My (ex) Room

The room I grew up in at my parents' house has three new residents...
They are my niece's bath toys. I don't think this is "my" room anymore.

So. Cal

I made the drive to southern California today. Pretty uneventful
drive except the traffic in LA. Why is there always traffic in LA?

I'm watching TV with my grandpa at the moment. They got the Chinese
channel package, so we are watching news from Taiwan. It's boring to
me, but he likes it. It might be time for a nap.

Anyhow, tomorrow, I head to San Diego for the marathon festivities.
And hopefully my niece will have some free time to see me. Yes, I
know she's not even two yet, but she is a busy girl!

New Sofa

I have been slowly putting my house together over the past few days. It's coming along quite well, but the list of things I need keeps growing and growing. It's a bit overwhelming (actually, very overwhelming) and sometimes I feel like I have ADD because I can't focus on any one thing for very long. I guess that is all a part of moving into a new house.

I have made a few big purchases over the past week or so. First the refrigerator and washer/dryer. Then were the TVs (yes, that's plural...). Today it was a sofa.

Do you like it?

Happy Birthday Colleen!!!

This is my 100th post to this blog and to celebrate, I am dedicating this post to my friend Colleen. Today is her birthday and even though she lives on the east coast, she happens to be in California at the moment. She let me crash her birthday celebration with her family tonight. We had a great dinner in Los Gatos with good wine, great food, and yummy dessert.

Happy Birthday Colleenie!!!

New Home

I got the keys to my new townhouse on Friday. It's been a busy weekend of moving, unpacking, and shopping. At the moment, the house is big and empty. The first night was a bit scary. Moving from a 600 square foot condo to almost 1600 square feet is a big change. So much open space... I thought about sleeping in the closet, but in the end, I slept in my new room. I figure I need to get used to it, so I inflated the aero bed and put it in the corner of the room.

I finally have internet, so I'll be able to begin posting regularly again. I'll post some pictures soon!

Vacation

I am on vacation for the next two weeks. The first week will be spent locally. I'll be moving and getting settled into my new townhouse. Then, I'll be down in Southern California for the 2nd week. I'll be supporting the Rock & Roll marathon and spending some extended time with my family.

I can't wait! I haven't had any real time off in a long time.

Movers

I could only find two local moving companies with a 5-star rating and all positive customer reviews. I called them both today and neither of them are available when I need them this weekend.

My parents are coming up to help me move and assuming there are no issues with the moving truck, I think it will be a relatively smooth move. We have almost 3 entire days to move one storage unit worth of stuff to the house. I think it will be ok as long as we move everything into the garage and then slowly bring boxes into the house.

If all else fails, I'll go pick up two guys from outside Home Depot to help!

A Small Fortune

I spent 2 hours yesterday at Lowes. I ended up with an assortment of stuff I probably won't need, but most important, I got a washer, dryer, and refrigerator for my new place.

And this is just the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to things I'm going to need. Blinds, TVs, furniture... yes, TVs came before furniture even though I'm not sure I can afford cable yet!

The good news is that I am super excited about this new place. And I can't wait to get the keys this Friday!

Germany

Here is a picture of me in a little town in Germany.

This picture seems like so long ago.

Even though I enjoyed parts of this trip, I am very glad to be home. Well, glad to be back in the bay area anyway since I don't really have a home at the moment. I am staying with some friends this week... At least until they get tired of my demands and kick me out!

Milano, Italia

I moved hotels Friday night to be closer to the airport. While the hotel was terrible, it wasn't as bad as a move as it felt that night. I haven't had much sleep recently (late night dinners, conference calls, etc) so I slept for as long as possible. When I woke up on Saturday, I headed to the airport and left my luggage at the "left luggage" service. Then, I took the bus into Milan.

It was a rainy day on Saturday, but I wandered around Milan for as long as possible. I saw some sights. I had lunch and some coffee at a cafe. I watched the tourists and the locals near the Duomo. I ate gelato at the shop where there was a line (I figured it had to be good gelato if there was a line!). And yes, it was good. Then, I wandered through some high-end shops (LV, Prada, Gucci). I didn't buy anything though.

By this point, I was tired and it was nearing time for my flight to London, so I headed back to the airport on the bus. I was on the same flight as one of my colleagues from China (I didn't know he would be on the flight), so we chatted the entire way and this made time go quicker.

Now, I'm "in transit" at a hotel near London Heathrow and start my flight home in just a few hours. I'll post pictures when I get back!

Food Galore

We had a team dinner on our last night together in Italy. I think I may have had 5,000 calories at that dinner. They kept bringing food and it was all so good. First, we had a GIANT plate of calamari (I’ll post pictures when I get home). Then came mozzarella and tomatoes. Then was pasta. All were really good.

Then came the ultimate dessert. They filled the table with desserts and you could eat as much (or as little) as you wanted, all for the same price! The same policy went for the after dinner drinks!

I need to spend time in China to lose all the weight from being here!

Gelato

Amo gelato! Gelato is the best. Yesterday evening, we decided to run across the street for gelato after our meetings, while waiting for our taxi. It was a dangerous street to run across, but risking my life was totally worth it for gelato. Yum!

Did I mention that I love gelato?

Bad for us, good for you

Germany was fun. This was the first time I have spent any real time in Germany. The only other times I have been to Germany were to visit the airport and the one-day the cruise ship stopped there. The meetings for work were boring, but the evenings and dinners were fun. We visited a castle on the top of a hill near Darmstadt and had dinner in a little town.

Last night, we arrived in Milan and headed to the town called Monza where we will have meetings over the next two days. After communicating with my taxi driver even though neither of us spoke the other’s language (We stopped at two different hotels, I needed him to wait for me while I checked in, and then drive me to the restaurant for dinner), I met the rest of the team for dinner at “Ristorante 9”.

I have been to this restaurant before and it is great! Why you ask? Various reasons, but mainly it’s the dessert. If you want dessert, they bring every dessert in the restaurant and you take what you want from each. Seriously. We had at least 10 different desserts on the table when we finally told them to stop.

When it came time to pay, we tried to ask if gratuity was included. Since only one worker in the restaurant understood any English, they brought her over and we tried to ask if gratuity was included. When she finally got what we were describing, she said “In Italy, we no have this practice… it bad for us, good for you.”

This kind of travel is so much better than being in a factory in China…

Dry Air?

There is only one person in our working group this week that smokes. He coughs constantly during meetings and claims it is because the air is dry here and he doesn’t do well in dry conditions. The weather conditions are not that different than where he is based.

I have no tolerance for smokers, especially because they deny their health issues are in any way related to smoking. The rest of us non-smokers are fine…

Next time he complains that the air is dry, I would like to say something along the lines of “The air here is much less dry than what comes from smoking those cigarettes of yours.” But that would be mean.

Jetlag in the Land of Gummy Bears

My first 24 hours in Europe have been rough. I am exhausted. I slept from 11PM until 2AM and was wide-awake for a few hours. I did finally fall asleep again, but only 30 minutes or so before my wake-up call.

I think I am out of practice with traveling in this direction. Going east is always harder than going west for some reason. And the hotel is right next to the train station, which means there are trains passing the hotel at all hours of the day and night.

I slept an extra 30 minutes this morning and skipped breakfast. Not sure that was the wisest decision since low blood sugar just made me feel more tired. Luckily, there were lots of chocolate covered cookies available to us during this morning’s meeting. And then I found out that there is a Gummy Bear outlet next door.

Things are looking up!

Heathrow

“Thank you for choosing to connect through London’s Heathrow Airport.” This is the announcement that you hear when you use the flight connections bus between terminals at Heathrow airport. The issue with that announcement is that few people “choose” to connect through Heathrow.

Heathrow has been known as the world’s largest construction area with it’s own airport because the airport is always under construction. They continue to add gates and ground services, but the runways are constantly jammed. I was on the “early” flight that landed before RUSH HOUR at Heathrow. Our flight was in a holding pattern for 15 minutes over London. Not bad considering it’s usually closer to 30 minutes.

We arrived a good 2 hours before Rush Hour (~10AM) so it was an easy connection for me. And I was very happy to have some extra time on the ground before my next flight.

Heathrow will never be as efficient as the Singapore or Hong Kong airport and I’ve had many frustrating travel experiences through here, but there is an allure about this airport that keeps me coming back. Maybe it is because I get to go to cool places from here.

Off to Germany now!

SFO

This airport is like my 2nd home these days. Actually, maybe it would be my first since I don’t actually have a home at the moment. I am sitting in the lounge at the airport and it’s a very interesting place to people watch.

As always, there are the “all” business people. They are the ones who are frantically working on their computers, using their Blackberry, and talking loudly on their phones to prove that they are busier and more important than everyone else.

Then are the “casual” business people. They are in their comfortable travel clothes and may log into their computer to do a bit of work before their flight. They are reading magazines or a book and have their iPods charging to ensure they have something to listen to during the flight. I think I fall into this category.

Then come the vacation folks… They are the ones who splurged or used miles to fly business class on their grand vacation. They are usually waiting nervously for their vacation to start.

I have a hard time categorizing the last group. They are the ones who have never been in a business class lounge and really don’t know how to behave in a business class lounge. They are the ones who converge on your personal space when the lounge is half empty, look over to see what you are doing on your computer, go to the snack area and take as many snacks as will fit in their bags, and talk to each other really loudly…

And you guessed it, I’m surrounded by 3 of these people at the moment. Sigh. Alright, time to find a book and head to Germany.

Time to leave the country... again

My original plans to go to the East Coast (New Jersey/New York) next week were changed. I was supposed to be attending a training class and then visiting with some friends. I was looking forward to this since I hadn't been to New York in a long time and wanted to tour around the sights. And it would have been a good opportunity to see some friends again.

That all changed earlier this week. I was asked (more like told) to cancel my training class for next week. I was given two new options. The first was to travel internationally again and the second was to stay in the office to cover for whoever decided to go on this international trip. After being upset that I had to change my plans, I decided it would be best for me to travel. I am homeless at the moment, so it resolves at least that one issue.

So, next week, I'll be spending 3 days in Germany and 3 days in Italy. It will be the 14th week I'll spend out of the country so far this year... and we are only in week 19 at the moment!

At least the food will be good. I'm just glad that I don't have to go back to China yet.

Taoist Celebration

Forgive me, I don't know much about the symbolism of this celebration, but here are a few pictures from a Taoist celebration that we happened upon in Malaysia.

This is one of 5 paper horses used in the celebration.

Notice it has grass in it's mouth

Then families put paper money and offerings to the gods around the horse

Then the monk (who is in a trance and in direct communications with the gods)

comes to bless the horse

Unfortunately we had to leave before the next step, which is to set the whole pile on fire. It was a very interesting experience to see this celebration since I hadn't seen anything quite like it before!

Empty

My condo is just about empty. My parents flew up from Orange County to help me move my things into storage this weekend. Although I don't have that much stuff, it was a very difficult moving day.

First, Uhaul didn't have my truck ready when they said they would. I had to go to a different Uhaul rental place and they closed at 2PM instead of 5PM, so after all the hassle, we barely had the truck for 4 whole hours.

Second, my neighbor was also moving out and we had to fight for the elevator.

It was much harder to fit everything into storage than I thought it would be (who knew I had so much stuff?). In the end, I started tossing stuff into the back of the storage unit. It's going to be a nightmare to move out, but I think I will be hiring movers when I move into my new place.

Monday night will be my last night in the condo after spending 8.5 years here. I'm happy and a little sad to be leaving. Mostly happy though.

And I have had no less than 13 friends offer to let me stay in their homes during my transition. My condo may be empty, but I feel so lucky that my life is not.

Chu Jetty

This is a picture of a jetty (wooden pier) that belongs to the Chu family. You can only live on this jetty if you are part of the Chu family line. They are wooden houses that sit over the water, linked by the wooden pier. There are separate jetty's for other families (Lee Jetty, Liu Jetty, etc).

Busy

I've been really busy with packing my house up for the move. And work has been more than craZy because I'm trying to launch a new product next week. I'm gonna need a few weeks off to recover from all of this.

Anyhow, if I blog in the next week or two, it will likely just be pictures without a lot of words.

This is a picture from my hotel room at the beach resort in Penang, Malaysia

This is a picture of why I didn't swim in the ocean...

If you can't tell, that is a big jellyfish.