realized how I miss normal flavored chips. The chips here are chicken flavored, itailian redmeat, blueberry, and cucumber even! What ever happened to sour cream and onion?? The only cheetos they've got are both meat flavored. And not even anything close to chili cheese fritos. Well, I guess thats kinda ironic!
We also hit a birthday party at JWOW, and I had my hair curled at a local salon. . . and then in the humid wind filled cab ride there they all came out : ( The most inspiring part of the night was these two girls who came decked out in huge fluffy dresses (the theme was "glam") and you get closer to them and...their dresses were made of plastic bags!! like the big black ones, and white ones. It was pretty slick and majorly impressive. Wish Ida photo of it!
What else interesting things have I been up to?
Friday, September 19, 2008
Firsts
Had my first mandarin lesson today! It was great, a struggle, but good. My tongue is tied.
Had my first shrimp flavored waffle. It was a gross accident. I was ordering the plain egg puff... and it was spicy and shrimpy tasting...ick.
Had my first shrimp flavored waffle. It was a gross accident. I was ordering the plain egg puff... and it was spicy and shrimpy tasting...ick.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
"accounting for change"
In any fast-paced workplace you are constantly confronted with change, from the whims of a client, new realizations, or sudden urgent deadline. And you have two choices: run with it or get left behind. So in the effort to account for change in during the 5k we run each day at work, we have our hands drawing from many resources to make sure we're on target, and to be able to flip the switch for hyper power when neccessary. So mostly when there's huge changes and no matter how dumbfounded or shocked I am, my only choice is to go, "Oh, ok. So what shall we do now to go forward with X plan?"
So about 3pm, my manager comes to tell me I'm leaving on the first flight out the next day to HK, to renew my visa (or ship back to the states...) and all I could say was, "Oh. oooooohhhhh. TOMARROW??"
My visa was expiring saturday, and we had planned to leave the country one day prior, so I was taking my time packing all my things. There was an extremely unexpected chance of obtaining a visa b/c of the Olympics and paraolympics. So we decided it best to just pack everything in case we couldn't get back into the country.
So now I'm freaking out because not only do I have to pack everything I own, but I also have to pack n bring over big heavy company stuff, and make sure I have the proper arrangements legally and itenerary for travel. AND it's with my colleague, who was out of the office that evening, which meant the whole trip basically was my responsibility.
The COO took good care and made sure to book us hotel and flight, and the proper stuff. and he also yelled, "DO YOU HAVE ANY SNACKS??" across the office because he needs to eat at 7:30pm everyday otherwise his body get mad, he says. And he's on the phone with our marketing agent, "Me and kristina here are eating these yummy pink snacks. She's coming to Hong Kong to help you out....."
After that shocker, and insanity and hauling giant rolls of stickers into cabs, it was about 8pm and I was starving and so like any hunger driven human I went to the corner store for juice and chips. They gave me an amount of money in cash for the trip, which i had in a clear plastic envelop with my travel docs, and I said to myself, "Don't put this down. It has lots of money in it." But I needed my wallet, and had my purse on my elbow and my goods in my other elbow. So I had to put it down. I mean, I put it right in front of me in my constant eye sight. So how could I forget it?
Well I walked to my apt eating my chips and when I get there the courier is there, right on time with my plane tickets. And the papers and cash are where? at the corner store. of course, kristina. I dropped my chips and ran.
That evening was a whirlwind, Karen who i had a dinner date with brought me crab she made, and Timon got me pink flowers, and my roomate stayed up with us eating chocolate and ice cream and trying not to worry.
fast forward through the joint office in Tsim sha Tsui, making new friends, and how its actually a showroom, so when there were clients we had to sit outside, one the chairs being behind the receptionist's desk (there was none) I sat there with my laptop, and forever people came in speaking to me in cantonese and i was like, "I dont' work here, sorry"
Met up with a classmate from CCA, ken, ate thai and walked around Mon kok. Ken was wearing purple, and his hair was growing out so it had a curl, like Elvis. But I didn't tell him that. it was pretty cool! we were amazed at the cluttering of stuff, lights, and stuff, and slept well.
There was much complication over flying dates times, tickets that were not changable, and hotels. I will not explain it. I stayed in 4 different places in 4 nights, and literally dragged my suitcase all over hong kong with me. and now my arm is stronger.
Then we hit disneyland!!!!! We took millions of pictures, rode only the best rides, and had fun! We're doing some disney products, if you must know.... I really love the costumes during the parade!!!! The jellyfish man had these tall extended hats on and tons of tentacles, and they were jump spinning and the tenctacles were going everywhere, and it was awesome and goofy. It was a pretty crazy parade. And i'm from san francisco. J/K. Hot pink bejewled T-shirts, and sunflowers on stilts; a cross eyed woody, and people with smiles plastered on their faces.
Later we visited Tarzan's treehouse, where we got in a argument whether the elephants were real or not. "Of course their real!!!!" I exclaimed. Well, they hadn't moved after 2 hours. I was wrong.
That night I met up with my cousin's cousin, Chris and we had mexican and frozen yogurt in the long escalator area. That was pretty rad. It gets a 9 outta 10 for cool places to be. Casual, social, colorful, and inspiring type of environment.
And on saturday, went biking from tai wai to shim ta about 3-4 hours with chris' friendy friends. met a lot of nice people, and saw a quieter more undeveloped beautiful side of Hong Kong. Thanks chris!
"I hella <3 oakland" photo
So about 3pm, my manager comes to tell me I'm leaving on the first flight out the next day to HK, to renew my visa (or ship back to the states...) and all I could say was, "Oh. oooooohhhhh. TOMARROW??"
My visa was expiring saturday, and we had planned to leave the country one day prior, so I was taking my time packing all my things. There was an extremely unexpected chance of obtaining a visa b/c of the Olympics and paraolympics. So we decided it best to just pack everything in case we couldn't get back into the country.
So now I'm freaking out because not only do I have to pack everything I own, but I also have to pack n bring over big heavy company stuff, and make sure I have the proper arrangements legally and itenerary for travel. AND it's with my colleague, who was out of the office that evening, which meant the whole trip basically was my responsibility.
The COO took good care and made sure to book us hotel and flight, and the proper stuff. and he also yelled, "DO YOU HAVE ANY SNACKS??" across the office because he needs to eat at 7:30pm everyday otherwise his body get mad, he says. And he's on the phone with our marketing agent, "Me and kristina here are eating these yummy pink snacks. She's coming to Hong Kong to help you out....."
After that shocker, and insanity and hauling giant rolls of stickers into cabs, it was about 8pm and I was starving and so like any hunger driven human I went to the corner store for juice and chips. They gave me an amount of money in cash for the trip, which i had in a clear plastic envelop with my travel docs, and I said to myself, "Don't put this down. It has lots of money in it." But I needed my wallet, and had my purse on my elbow and my goods in my other elbow. So I had to put it down. I mean, I put it right in front of me in my constant eye sight. So how could I forget it?
Well I walked to my apt eating my chips and when I get there the courier is there, right on time with my plane tickets. And the papers and cash are where? at the corner store. of course, kristina. I dropped my chips and ran.
That evening was a whirlwind, Karen who i had a dinner date with brought me crab she made, and Timon got me pink flowers, and my roomate stayed up with us eating chocolate and ice cream and trying not to worry.
fast forward through the joint office in Tsim sha Tsui, making new friends, and how its actually a showroom, so when there were clients we had to sit outside, one the chairs being behind the receptionist's desk (there was none) I sat there with my laptop, and forever people came in speaking to me in cantonese and i was like, "I dont' work here, sorry"
Met up with a classmate from CCA, ken, ate thai and walked around Mon kok. Ken was wearing purple, and his hair was growing out so it had a curl, like Elvis. But I didn't tell him that. it was pretty cool! we were amazed at the cluttering of stuff, lights, and stuff, and slept well.
There was much complication over flying dates times, tickets that were not changable, and hotels. I will not explain it. I stayed in 4 different places in 4 nights, and literally dragged my suitcase all over hong kong with me. and now my arm is stronger.
Then we hit disneyland!!!!! We took millions of pictures, rode only the best rides, and had fun! We're doing some disney products, if you must know.... I really love the costumes during the parade!!!! The jellyfish man had these tall extended hats on and tons of tentacles, and they were jump spinning and the tenctacles were going everywhere, and it was awesome and goofy. It was a pretty crazy parade. And i'm from san francisco. J/K. Hot pink bejewled T-shirts, and sunflowers on stilts; a cross eyed woody, and people with smiles plastered on their faces.
Later we visited Tarzan's treehouse, where we got in a argument whether the elephants were real or not. "Of course their real!!!!" I exclaimed. Well, they hadn't moved after 2 hours. I was wrong.
That night I met up with my cousin's cousin, Chris and we had mexican and frozen yogurt in the long escalator area. That was pretty rad. It gets a 9 outta 10 for cool places to be. Casual, social, colorful, and inspiring type of environment.
And on saturday, went biking from tai wai to shim ta about 3-4 hours with chris' friendy friends. met a lot of nice people, and saw a quieter more undeveloped beautiful side of Hong Kong. Thanks chris!
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