Tater's Text

I guess Tater somehow figured out how to text message me using AC's phone, and was sending me the latest results on American Idol along with his cute little mug.

He said he misses me, but he looks pretty darn happy even without me there ... doesn't that look comfy?

Don't laugh at me ....

So I'm still getting over some of my reverse jet lag. It has been infinitely easier to go back in this direction that going to the US from Asia. Monday I crashed at 6:00 pm and woke up at 3:00 am. Today I woke up at 5:00 am. Tomorrow I should be back on track!

As much as I loved being home for a few days, I have a certain level of comfort being back here in Hong Kong. I'm realizing that I'm somewhat insulated here ... insulated from the "real world" to some degree. No drama at the office, no major responsibility or pressure. Maybe it's the simplicity that I'm enjoying. A five minute walk to and from the office, cooking my own dinner, reading before I go to sleep. I have no stress here ... and it's been a long time since that has happened. I know it's temporary, but nice while it lasts.

The weather has been beautiful here. At least beautiful to me. I step outside into a sea of jackets and scarves every morning, looking terribly under dressed. Yesterday for lunch I sat in the park across the street from my office and watched the interesting cross-section of people enjoying the weather. The older Chinese people doing Tai Chi in their suits and skirts, the homeless person sleeping under the swing set, the only two black people I'd seen in the same place (playing basketball, of course!), my creepy co-worker who has this weird way of always showing up everywhere where I am (namely the restroom ) ... all just enjoying the day.

So this post has taken the the longest time to write ever, because now I'm overthinking everything that I write. That is because 1) now I know how many people are reading this darn thing and 2) everyone keeps saying "you are so funny!" I hate to break it to you all, but I'm not trying to be funny. So you're not laughing with me, you're laughing at me. What your're doing equates to running up to a little kid with Down Syndrome and saying "Oh my gosh Timmy, you're hilarious! That funny way you walk and talk ... it KILLS me!" You should all be ashamed. But I still love ya.

A little late

(this was originally written in the Tokyo airport on Sunday night, but then my Internet connection crapped out)

I felt so guilty in the week leading up to Chinese New Year, because the story about Macau was completely fabricated. I was lying through my ... fingers (I don't type with my teeth afterall) I decided, at somewhat of the last minute, to make a quick trip back to San Francisco and surprise Adam. I realize I've only been gone for a month, but I'm only allowed one trip home. Since the office was closed (basically) this week, and Adam will be in Hong Kong in one more month, it made sense to use my trip now.

I had a great time back in San Francisco. Ashley and Danny picked me up at the airport to meet Adam (also under false pretenses) and I was there too. He was shocked. He had no reaction other than starting at me with his mouth gaping open. It was funny, if not somewhat anticlimatic. Afterward, we went wine tasting at the ferry building, after which I completely crashed.

The week was a blur of dinners, seeing family and friends and narcoleptic-style naps. I have never expereienced jet lag like that in my life. I would drag around all day, and then around 12 or 1 am, I would snap out of it and would be wide awake. I caught up on Oprah between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 am. My last day was spent with a early morning walk on the beach with Tater, playing in the park with my niece and dinner in the Castro with friends at Nirvana. It was nice to be home, but it has left me a little homesick.

As I sit here in the Tokyo airport, I realize that having my last meal at "Nirvana" was somehow poetic. I have family, friends and a partner that love me. I have my health. I have this awesome experience before me to experience a totally new country. It truly doesn't get any better than this.

Kong Hei Fat Choi

Okay, I said I wasn't going to write again, but I lied. Something interesting happened, so I'm going to capitalize on it.

So today, I got localized ... I was taken to a restaurant that is right next to my apartment. In general, that is not a good thing. I love Wan Chai, but I swore I would never eat any of the "street meat" that was within several blocks of where I live. But I'm too polite to say anything, so we proceed.

Nothing is in English, so the waitress reads the menu to me from the wall. Dish 1 - Chicken Wing. I was a little scared she actually meant "chicken feet, so I said,"keep reading." Dish 2 - BBQ Pork (literally pronounced "bee-bee-que pok ... mit et." The last three dishes all sounded like curry fish something-or-other, so I went for the pork. It came out in like 30 seconds, and looked interesting. It was the fattiest pork I'd ever seen, served over rice, with a soft-boiled egg on top and soy sauce. It was actually really good. The fat was a little much for me, but I kept looking around at all this rail-thin people and thought ... how bad can it be? The also served this tea which was killer. My coworker brought me to the supermarket and I bought some. It basically looks like jam that you put in hot water. Ingredients are "Korean citron, fructose, sugar, honey." No wonder I like it. As we're leaving she kept shouting "see them cook the food? Look at them cooking the food!" Ah, no. That's okay ... All I saw was sweat and no hair nets. *gag*

So after work I was supposed to go to the convention center and check out the Chinese New Year Bizarre. I just didn't feel up to it and went straight home. I ran into one of my co-workers right next to my house (and was SO GLAD I recognized him. I'm petrified I'm going to bump into somebody I "know" and they'll simply be another short brown person in the crowd. But he's actually tall, which was probably my saving grace). I turned on the TV, started to pack, and was instantly going out of my gord. I just had to get out. I pulled on some jeans and headed out the door. Right after having a cup of hot sugar water. I felt like a humming bird ...

I wanted to check out this candy store down the road and it was totally cool. They had lots of Chinese New Year stuff, but also some weird treats. Prawn rolls, for example. Only they're not refrigerated. Not quite sure how that works. Seaweed wraps, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, something called egg protein something ... you name it. I made a little friend who talked me into buying a crap-load of candy. As she pointed to the chocolate hearts for v-day (not even on sale!) she says, "maybe a heart for your girlfriend at home?" I assured her he was no girl, but I swear she was flirting. Probably works on commission. As I was checking out, I asked them how to say 'happy new year.' She said it like a million miles per hour, so I repeated it the best I could. The lady behind me in line taught me something much easier. Kong Hei Fat Choi (it can be spelled a million ways in English text) means you're wishing the person lots of wealth. Sounds good to me! I had the nicest conversation with her outside about San Francisco, and how I love Hong Kong but miss the US. We must have talked for like 10 minutes - complete strangers.

Anyway, so after saying goodbye I strolled around the open market, kinda hoping to catch a glimpse of the English bulldog that hangs out there. I stopped by this cute little card store and picked up some Chinese New Year Cards (what the heck am I going to do with all the crap I'm buying?). I stepped inside to find an entire family eating dinner at their table. I was in their dining room! It was the weirdest thing. The lady didn't even get up from her noodles to check me out. So on my way out, I gave them to 'ol "Kong Hei Fat Choi!" To which they all busted out laughing. The kid spit his noodles back in the bowl and sounded like he was going to choke. Hey, at least I tried.

Recruiting in HK

So I'm actively trying to replace myself in this role, which is really a bittersweet task. I always enjoy some hands-on recruiting, but the quicker I do this, the quicker I'm outta here!

Let's just say recruiting in Asia has been interesting. First off, I don't think people are used to much cold-calling. I put in calls to 14 names I found on an Internet search and subsequently confused the HELL out of them. One lady worked for a staffing firm (so I assumed she would be somewhat accustomed to how the recruiting game was played), and we set up an interview for the following day. We sent each other confirmation emails just to firm up the date and time, and she mentioned she was bringing her boss to the interview! I called her back about 20 minutes before our meeting was supposed to start and explained I was asking if SHE was interested in the job. But her lack of understanding proved that I was no longer interested in her. So there!

A lot of people here put their picture on their resume. And their age. And if they're married. And if they have kids. Not everyone, but you'd never see something like this in the US. I really love the English skills as well. This was from a resume of someone who has a certification on her English skills:

"INTEREST: Traveling & Trying to understand different peoples."

When we talked on the phone, we sure had a interesting time trying to understand each others. :)

Tomorrow morning is off to Macau. If anyone is curious, where I'm staying - here it is! I'm not sure if I'll be able to post from there. If not, have a good week!

Countdown to Chinese New Year

So I'm feeling guilty that this week is turning out so boring that there's nothing exciting to write about. If there's nothing big, I guess I can write about stupid small stuff. Feel free to stop reading now, unless you happen to have lots of time on your hands that you'd like to waste.

So I stopped doing my own laundry. It costs $80 HKD per load to do it in the building, and you have to keep calling the concierge to unlock the washer and dryers (plus sign more forms than you do at tax time), so I figured I would start having it done. So I dropped off about two weeks of dirty clothes and it only cost about $110 HKD. What I didn't realize is that there we just going to shove them in a bag when they were dry, so things were pretty wrinkled. Still better than doing it myself I guess. Next time, I will ask for ironing and hangers.

I must admit, I've been watching American Idol. It's my link to the homeland, what can I say? Okay, so when the brother made it and the sister didn't? Man that was sad. There must be a lot of good people, because they didn't even show them once. And what's up with the fat hairy guy that Paula likes - man, he can't sing!

I'm thinking about buying Eileen some Hello Kitty pasta. She'd never eat it and probably try to decorate the house with it or something.

I think they offed the baby next door. I haven't heard it crying for weeks.

So I haven't stepped on a scale in nearly a month, which is a little scary. Also, no running except for when I was in Japan. When I didn't really eat that first week, I totally lost weight. But then I hit Ben & Jerry's a couple of times and now I'm not sure if I swung too far in the other direction. The clothes aren't too tight, so I guess that's a good sign.

Man, I'm even boring myself here so I'm going to sign off. I'm out of here on Saturday morning, Friday for you all, so I'll probably send my next update when I get to Macau.

Happy Valentine's Day Adam! And everyone else!

AWOL

Sorry I've been out of touch for a few days. The honest truth is I haven't been doing anything exciting lately that's worth writing about. I'm still reminiscing about my fun time at Wanch - what an awful name! - (the live music place) on Saturday, but I was paying for it dearly on Sunday. I am out of 'drinking' shape! That and I wasn't calling my vodka, so I'm sure they gave me the 'ol White Wolf.

Anyway, I'm desperately scrambling to make plans for Chinese New Year. It looks like I'll be heading over to Macau (read: the Vegas of Asia). The office will be pretty empty even after the holiday so hopefully I'll get some time to explore. At the end of this week, I will have been here a month already. Can you believe it? If not, maybe Bali? Everyone says I should go. Actually, everyone except Adam says I should go. :) And probably my Mom as soon as she figures out what Bali is all about.

Anyway, I can take a boat over there and I have a lead on a fairly cheap hotel room. I'm drooling over the prospect of playing the "nickel" slots - or whatever the equivalent there is - because it would only cost me about $.006 per play. Yea! That's less than a penny! The reality is that I should be careful about gambling because I'm still not very good with converting the currency in my head.

so tired ... so much fun

I am so tired ...

Today was boring for the most part. Work. Work. More Work.

About 11:00 I went nuts and had to get out. I called AC about a million times to no avail. So I went to an Irish pub and had a few Guinnesses and watched rugby. I don't know anything about rugby. It was Scotland versus Whales. Where is Whales anyway? It was actually fun to watch. My favorite move was when they tried to pull each others' shorts down. I'm learning to love the sport for that reason alone.

So I kept hearing Red Hot Chili Peppers while I was there. And this crazy guy was running up and down the streets playing the guitar. I ended up going to this live music bar a few doors down to see him. Most awesome time ever. The crowd was mixed, from locals to British expats to the biggest nerd I've ever seen in my life. Greasy, Asian, serial killer looking guy with moon boots and a fu-man-chu. He rocked! I'm not quite sure how I tipped because a 10 HKD bill can be either paper or a coin. Who knows? I danced my little butt off while I was there and had an awesome time. Who knew going to a bar alone could be so much fun?

work :(

Unfortunately, there will be nothing exciting to report today. I am behind on work after being in Tokyo all week, and I have a deadline for Monday to present my project to my manager. I promise that I'll only sacrifice Saturday, because there's some stuff I need to do on Sunday. I want to figure out how to use the MTR system and then I need to see if I can get a membership to California Fitness for just a few months. I'm really missing being able to run, and was reminded of that fact as I used the gym in the hotel while in Japan.

Fun Hong Kong fact of the day - it's against the law to use a hair dryer in your bathroom. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why there weren't any electrical outlets in my bathroom. My manager mentioned this to me on our trip, as I pondered the amount of germs that my Sonicare was collecting as it sat on my living room floor.

Other weird thing - now that I'm back in HK my face totally broke out again! I don't know what it is, but I feel like I'm 14 again.

So it looks like I'll be going to Japan again in a month and then Singapore at the end of April. The more I think about it, I think I need to spend a little bit of time in India because that market is so complex and it's tough to get a sense of what's going on there by sitting on the phone in Hong Kong. I'd actually rather not go because every expat that goes there seems to get sick - they call it Dehli Belly. Sounds delightful.

Sayonara Tokyo

So I totally realize my pattern here. I get to a country, have a few bobbles and decide I don't like it. Then I spend a few more days making a fool of myself and learn to really love it. Tokyo has been awesome and I can't wait to come back. I could never live here without some serious language help, but it's a great city.

Some of my final lessons are:

• you learn to appreciate the small electronic wonders they have here. My personal favorites (aside from the earlier post about the toilet seat) are the speaker for the TV in the restroom, the motion detector that unlocks doors, the urinal that gives you a little "welcome flush" to get the juices flowing, and the TV screens in the subway that play wacky Japanese commercials (and also English lessons).
• very famous people from the US do TV commercials here. Isn't that supposed to kill your career?
• the city was designed to be hard to get around on purpose. It was a defense mechanism against intruders trying to attack the castle. At least that will be my excuse for never knowing where I am.
• the Japanese love to talk about Japanese culture. The summary is, everyone must be meek and mild (mostly the women), you can never say 'no' to anything, always walk on the left (if you walk on the right it's like a fish trying to swim up stream), and women are worthless to society.
• these people know how to dress! And everyone is skinny. If I moved here, I would become very average in that regard. And the guys have enviable 'bed head' ... man I wish I could do that.

With that, I'm heading back to Hong Kong in a few hours. My apartment will have been cleaned twice without me ever being there, so it should be spotless. All my food will be rotten, so it's another trip to The Great! Now to figure out plans for the weekend ...

Shabu Shabu

Tonight was another fun night in Tokyo. My boss and I took off early from the office today. Bless her heart, she is always so good about trying to show me a good time. We took the Tokyo subway (which is CRAZY!!), we went to this miniature book shop she's been talking about for days (she's well-read, so I'm assuming she's already read all the full-sized books out there).

After spending some time there, we took a taxi over to a restaurant she used to live close to that was famous for Shabu Shabu. This is basically a very hot broth, in which you cook veggies and very thinly sliced beef (I know ... I'm hardly a vegetarian these days). It was really good. When you're done, they use the broth and add noodles to make a tasty soup. It was great.

Another crazy ride home on the subway and I'm back here at the hotel. I'm off tomorrow back to Hong Kong. I have mixed feelings because I kinda miss Hong Kong, but am really loving Japan as well.

Here's an interesting Japanese fact. We got on at the Shinagawa station, which loosely translates to "house by the water." This is what it looks like in Japanese:



品川
Can you see it??

on the phone

I just had to write another quick post today. I have been dying of laughter all afternoon listening to the people around my office. They do this weird thing where they constantly make noises when the person on the other end of the phone is talking. It's normally "hi" repeated over and over, but some get really crazy.

The girl next to me now would talk, then as she was listening to the other person would sound like "uh ... uuuuuh .... hi hi ..... uh ..... uuuUUHHhhhh .... hi ..... hi hi ... uuuuuuuUUUUGGGGHhhhh .......... hi " It goes on forever! I had to close my door because I was laughing so hard.

Ninja!

Okay, first off it's really frustrating that everything on the Internet has switched to Japanese now that I'm here. It's total guesswork on which button does what.

Last night was the ultimate Japanese cultural experience. My coworker kept reminding me over and over, "this is not traditional Japanese!" But it's exactly what I wanted.

We went to a restaurant called Ninja! It had this tiny little entrance that I had to duck to get in. The hostess claps her hands and this crazy ninja guy comes running. He takes us through a series of mazes (including a moat and drawbridge) into this little "ninja village." You sit at your table and are literally locked in this tiny little room. The food was nothing short of bizarre. I had shrimp and crab pudding (disgusting), something that was on fire, veal and foie gras creme bruelee, hot stone soup (awesome!) and red rice sushi. Desert was a series of a bonsai chocolate tree (there's a picture of it on the website under Food Menu), a cheesecake frog, and some mochi ice cream dishes. I know this sounds cheezy, but there was also a Ninja magician that came to the table. This guy blew my mind. We were all no further than a foot away from this guy, and no one could figure out how he was doing his tricks. It would sound lame to try and describe them on email, but the finale was a ring trick. He had done all these tricks with my boss' ring and a string, but in the end it somehow disappeared (for about two seconds, mind you). A huge flame went up in the room and this little box appeared on the table. My boss had to open the box with a key (that appeared behind her ear or something), unlock the box, then open up this envelope that was folded like origami. It took her like a full two minutes to get the darn thing open, and her ring was inside. We were all tripping out on how good this guy was.

Anyway, we didn't get home until 11:00, so that threw the concept of a good morning run out the window. But it was well worth it. Today we are cutting out of the office early and my boss is going to show me around Tokyo!

dammit

I just typed a whole update and Blogger ate it. Dammit.

In short - Japan is cool. My toilet seat is heated. No one speaks English so I couldn't exchange any money.

I'm going to bed and will try to take a run tomorrow. I also don't have a power adapter for Japan, so my battery is running dead.

Good mornin' Hong Kong!

So I bet you are all watching the Super Bowl right now, huh? Here, it's Monday morning and I'm sitting at the airport. My boss warned me that I shouldn't buy anything liquid once I got here, but after I cleared all the security (and experienced some minor issues at immigration because I was missing some paperwork), I thought I was okay. Since I still have green snot coming out of everywhere, I'm trying to stay hydrated. So I got to my gate only to find yet another security check point. None of the other gates had it, so I guess it's because my flight is going to the US after Tokyo. So I tried to be sneaky and get my water on board, but I got busted. He said I could drink it while the line piled up behind me, but then pointed out that I wouldn't have access to the restrooms once I cleared security. What kind of weird process is this anyway? This airport also has smoking rooms (which looks straight out of Reno - all dark, and everything had gold sparkles). But they also had prayer rooms too.

I have to pee ...

Lesson from 5:00 am this morning. This is what they call a Chinese wake up call. After cleaning the shower, they position the shower head in such a way that you take a face full of cold water when you turn on the water. Ahh - refreshing!

The dogs are barkin!

I am totally exhausted.

I got up this morning and decided to go check out Central, which is really the center of Hong Kong Island. Before that, I went to the convention center (which sort of looks like the Opera House in Sydney, only somewhat squashed). They were having a huge wedding trade show, so there were cute couples running everywhere. Central is was a neat combination of major shopping with these crazy side streets that went straight up the mountainside. There were Chanel and Prada stores right next to little shops that you'd swear you could buy a gremlin from. They also had a huge carnival; you could hear people screaming for miles down the road. When I couldn't hardly walk any further, I turned around and picked up some groceries at The Great. While lugging my groceries home, I ended up in the middle of a huge protest against communist China down the middle of Queensway. Full on marching bands, with people handing out flyers of mangled bodies. Nice.

After a quick nap (I passed out with my shoes on and everything), I was ready for more. This time, I went to opposite direction toward Causeway Bay. Holy cow - it had the most amazing shopping I have ever seen in my life. I cannot believe how much awesome shopping is here. I don't know how anyone could ever make a dent in it. Thousands and thousands of stores. In skyscrapers, underground, in tiny shacks down scary little alleys. I was completely overwhelmed. And the people. This is definitely a night crowd. It was 11:00 and I couldn't believe how many people were out and about. Entire families with little kids. All the stores were still open, with hundreds of people milling around. They have their own version of Time Square, which is not quite as grand as NYC, but clearly along the same lines.

Hong Kong is really gearing up for Chinese New Year (thus a lot of the decorations you'll see in the pictures). It's the year of the pig, so they had all these models running around wearing pig noses. Weird. By the end of the night, I was glad to be home in the old ho 'stro. They were aggressive tonight, and two ladies literally tried to pull me into the bar by the arm. I told them I was headed for Cockeye's (which ironically is right next to "The San Francisco"), both of which aren't quite what you'd think. I don't think understood the joke. So I just pushed her down on the sidewalk instead. Just kidding ... but I wanted to.

I can't believe how differently I feel now that I've been here a little longer. This is honestly one of the coolest places I've ever been, and I feel like I've hardly made a dent. I can't wait to go back out again tomorrow.

Click on the picture above to see some photos from today's adventure.

Just when I thought Hong Kong was fun

I passed this on my way home, and it gave me a good chuckle. Then I promptly put my clothes on.

回転日本語、私は私が日本人を、私実際にそう考える回していることを考える!

Okay, I don't really think so (if anyone gets the tag-line ... they get five bucks ... Hong Kong dollars to be specific) ... but I'm really excited to go to Tokyo next week. I guess the office is in the same building as the hotel. The downside is that I won't have any time at all to see the sites, but it will be neat to go. I have been kindly advised to speak more slowly than I normally do. Also, no first names. Only "last name"-san. I will tell them, just call me AJ. Or AJ-san if they must. At this point I still haven't even learned all the names of all of my co-workers in Hong Kong (or can tell them all apart yet), so maybe it will have to be "hey you"-san.

So the best news of all is that a friend of mine is coming to Hong Kong on Saturday. I was going to take a lame guided tour (and finally get out of Wan Chai for the first time) but now I'll wait to see what she has going on. She has friends here that are local so maybe that will be my "in" to hang out with some Americans.

So the goals for tonight are, to back to Pacific Place (my home away from home) and get a street map from the bookstore there. Then I'll go to the MTR station that's in the basement and pick up an Octopus card. Supposedly they are a total must-have. You can use them on almost all of the major transit lines, parking garages, and even some of the grocery stores (even 7-11 - my other "local" favorite). Then do some laundry. Exciting stuff, huh?

The power of positive thinking

I know these posts are coming in a funky order now that I don't have the Internet at the apartment. I cringe at trying to resolve such a technical issue with my very nice, but very English-speaking-challenged staff at the apartment.

Absolutely nothing cool to report from today. Last night was back to The Great for dinner. God I love that place. I picked up stuff for a few nights and then walked home. I always try to walk a different way home to see new things, and invariably get a little turned around. The goods news is it's a little hard to get totally lost, so I'm usually okay. My Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream was starting to get a little soft though ... can't have that.

Then this weird feeling came over me. I actually felt like I had my feet under me for the first time. I knew my way around, I was eating normal food again. I wasn't totally dying every time I tried to talk. I really enjoyed what I was working on at the office. Gosh darn it - I'm really happy here! I'm going to relish being different rather than feeling weird about it. I'm going to enjoy some alone time - I never get any at home (no offense, babe). I'm not going to laze around my apartment all day, but I won't kill myself if I want to go home and watch American Idol either!

Every time I talk to my co-workers in the US, I realize how nice it is to not be there. I know they won't agree, but I'm in no rush to go back to all that. I may have to be forcably deported from Hong Kong.