Trip to France and Italy

So I'm finalllly updating my blog since I can get on VPN in order to log in. Yes... China is STILL ridiculous what can I say? Now they have gone as far as blocking facebook. How dare they??? I wonder what is next... I vote Google.

Long story short, went to France and Italy for a vacation. Fantastic place. Loved it... I told myself that I would not go to Italy until I was able to travel around the country but just couldn't help it. It was sooooo amazing. I want to go back. As for the French... I have something else to say about that. It is completely true what people say about the French. I had to teach a sales lady a lesson at Hermes. By the way, NEVER EVER buy Hermes in France or any other country besides Hong Kong because I learned the hard way that the watch I bought my sister is much cheaper in Hong Kong (WHERE SHE LIVES!!) I carried the damn watch all the way back from France because the sales person said that it was BY FAR cheaper to purchase in France! What a crock of sh*t. She just wanted her commission. Actually, take my advice, just don't purchase anything from Hermes. I went to return the watch and the store held onto the merchandise for two weeks before even sending me a confirmation that they had received it and will refund my credit card. What a terrible company. Whoever reads this, DO NOT purchase from Hermes. Again, they are the worst company ever. How can they legitimately hold onto a returned item, hold onto my money of over $2500USD AND not respond to any of my emails demanding the return of my money? Unbelievable... those righteous ass*s! Again, whoever reads this please do not ever buy from this company. I have never been treated so poorly by a company in my life. As they say "only the French..."

OK so besides that crap, I want to go back to Italy as soon as possible. We went to Paris, Antibes, Monte Carlo, San Remo and Nice. It was magnifique! I am in love with Italy (have I said that enough??) I have been wanting to go there for the longest time, but held out in hopes that someday, that would be my honeymoon destination. Oh well... maybe this broke that spell! The food... the people...the sights...the romance of the country is just amazing. True, not many people work as hard as other countries, but they all just seem so darn happy. I want to be there... I want to be them. Wish they had some jobs there. All in all I am definitely going back soon again. Never know... maybe I might find my Italian prince :)

Until next time...

India... why I kinda-sorta like China... then an accident that makes me think twice about that comment...

It's been a while... so much to write about but don't have the time these days. I just use this as a diary to either b*tch about China or to capture moments that I don' t want to forget. There are two big things that I must update here: India and a motorcycle accident.

India: Went to India for a week to visit a friend who has just recently moved to Delhi for work. Let's just start by saying that this was definitely an experience. Nothing more or less. I arrived to 40+ degree weather every day. Man that was blistering sun. Going outside felt like you were going to melt in 2 seconds. I spent a lot of time shopping and lazying around which is fine by me except that shopping was a nightmare in Delhi. The streets are filled with trash, the men are pretty up-in-your-face, and there really isn't much to buy. I attempted to buy some jewelry but I just felt like I was getting ripped off (which I'm sure I did in the end). I also felt like a lot of the items could be found in China so why buy it there and have to carry it home? I did get a chance to go to the Taj, but again, I was not that "wow-ed" by it either! I think it's because nothing can compare to the wow-factor when seeing the Great Wall. The Taj just seemed smaller than what I expected. It literally took me 1 hour to slowly walk through the entire place. The Agra Fort was so-so too... hm... I guess I had higher expectations. I think the hardest thing for me to take was how TOUGH it was to get anything done in that country... getting a taxi required 15 minutes of negotiating, stores don't open until 11am, people don't really get the idea of "fast," and finally, there are always MEN everywhere and that feeling is not so great. You'd like I would like to To sum it all up, I think that I won't be going back to India anytime soon. It was a bit too much for me to take. I will entertain going to south India though...heard it is much prettier.

Motorcycle Accident: I must admit, after going to India I do hate China less, but today just made me rethink this statement. As I walk down the street, minding my own business, on the sidewalk, on my way to work, a f'ing motorcycle comes zooming up behind me and smacked me into the wall. I started cursing at the guy and he actually had the nerve to back up and yell at me! We got into an argument and I decided to call the cops. However, the cops were just as incompetent. I just gave up! An office assistant at work however said "we're not giving up... we're going to the police station to file a formal complaint." That was a complete waste of time. We get to the station and I get into ANOTHER argument with the police. What a ridiculous country this is .... sometimes, I totally believe that people here SHOULD get paid what they get paid... peanuts.

I really hope that this message gets out to as many people as possible so that someday... just SOMEDAY.. things might change here... Until next time... (BTW... this post is about a month old because China blocks ALLLLL blogs so I have to get on VPN in order to get on! again... ridiculous!)

Chinese New Year 2009

So Philip... I am writing this for you :) I am very thankful that you are my one big fan so I'm going to update you on what I've been doing for the past few weeks...
China usually closes for about a week to celebrate Chinese New Year. I of course have to take full advantage of this time off so our entire family decided to take a trip to Sri Lanka. We originally planned to go to Israel but due to war going on, it was not safe enough for us to go. I wanted to definitely go somewhere warm and our family has traveled to so many places in the world that we only came up with Sri Lanka as the one place where we have all not gone before. I was super excited because I heard many great things about the place from my friends here in Shanghai. It's very interesting how my friends here have traveled a lot and my friends back home always think that I have traveled a lot!
The flight to Sri Lanka took foreverrrrrr... It was extremely tiring to have to transfer in Singapore to get there but it was worth it. When we arrived, I was just excited to take off my layers of winter clothes! We could not have asked for better weather. Sunshine every day! We were in Colombo for just a day and we set off to the north to a place that starts with a "G"... damn I already forgot. I guess I should just say some of the activities that we participated in... we rode elephants (I was able to sit on the elephant's head... what a great experience), we ate a lot of seafood, fed some wild monkeys, we saw lots of tea factories, and I was able to walk a lot. we hiked up one of the most beautiful old "rocks" where the king lived. It was FANTASTIC. I will attempt to load some photos of this as well. All in all my family had a great time. It was interesting to take a trip with the entire fam after a long long time. It was quite a challenge of course... we fought about a lot of stuff, but when we're on vacation, the anger seems to go away a lot faster :) My parents are now on their way to Thailand before heading back to the good ol' USA. Can't believe that they've been out of the country for 6 months now! Time flies.
For me, I'm back in Shanghai for another week because I have a class that I must finish. I will then take off until Feb 28th to go back to the States!!! I can't wait. I have not been home in over a year now and it's killing me. No matter what, home is where one grows up. I am super attached to the states even though I have been living overseas for almost two years now! I said to myself that I just need to last one year... now I'm going on my second! I am not sure if I will come home soon because of the terrible economy and I'm just happy to have a job right now. I am hoping to get some idea of where I'd like to be situated some mid 2009. Looking at somewhere on the west coast... I realized how much I love the sun and the warm weather... I will trade in any big city just for the warmth!
I'm planning my May holiday trip to go somewhere too. China gives us a few days off in May for labor day so I'm going to hopefully jump on a plane and go to Laos. I have never been to this country and if the price is right, I'm there! I am also considering Mongolia or Nepal, but don't know about the cost. I will definitely keep you updated (Phil).
Until next time... Ayubowan (in Sri Lankan this means "to good health") I will be seeing the rest of you all in NYC and DC/MD very very soon. xoxo

The WORST nightmare of my life....

happened today....l just returned from a 12 day vacation to Hong Kong and Taiwan to celebrate the new year as well as go and fix up our new condo in Taiwan. It was such a great time cuz I was able to see my entire family and spend some quality time. It was also crazy cuz we had to get everything done for this condo within such a short period of time. It has worn me out! Today, I was quite excited to get back to my own place here in Shanghai. Long story short... I had to fly to Hong Kong first to transfer to my flight to Shanghai. My sister left me in Hong Kong since she lives there and I wandered around the airport myself. I was excited that the flight was taking off on time and there were no weather delays. I even ignored the fact that I was sitting next to a nasty smelling Chinese dude who smelled like he had not washed for the past several months. He kept poking me and stealing the armrest. I put on my ipod and decided to doze off or attempt to close my eyes at least. Those of you that know me well know that I HATE flying and can't sleep at all on planes. Well, if I was able to pass out on this flight, it means that I am EXTREMELY tired. When the plane landed, I was starting to fill out my arrival card so I can enter China. Digging and digging in my purse, I found NO PASSPORT! Sweating profusely and cursing like a sailor, I keep looking and nothing! I called the flight attendant and she said she can't get up cuz we were about two seconds from landing. After everyone departed, still no passport. The plane was torn apart and nothing! I can't enter China without a passport! I can't fly back to Hong Kong because I don't have permission to enter that country either! I seriously was about to cry! The customs people started calling Hong Kong airport and within 5 minutes called back and said they found my passport and that I was very very very lucky. So now I just have to sit here for the next THREE hours for the next plane to arrive from Hong Kong to bring it to me. I can't believe this... how stupid can I be? The customs people said that I am so lucky cuz if they did not find it, I would have to go back to the States tomorrow in order to get me out of the country and back home. Come to think of it, that isn't soooo bad as I can get a free flight home! Honestly, I'm just sooooooo tired. I just want to go home and sleep. Just my luck... start off the new year learning a terrrrrible lesson. I think that we need to start having the option of implanting a chip in our hand where they can scan it and we don't have to bring any documents with us in the future. It is terrible losing crap!! Passport has to be by far the WORST! So kids... never ever ever lose your passport. EVER!
So I got a complaint the other day from my friend Bryce who said that I'm lazy and have not been updating my blog... so here is one for you Brycie! Thanks for being my one and only fan...haha
Until next time... xo

Why United Airlines is the WORST airline...

I know we complain about airlines, especially US carriers but I have to say after dedicating my entire travel plans to flying with United so I can use my mileage on Star Alliance flights, I am swearing off that airline for good. I do hope that United reads this blog and understands why they should go into bankruptcy.
The one and only reason why I will fly sh*tty United Airlines is to accumulate points to fly with the Star Alliance airlines. I subject myself to crappy seats, horrible flight attendants that yell at you, ramen noodles for dinner,and missed connections. However, like I said, I will pay a ridiculous amount to sit on a dirty, old (no individual TVs on these transpacific flights... can you believe it?), sh*tty planes just to accumulate these points. I even go so far as to put all of my points from flying star alliance airlines such as Air China just to get measly 500 points for the flight from Shanghai to Beijing. I could easily be a gold member on Air China but instead I just keep adding to stupid United mileage to keep my status up. When it comes time to use the points, this is when I get pissed off. I normally give these points to my parents so they can fly on Singapore Air or ANA because they are wayyyy better airlines and they are on star alliance. Trust me people, if you want quality, you have to fly asian airlines....
This time, I booked my parents on Thai Airlines so they can have the wonderful experience of flying from Thailand straight to DC and of course, it would not work out the way we want it... it never does with United. They said they called me to inform us that the flight was cancelled so they were going to take United back to the states. There was NO WAY IN HE*L that they were going to fly United after I spent painful hours on their crappy planes in order to accumulate these miles. They didn't even give me the opportunity to change to something I wanted.... now that I have found out and called them, they just said "pay $150 for change fee." WTF is that? No wonder these airlines need a bit of an a*s kick and let them know that they will go bankrupt because loyal customers like me will not take this crap anymore. My entire family slaves to fly these ridiculous planes, even with their reputation as probably the worst US carrier but not anymore. This is the last straw. I'm using my final miles and after that, I'm telling everyone I know to never fly with them again. It is just insane......

More visitors...More traveling...More work!

I am finallllly on my own again! After months of having friends visit, I am back to surviving on my own. Don't get me wrong... having friends come is amazing and it makes living overseas much easier, but I need a break. I have basically been to the Great Wall about four times now within four months. Sick of it already. Need to take at least a couple of months off before I start accepting any additional visitors.
Last week, I learned of my new promotion. I am now the new Director at Ogilvy. Kinda cool huh??? I learned that I'm the youngest Director at Ogilvy... lots of pressure... but I am very happy because I've only been here about a year and half and I was honored with this. So, that being said, I think I should get back to work and not write too much on this blog. As you can see, I went to Beijing again with a friend from high school and the weather was amazing... couldn't have asked for a better time to go. However, like I said, this is my fourth trip in like three months! That's just insane. Also attached are some Halloween pictures from our night out here in Shanghai. It was unbelievably fun! I have never had this much fun on Halloween. Everyone wanted to take our photos...it was insane. We of course went out dancing and partied till the weeee hours of the morning. What a memorable Halloween. Never thought I'd enjoy this holiday as much as I did this year...
OK what else... I went to Japan and Korea for work a couple of months ago. That was quite interesting to see the other offices and how they operate. It was quite an experience. Not sure if I could work in either of those countries, except that Tokyo is sooo damn fun. The city is amazing and people are bustling around all day and all night. I was fortunate to have had a friend there so he took me out to see the sights. Will definitely be going back soon.
Until next time... xo

Cambodia and Xi'An Trips...ahhhh... the life.

So it's been a while since I have been on this thing. I have been going non stop lately. I don't believe that I have had one minute to just sit down and start writing. I'm actually in class right now being a very very bad student and not paying one lick of attention. I will summarize my life in three paragraphs.
First I have been traveling to Korea and Japan for work. It has been a great experience leading a regional project but it is also tiring. It is tough working across cultures, for example, in Japan, people travel in "packs" and I can barely get the staff to break away from one another to go and do something that I have asked. It just puzzles me how it takes three people to go and check out a venue site! Anyhow, Japan is an amazing place. I absolutely love it. Granted it is just tooooo damn expensive, but I was on the company's dime. People there are way more civilized than the Chinese. Korea however STINKS. No fun whatsoever. It is boring, the people are just as bad, and to top it off, it is damn expensive as well. Not worth the money..but again, it is good I went on the company's dime.
Next my friend Jonathan came to visit from NYC. I know... I have had visitors since August so I was already tired from being the tour guide. However I had time off at that time which was good. October is when China closes down for a week. I took advantage of this and went to Cambodia. Because this was a last minute thing, we decided to sign up for a tour...Yes, it was a BAD idea to go with a tour but I really had no more energy to be searching for places to stay and how to get around. I think it was a good thing we went with the tour because the country is kind of hard to get around. We went to see the lovely temples at Angkor wat and then went to Phnom Phen. That city is just disgusting... but interesting enough... But, back to being on the tour... here are just a few things that were wrong with the Chinese:
- going to a tourist trap place called "ricky gem" where they sold the tackiest jewlery and the Chinese basically bought out the entire store... they think they are rich
- people stepping on sacred land when there is clearly a rope to tell you to stay off!
- the usual sneezing and pushing behaviors... disgusting
- people snorting their food in without chewing...again disgusting
- a man slapping a woman in the face on the bus, very interesting
- asking my friend Jonathan what part of Africa he is from when he has clearly stated that he's American!
- getting in a fight with an idiot on the plane because he said that I could not lean my seat back... who has the nerve to tell ME to not do anything...clearly he got his lashing
- a guy basically thinking that I'm a whore because I was sharing a room with a male friend
- and FINALLY, a child beggar who asked Jonathan for money and he said he didn't have any money and she replied "why you lie to children?"... HAHAHAHA... i died laughing!
So that is the highlight of my trip to Cambodia.
Next, I was in Xi'An for a business trip and took that time to go and see the famous Terracotta Soldiers. These were discovered in the late 50's and date back to the Qing dynasty... many many years ago. I was a bit disappointed in the beginning because a lot of the soldiers have not been preserved but then I took a step back and realized that I was looking at history that dates back SOOOO many years. It was so exciting to see that my people were that creative (and scary too...read the story about the Qing emperor). Anyhow, the visit was short but sweet. I have posted a few photos.
Have to run now...class professor looks annoyed with me. Next trip... Taiwan! Until then... xo